food crisis

Description

Public Inspection to Reveal Monsanto's Hidden Agenda. On November 2nd 2010 the action group ' Exterminate Monsanto' will be organising a 'public inspection to reveal Monsanto's hidden agenda': Concerned citizens will check the premises for clues about the intense cooperation between policy makers and the agro-industry. Today's focus will be on the lobby efforts of mega-corporation Monsanto at their location in Enkhuizen, Holland. The action group will look for evidence of Monsanto's plans to get an even tighter grip on farmers and to increase their power over the global market. The public inspection coincides with the official international summit on agriculture, food security and climate change in The Hague. This conference "It's Down 2 Earth" was organised by former State Secretary for Agriculture Verburg in preparation of the global climate summit COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico in December. The action group warns for the lobby by powerful companies that push technological fake solutions to climate change. 'Exterminate Monsanto' expects very little attention for a sustainable and social future for agriculture from the Dutch government. The recent abolition of the ministry of Agriculture led the food activists to conclude that only the economic aspects of agriculture seem to matter to the new government. The people that inspect the premises are concerned about the increasing privatisation and monopolisation of the food chain by companies like Monsanto, which will further diminish food sovereignty and aggravate climate change. "A few large corporations control the worlds land, seeds and water, driving millions of people from the land, causing food insecurity and forced migration." says Anna William, participating in the inspection. Monsanto is a massive biotech company that grew big from selling pesticides. It now also controls 23 per cent of the world's seed market. The conference in The Hague offers companies like Monsanto the opportunity to convince politicians that monoculture plantations with genetically manipulated crops like soy, mais and trees help combat climate change. If they succeed in this, it would enable them to make large profits in trading carbon emission rights. "We don't believe the lie!" says Anna William. "Feeding 9 billion people in 2050 does not require industrial-scale agriculture which exhausts the soil, but smallholder farming which restores and sustains fertile soil." Local small scale farming is the key to food sovereignty, it improves the earth's carbon balance and provides food and employment to 2,8 billion people on the planet. It is the only sustainable solution to hunger and the food crisis. In the highly industrialised Netherlands one in three family farms faces closure, as the Dutch population increasingly depends on energy-intensive import food. The world famous Dutch horticultural seeds sector has been taken over by large agrochemical multinationals like Monsanto. But the global market does not offer food security. On the contrary.With their action on the 2nd of November the group Exterminate Monsanto exposes the lobby lies of the agro-industry. Everyone committed to social and climate justice is invited to take part in the inspection and help bring the hidden agenda of Monsanto out in the open.