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Manifesto For 21st Century Food And Farming
The Manifesto that was circulated at the anniversary conference of The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC).
Date: 3/26/2011 2:39:46 AM ( 13 y ) ... viewed 32510 times "Farming for the People with the People -
The global food economy, served and shaped via state and corporate control of the food chain, has resulted in unquantifiable levels of pollution, destruction and exploitation in every dimension of agriculture, from soil to seed, to plant, to animal and to man. In other words: our existence.
As we approach the second decade of the 21st century, it is becoming abundantly clear that an entirely new vision, understanding and implementation is required in order for agriculture to truly serve its original purpose of feeding humanity (all peoples) with good quality, affordable and mostly local foods in ways that do not harm the environment.
In order to make this wholesale shift it is necessary to entirely step aside from State and corporate control of the food chain. No compromise is possible here. Maintaining and re establishing the genuine independence of farmers throughout the world is a prerequisite for our survival as sentient, healthy human beings.
Non participation in the corporately controlled global market place must, in order to be effective, be accompanied by the widespread implementation of localized, quality food production and consumption practices. Practices that bring into close proximity the food grower and the food consumer; at the same time – by-passing entirely, the corporate multiple chains that profit by keeping them separate. This
is the only way that genuine accessibility of optimum condition foods and medicinal plants can be ensured for billions of people throughout the World.
Continuing to adhere to the present corporate and state controlled food and farming regimes means that:
Farmer’s time honored right to save their seeds and to cultivate, distribute and trade the produce resulting from these seeds will continue to be subverted, curtailed and stolen. People’s right to perpetuate the biodiversity of locally adapted native plants, herbs and animals for culinary, medicinal and general environmental health will be denied. People’s rights to gain lawful access to unused or barren land for the purpose of growing food for their own consumption in ways that do not harm the environment will be blocked. People’s time honored right to carry on the daily operations of good farming practice unhindered by state and corporate power structures, will be denied.
It is the obligation of head’s of state to consult the people, in advance, about any new laws or alterations of the current law and any political questions concerning agriculture.
'Farming for the People with the People' therefore calls for all farmers, growers and sympathetic citizens, to take back control over their destinies and to join together to free our agricultural practices from the corporate treadmill of destruction and despair to which they now are tied.
At the same time, we call upon the Polish government, and all national governments, to act NOW on the demands of the vast majority of their citizens to:
Ban all forms of genetic engineering in agriculture, horticulture, silviculture and fisheries. Withdraw all financial support for factory farming regimes that
dehumanize agriculture and debase the animal kingdom.
Prohibit, without exception, any and all patenting of plants, animals, their traits and genes, as well as patents on breeding methods. Thereby making it unlawful to attempt to exercise control over biodiversity.
Every Country should have the right to protect its food sovereignty.
We call for a people led and people owned renaissance of agriculture. One which will liberate the creativity and ingenuity of man and draw inspiration from the time honored peasant and family farming practices that still form the foundation of self sufficient, sustainable and ecological agricultural production throughout the world.
ICPPC Anniversary Statement, November 2010.
Please feel free to use and adopt in your Country!
Sir Julian Rose
Sir Julian Rose is now co-director of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside, co-launching a highly successful Campaign for a GMO Free Poland, as well as, leading a high profile defense of native farmers, whom he holds-up as the true guardians of biodiversity and quality of food throughout the world. Julian contributed to BBC Radio Four’s Farming Today during 2007 with his monthly broadcast, ‘Letters from Poland,’ passionately highlighting
the crisis from forcing corporate globalization into traditional farming communities.
Sir Julian Rose was the Chair for Wise Traditions, UK, the first London conference of the Weston A. Price Foundation, to be held on March 21, 2010. For more details about this event, visit:
http://westonaprice.org/london.
See more posts by Sir Julian on his guest blogger page.
I agree! - Chef Jem
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