The report, involving 25 authors from 11 countries and titled Land concentration, land grabbing and people’s struggles in Europe, reveals the hidden scandal of how just three per cent of landowners have come to control half of all farmed land. This massive concentration of land ownership and wealth is on a par with Brazil, Colombia and Philippines.

Some of these processes of ever-increasing land concentration are not new; however they have accelerated in recent decades in particular in Eastern Europe. Many feature European companies, as well as new actors including Chinese companies and Middle Eastern Hedge Funds, tied into an increasingly global commodity chains, and all looking to profit from the increasingly speculative commodity of land.

The report features in-depth case studies on strong land concentration trends in Spain, Germany, Italy, France and Austria. It also features various forms of land grabbing in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Ukraine. Just like their counterparts in Ethiopia, Cambodia or Paraguay, many of these large-scale land deals are being carried out in a secretive, non-transparent manner.

The report reveals that one of the drivers of this European land grab and land concentration is the subsidies paid under the Common Agricultural Policy, which explicitly favours large land holdings, marginalises small farms, and blocks entry by prospective farmers. In Spain, for example, in 2009, 75 percent of the subsidies were cornered by only 16 percent of the largest producers. Other drivers for land grabs have come from the extractive industry, urban sprawl, real estate interests, tourism enclaves, and other commercial undertakings.

Prof. Dr. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg of Wageningen University, a member of the research team, says: “This is an unprecedented dynamic of land concentration and creeping land grabbing. It has worsened the existing situation where many young people want to stay in or take up farming but cannot maintain or gain access to land. This was already a serious issue before, but has become worse. The current and planned CAP subsidy schemes are likely to solidify the barrier to more democratic access to land and entry to farming by young people. Access to land is a basic condition to achieve food sovereignty in Europe. Indeed, the three most pressing land issues in Europe today are land concentration, land grabbing, and inability of young people to maintain or gain access to land to enter sustainable farming – interlinked, triangular land issues quite similar to the ones we see in Africa, Latin America and Asia today.”

The report however shows that land concentration and land grabbing are not going unopposed, but instead inspiring a massive wave of resistance. Land grabbing and access to land are a central theme of this years celebration of the international day of peasant struggles. The study includes the case of the community of Narbolia, Sardinia mobilising against the use of prime agricultural land for massive solar greenhouse projects, and the case of opposition to the Notre Dames des Landes airport project in Nantes in France.

There are also growing cases of communities occupying land, mirroring actions by many social movements in the global South. The report highlights the case of SOC in Andalusia, where landless peasant farmers are collectively occupying land and cultivating it using agroecological farming techniques, and SoLiLA in Vienna where young people are coming together to “squat” fertile urban land for community supported agriculture and city food gardening thereby preventing it being converted for use by urban commercial projects.

Jeanne Verlinden of the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) says the study shows clearly that: “Land needs to be seen again as a public good. We must reduce the commodification of land and instead promote public management of this common resource on which we all depend. Priority should be given to the use of land for smallholder and peasant agriculture and food production, rather than handing over land to those private property commercial interests who seek land for speculation and ever increasing concentration of wealth. Access to land should be given to those who work it.”

www.eurovia.org/spip.php?article757
www.tni.org/pressrelease/land-rush-europe-comparable-africa-asia-and-latin-america-argues-new-report

Yorkley Court Community Farm is a growing grass-roots farm in the Forest of Dean, interested in developing resilient agro-ecological systems, that are both productive and ecologically regenerative.

The Farm is hosting the Reclaim the Fields ‘Spring into Action’ gathering, on Saturday the 16th of March til Monday the 25th! The Gathering aims to be a platform for sharing practical land-based skills, crafts and related knowledge. We intent to ‘get on with it’ whilst continually seeking to create a popular discourse/ debate on the issues of land access, the right to food autonomy/ sovereignty and the right to build and dwell within a low-impact home on the land.

The Seed Camp will start on the 8th of March, with a two day Permaculture course by Tomas Remiarz. The rest of the week will focus on setting up infrastructure and openly, inclusively organising the Gathering. Anyone interested and able to help get the Gathering off to a great start, should come along for this week, prior to the main Gathering! Lots of skill-sharing and fun will be had!

We are currently looking for people interested in doing talks, running workshops and skill-sharing during the main Gathering… everyone will have the opportunity to share their skills and knowledge at the gathering, but we can publicise the workshops/talks offered before the gathering! So let us know what you’d like to offer or to see, in the way of workshops/skillshares asap!

The weekends of the Gathering will be focused on talks, presentations, workshops and discussions. The week days between will be more focused on practical activities.

Please get hold of us, if you’re planning to come to the Seed Camp, or are wanting to do talk, run a workshop, etc…

:Contact Details:

yorkleycourt@gmail.com

yorkleycourt.wordpress.com < our main, local community facing website!

rtfspring2013.wordpress.com  < the gatherings own website! programme still under-construction!

:A bit about the Forest:

The Forest of Dean is a land betwix two rivers, a secret Wilderness in West Gloucestershire, right on the Welsh boarder.

The Forest of Dean has historically been the home of many radical land-rights struggles and was settled by ‘the cabiners’, people who built their homes “by right” instead of through state dependence. They were treated by the state with the same distain as ‘squatters’ are today, albeit with more direct violence and less PR spin.

As one Oxford prof. put it, after moving here recently, because…
“The Forest and it’s people have a healthy disregard for the rule of law!”

Resistance is Fertile!

Reclaim the Fields!

“Reclaim the Fields is a constellation of people and collective projects willing to go back to the land and reassume the control over food production. ”

(Maputo 14th January 2013) – During the month of November last year, the
world watched farmworkers strikes, particularly those working in
vinyards, in the Western Cape Province, in South Africa. They were
protesting against exploitation and poor working and living conditions
on farms, demanding an increase in minimum wages. In many cases, South
African police responded to the demonstrations with violence and
intolerance and showed no respect for laws. Many farmworkers and
activists were arrested, including peasants of The Agrarian Reform for
Food Sovereignty Campaign, a member of La Via Campesina.

After dubious negotiations that halted the strikes in December, the
South African government has refused to make any change to the minimum
wage and the situation has remained unchanged. Early this January
farmworkers resumed the strikes and are being heavily repressed by police.

Since the strikes began, South African civil society organizations have
denounced the fact that owners of the farms and the police were acting
in close concertation to repress the striking workers; they benefited
from a high level of impunity. It also appears obvious that the owners
of the farms are continuing to pour racist and sexist insults on
farmworkers.

The farmworkers strike in South Africa has to be seen as an African
movement of the rural poor protesting against injustice and explotation.
The agricultural sector in South Africa employs not only South African
citizens. Many of the farmworkers working in bad conditions are migrant
workers: men and women from neighboring countries such as Mozambique,
Zimbabwe and Malawi. These farmworkers are sometimes the most affected
by the owners of the farms, who take advantage ofthe fact that they are
in many cases working illegally and without social protection. South
African commercial farming is the most powerful on the continent; it
flourishes at the expense of the oppression and exploitation of
agricultural workers.

These strikes are also the result of government's failure to implement
land reform in South Africa. The 30 per cent of land distribution that
was promised by 2015 is very far from being implemented. In fact, in
2013 it is now100 years since a Land Act that dispossessed millions of
people from the land and turned them into the super-exploited
farmworkers and the South African proletariat,was constitutedin 1913.
These strikes are acry of”*/Enough is enough/!*” of 100 years of rural
slavery.

The African region of the International Peasant´s Movement, La Via
Campesina, declares their support and solidarity with the farmworkers in
South Africa and condemns all forms of violence perpetuated by the South
African Police and government against all farmworkers and activists. We
join the voice of South African civil society organizations and demand
that the South Africa government take active steps to listen to and act
on the call of the agricultural workers who are demanding a living wage
and a life of dignity.

Globalize the Struggle, globalize the Hope!

Contacts for more information and solidarity:
Petrus Brink, Agrarian Reform for Food Sovereignty Campaign
(+27) 761 534 627 — Mobile
Cape Town, South Africa

Via Campesina Regional office for Africa
(+258) 21 327 895 – Landline
E-mail: vcafrica@gmail.com vcafrica@gmail.com>
Maputo, Mozambique
–

La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and
medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural
youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and
multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other
type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about
150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Update: We’ve just found out we’re in the UK’s second-highest Court on Tuesday 15th, so join us at 9am on the Strand, London! Our legal team have confirmed that our case will be heard on Tuesday, not Wednesday.

We’ve lovingly painted giant papier mache strawberres, chillis, cucumbers and tomatoes for our day trip to the Court of Appeal on the Strand in London.

Plus – if you are so wonderful that you come with us outside Court, we’ll have music and a bike-powered smoothie maker. I collected three crates of fresh bananas plus cranberries, clementines and lemons to make smoothies with – all waste food thrown away by wholesalers. If you’re feeling brave, you can even tuck into cherry tomato and cucumber smoothies – again, waste food that would have been driven to landfill by the globalised capitalist food system.

I’m delighted to confirm there’ll be speeches from a Grow Heathrow gardener, a local Sipson resident who’s an anti-third runway activist, and a supporter.

We’re asking supporters to come and join us at 9am for a belated harvest festival outside the Royal Courts of Justice – dress to impress and bring along your own giant colourful papier-mâché fruit and vegetables!

The appeal will take place at the Court of Appeal, Royal Courts of Justice on either Tues 15.

The Royal Courts of Justice are located on the Strand. Click here to see a map.

This inspirational project has…improved this derelict site, lifted the morale of local community in the anti-third runway campaign and in planning a sustainable future.

John McDonnell, MP

I was incredibly impressed by the work and dedication of the squatters here. They’ve transformed a derelict wasteland into a productive and thriving community space … I don’t feel that sorry for the bloke who owns the property.

Richard Madeley, TV personality

See you there!!

Read the rest of this entry » and see more at http://www.transitionheathrow.com/

This spring the Community Food Growers Network we will be hosting a series of events aimed at building knowledge, skills, activism and ideas for grassroots social change on food issues in London.

Using ideas, words, music, poetry and food, the events will explore the relationships between local food and global justice. With everything from practical advice and seed swaps to expert analysis and delicious dinners we hope to draw together the diverse communities working on issues of food, land and social change. Get these dates in your diaries now!

Monday 4th February 2013 at Pogo’s Café from 7pm:
“Land and Liberty: How We Found Our Patch Of Ground” Are you struggling to find land? Join the Community Food Growers Network as we host a forum for stories and questions about how to access land for food growing in and around London’?

Friday 1st March 2013 at the Hornbeam Center from 7pm:
“Freeing Seeds from Corporate Control” A seed swap with a difference! Discussions led by Patrick Mulvany and Ru Litherland on the effects of corporate control over seeds. Bring seeds to share.

Friday 5th April 2013 at the Hornbeam Center from 7pm:
“A History Of Land Rights And Protest In Folk Song And Story” A participatory exploration of land rights and protest in folk song and story with Hugh Lupton and Robin Grey and friends.

Statement of the International Commission of Women of La Via Campesina
January 10, 2013.

Dear comrades,

We are writing to you from the International Commission of Women (CIM)
of La Via Campesina with tremendous pain in our hearts.

Last Sunday (06/01/2013) we received the sad and repulsive news that our
comrade María Do Fetal de Almeida had been brutally murdered by her
partner in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

María, a Portuguese citizen, had been a resident of Brazil for over ten
years (she did a doctorate in Geography at the University of Sao Paulo
– USP), and, since her arrival, had been supporting the Movement of
Landless Rural Workers (MST) at La Vía Campesina Brazil and La Vía
Campesina International. Maria formed part of the team of interpreters
at the 5th International Vía Campesina Conference in Mozambique (2008),
as well as carrying out numerous other activities, and more recently
translated our newsletter on the Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women
. She also interpreted at many of our organisation's events.

From our war trenches, from our organisations, from the CIM and from la
Via Campesina, we are determined to fight against this situation; we are
deeply disturbed by this news which has affected one of our comrades
directly. We hope the Brazilian justice system will judge her murderer
and give him his just punishment.

Maria was a strong woman, with preoccupations, like all women with the
double and triple responsibility of work and organisation, and she knew
that what is important in life is to “fight and wage war”. To paraphrase
Simone de Beauvoir, our own María told us one day: “You’re not born a
woman, you become one.”

The example she set as an activist and her dedication as a teacher
motivate us to keep fighting, as María did, for a fairer, more equal and
internationalist world. Today, more than ever, our fight is
indispensable in all corners of our world against every kind of violence
against women.

*COMRADE MARIA: HERE, HERE, HERE! NOW AND FOREVER. *

The peasants from La Vía Campesina say: *STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!*

–

La Via Campesina
Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and
medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural
youth and agricultural workers. We are an autonomous, pluralist and
multicultural movement, independent of any political, economic, or other
type of affiliation. Born in 1993, La Via Campesina now gathers about
150 organisations in 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Email: viacampesina@viacampesina.org

Court judgement expected by 28 Feb. Our friends are the best people in the world. Thanks for sharing bike-powered banana smoothies with us outside the UK’s second-highest court today, showing your support, and a big thanks to all of the people who couldn’t make it but had their fingers crossed for us.

Check out our twitter @transheathrow for the live-tweeting from Court.

And come to visit – wild food workshops making chickweed salads on Mondays, arty crafternoons making papier mache strawberries and swirly wirly signs on Tuesdays, and bike workshops on Thursdays, to make your steel steed the fastest on the street. All for free!

See you at ours! (or is it yours?)

Working document of December 5, 2012

At the beginning of November 2012 the European Commission presented four
non-official positions („non-papers‰) outlining new regulations on the
marketing of seeds and propagating material (PMR),1 on plant health (PH),
on controls and on funding. Following a consultation with governments and
the services of the Commission, an official bill should be proposed to the
European Council and the Parliament in the first months of 2013.

La Via Campesina Europe analyzed these documents and developed an initial
position which focuses on issues connected to “seed marketing”. It might
also develop positions in the future on cross-cutting aspects, including
controls and the generalization of the “hygiene package” to all
agricultural production.

THE COMMISSION MUST REWRITE ITS DRAFT IN ORDER TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION FARMERS‚ RIGHTS AND NOT ONLY THOSE OF THE INDUSTRY

Although still imprecise, these proposals are presented as a simplification
of the regulatory framework on the market access of seeds.

On the one hand, they intend to satisfy the seed industry that detains an
exclusive monopoly on varieties, which are distinct (D), uniform (U) and
stable (S) and are covered by Plant Variety Protection (PVP), and to which
they offer the management of the European catalogue2 as well as the
registration of varieties based on an official description complying with
the current catalogue, and on the other, the genetic engineering
multinationals eager to see their patented genetic manipulations enter the
market without having to take the time to homogenise the varieties in which
they are integrated.

Only those seeds will be marketable that comply with the 1991 UPOV3
Convention, and which may both be protected by a PVP and only contain
plants that are protected by one or more patents. Only the old varieties or
„varieties with no intrinsic value‰ registered in the catalogue of
„conservation varieties‰ prior to the entry into force of the new
regulation will be registered based on an „officially recognised
description‰ (ORD), which is simplified and less expensive. However, no new
variety, which is non (U) and non (S), will have the option of being
registered. The seeds of „population‰ varieties developed by farmers and
adapted and adaptable to changing growing conditions and climate will be
banned from marketing.

These proposals constitute on the one hand an unacceptable attack on
subsistence agriculture and small-scale food production as well on the
right of peasants and farmers to exchange and sell their own seeds, and on
the other hand, create new environmental constraints and others connected
to plant health and biosafety with the aim of eliminating seeds adapted to
sustainable family and organic farming, as well as to small seed companies.

Subsistence farming systems and informal systems of seed exchange between
farmers have produced all the species available for cultivation, and have
conserved and renewed from generation to generation all of agricultural
biodiversity, which forms the basis of modern breeding. Banning all the
varieties that have not been registered would make the vast majority of
local varieties conserved disappear forever.

These assaults on the rights of farmers and the right to food are designed
for export. Indeed for the past 50 years Europe has been a laboratory for
seed laws that it subsequently imposes on the entire planet through free
trade agreements. Europeans must refuse these laws not only for themselves,
but for all peoples of the world.

1) The access to seeds intended for small-scale farming directed to local
food production must remain an inalienable human right

Mechanised agriculture, the only sector using industrial seeds, is only
practiced by less than 10% of farmers around the world. Three-quarters of
the food produced on the planet comes from subsistence farming and
small-scale food production intended for self-consumption and local
markets. This agriculture is very diversified and economical. It is not
interested in industrial seeds intended for cash-crop monocultures that are
very demanding in chemical inputs and geared to the global market. The
industry‚s propaganda wants to reduce European subsistence farming and
small-scale food production to the folkloric use of a few „old varieties‰
by „hobby gardeners‰. Yet the millions of small farmers from eastern
European countries that have recently acceded to the European Union do not
cultivate for their pleasure, or for export to the global market, but to
feed the local population. Today they are being joined by the Irish, Greek,
Spanish and Portuguese people, who have been thrown out onto the street by
the financial crisis and who occupy abandoned land to feed themselves.

No legislation on the marketing of seeds or on industrial property (PVP and
patent) anywhere in the world has ever dared to restrict access to seeds
intended for small-scale farming directed at local food production. Current
European regulations also limit themselves to the production and marketing
of seeds intended for commercial agriculture (marketed for „the purposes of
commercial exploitation‰). For several years, the industry has been using
propaganda orchestrated around frivolous legal proceedings against the
marketing of seeds of old varieties in order to attempt to cancel the right
to sell seeds of varieties not registered in the catalogue and used in
subsistence farming for the purposes of small-scale food production. The
„non-paper‰ wants to satisfy the industry in this. As simplified as they
may be, the proposed costs, bureaucracy and registration standards would
lead to the disappearance of tens of thousands of old and current farmers‚
varieties that guarantee the right to food of the poorest populations.
Indeed, these populations do not have the financial means to buy every year
seeds protected by industrial property titles, which would be the only ones
remaining on the market alongside some old varieties soon to become
outdated, or to purchase inputs necessary for their culture. Is this
evolution of rules on marketing the premise of the same evolution of rules
on industrial property on seeds? Extended to the global level, it directly
targets millions of small farmers who resist land grabbing by
multinationals: without farmers‚ seeds, they can no longer feed themselves.

The marketing of old or new, non-GM, freely reproducible seeds for the
purposes of small-scale farming intended for local food production must
continue to be exempt from any obligation of certification or official
registration. For this purpose, the scope of the regulation connected to
the “catalogue” should remain as it is today, namely limited to the
marketing of seeds “for the purposes of commercial exploitation.” The
variety only needs to be registered on a publicly accessible list held by
and under the responsibility of the operator to avoid any confusion about
the designation of other varieties. Minimal obligations relating to
germination capacity, specific and varietal purity (except for mixtures)
and basic health precautions shall be sufficient to ensure the fair and
honest character of marketing activities of these seeds.

2) Guarantee the right of farmers to exchange and sell their own seeds

This right is enshrined in the International Seed Treaty4 ratified by the
European Union in order to protect the activity of farmers who participate
in the conservation of agricultural biodiversity in their fields. The
selection and dynamic management of on-farm cultivated biodiversity are not
commercial activities. They are not subject to current European laws that
are limited to the marketing of seeds, against payment or free of charge,
„for the purposes of commercial exploitation‰. The production of these
farmers‚ seeds is essential to allow for the adaptation of crops to climate
change and to new requirements for the reduction of chemical inputs. It
guarantees the autonomy of farmers and peoples in the face of the
domination by a few seed companies. The „non-paper‰ wants to subject this
autonomy to the good will of gene banks controlled by seed corporations
that only accept ex situ conservation in cold storage rooms or else through
digitization, and who oppose any notion of dynamic on-farm conservation.

Networks of in situ conservation must remain outside the scope of laws on
the marketing of seeds. And along with them all “in-kind” exchange of seeds
between farmers who contribute, through their agricultural production, to
the local adaptation of varieties, the selection, conservation and / or
dynamic management of agricultural biodiversity. In accordance with its
purpose as defined in Article 1, the regulation on PMR should apply only to
operators who produce plant reproductive material intended to be placed on
the market and / or to be sold. It should be clear that the farmers who
produce their own plant reproductive material and exchange it in-kind, free
of charge or for a fee, directly with other farmers, without commercial
intermediaries or a public offer of marketing, are not operators to whom
the PMR law applies.

3) Open up the catalogue to traditional and new population varieties
adapted to sustainable family farming and organic farming

The „non-paper‰ introduces a new definition of variety based on the 1991
UPOV Convention, imposed on all registrations and which excludes population
varieties. Indeed, the only eligible varieties are those with
characteristics defined by a genotype (pure lines) or a certain combination
of genotypes (F1 hybrids or synthetic populations). These standardized
varieties cannot adapt to soil diversity or climate variability without
significant recourse to chemical inputs. Their monopoly is a serious break
to the development of sustainable family farming and organic farming.
Registration based on ORD, which does not impose the criteria of U and S,
can only allow the registration of population varieties if it must not
comply with this definition of UPOV.

In addition, registration based on ORD must not be limited to old
varieties, but remain open to new local, farmers‚ and population varieties,
adapted to new growing conditions that will be imposed on farmers, in
particular with the amplification of climate change. Varieties adapted to
particular growing conditions, and not a region of origin or of specific
adaptation, must continue to have access to registration based on ORD.
Their maintenance should not be limited to a particular region. In
addition, the requirement to control environmental risks and risks
connected to plant health exclusively through genetics, biological
sterilisation and/or chemical treatment of the seeds amounts to negate the
important capacities of sustainable family farming and organic farming to
control diseases and respect the environment through good agricultural
practices.

Registration based on ORD without the requirement of DUS and VCU must be
open to population varieties defined by their characters resulting from
varying combinations of several genotypes. It should not be restricted to
varieties marketed prior the publication of the regulation, but remain open
to any new variety, whether local or adapted to particular growing
conditions. Only local varieties connected to a specific region should be
maintained in their region of origin, unless this is technically impossible
(i.e. important need for isolation in the case of cross-pollinated
species). Seeds of all the species belonging to these varieties must be
sold in the “standard” category, without certification requirement. Plant
health and environmental standards of an agriculture based on chemical
inputs should not be imposed on subsitance farming and organic agriculture.
PH Regulation must include specific items for that.

4) Stop patented and genetically manipulated varieties and plants

Current regulations guarantee exclusive access to the seed market for
uniform (U) and stable (S) varieties that can be protected by PVP. Non (U)
and (S) varieties can be patented, but they can currently only be
cultivated under an inclusive contract5 without an exchange of the title on
the seeds and crop. In addition, patent holders on genetic modifications to
plants want to market their innovations without being forced to go through
the long period of multiplications implied by the uniformity and stability
of varieties. They should not be able to enter the market through the new
registration procedure based on ORD, which is no longer subject to the
obligations of U and S.

On the other hand, many consumers in the organic sector and elsewhere
reject any genetic modification that violates the integrity of the plant
cell, including not only transgenesis which is now labelled, but also
mutagenesis and cell fusion, as well as any other technique leading to a
genetic modification that does not occur naturally through multiplication
and/or natural recombination.

Registration based on ORD should be reserved for freely reproducible non-GM
varieties, and closed not only to any variety protected by a PVP, but also
patented varieties or plants that are covered by patents. Registration must
be accompanied by an obligation to disclose information on the particular
method of genetic modification used6.

5) Fight against biopiracy

The PVP partially meets the requirements of benefit-sharing under the
Convention on Biological Diversity by leaving the new protected variety
free for creating new selections. This requirement is not completely
respected because since the 1991 UPOV Convention and EU Regulation 2100/94,
it prohibits or restricts the free use of farm-saved seed. The patent does
not meet any of these obligations. Instead, it prohibits reuse of seeds and
plants to which its protection applies. In the current framework, which
imposes no information on the genetic resources used, it is impossible to
apply the obligations of the Nagoya agreements, in particular whether the
obligations of prior informed consent and benefit-sharing have been met.

Any registration not accompanied on the one hand by accurate information on
all forms of industrial property that may apply to plants of the variety
(PVP on varieties or patent on plants) as well as on the plant genetic
resources used for creating the new variety, and on the other hand, by
evidence of compliance with prior informed consent and benefit-sharing
shall exclude all restriction on reusing freely a variety in order to
select another and on marketing it, or on farm-saved seed7.

6) Protect human health and the environment

The competent authorities should be able to refuse to register a variety if
it poses a risk to human, animal or plant health, or the environment.
National authorities must, for the same reason, be able to refuse the
marketing of seeds and the cultivation on their territory of seeds
belonging to varieties listed in the European catalogue.

7) Do not divert health safety rules to strengthen ownership of seeds by
industrial property rights

Laws for the protection of industrial property leave the burden of proof of
any infringement to holders of the title. In the absence of presumption of
infringement, farmers have no obligation to inform breeders. The choice of
varieties is indeed protected by the right to privacy of personal and and
professional information. The traceability requirements for seeds imposed
on operators for reasons of health safety (Article 57 of Regulation PH)
should not be diverted from their purpose by the competent authorities who
have access to this information. The information should not be transmitted
to holders of industrial property title. The absence of guarantees of non
disclosure of the information could incite farmers to fail to meet the
plant health requirements.

8) Maintain a public registration and control service within financial and
technical reach of small operators

The management of the European catalogue is entrusted to the European
Union‚s Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) that manages PVP. It will be
able to register varieties directly at the European level (List A) and
supervise national registration (list B). Registration at the European
level cannot take into account local ecosystems. This would benefit very
large companies that want to flood the European market with the same
varieties that have „no roots” in a specific territory, dependent on inputs
and totally disconnected from soils. Such varieties do not fulfil the
objective of reducing inputs, of local adaptation to climate change and
biodiversity.

The “non-paper” and organizes a full and definitive privatization of public
services connected to registration and control. The new procedures of
self-registration, self-control and self-issuance of health certificates
„under official control‰ are only accessible to large operators who can
recoup on large quantities of marketed seeds the costs for the required
equipment (certified trial plots and laboratories), the hiring of
authorized qualified personnel, and the multiplication of analyses. If
public services are deserted by large operators, they will not be able to
remain in place and will be replaced by certifying bodies set up by the
seed industry. The commercial dependence of these certifying bodies
financed primarily by their most important clients opens the door to all
kinds of abuses. Small operators unable to meet required standards will be
held first responsible for the slightest commercial or health incident,
without any possible recourse, on the mere grounds of not having been able
to implement the imposed risk management measures.

Variety registration should not be done at European level, but only at the
national level. Certification must remain an official mission performed
directly by the competent authorities and not by private operators. The
registration of varieties and the quality control of seeds must remain a
public service that is accessible to all, and free of charge for freely
reproducible varieties and seeds, obtained and produced in a manner that
occurs naturally by multiplication and/or by natural recombination, and
exempt of all industrial property title. Health, biosafety and traceability
requirements must be proportionate to the size of companies to which they
apply.

1Hereafter, the term „seeds‰ stands for „seeds and propagating material‰

2 Entrusted to the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) responsible for
the registration and control of PVP

3 International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants

4International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
(IT PGRFA)

5 As described in article 2- 1) a) of EC directive 2002/55

6We demand a ban on PVP as defined in the European regulation 2100/94, and
on all forms of patents on the reproduction of life forms and transgenic
plants. We demand a plant health related, environmental and socio-economic
evaluation of all other technologies of gene manipulation. If this
evaluation authorises some of these technologies, we demand a mandatory
labelling of seeds and products originating from it. These bans and
regulations depend on the amendment of other regulations on intellectual
and industrial property rights (IPR) and on biosecurity that must still be
achieved.

Published on Friday, 07 December 2012 08:18

La Via Campesina – Press release

(Jakarta, 6 December 2012) – As the climate negotiations come to a close, the industrialized countries insist on inaction for the next decade, finding even more ways to escape their historical responsibility, create more carbon markets including one on agriculture and to keep business as usual of burning the planet. While governments continue to prioritize the interests of industry and agribusiness peasant farmers continue producing to feed the world’s people and the planet.

The high level segment of the 18th Conference of Parties (COP 18) and 8th Meeting of Parties (CMP 8) of the United Nations Framework on Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has begun on December 5 with Ministers arriving in the petro-state of Doha, Qatar. But the almost two week long negotiations has produced absolutely nothing. Developed countries are so entrenched in their positions and goals for inaction that when the Chair of the negotiations presented the new text under the Long Term Cooperative Action track, the text literally contained blank pages in areas where the Chair claimed divergences existed; these included adaptation, technology development, finance, capacity building and economic and social consequences of response measures – all issues of great concern to developing countries.

On the crucial issue of emissions reductions, commitments proposed by industrialized countries undercut the already low figures proposed in 2009 in Copenhagen. A United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) study calculated that warming would still go up to 5 degrees centigrade using the numbers calculated in Copenhagen, far surpassing the 2 degree centigrade threshold that scientists said should be mitigated to avoid climate chaos. Regardless, the numbers in Doha have dropped even lower. The EU pledge for example of emissions reduction of 20 percent until 2020 will in reality be only 12 percent because they claim to have already accomplished the 8 percent during the first Kyoto Protocol period. Then for the remaining 12 percent they will not even make real reductions, as they will use market mechanisms.

On agriculture, at the COP17 in Durban, it was agreed to move forward on the issue of agriculture, possibly developing a work program on it. Agriculture as whole, until Durban, has been outside the UNFCCC negotiations, and more importantly, outside the reach of carbon markets. But in Durban and in Qatar, developed countries as well as big farmer organizations and agri-business claiming to be representing small farmers from all over the world, have been pushing very hard to advance the entry of agriculture in the negotiations. Agriculture, if developed into a work program in the UNFCCC negotiations, will head towards the development of a climate-smart agriculture system or what they call “sustainable intensification” or increasing yield per unit of land. This will open the door for carbon markets in agriculture, will allow for carbon accounting to determine agricultural policy, will open the door to the further propagation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other technological fixes such as synthetic biology, and will favor agribusiness over small farmers and peasants.

The developed countries have also turned the issue of finance into a mockery. They promised a measly 100 billion USD by 2020. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ 2009 UN World Economic and Social Survey estimated that 500-600 Billion USD is what is needed every year by developing countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The US government alone spent 661 Billion USD on military expenditures in 2009. The 100 billion USD offer is already an insult but to add to that, developed countries have proposed that the World Bank be the interim trustee, that funds can come from a variety of sources and that funds can come in the form of loans.

In terms of transfer of technology, again, a commitment that developed countries need to fulfill following the principle of historical responsibility, there is nothing. The issue of Intellectual Property Rights has not been addressed and therefore the developing countries will need to pay in order to access the technologies that should be their right to access.

In 2007, when the fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report, their findings already underlined the urgency of the situation. Today, we are in a situation far worse than they had predicted. Last September, arctic sea ice melted to the lowest level since scientists began to keep records in 1979. Scientists even stated that if this rate continues, we will no longer have sea ice by the end of this decade.

We are already feeling the impacts of climate change; the past few months we have witnessed record-breaking extremities of weather – drought, typhoons, floods and extreme temperatures. These extremities of weather change have also wreaked havoc on crops, farmlands, livelihoods and homes. Already, there is a growing relation between climate change and the staggering increases in food prices and the growing food crisis. Climate change is also forcibly displacing millions from their homes. In 2010 alone, it was estimated that more than 30 million people were forcibly displaced by environmental and weather-related disasters across Asia. This week alone, as climate negotiations move backward, more than 300 people died in one of the strongest typhoons to hit the Philippines.

La Via Campesina, the international peasants movement, representing more than 200 million small farmers around the world, denounces the utilization of the climate negotiations to legitimize the continuation of business as usual at the expense of humanity and the planet. The inaction in the climate negotiations is a reflection of the corporate capture of governments by big business who want to continue exploiting nature to gain as much profit as possible. While governments play silly games – debating blank pages and creating loopholes to escape responsibility – peasants and small farmers, who are among the most affected by the climate crisis, are the ones implementing real solutions on the ground to adapt to climate conditions and realize food sovereingty. Studies have shown that small farmers still produce the majority of the world’s food. We are not only feeding the people but also adapting to new climate conditions using agroecology and peasant seed varieties.

La Via Campesina rejects false capitalist solutions of the green economy which will only worsen the climate and food crises. Peasants are helping to save humanity through agroecological farming – combating hunger and cooling the planet.