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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds
  • Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 11:31:49 -0600



Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/20-1
by Beverly Bell
Published on Thursday, May 20, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

"A new earthquake" is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of
the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be
donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable
seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has
committed to burning Monsanto's seeds, and has called for a march to protest
the corporation's presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.

In an open letter sent of May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the Executive
Director of MPP and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the
Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti "a
very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on
Creole seeds..., and on what is left our environment in Haiti."1 Haitian
social movements have been vocal in their opposition to agribusiness imports
of seeds and food, which undermines local production with local seed stocks.
They have expressed special concern about the import of genetically modified
organisms (GMOs).

For now, without a law regulating the use of GMOs in Haiti, the Ministry of
Agriculture rejected Monsanto's offer of Roundup Ready GMO seeds. In an email
exchange, a Monsanto representative assured the Ministry of Agriculture that
the seeds being donated are not GMO.

Elizabeth Vancil, Monsanto's Director of Development Initiatives, called the
news that the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture approved the donation "a
fabulous Easter gift" in an April email.2 Monsanto is known for aggressively
pushing seeds, especially GMO seeds, in both the global North and South,
including through highly restrictive technology agreements with farmers who
are not always made fully aware of what they are signing. According to
interviews by this writer with representatives of Mexican small farmer
organizations, they then find themselves forced to buy Monsanto seeds each
year, under conditions they find onerous and at costs they sometimes cannot
afford.

The hybrid corn seeds Monsanto has donated to Haiti are treated with the
fungicide Maxim XO, and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with thiram.3
Thiram belongs to a highly toxic class of chemicals called ethylene
bisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs). Results of tests of EBDCs on mice and rats
caused concern to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which then
ordered a special review. The EPA determined that EBDC-treated plants are so
dangerous to agricultural workers that they must wear special protective
clothing when handling them. Pesticides containing thiram must contain a
special warning label, the EPA ruled. The EPA also barred marketing of the
chemicals for many home garden products, because it assumes that most
gardeners do not have adequately protective clothing.4 Monsanto's passing
mention of thiram to Ministry of Agriculture officials in an email contained
no explanation of the dangers, nor any offer of special clothing or training
for those who will be farming with the toxic seeds.

Haitian social movements' concern is not just about the dangers of the
chemicals and the possibility of future GMO imports. They claim that the
future of Haiti depends on local production with local food for local
consumption, in what is called food sovereignty. Monsanto's arrival in Haiti,
they say, is a further threat to this.

"People in the U.S. need to help us produce, not give us food and seeds.
They're ruining our chance to support ourselves," said farmer Jonas Deronzil
of a peasant cooperative in the rural region of Verrettes.5

Monsanto's history has long drawn ire from environmentalists, health
advocates, and small farmers, going back to its production of Agent Orange
during the Vietnam war. Exposure to Agent Orange has caused cancer in an
untold number of U.S. Veterans, and the Vietnamese government claims that
400,000 Vietnamese people were killed or disabled by Agent Orange, and
500,000 children were born with birth defects as a result of their exposure.6

Monsanto's former motto, "Without chemicals, life itself would be
impossible," has been replaced by "Imagine." Its web site home page claims it
"help[s] farmers around the world produce more while conserving more. We help
farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be successful, produce healthier
foods... while also reducing agriculture's impact on our environment."7 The
corporations' record does not support the claims.

Together with Syngenta, Dupont and Bayer, Monsanto controls more than half of
the world's seeds.8 The company holds almost 650 seed patents, most of them
for cotton, corn and soy, and almost 30% of the share of all biotech research
and development. Monsanto came to own such a vast supply by buying major seed
companies to stifle competition, patenting genetic modifications to plant
varieties, and suing small farmers. Monsanto is also one of the leading
manufacturers of GMOs.

As of 2007, Monsanto had filed 112 lawsuits against U.S. farmers for alleged
technology contract violations or GMO patents, involving 372 farmers and 49
small agricultural businesses in 27 different states. From these, Monsanto
has won more than $21.5 million in judgments. The multinational appears to
investigate 500 farmers a year, in estimates based on Monsanto's own
documents and media reports.9

"Farmers have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or seed
from someone else's genetically engineered crop [or] when genetically
engineered seed from a previous year's crop has sprouted, or ‘volunteered,'
in fields planted with non-genetically engineered varieties the following
year," said Andrew Kimbrell and Joseph Mendelson of the Center for Food
Safety.10

In Colombia, Monsanto has received upwards of $25 million from the U.S.
government for providing Roundup Ultra in the anti-drug fumigation efforts of
Plan Colombia. Roundup Ultra is a highly concentrated version of Monsanto's
glyphosate herbicide, with additional ingredients to increase its lethality.
Colombian communities and human rights organizations have charged that the
herbicide has destroyed food crops, water sources and protected areas, and
has led to increased incidents of birth defects and cancers.

Vía Campesina, the world's largest confederation of farmers with member
organizations in more than sixty countries, has called Monsanto one of the
"principal enemies of peasant sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty
for all peoples.11 They claim that as Monsanto and other multinationals
control an ever larger share of land and agriculture, they force small
farmers out of their land and jobs. They also claim that the agribusiness
giants contribute to climate change and other environmental disasters, an
outgrowth of industrial agriculture.12

The Vía Campesina coalition launched a global campaign against Monsanto last
October 16, on International World Food Day, with protests, land occupations,
and hunger strikes in more than twenty countries. They carried out a second
global day of action against Monsanto on April 17 of this year, in honor of
Earth Day.

Non-governmental organizations in the U.S. are challenging Monsanto's
practices, too. The Organic Consumers Association has spearheaded the
campaign "Millions Against Monsanto," calling on the company to stop
intimidating small family farmers, stop marketing untested and unlabeled
genetically engineered foods to consumers, and stop using billions of dollars
of U.S. taypayers' money to subsidize GMO crops.13

The Center for Food Safety has led a four-year legal challenge to Monsanto
that has just made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. After successful litigation
against Monsanto and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for illegal promotion
of Roundup Ready Alfalfa, the court heard the Center for Food Safety's case
on April 27. A decision on this first-ever Supreme Court case about GMOs is
now pending.14

"Fighting hybrid and GMO seeds is critical to save our diversity and our
agriculture," Jean-Baptiste said in an interview in February. "We have the
potential to make our lands produce enough to feed the whole population and
even to export certain products. The policy we need for this to happen is
food sovereignty, where the county has a right to define it own agricultural
policies, to grow first for the family and then for local market, to grow
healthy food in a way which respects the environment and Mother Earth."

Many thanks to Moira Birss for her assistance with research and writing.

Beverly Bell has worked with Haitian social movements for over 30 years.
She is also author of the book Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of
Survival and Resistance. She coordinates Other Worlds,
www.otherworldsarepossible.org, which promotes social and economic
alternatives. She is also associate fellow of the Institute for Policy
Studies.





  • [Livingontheland] Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds, Tradingpost, 05/20/2010

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