On the same day the Caravan was launched, on Aug 31, activists were encouraged by news that Thailand's cabinet had decided to keep a three-year ban on planting crops using genetically modified organisms (GMO), overturning an earlier decision to proceed with GMO crop trials.
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DEVELOPMENT-ASIA:
Caravan Calls For Food Sovereignty
Anil Netto
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=25369

PENANG, Malaysia, Sep 7 (IPS) - As Malaysia reels from the stunning release of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim after six years' imprisonment, food security campaigners and political activists in the region are hoping to extend 'reformasi' or democratic reforms to the agricultural sector as well.

A fresh attempt at grassroots mobilisation across Asia, dubbed the 'People's Caravan 2004 for Food Sovereignty', kicked off last week in Anwar's semi-rural hometown of Permatang Pauh on mainland Penang. His wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the district's member of parliament and icon of the pro-reform movement sparked by Anwar's ouster in 1998, officially launched the 'Caravan'.

''It is vital to have a 'reformasi' in the agricultural sector, which has been neglected for far too long,'' said Wan Azizah, addressing the gathered food security campaigners, political activists and agricultural workers. ''We need to take steps to empower the farmers as they are the ones who have built our nation through their sweat and toil, but they have been marginalised.''

Late last week Anwar was released by the Federal Court exactly six years after former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad - long accused of dismissing democratic procedures - fired him as his heir-apparent in a power struggle and jailed his deputy under sodomy and corruption charges.

More than 100 grassroots organisations across Asia are taking part in a coordinated month-long campaign blitz across Asia and parts of Europe in a bid to assert ordinary people's rights to land and productive resources. The 'Caravan' aims to raise awareness on hunger and malnutrition and the people's lack of access to food and productive resources. It also seeks to mobilise grassroots communities and put pressure on policy makers on issues that affect food sovereignty such as unfair trade rules, the emergence of genetic engineering, the use of pesticides and the pervasive presence of agrochemical trans-national corporations.

The campaign will simultaneously take place in 13 Asian countries --- from Mongolia down to Indonesia and from India to Japan - and three European nations. It will culminate in a mass rally in Kathmandu in Nepal at the end of September.

In the inaugural Caravan four years ago, campaigners say they reached out to 75,000 people in three countries within a fortnight. This time, they hope to get their message across to a million people across 13 countries within a month.

On the same day the Caravan was launched, on Aug 31, activists were encouraged by news that Thailand's cabinet had decided to keep a three-year ban on planting crops using genetically modified organisms (GMO), overturning an earlier decision to proceed with GMO crop trials.

''The question is not so much production as access to the food that is produced,'' points out Sarojeni V. Rengam, executive director of Pesticide Action Network's Asia Pacific (PAN-AP) office, the overall coordinator of the People's Caravan. ''The paradox is that small farmers and food producers are the very ones who suffer hunger and malnutrition,'' she told IPS.

Sarojeni says the structural causes of hunger and malnutrition must be addressed especially the injustices and inequalities in strong feudal systems where a handful of powerful landlords own large tracts of lands.

''Therefore, the right to land becomes one of the most important demands being reflected in the Caravan,'' she asserts. ''We are trying to publicise the issue of food sovereignty.''

Food sovereignty, she says, is not just the right to food, but also includes the right of small food producers, including women, to productive resources such as land, water, seed, credit, appropriate technology and support mechanisms.

Under the corporate agriculture model, in which a single crop is usually grown on a large tract of land using highly mechanised farming methods, land is taken away from the small farmers' control and put in the hands of corporate management, further marginalizing farmers.

Corporate agriculture is encouraged and promoted in many countries including Malaysia and this, she says, raises a host of health and environmental concerns, including the use of pesticides.

Among those present a the launch was former plantation worker, Saraswathy Suppiah, who used to spray pesticides like paraquat in an oil palm plantation in central Selangor state.

''I have always been sick and now I am aware of what causes this sickness,'' she says. "Here look at this," as she displays her corroded, rust-coloured toenails. ''I want to raise awareness among other women and tell them not to spray with pesticides.''

Agriculture is more than a means of livelihood for many in the developing countries. It is their life, culture and livelihood, points out Prem Dangal, secretary general of the All Nepal Peasants' Association (ANPA), the country's biggest peasant movement in the with about a million general peasant members.

''The globalization process is strengthening multinational corporations to gain access over agriculture and this has resulted in millions and millions of peasants losing out on productive resources such as land, water, seeds and biodiversity,'' he told IPS. ''Ultimately, peasants' livelihood all over the world have been threatened.''

Prem is especially concerned about provisions in the World Trade Organisation, especially the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Right (TRIPs) and Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) Standards.

''Those agreements were created to pull out the resources of the developing countries for the benefit of multinational corporations,'' he claims. ''Therefore we are demanding that the WTO be taken out of agriculture.'' As it stands, peasants are losing out and facing bankruptcy in large numbers due to the flood of cheap, subsidised agricultural products from the North, says Antonio Tujan jr, research director of the Ibon Foundation in Manila.

With the Caravan being launched in Malaysia, comparisons are bound to be drawn between the activists' vision for agriculture and the Malaysian government's own big plans for the sector.

The Malaysian government is hoping to boost agriculture to slash hefty food import bills and compete with other agriculture-based nations.

In a recent comment piece in 'The Star', the top selling English daily, writer Wong Sulong hailed Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's plans for a ''revolution in agriculture''.

''To do that would require more than just modernising the small farm sector. It would involve the growth of agro-based industries and the development of a biotechnology industry,'' said Wong.

It is precisely this predominant model that campaigners like Tujan are concerned about.

The 'agro-industrial' model, he says, is unacceptable because it is anti-people and pro-corporations, anti-environment, and anti-Third World development.

''This model replaces natural agriculture with industrial agriculture dependent on unnatural methods of production, is dependent on poisonous agrochemical inputs and now promotes increased production through genetically modified crops.''

(END/2004)

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