Bite-Back Campaign: Tell Bush to go GM cold turkey this Thanksgiving (and beyond)
Nic Lee, Friends of the Earth representative for England, Wales & N. Ireland reports:
The US Government continues to pursue its complaint with the World Trade Organisation regarding the European Union’s policy on GM food. Friends of the Earth believes that it’s just the latest Bush government-led attempt to bulldoze over other countries’ rights to protect their people and the environment. Don’t let Bush tell you what to eat – Bite back! and send him a turkey as his thoughts turn to food this Thanksgiving:
Reclaiming the Commons, from The Corner House, UK
To Western eyes, the streets and lanes of Bangkok, like those of many cities in the South, may seem a strange mixture of order and chaos. In the shadow of high-rise hotels, apartment and office blocks, people live in dark, seemingly random collections of shacks near railway lines, on construction sites, and over swamps. In front of rows of concrete shophouses and air-conditioned banks, carts and stalls selling noodles, dried squid, curries and iced drinks jostle for kerb space with amulet sellers, fruit vendors and beggars. Souvenir merchants block pedestrian traffic by jamming their tables up against those of purveyors of cheap baby clothes, leather goods, sweets and dubious athletic shoes. Street corner vendors show open contempt for the solemnities of intellectual property by loudly inviting passers-by to invest in fake Rolex watches, pirated rock music cassettes and bogus Lacoste shirts. Under the eyes of bored traffic police, pedestrians jaywalk across roads congested with trucks, buses and motorcycles.
Reclaiming the Commons, Part 2
The creation of empires and states, business conglomerates and civic dictatorships — whether in pre-colonial times or in the modern era — has only been possible through dismantling the commons and harnessing the fragments, deprived of their old significance, to build up new economic and social patterns that are responsive to the interests of a dominant minority. The modern nation state has been built only by stripping power and control from commons regimes and creating structures of governance from which the great mass of humanity (particularly women) are excluded. Likewise, the market economy has expanded primarily by enabling state and commercial interests to gain control of territory that has traditionally been used and cherished by others, and by transforming that territory – together with the people themselves – into expendable “resources” for exploitation. By enclosing forests, the state and private enterprise have torn them out of fabrics of peasant subsistence; by providing local leaders with an outside power base, unaccountable to local people, they have undermined village checks and balances; by stimulating demand for cash goods, they have impelled villagers to seek an ever wider range of things to sell. Such a policy was as determinedly pursued by the courts of Aztec Mexico, the feudal lords of West Africa, and the factory owners of Lancashire and the British Rail as it is today by the International Monetary Fund or Coca-Cola Inc.
Reclaiming the Commons, Conclusion
It would be a mistake to see acts of resistance and reclamation solely as the province of those active in party politics, or of those whose “backs are against the wall”. On the contrary, resistance to enclosure takes place in countless everyday ways in both the south and the North. Acquiescent behaviour towards enclosers, and feigned ignorance or incompetence in their presence, allow individuals to retain their own sense of dignity by mocking the stereotypes that have been imposed upon them. As an Ethiopian proverb has it, “When the great lord passes, the wise peasant bows deeply and silently farts.”
Global Citizens’ GMO Challenge
During the Biodevastation conference in St. Louis, Missouri, activists from India, the UK and the US discussed the need for a citizens’ challenge in the dispute that the US was threatening to initiate against Europe in the WTO to end Europe’s de facto moratorium on GMOs. The full text of the Citizens’ GMO Challenge, as presented in Cancun on September 9th follows.
Global Citizens’ Challenge Presented in Cancun
An expanded Global Citizens’ GMO Challenge was presented by Dr. Vandana Shiva on September 9th in Cancun, Mexico, as delegates began to gather for this year’s Ministerial conference of the WTO. The document presented in Cancun contained the signatures of hundreds of organizations and individuals from around the world. Read Dr. Shiva’s letter and the full text of this statement here.
Sacramento Mobilization update: Mandella Garden Legal Victory!
Superior Court of California, in the County of Sacramento, ruled in favor of the Ron Mandella Community Garden in a lawsuit charging that the Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA) had failed to comply with regulations specified under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in the planning of the proposed Fremont MEWS project.
BIO Fact Sheet: A bio of BIO
A comprehensive fact sheet on the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the biotech industry’s biggest lobbying group. Prepared by the Polaris Institute for the 2003 BIO convention in Washington, DC.
Presentation: The Future of Indigenous Agriculture
Several people have contributed to define and help us to understand the importance of diversity in the food chain. Among them the Huicholes, Tzotziles and Mijes, Indians native to the cradle of corn in Jalisco, Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico. We need to be aware of this ancient wisdom and hope for a science that is as wise.
Presentation: Resisting GMOs in Africa
Genetic engineering in its present form cannot form part of the solution of the food crisis in Africa. Most farmers in Africa live an egalitarian life and are able to save, sell and exchange seeds freely; biotechnology will dissolve these good values and prohibit farmers from such practices.
