Working group G8 and agriculture
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NEW: 3rd of June '07: Action day global agriculture in Rostock
Resistance is fertile! - Action network Global Agriculture mobilises against the G8 summit
Global Agriculture in disastrous conditions
Each year 30 million people die worldwide as result of hunger and malnutrition. Different processes like the enforced opening of markets, prices being dictated by supermarket-chains and the subsidisation of food production for export, systematically destroy the basis of existence of countless small farmers especially in the poorer countries.
Monocultures and large-scale animal husbandry have disastrous effects on natural ressources like soil, water or biological diversity. The quality of food is also strongly affected by this.
Globally acting companies of the north like Monsanto or Bayer appropriate the genetical ressources of the south by means of "intellectual property rights", trying to gain control of food production. In other words: They decide what is grown where, how and for whom.
Also in the industrialised countries there are massive concentration processes taking place and the pressure on prices is ruinous. Confronted with these developments small farmers don´t have a chance. The consequences are that a lot of farms get deserted.
Resistance is rising
Worldwide small farmers, farm workers and landless are organising themselves to assert their interests against big landowners, big corporations, governments and institutions. They squat lands, fight against the privatisation of water, burn down fields of genetically manipulated plants, found cooperatives and projects to preserve their traditional seeds.
They struggle against the destructive neoliberal strain on policies of agriculture and fishery, and for food sovereignty, which means that they fight for the right to decide themselves about their agriculture and their nutrition.
On summit meetings of international organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, as well as on G8-meetings of the rich industrialised countries, the contradictions between ruling politics and the demands for a different, meaning non-industrialised, non-capitalist agriculture become clear.
Politicians, bureaucrats and representatives of Agribusiness talk about fighting hunger and poverty, while they pursue policies leading to more expulsion, hunger and rapidly increasing inequality. Those who profit most are the transnational companies and big agrarians worldwide.
In solidarity with worldwide resistance, and because of food and agriculture are the basis of life for everyone, we will carry the protest to the G8 summit in Heiligendamm.
On the following dates we will have public actions and presentations:
Beginning of March 07: Infotour starting in Austria, visiting several cities in Germany before coming to Mecklenburg Vorpommern. All facets of global agriculture will be on the agenda, while the focus will be on the miserable working and living conditions of migrant farm-workers in industrialised agriculture in Europe.
17th of April 07: Global action day of Via Campesina (worldwide network of small farmers organizations). Presentations in several cities. Subject: Land conflicts and struggles
22nd of May 07: International day of biological diversity, Action in Gatersleben, Subject: Seeds and biological diversity.
3rd of June 07: Action day on 'Global Agriculture & G8'. Subject: Gentech and supermarket-chains.
As the destructive conditions and developments will presumably not be redressed after the G8, we plan further actions, presentations and campaigns beyond the G8.
Next occasions will be amongst others:
23rd to 27th of June 07: Economic Partnership Agreement Meeting of EU and the AKP states (77 states from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific). Subject: bilateral free trade agreements.
May 08: UN Conference on biological diversity (COP9) in Bonn.
More Infos: www.g8-landwirtschaft.net
Contact: g8_landwirtschaft@yahoo.de
Involved in the "Action network Global Agriculture" are individuals as well as represemtatives of different groups, associations and networks, amongst others from the BUKO-Campaign against Biopiracy, the Barnim Action Alliance against Gene Technology and the Attac-AgriNet. Our common footing is that we want to get active in view of the outrageous circumstances in global agriculture.
We eat every day - we are all responsible!
We still need a lot of support in planning things and putting them into action. Join in, all of you! We appreciate every donation, no matter the size.
Umweltgruppe Ökogeist e.V.
Konto: 314 000 233 4
Sparkasse Barnim
BLZ 170 520 00
Register payment as "Globale Landwirtschaft"
The general protests against the G8 in the region around Heiligendamm already start on the 1st of June, the alternative summit will take place from the 5th to the 7th of June while the G8 itself will be from the 6th to the 8th of June 2007.