January 2001
Summary of Events
By Sarah Hindmarsh
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP)

Engaging a crowd of over 50 000 on November 30—one year since the massive protests against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its brand of globalisation—the People’s Caravan 2000 ended three weeks of activities in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, with simultaneous events in Japan, Korea and Indonesia.

Carrying the theme, "Citizens on the Move for Land and Food Without Poisons!", the People’s Caravan traveled over 2 500 kilometers through Tamil Nadu, India (November 13-18), Bangladesh (November 18-24) and within Manila, the Philippines (November 26-30). The caravan called for an end to the devastating effects from the globalisation of agriculture and instead advocated genuine agrarian reform, food security, social justice and land and food without poisons.

Over 10 000 people—local farmers, agricultural workers, fisherfolk, students, scientists, environmentalists, teachers, the media, government officials, policy makers, and anti-pesticide and anti-genetic (GE) engineering advocates—participated in lively discussion at public meetings, press conferences and educational ‘teach-in’s at bus stops, in rice fields, in villages and towns. Food festivals, seed exchanges, songs and street theatre celebrated our local initiatives towards more sustainable, healthy agriculture.

The People’s Caravan brought the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) together with partner groups in facilitating grassroots action across Asia—giving thousands of people a voice to express their resistance to globalisation and its devastating effects.

The caravan was organised by PAN AP; Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED) and Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum (TNWF), India; UBINIG (Policy Research Centre for Development Alternatives) and Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agriculture Movement), Bangladesh; and Kilusang Magbubukid Ng Pilipinas (KMP – Peasant Movement of the Philippines); in collaboration with SHISUK, Bangladesh; CIKS and PREPARE, India; Gita Pertiwi, Indonesia; NESSFE Japan; CACPK, Korea; and Food First, U.S.A.

By coming together, through intercultural exchange, the People’s Caravan was about understanding and awareness (Who are those driving and benefiting by promoting the industrial agricultural system? What are their strategies?), resistance and movement building (How can we resist them and take actions to strengthen this resistance in our own lives and within our own communities?) solidarity (How do we translate these actions into creating solidarity with people in other communities, regions and countries and unite towards a common vision that will strengthen our local struggles).

It was also about hope, about celebrating our local/ traditional food diversity and knowledge and most importantly, it was about reclaiming the right to land, decent livelihoods and safe food for all!

For KMP chairperson Rafael Mariano the caravan brought together farmers from many different countries in the region to discuss and compare the effects and challenges of globalisation on their lives.

Individuals shared their experiences on the transition of traditional farming practices to export oriented crop production and what this has meant for them, for their families and their communities—increasing landlessness; hazardous pesticide use; and the potential onslaught of unsafe, unproven experimental GE technologies.

"Farmers view these … developments with great concern because this threatens food safety, security, health, and livelihoods," said PAN AP Executive Director Sarojeni Rengam.

Rengam said the input on the impacts of globalisation on small farmers in the North from Food First U.S.A Co-director Anuradha Mittal, on tour with the caravan in Indian, and Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, on tour with the caravan in Bangladesh, provided important lessons for Southern farmers.

Mittal said small farmers in the U.S. were also suffering terribly from the process of globalisation. She stressed that small family farms are increasingly disappearing due to rising production costs, collapsing farm commodity prices and buyouts by large corporations. Although U.S. farmers receive subsidy support this has not helped the small farmer. As an indication of the severity of the situation she said the U.S. census no longer includes a category for farmers.

In Solo, Indonesia, the seminar—"Strengthening Farmers and Systems of Sustainable Agriculture in the Free Market Era in Indonesia"—informed participants of the agricultural policy of the Indonesian government within the context of globalisation and trade liberalisation.

The issue of globalisation also took centrestage in Korea—demonstrations were held in 171 towns and cities and the leaders of 21 national farmer organisations went on a hunger strike in protest of the unjust, unfair and distorted trading system pushed by the WTO in concert with governments, corporations and multilateral organisations.

Speaking in Bangladesh on land conversion and the erosion of food security in India TNWF and SRED pesticide activist Santi Gangadharan said, "As we travel this country we are very happy to find the fields so full of paddy. In our country most of the farmers have been forced to grow cash crops instead of food crops due to the process of globalisation and liberalisation and because the government wants more export earnings. Now there is no paddy. The fields have been converted into flower gardens for export. Due to globalisation many people in the villages have been forced to leave. They have left their traditional homes, entered urban areas and many of them are even without food."

For the poor farmers of Asia landlessness is on the rise. Local landlords and foreign transnational corporations (TNCs) increasingly grab lands to promote export crop production.

So severe is the crisis in the Philippines that the number one mandate for KMP is the struggle for genuine agrarian reform that provides land to landless small farmers and peasants with sufficient support for sustainable rural livelihoods, economies and futures independent of TNCs.

Mariano is critical of the Filipino government’s commitment to the WTO in promoting the World Bank‘s imposition of market-assisted land reform, or private sector land reform. This involves joint venture schemes that allow landlords and foreign capitalists to appropriate land.

"In effect, the schemes reduce the farmers to being farm-workers receiving measly wages not even on a regular basis to augment their daily need for food and sustenance," Mariano said.

In fact while the minority of the rich are getting richer an overwhelmingly large proportion of the poor, many of them women, in developing countries are socio-economically worse off then they have ever been. For example, as reported by the Asia Monitor Resource Center, the assets of the 200 richest people are greater than the combined income of the more than 2 billion poor people.

More people are going hungry, more people are malnourished and now we are seeing something we have never seen before—the suicide of hundreds of farmers in countries such as India¹ and Sri Lanka² to escape the humiliation of increasing indebtedness.

People are losing their rights just to be able to have enough to eat each day, to land, to have safe food and decent livelihoods.

From an environmental and human health perspective, monoculture cropping encourages increasing pesticide use. Pests quickly develop resistance while their predators are killed off and farmers turn to increasingly higher doses and/ or stronger, more toxic pesticides, as pest resurgence occurs.

Farmers are also often forced to increase the use of fertilisers to counter the loss of soil fertility resulting from a limited source of nutrients provided by one type of crop. HYVs also demand far more water and nutrients adding to the depletion of soil fertility and water resources. In addition, pesticides and fertilisers build up as toxic residues in food and contaminate our soil, water and air, not to mention the health and living environment of farmers, agricultural workers and farming communities.

According to the World Health Statistic Quarterly, a World Health Organisation (WHO) publication, about 25 million workers in developing countries are poisoned every year by pesticides.

Of particular concern from pesticide exposure is the potential for long-term disruption to the human endocrine (hormone) system causing development and reproductive abnormalities and diseases.

Farmer Jahanara Begum, speaking at a public meeting in a rice field in Chakaria, Bangladesh, said, "We have so many varieties of rice seeds, but instead we are going for the varieties from IRRI and the seed companies. These seeds need a chemical package. So we are doing deals with scientists and transnational companies. When we use local varieties we get a yield of 40 kg of rice. When we use pesticides and the companies seeds we get 20 kg more but we also destroy our soil, water and biodiversity."

She added, "How many poisons are you using? We have lost our birds, our fish, the wildlife. We have lost all this for 20 kg more and we spend more money on our family’s health. Bangladesh has such fertile land. We can grow so much. Still we have so much biodiversity."

Furthermore, "For the last eight years I have used no pesticides. My costs have gone down and my yields have gone up. In nature there is a balance between predators and prey. Pesticides destroy this natural balance."

"Transnational companies, they come, they go. They don’t care about our health or our environment …No more, we’ve had enough! We don’t want your technology and what it will do to our way of life. So stop using pesticides and gradually reduce the use of fertilisers. For our survival we have to commit ourselves to land and food without poisons!" she concluded.

Rengam told the crowd that today the pesticides market is a $32 billion industry. With the advent of seeds genetically engineered to tolerate pesticides or be dependent on chemical inducers to promote growth and development, the use of hazardous pesticides will only increase.

Since the early 1970s the pesticides industry has gone through a period of consolidation. Today, after a flurry of mergers and acquisitions, corporate domination of the pesticide market and the food system in general has reached a peak.

According to GE expert Dr. Michael Hansen with the Consumer Union, U.S.A., the top five agrochemical companies, Syngenta (a merger of Novartis and AstraZeneca), Aventis (Rhone-Poulanc and AgrEvo), Monsanto, BASF and Dupont hold dominant positions in the seed, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and related markets. Presently, these companies account for nearly two-thirds of the commercial seed market and virtually 100 per cent of the market for GE seeds.

So strong was the concern over pesticides and GE seeds amongst the crowd at Chakaria, Bangladesh, that village elder and farmer Nazir Hussein—who works 6 acres of land and was previously elected to the village union council—made a public commitment to stop using pesticides on his farm and to never buy GE seeds.

In addition, following a public meeting in Elliotganj, Comilla, Bangladesh, within the Pankowri fishing village, the community committed to working towards pesticide free farming.

In Bishnupur near Pathrail in Tangail, Bangladeshi farmers gathered for a public seminar chanted "down with Monsanto, down with Monsanto" upon hearing the experience of Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser with the transnational agrochemical ‘gene giant’ Monsanto. They became even more vocal upon hearing the terrible threats to farmer’s livelihoods if they plant GE crops from Hansen.

Claiming Schmeiser was growing its RR canola without a contract Monsanto hired private investigators to take samples from Schmeiser’s property without his consent.

Local Bruno newspapers reported that upon the discovery of RR canola on Schmeiser’s property, the corporation sued him for using its seed, demanded all profits from the crop and unspecified punitive damages.

Schmeiser shared his views with farmers on how his field had been contaminated with RR canola against his knowledge and wishes. "This has destroyed my seed which I have been developing for over fifty years."

While Monsanto and other agrochemical companies may not push for contracts in developing countries, due to the problem of policing such agreements, Hansen said these companies have other insidious ways of "trapping" farmers into using GE seeds. This includes the development of GE seeds that render crops sterile and/ or control their growth and development via chemicals.

Sterile seeds are unable to germinate thereby disabling farmers the right to save seeds for replanting—crucial for the food security of communities. According to Rengam, approximately 1.4 billion farmers, producing almost 20 per cent of the world’s food, rely on saved seeds. Furthermore, sterile, chemically dependent crops trap farmers into an expensive seed and pesticide package.

Reflecting on this, Schmeiser’s message to farmers all over Asia is that they should never, ever give up their right to use their own seeds. "If you give up this right you are basically losing your freedom. Anyone who controls the seed supply will also control the food supply. This amounts to controlling a nation. This is why it is so important that farmers always maintain their right to use their own seeds."

UBINIG Director Shahid Hussain Shamim said the lessons to be learnt from Schmeiser’s case are invaluable. "The people here are being led to believe that transnational corporations are protecting the interests of the farmers. They are not. The message of solidarity from Schmeiser, and his experience with Monsanto, shows how farmers not just in Bangladesh, not just in Asia, but all over the world are suffering at the mercy of transnational corporations."

In Bangladesh and Japan, one of the main objectives of the People’s Caravan was to draw attention to the concern over GE rice in the region.

In Bangladesh UBINIG launched a farmer’s campaign against GE rice, while in Japan over 500 farmers and consumers marched in a national rally organised by the Network for Safe and Secure Food and the Environment (NESSFE) against the planting of Roundup Ready (RR) rice for commercial sale in the country.

UBINIG Executive Director Farida Akhter said, "UBINIG urges all farmers in the rice producing and rice consuming countries of Asia to resist planting genetically engineered rice as it will mean an aggression on their sovereign rights to produce their own staple food. Genetically engineered rice is harmful socially, economically, environmentally and also an attack on farmers sovereignty."

"Bangladeshi farmers will resist it by any means, we want the farmers of Asia to take a united position against genetically engineered rice," she said.

In December, NESSFE sent a letter, signed by 122 000 people, highlighting the potential health concerns with GE rice to the Ministry of Agriculture, Japan.

The legacy of the Green Revolution, promoting HYVs and intensive chemical farm inputs like pesticides, has poisoned our food, ravaged our land and left millions of small farmers landless or near landless and hungry. The advent of the ‘Gene Revolution’ will only intensify this trend as the control of our food supply shifts increasingly into the hands of a few large corporations.

The People’s Caravan, while highlighting these issues, was also about hope. It was about celebrating our local initiatives towards more sustainable healthy agriculture that is in the hands of the people, that is for the people, that can really feed our people and free them from dependence on hazardous pesticides and other dangerous agricultural inputs and technologies.

Ganapathi a sustainable agriculture practitioner from the village of Pudukottai, India, said he uses an integrated system of crops and animals in his farm to control pests and fertilise his soils. He said, "I use the holistic concept of food production and let nature take care of my farm. I let nature do my work and I do not use pesticides and chemical fertilisers."

The father of sustainable agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India, Mr Namalvar also stated, " We have already done what has been said to be impossible, to grow food without poisons. We have moved away from hazardous pesticides and fertilisers and made use of available resources to grow our food. I am confident that the whole of Tamil Nadu can produce crops sustainably and profitably. Our aim is to make the villages pesticide free by the end of 2001."

In Elliotganj, Comilla, Bangladesh, a public meeting held within the Pankowri fishing community—a model of sustainable agriculture integrating fish rearing and rice farming—showed communities can resist globalisation by harnessing their own resources.

Executive Director of SHISUK (Shikkha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram)—organisers of the event—Sakiul Millat Morshed explains, "The strategy … keeps the people out of the 'TNC dependent mentality' and keeps them out of debt. The project has resulted in reduced pesticide use, and a reduction in fertilser use that has resulted in an increase in the natural fertility of the land. This farming system can help implement integrated pest management (IPM)."

While in Bangladesh the People’s Caravan also visited numerous Nayakrishi Andolon farms and villages—a farmer led movement of sustainable agriculture spreading throughout the country representing over 50 000 farming families.

Farmer leader Albertina Hendrastutm, with the Women’s Farmers Group Network, Indonesia, speaking to the Filipino Congress said that through practicing sustainable agriculture they have been successful to the extent of a 90 per cent reduction in pesticide use.

Drawing on an example of sustainable agriculture in the Philippines, MASIPAG (Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Ikauunlad ng Agham Pang-agrikultura) Executive Director Maneul Yap said a MASIPAG organic farming project had produced rice yields higher than the national average for conventional rice production.

In Trichy, India, chairperson of APRN (Asia Pacific Research Network), Tony Tujan said, "As sustainable agriculture practitioners, we have shown the world that we can grow food without poisons. We must all come together to challenge industrialised agriculture and agrochemical TNCs."

The culmination of the People’s Caravan in the Philippines coincided with the growing People’s Movement protesting their disillusionment and dissatisfaction with the Estrada administration.

On November 30 in front of over 50 000 people, Advisor to the Assembly of the Poor, Thailand, Veerapon Sopa, and Rengam gave impassioned speeches to the crowd gathered in support of the resignation of Estrada.

Speaking in Thai, Sopa nonetheless enthralled the ever swelling crowd with his words of solidarity, and a song of resistance from Thailand he shared to register the feelings of true international solidarity that was at the very heart of the caravan.

Equally rousing, Rengam said, "We come in solidarity, in support of your struggles against pesticide poisoning, against the release of genetically engineered organisms and crops. Marginalised communities all over the world are fighting back against the ruthless tactics of transnational corporations who want to control our food production, who want to control our livelihoods, who want to control you. Resist these force’s, stand up to them, come together and fight for land and food without poisons!"