[E-rundbrief] Info 675 - Via Campesina on the food crisis

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 675 - Via Campesina: Open letter on the food crisis - 
to the director of FAO, the president of the G8 and the leader of the 
Grup of 77.

Bad Ischl, 30.4.2008

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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OPEN LETTER to Mr Jacques Diouf Secretary General of the Food and 
Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, Prime Minister of 
Japan, President of the G8, Mr. John W. Ashe, Permanent UN 
representative, Antigua and Barbuda's Permanent and Chairman of the 
Group of 77

From: Henry Saragih, International Coordinator for La Via Campesina

Jakarta, April 28, 2008

Concrete measures are needed to strengthen peasant and farmer-based food 
production; the food price crisis exposes the instability of liberalized 
agricultural markets.

Dear Mr. Diouf, Mr. Fukuda, and Mr. Ashe,

Our movement, La Via Campesina, consists of millions of small farmers 
and landless workers in more than 60 countries around the world. 
Although we are the ones producing food for our families and 
communities, many of us are hungry or living in poverty. Over the last 
months, the situation has worsened due to the sudden rise in food 
prices. We are also severely hit by the crisis because many of us do not 
have enough land to feed our families, and because most producers do not 
benefit from those high prices. Large traders, speculators, supermarkets 
and industrial farms are cashing in on and benefitting from this crisis.

This current food crisis is the result of many years of deregulation of 
agricultural markets, the privatization of state regulatory bodies and 
the dumping of agricultural products on the markets of developing 
countries. According to the FAO, liberalized markets have attracted huge 
cash flows that seek to speculate on agricultural products on the 
"futures" markets and other financial instruments.

The corporate expansion of agrofuels and the initially enthusiastic 
support for agrofuels in countries such as the US, EU and Brazil have 
added to the expectation that land for food will become more and more 
scarce. On top of this in many southern countries hundreds of thousands 
of hectares are converted from agricultural uses in an uncontrolled way 
for so-called economic development zones, urbanization and 
infrastructure. The ongoing land grabbing by Transnational Companies 
(TNCs) and other speculators will expel millions more peasants who will 
end up in the mega cities where they will be added to the ranks of the 
hungry and poor in the slums. Besides this, we may expect especially in 
Africa and South Asia more severe droughts and floods caused by global 
climate change. These are severe threats for the rural as well as for 
the urban areas.

These are highly worrying developments that need active and urgent 
action! We need a fundamental change in the approach to food production 
and agricultural markets!

Time to rebuild national food economies!

Rebuilding national food economies will require immediate and long-term 
political commitments from governments. An absolute priority has to be 
given to domestic food production in order to decrease dependency on the 
international market. Peasants and small farmers should be encouraged 
through better prices for their farm products and stable markets to 
produce food for themselves and their communities. Landless families 
from rural and urban areas have to get access to land, seeds and water 
to produce their own food. This means increased investment in peasant 
and farmer-based food production for domestic markets.

Governments have to provide financial support for the poorest consumers 
to allow them to eat. Speculation and extremely high prices forced upon 
consumers by traders and retailers have to be controlled. Peasants and 
small farmers need better access to their domestic markets so that they 
can sell food at fair prices for themselves and for consumers.

Countries need to set up intervention mechanisms aimed at stabilizing 
market prices. In order to achieve this, import controls with taxes and 
quotas are needed to avoid low-priced imports which undermine domestic 
production. National buffer stocks managed by the state have to be built 
up to stabilize domestic markets: in times of surplus, cereals can be 
taken from the market to build up the reserve stocks and in case of 
shortages, cereals can be released.

Regulating international markets and supporting countries to strengthen 
their food production

At the international level, stabilization measures also have to be 
undertaken. International buffer stocks have to be built up and an 
intervention mechanism put in place to stabilize prices on international 
markets at a reasonable level. Exporting countries have to accept 
international rules to control the quantities they can bring to the 
market, in order to stop dumping. The right to implement import 
controls, set up programs to support the poorest consumers, implement 
agrarian reform and invest in domestic, farmer peasant-based food 
production has to be fully respected and supported at the international 
level.

We ask the FAO, based on its mandate, to take the initiative and create 
the political environment for a fundamental change in food policies. In 
the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development 
(ICARRD) a broad majority of governments recognized and agreed on the 
importance of rural development and agrarian reform to combat poverty 
and hunger in the rural areas. The International Assessment of 
Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), 
an assessment of the agricultural sector that involved Civil Society 
organizations, the private sector, and governments as well as the FAO 
and the World Bank came to the conclusion that corporate-led agriculture 
and the increasing dependence of peasants and small farmers is at the 
heart of the problem. They also concluded that peasant, and farmer-based 
sustainable agriculture has to be supported and strengthened. The 
International Fund on Agricultural Development (IFAD) also recognizes 
the key role of peasants and small farmers in the production of food.

We request that G8 governments allow these initiatives to be taken. They 
should stop the promotion of agrofuels as these are no solution for the 
climate crisis and add to the destruction of forests. Especially in the 
southern countries, agrofuels occupy millions of hectares that should 
remain available for food production.

We also demand that the G8 analyze critically their own agricultural 
policies, take initiatives to stop the ongoing volatility of the 
international markets and shift their financial support away from 
industrial agriculture towards sustainable family farmer-based food 
production.

We also demand that the G8 stop and cancel any free trade agreements 
that will only contribute to the destruction of food production in 
developing countries and block any possibility of autonomous industrial 
development.

The influence of transnational corporations and financial speculative 
interests has to be controlled as much as possible and kept away from 
the the international food market. Food is too important to be left to 
business alone.

A possible WTO agreement in the Doha Round will mean another blow for 
peasant-based food production. We demand that the governments of the G77 
assess again the WTO negotiations on agriculture in the Doha round and 
reject any agreement that has negative implications for domestic food 
production and does not allow the taking of all necessary measures to 
strengthen food production and increase national self sufficiency.

Peasants and small farmers are the main food producers

La Via Campesina is convinced that peasants and small farmers can feed 
the world. They have to be the key part of the solution. With sufficient 
political will and the implementation of adequate policies, more 
peasants and small farmers, men and women, will easily produce 
sufficient food to feed the growing population. The current situation 
shows that changes are needed!

The time for Food Sovereignty has come!

Yours sincerely,
Henry Saragih
International Coordinator for La Via Campesina


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Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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