NO to genetic engineering; Global Week of Action, Hyderabad

RESOLUTION
NEW LIES, OLD TRUTHS
Farmers say NO to genetic engineering

We, farmers and peoples from Bangladesh, Canada, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mali, Nepal, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand gathered at Southern Encounters – an international consultation on Bt cotton, organised on 14-15 April 2005 at Hyderabad, India as part of and in solidarity with the Global Week of Action. As we all lit the flame, we were together not only in ceremony but in spirit to keep alight our knowledge and belief in our diverse farming cultures. Whilst we celebrate this heritage, we are deeply concerned by the “new” technologies that threaten its very existence.

We have spent two full days sharing experiences on Bt cotton in particular and genetically engineered crops in general from our countries across continents. Farmers from India, Indonesia, Mali, South Africa and Canada, scientists and researchers from India, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines have narrated their first hand encounters with Bt cotton and genetically engineered crops.

Having shared our encounters with genetic engineering from our countries, we are stronger in our conviction that the use of transgenic crops has unleashed new hazards onto our farms and into our lives. The profit-driven "life" science industry is more life destroying than life giving. Newer evidences and ever-growing failures of promise and performance of both the products and the corporate interests marketing them reveal darker truths about this "technology". Claims of increased yields, reduced pesticide and larger profits for farmers have proved to be false. On the contrary it has increased their losses.

Also the transgenic material has contaminated our seeds, soils and our environment. Likewise the corporates peddling it have infiltrated into our governing system, research centres, market places and the very fabric of our farming lives. Rules and regulations paving the way for genetic engineering and intellectual property rights for promoting it, have restricted and made illegal our time-honoured practices of seed and knowledge exchange.

The genetic engineering industry has been aggressively spreading its mispropaganda and justifying its existence saying that it is there to feed the world. This self-sponsored hype has blinded even our own policy-makers. Intergovernmental processes internationally and our own governments domestically have shown little political will or courage to address the legitimate risks and dangers associated with the widespread application of transgenics. To make matters worse there is no insistence from governments for corporate liabilities.

Therefore we resolve ourselves to outrightly say NO and NO MORE.

No to corporatisation of agriculture.

No to genetic engineering and intellectual property rights on life forms.

Yes to everyone's right to food, livelihood and a healthy life and environment.
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Circulated by RIZA V. TJAHJADI <[email protected]> as translator for Alimuddin, and campaigner against GE crops/Food. Sent from the office of the Deccan Development Society, Begumpet, Hyderabad, India.

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