World Foodless Day
Comments (0) WORLD FOOD-LESS DAY (OCTOBER 16) AND ASSOCIATED ONE WEEK OBSERVANCE FROM OCTOBER 12-16, 2008
A call to Chethana network and its partners and associated Joining Hands Partners of the Presbyterian Church across the world
Last vestiges of Hope in a world of inequality and exploitation and consequent hunger and denial Human rights are the UN and UN-related organisations like FAO, UNESCO, UNICEF etc. When such institutions forget its mandate and speak and act for the rich and the powerful, then the sense of betrayal is much more painful.
Soaring food prices and other essential commodities is making people’s life difficult and many instances creating food riots and also endemic poverty, malnutrition and slow death for millions of people in different parts of the world.
The way out of this crisis according to FAO, as in the case of many other multilateral financial institutions like the IMF, World Bank, ADB and the WTO, “are the very same old solutions they have prescribed in the past– greater liberalisation, in particular the resumption and completion of the WTO Doha Round of negotiations as well as intensifying and increasing the expansion of corporate agriculture. Together, these had in the first place aggravated the global food crisis and intensified TNC profiteering.” (People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty) Since, we expect from FAO better accountability to people who are deprived of food, we would like to challenge its assumptions of world hunger which are anti-people and pro-corporate. Hence we call upon all like-minded people to join the observance of October 16 as WORLD FOOD-LESS DAY.
This occasion should be used to highlight the following Issues related to hunger:
1. Celebrate: Land is our Life and Means of Livelihood (Slogan: Land is our life; Earth is our mother)
2. Mobilisation against Corporatisation of Agriculture and Retail Industry, particularly of food; dangers of US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative (Slogan: Go back Monsanto-Mahyco, Go back Wal-Mart Bharati, Go Back Reliance Fresh)
3. Ban GM seeds and GM foods: Stop Moving the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill in the Indian Parliament (Slogan: “I am no lab rat”)
4. Conscientise people against the dangers of Communalism (Sectarianism) and Religious Fundamentalism (Slogan: Hunger has no Religion)
5. Restore and reactivate the Public Distribution System: Government should actively involve in procurement and distribution of grains and other essential food items (slogan: There is enough for everybody’s need)
6. Observance of World-Foodless Day with fasting and other associated public events to highlight the policy distortions of FAO and the state in relation to neo-liberal economic policies.
Soaring Food Prices
Food prices soaring up and it is more than a question of lack of production. It is problem of government not intervening in the market by procuring and supplying essential commodities, particularly grains. Instead of providing incentives and subsidies to our framers and increasing agricultural production our government is buying grains and essential commodities at rates more than the support prices provided to Indian farmers. That is, while the government decrease and discourage subsidy to its farmers, it provides subsidy to multinational companies who trade in food.
Land for the Landless
Land is increasingly becoming a commodity in real estate business, so called developmental projects like SEZs, industrial parks, Mega Malls etc. and housing projects and also for extraction of water, gas, oil and other mineral deposits. The majority of dalits and Adivasis/tribal population are landless. They are often the ones who will be displaced from whatever piece of land that they may have for developmental purposes. However, for them land is not a commodity; it is their life. It gives them dignity and identity. It is a means of living in a holistic life style that protects and enhances the mother earth. Another group of people that face the brunt of development are the small and marginal farmers. Farming is no longer a viable means making a living; it leads one to debt and suicide. The policies and programs of the governments are meant to force them out of land. The resultant “agrarian crisis” and “rural distress” force them out of their land and migrate to urban centers in search of jobs to finally become part of the “garbage heap” of the cities. We want to join them in their fight for land and a dignified and sustainable means of livelihood. We want to preserve the culture that is represented by “agir-culture”. Hence our slogan: Reclaim Land as a source of Life and Livelihood.
FAO’s policies in dealing with food crisis also amounts to supporting agri-business corporations and GM technology that would deprive us of our seeds and bio-diversity, lead us to eternal dependents on agri-business corporations for seeds, fertilisers and pesticides and thus pave the way for exodus of farmers from agriculture as a way of life and a livelihood. They will be led to debt and suicides and also forced to migrate to urban areas for livelihood further increasing the social marginalisation, suffering and tension.
Indo-US Agricultural Knowledge Initiative
“A key feature of this initiative will be a public-private partnership where the private sector can identify research areas that have the potential for rapid commercialisation, with a view to develop new and commercially viable technologies for agricultural advancements in both countries.”
1. We cannot agree with the fundamental assumption that green revolution has been a blessing to Indian farmers and the food security of the country. We cannot also share the positive evaluation of the US contribution towards it.
2. The Indian scientists and researchers who are funded by the tax payer’s money relate to private US corporations and their research and training agenda. This is the nature of the Public-private participation associated with the initiative.
3. We cannot consider that Monsanto and Wal-Mart would associate with the Indian agricultural scientists and researchers and farmers with any noble intentions. This is only beginning of corporatisation of agriculture and retail industry, resulting in the marginalisation of the farmers and small retailers who constitute the bulk of unorganised labor sector.
4. The major part of the initiative is in the area of biotechnology. As happened in the case of “Green revolution”, our bio-diversity will be robbed from us and GM seeds will be patented and the US corporations will take benefit out of it. Our farmers, land, livelihood and way of life are sacrificed at the altar of American corporate interests.
Dismantling of Public Distribution System
Looking particularly at the India reality, the roots of the present inflation do not lie in the global inflation alone. In its fervor to please the IMF and the WB and implement the neo-liberal economic policies, it had dismantled the public distribution system, targeted food supply to those who are below the poverty line, which again was defined in terms of abysmally low food intake and private players were allowed into the procurement of grains and other food crops. Not only were subsidies not given to farmers but low support prices were announced for food crops while food grains were bought from external markets for prices much higher than the support price provided to its own farmers.
People’s coalition on Food Sovereignty … and National Alliance of People’s Movement
The Objectives of the World Foodless Day:
• Create public awareness and media attention on the root causes of the food crisis
• Provide policy recommendations and organise meetings with government officials, opinion makers and leaders
• Organise activities to raise our voices against neoliberal policies and their impact
• Highlight people’s recommendations to respond to the world food crisis
