Monsanto will be giving Haiti 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid
corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic
pesticides. Hybrid seeds have to be purchased and planted every year.
Monsanto's seeds will be distributed by the United States Agency for
International Development's (USAID) WINNER program. USAID is a tax-payer
funded agency that promotes the United States' interests abroad. It is
run by Dr. Rajiv Shah, an Obama appointee that the Organic Consumers
Association opposed because of his work with the explicitly pro-GMO
Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation works closely with Monsanto.
Haitian peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant
Movement of Papay (MPP) called Monsanto's poison pills Haiti's “new
earthquake.” 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.
Like other US efforts to deprive Haiti of food security, dumping
Monsanto’s seeds on Haiti's farmers will seriously undermine Haitian
farmers’ independence, force an industrialized agriculture model on the
impoverished nation and seriously threaten public health in the country.
Haiti’s farmers need support and solidarity to rebuild their local food
and farming economy, not profit-driven industrial agriculture and hybrid
seeds. Since independence more than 200 years ago, Haitian farmers have
protected their seeds. They know that true food security is maintained
by the farmers who save, trade and breed indigenous seeds using
traditional methods.
[permaculture] Organic Consumers Association: Take Action: Haiti's New Earthquake: USAID Delivers Monsanto's Poison Pills,
Lawrence F. London, Jr., 05/21/2010