Act now! Syngenta threatens to violently expel family farmers (23/5/2007)

1.Syngenta Threatens to Violently Expel the Family Farmers of the Via Campesina from the Free Land encampment: Act Now!
2.Letter to the Governor of the State of Parana
3.Letter to Syngenta
---

1.Syngenta Threatens to Violently Expel the Family Farmers of the Via Campesina from the Free Land encampment: Act Now!

The multinational Syngenta Seeds is pressuring the Governor of the State of Parana to expel the family farmers of the Via Campesina currently residing on the Free Land encampment with police force.

The 120 families occupied the area more than a year ago, in protest to the environmental crime committed by Syngenta The multinational illegally cultivated genetically-modified soy and corn at the site, within the protective zoner of the Iguaçu National Park. The family farmers demanded that Syngenta pay the fine of US$ 465,000, imposed on the corporation by the IBAMA, the federal environmental agency. In November of 2006, the Governor of Parana expropriated Syngenta's site, and planned to turn the area into an agroecological research center.

Syngenta has still not paid the fine that IBAMA has demanded to the Brazilian public coffers. It has used its legal resources to suspend the Governor's decree to expropriate the site and is now pressuring the State Governor Requiao to expel, with police force, the family farmers from the land.

Today the Free Land Encampment has communal gardens that produce rice, beans, sweet potatoes, corn, manioc, chicken, and milk. The families living at Free Land are entirely self sufficient for food.

More than 300 organizations throughout the world have already shown their support to the occupation of Syngenta Seeds by the Via Campesina.

Show your Support!

1. Mail the letter to the Governor of Parana (BELOW) in support of the expropriation of the experimental site.

E-mails Governo of Parana:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
c/c: [email protected]
Fax: 55 41 3254 42 99 ou 55 41 3252 85 39 ou 55 41 3252 88 98

2. Mail letter to Syngenta Seeds (BELOW) demanding that it cease its pressure to expel the 120 families that occupy the experimental site.

e-mails Syngenta:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
c/c: [email protected]
---

2.Letter to the Governor of the State of Parana

Your Excellent Governor Roberto Requião:

We support your initiative to expropriate Syngenta´s illegal experimental site in Brazil in order to turn it into a school for agroecology. We stand with Your Excellency in solidarity in the face of the pressure the multinational is exerting against the Government of Paraná.

The environmental crime committed by Syngenta in Brazil was a demonstration of the total irresponsibility with which which the multinationals of Biotechnology have treated the environment and the health of the population, in addition to breaking the norms of biosecurity.

Thus, we ask Your Excellency to continue to take all of the necessary measures in order to maintain the expropriation of the experimental site, as well as to permit the family farmers of the Via Campesina to remain there.

Sincerely,

(Name/Organization)

---

3.Letter to Syngenta

To Syngenta Seeds

We have followed closely the situation of the ilegal experimental site that Syngenta maintains in Brazil, which was occupied by the Via Campesina more than one year ago.

It is an embarrasment that Syngenta has still not paid the fine levied upon it by IBAMA, and, additionally, is pressuring the Governor of the State of Paraná to send the military police to violently expel the 120 families that are occupying the area. This will create a situation that will put the children and elderly people who reside there at risk.

As citizens, we demand that Syngenta recognize its wrongdoing, pay the fine to the Government of Brazil, and permit the State of Paraná to expropriate the area in order to transform it into a School for Agroecology.

Sincerely,

(Name/Organization)


Print

Back to the Archive