THE INTERNATIONAL THREAT TO FARMS AND FARMERS
will be one of the major themes at
Biodevastation 7: A Forum on Environmental Racism, World Agriculture and
Biowarfare
May 16 – 18, 2003, St. Louis, Missouri, www.biodev.org
The opening panel at Biodevastation 7, “The International Threat to Farms and
Farmers,” will highlight the destructive impact of corporate policies,
including those of Monsanto, on farms and farmers throughout North America
and around the world.
Perhaps the best known speaker on the panel is Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian
canola farmer who was sued by Monsanto in 1998 for the “crime” of having had
his crop contaminated by the company’s genetically engineered, herbicide
tolerant canola. Percy has appealed his case to the Canadian Supreme Court,
and traveled the world telling his story and explaining how the biotechnology
industry is systematically undermining the rights of farmers everywhere.
Lawrence Tsimese of the Agricultural Reform Movement in Ghana will offer an
African perspective on farmers’ growing resistance to genetically engineered
crops. Lawrence has been working to educate both farmers and urban dwellers
in Ghana about the dangers of pesticides and biotechnology and the benefits
of organic agriculture.
George Naylor, the newly elected board president of the National Family Farm
Coalition, will relate the problem of biotechnology to the economic plight of
farmers in the US. In a ‘free-trade’ environment with crop prices dropping steadily, small and medium-sized farms have become increasingly marginalized. George will explain how biotech companies play on farmers’ insecurities to sell genetically engineered seeds, and how farmers are organizing for public policies that genuinely benefit both farmers and consumers.
Felder Freeman, an agriculture specialist working in the South Carolina
office of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, will relate these issues
to the unique struggles of black farmers in the southern United States. The
Federation works to help black farmers stay on the land, and to form
agricultural cooperatives to facilitate land-based economic development. In
recent years, the Federation has become increasingly interested in organic
methods as an alternative to the corporate serfdom being perpetrated by
agribusiness interests.
The Gathering will also include workshops on resistance to GE crops in
Africa, farmer organizing, and on globalization, biowarfare, environmental
racism and the impacts of genetic engineering on indigenous agriculture
worldwide. The event is the seventh in a series of international grassroots
gatherings known as “Biodevastation.”
This year’s event immediately precedes Monsanto’s annual World Agricultural
Forum in St. Louis, and promises to be the definitive event linking issues
around biotechnology and food genetic engineering with the wider movement for
environmental justice. On the afternoon of Sunday, May 18 farmers and
supporters will have an anti-globalization convergence at the World
Agricultural Forum. www.worldagforum.com or 314-771-8576
Biodevastation 7 also includes the following panel discussions:
7:00 pm, Friday, May 16. “Globalization and Food Imperialism”
10:00 am, Saturday, May 17. “Backyard Bioweapons: Biolabs, Biodefense,
Biotech, & Billions of $”
7:30 pm, Saturday, May 17. “Environmental Racism”
10:00 am, Sunday, May 18. “Crop Contamination and the Future of Indigenous
Agriculture”
