---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 12:51:24 -0500
From: Kathryn Scharf <kathryn@foodshare.net>
To: NE community food systems <nefood-l@listproc.tufts.edu>
Subject: Fw: Declaration by US farmers on Biotech
For Immediate Release: November 23, 1999
Contact: Missouri Rural Crisis Center at (573) 449-1336
Rhonda Perry, Bryce Oates
Family Farmers Warn: If Your Next Crop is GMO,
It May Be Your Last
Ten-Point Declaration Against Genetically-Engineered Seed
Cites Lack of Consumer Support and Potential Loss of
Markets
Washington, DC-Family farm groups from across the country
today warned that the use of genetically-altered seed could
be the final blow to an already tenuous farm economy.
In a ten-point Farmers' Declaration on Genetic Engineering
in Agriculture released today, family farm groups caution
that farmers who plant genetically altered seed are risking
their livelihoods on a product that consumers around the
world are overwhelmingly rejecting.
The declaration was crafted during a first-ever Farmers'
Summit on Genetic Engineering in Agriculture convened by
Farm Aid on the eve of its annual concert in Virginia last September.
More
than 30 farm groups, representing
tens of thousands of farmers, signed the declaration,
including the National Family Farm Coalition, American
Corn Growers Association and Missouri Rural Crisis Center.
Farm groups expressed concern over genetically engineered
(GE) crops in a number of areas including increased
corporate concentration and lack of seed diversity, farmer liability,
and
loss of markets. MRCC's Rhonda Perry plants
conventional corn and soybeans in Mid-Missouri. "For
farmers, it definitely creates the potential for economic instability
because it's unclear what markets are going to
be available for GE crops in the year 2000. Combined
with the real possibility of contamination of non-GE crops
and the corporate attempt to transfer liability to
producers, farmers need to take a hard look at who is
really benefiting from this biotech firestorm."
Already many critical foreign markets have closed their
doors to GMOs, limiting trade opportunities for farmers
who are struggling against low prices and bad farm policy.
Gary Goldberg, CEO of the American Corn Growers
Association, urged all farmers to weigh the pros and cons
of planting genetically engineered seed before deciding
what crops to plant this coming spring.
"Export markets in Europe and Asia are saying 'no' to
foods produced from genetically engineered crops. Farmers
know that they have to respond to consumer demand if they
are to survive. Right now, farmers may decide it is best
for them to also say 'no' to GMO seed," said Goldberg.
The declaration also says that inadequate testing of
genetically engineered crops could open the door to farmer liability
from
damage caused by genetic drift, increased
weed and pest resistance and the destruction of beneficial
insects.
"Consumers are questioning the safety and viability of GE
crops. There hasn't been enough research on how these
products will behave once they're released. If corporate agribusiness
continues to flood the marketplace with
these untested products, the companies should be held
liable, not the farmers, for the damage caused by seeds
approved without adequate assessment of risks to farmers,
human health and the environment," said Bill Christison,
president of both the National Family Farm Coalition and
Missouri Rural Crisis Center.
Another key concern is that GE crops have not lived up to
their promise of higher yields and lower production costs.
Howard County, Missouri, farmer Mike Hustedde planted 500
acres of Roundup Ready Soybeans in 1999. "You won't see me planting
anything genetically modified next year. It
doesn't make economic sense to pay more for seed and
technology fees, and still get lower yields than I did
planting conventional crops. Farmers were sold a bill of
goods on this one."
The farmers called on Monsanto, DuPont, Novartis and other biotechnology
companies to promote the sale of traditional commercial varieties over
genetically engineered seed to
farmers for the coming crop year until an independent and comprehensive
assessment of the social, environmental,
health and market impacts of genetically engineered seed
is available.
Farm Aid Executive Director Carolyn Mugar said the summit conference and
declaration mark a historic moment in the
rising debate over genetic engineering in agriculture.
"Like the rest of us, family farmers are learning more
every day about the potential for problems caused by
genetically engineered seed. Their worries about these
products should cause our country and the world to take a
critical look at any proposed use of this untested new technology," said
Mugar.
HERE IS THE DECLARATION:
Farmers' Declaration on Genetic Engineering in Agriculture
Genetic engineering in agriculture has significantly
increased the economic uncertainty of family farmers
throughout the U.S. and the world. American farmers have
lost critical markets which are closed to genetically
engineered products. Corporate control of the seed supply threatens
farmers' independence. The risk of genetic drift
has made it difficult and expensive for farmers to market
a pure product. Genetic engineering has created social
and economic disruption that threatens traditional
agricultural practices for farmers around the world.
Farmers, who have maintained the consumer's trust by
producing safe, reasonably priced and nutritious food,
now fear losing that trust as a result of consumer
rejection of genetically engineered foods. Many scientists
believe genetically engineered organisms have been released
into the environment and the food supply without adequate
testing. Farmers who have used this new technology may be
facing massive liability from damage caused by genetic
drift, increased weed and pest resistance, and the
destruction of wildlife and beneficial insects.
Because of all the unknowns, we, as farmers, therefore:
1. Demand a suspension of all further environmental
releases and government approvals of genetically
engineered seeds and agriculture products.
2. Demand an immediate, independent and comprehensive
assessment of the social, environmental, health and
economic impacts of genetically engineered seeds and
agricultural products.
3. Demand a ban on the ownership of all forms of life
including a ban on the patenting of seeds, plants,
animals, genes and cell lines.
4. Demand that agrarian people who have cultivated and
nurtured crops for thousands of years retain control of
natural resources and maintain the right to use or reuse
any genetic resource.
5. Demand that corporate agribusiness be held liable for
any and all damages that result from the use of
genetically engineered crops and livestock that were
approved for use without an adequate assessment of the
risks posed to farmers, human health and the environment.
6. Demand that the corporations and institutions that
have intervened in the genetic integrity of life bear the
burden of proof that their actions will not harm human
health, the environment or damage the social and economic
health of rural communities. Those corporations must bear
the cost of an independent review guided by the
precautionary principle and conducted prior to the
introduction of any new intervention.
7. Demand that consumers in the U.S. and around the globe
have the right to know whether their food is genetically engineered and
have a right to access naturally produced
food.
8. Demand that farmers who reject genetic engineering
should not bear the cost of establishing that their
product is free of genetic engineering.
9. Demand the protection of family farmers, farmworkers, consumers, and
the
environment by ending monopoly
practices of corporate agribusiness through enforcement
of all state and federal anti-trust, market concentration
and corporate farming laws; by a renewed commitment to
public interest agricultural research led by the land
grant colleges; by an immediate shift of funding from
genetic engineering to sustainable agriculture; and by
expanding the availability of traditional varieties of
crops and livestock.
10. Demand an end to mandatory check off programs that
use farmers' money to support and promote genetic
engineering research and corporate control of agriculture.
What many farmers have found about genetic engineering:
Genetically engineered agricultural products were released
on the market without a fair and open process to assess
the risks on human health and the environment or the
social and economic risks to farmers and rural
communities.
Family farmers' livelihoods and independence will be
further compromised by genetic engineering. Genetic
engineering empowers corporate agribusiness to
accelerate capital and chemical intensive agriculture
at the expense of family farmers and rural communities
around the world, increases corporate concentration in agriculture, and
poses unknown risks to the safety and
security of the food supply.
Genetic engineering disrupts traditional agricultural
practices creating social upheaval in rural communities
and threatening agrarian cultures throughout the world.
Consumers worldwide are rejecting genetically engineered
foods, driving down farm prices. This will force
significant numbers of family farmers out of business.
Family farmers have been unfairly forced to assume
liability for genetically engineered products that were
not adequately tested before being released into the
environment and food supply.
The corporate ownership of genetic resources and the
corporate use of genetic engineering in agriculture is
not designed to solve the problems farmers face in
agriculture such as increased weed resistance, growing
staple crops on marginal land, or making traditionally
bred crops available to farmers worldwide, but rather to
enrich corporations.
Genetically engineered seeds increase costs to farmers,
have failed to perform as promised by corporate
agribusiness, and, in some cases, yields have been lower
and crops engineered to be herbicide tolerant have required
increased use of herbicides manufactured by the
corporations that market the seeds.
The "terminator" gene, which renders corporate seeds
sterile and was developed with USDA resources, is an unconscionable
technology because it destroys life and
destroys the right of farmers worldwide to save seeds, a
basic step necessary to protect food security and
biodiversity.
***********
ENDORSERS OF THE FARMERS' DECLARATION ON GENETIC
ENGINEERING IN AGRICULTURE
American Corn Growers Association
California Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Dakota Resource Council (ND)
Empire State Family Farm Alliance
Family Farm Defenders (WI)
Federation of Southern Cooperatives
Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Indiana Citizen Action Coalition
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Land Loss Prevention Project (NC)
Land Stewardship Project (MN)
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance
Minnesota COACT
The Minnesota Project
Missouri Rural Crisis Center
National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
National Family Farm Coalition
Northeast Organic Farming Association (VT)
North American Farm Alliance (OH)
Northern Plains Resource Council (MT)
Organic Growers of Michigan
Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI)
Rural Coalition
Rural Vermont
Sustainable Cotton Project
Western Colorado Congress
Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Women, Food and Agriculture
For further information or to contact groups individually,
please contact the National Family Farm Coalition at
(202) 543-5675
Eleanor Heise
President, Canadian Organic Growers (COG)
Tamarak Organic Farm, RR 3, Shawville, Quebec J0X 2Y0
Phone 819-647-3487 e-mail <mailto:eheise@cyberus.ca>
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