Farmers Fight Back

KASAMA Vol. 14 No. 4 / October-November-December 2000 / Solidarity Philippines Australia Network

To the farmers of the Philippines, genetically modified seeds pose a threat to their whole way of life. DAVID WORNER reports.

Last April I was fortunate to spend some time in the Philippines with MASIPAG, a farmer-scientist partnership that promotes sustainable agriculture, in particular the organic production of rice and vegetables controlled by the farmers themselves.

I represented AWD at a conference co-hosted by MASIPAG organised in opposition to the 40^th anniversary celebrations of IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute.

Delegates to the conference included scientists, farmers and activists who came to join hundreds of Filipino farming families to protest against IRRI's policies, especially in relation to the genetic modification of food. IRRI's main backers come from international forces of globalisation such as the Asian Development Bank, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank.

In Australia, the main concern over GM food is that we can't be sure of the impact on our health of GM foods. I now realise the issues are much more complex. GM food is being used by transnational companies to control worldwide seed distribution and expand markets for pesticides and fertilisers.

Just some of the arguments against GM crops include:

GM seed varieties depend on large amounts of inputs such as fertiliser, pesticide, herbicide, irrigation. Small farmers are often forced into debt to cover these costs of production.
These chemical inputs are detrimental to the surrounding environment.
They are also hazardous to humans, directly and indirectly through the food chain.
They kill snails, frogs, crabs and fish which are essential parts of eco-systems and often supplement farmers' diets.
The yields of hybrid or GM seeds are often only higher than traditional varieties under ideal or unsustainable conditions.
Use of these varieties increases mono-cropping and therefore the farmers' dependence on single crops.
Even an apparently beneficial variety such as Vitamin A-supplemented rice merely increases dependence on the transnational companies. Rather, crop diversification and natural sources of Vitamin A should be promoted.
Increased mono-cropping and use of few seed varieties leads to loss of biodiversity.
Standardised seed varieties are not as adaptable to local conditions.
Mono-cropping of GM seed varieties reduces the farmers' control over their production and forces them to buy seeds from multinationals each season.
The multinationals compete with each other to patent seed varieties and promote those varieties that are "programmed" to respond only to their own brand of fertiliser, pesticide or herbicide.
It leads to a breakdown in farmers' traditions and culture.

On a brighter note, I met farmers who had been empowered by the MASIPAG process to experiment, to save their seeds and decide for themselves the most suitable rice varieties for their local conditions.

MASIPAG farmers share their seeds and knowledge with each other and build seed banks to strengthen rather than diminish biodiversity. Even in IRRI's heartland south of Manila, farmers are looking for alternatives to the high-cost/high-risk/dependence model which IRRI stands for and are opting for the community-based model which MASIPAG offers.

Seeds of hope indeed!

Reprinted from the Spring 2000 Action for World Development NSW Newsletter.
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