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GM potatoes : support to the voluntary harvesters from Wetteren

28 May 2011

On 29th May citizens, farmers and ecologists from all over Belgium will join together to fight against the presence of GM potatoes planted in Wetteren (Flanders).

European Coordination Via Campesina supports the Belgian day of civil disobedience against GM Potatoes in Wetteren On 29th May citizens, farmers and ecologists from all over Belgium will join together to fight against the presence of GM potatoes planted in Wetteren (Flanders), to defend this territory from a disruptive industrial model of agriculture. These activists will substitute these contaminated potatoes with other organic ones . This action will be accompanied by several other initiatives such as a farmers' market, a press conference, small catering, live music and other activities showing that there are other alternatives to industrialised agriculture and that “ sustainable family farming can feed the World ”. ECVC supports this action: day by day it is more necessary to launch the discussion on GMOs in every country. Especially in this moment, as the biotech industry tries to renationalise GM authorizations, in order – once more – to impose to European farmers and citizens products that they reject. It is important to raise the main questions about GMOs : the uselessness of those technologies which are disastrous for farmers (dependency towards transnationals and life patenting), the environment (more pesticides use, biodiversity catastrophe, contamination), the global food system and economy (transnationals handover on those technologies, reinforcement of agricultural industrialization, responsible for present crises). Solutions and alternatives exist : Food Sovereignty, small scale family farming, short circuits, agroecology... " We decided to neutralize this field, because under the excuse of public research it is in reality a new move of the biotech industry, in this case the BASF company. Citizens have never been consulted. It is high time for debate about GMOs to take place in Belgium. ", said Marie, a farmer involved in the organization of the action. But this trick was also unmasked by the DG Agri commissionner Dacian Cioloş who, during an interview in a Romanian newspaper

http://www.adevarul.ro/adevarul_europa/Exclusiv-Dacian-Ciolos-OMG-criteriilor_0_473952605.html
" declared that the EU should not bet as much on the performance of GM than on diversity and quality of local products. "
http://www.euractiv.com/fr/pac/dacian-ciolo-les-aliments-ogm-ne-remplissent-pas-les-crit-res-de-qualit-et-de-diversitnews- 5044?utm_source=EurActiv+Newsletter&utm_campaign=531e8c1fd6- my_google_analytics_key&utm_medium=email
. We believe that, as claims Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to food, " to feed the world, agro-ecology overthrows big scale industrial agriculture "
http://athentransition.over-blog.org/article-olivier-de-schutter-pour-nourrir-le-monde-l-agro-ecologie-surpasse-lagriculture-industrielle-a-grande-echelle-68039340.html
. For all these reasons we consider the civil disobedience action that will happen in Wetteren on the 29th of may as a very legitimate attempt of resistance to defend farmers, citizens, biodiversity, our food and agriculture system, in order to provide healthy food for all . Therefore, we express our full support to all the persons and organizations involved in this action. This represents a necessary path towards Food Sovereignty. In Wetteren on 29th may RESISTANCE IS FERTILE! Contacts: Andrea Ferrante (AIAB) : mob +393480189221 / office +390645437485 Josie Riffaud (Confederation Paysanne) : mob +33613105291 *** Update 30/06 17h : Great success of the action! The Press Release of the Field Liberation Movement is HERE : http://fieldliberation.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/persbericht-29-mei-succesvolle-veldbevrijding/ And pictures can be found HERE : https://bxl.indymedia.org/articles/1797/ GM potatoes : support to the voluntary harvesters from Wetteren

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