International cooperation welcomed by Filipino farmers : QC IMC

In Manila, the People’s Caravan activities continued on Tuesday morning with a Forum on GMOs and its Impact on People. The event held at the Little Theater in Miriam College, Quezon City, was a resounding success with more than 500 participants attending.

The keynote speech delivered by Dr. Gene Nisperos, a community doctor in Mindanao, described how large agrochemical corporations, like Monsanto, monopolise the market by giving out low-interest loans to farmers to force them into buying the company’s products. This is reinforced through connivance with big landlords as a way to compel farmers to use them. These strategies reflect the shrewdness as well as the desperation of transnational corporations such as Monsanto that further put farmers to feudal and semi-feudal bondage. Dr. Nisperos also shared how the affected Filipino farmers were able to mobilise themselves to protest against Monsanto by uprooting Bt corn in 2002. Now, organised militant protest actions against Monsanto and other agro-chemical corporations have become a powerful tool wielded by farmers to defend their rights to land and food.

Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, Director of Econexus in the United Kingdom and a scientist activist, talked about the effects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on people. She said that the ill effects caused by genetically engineered (GE) foods might not be felt now but the sickness may manifest itself as we grow older or passed on to our children. "That’s why cases of cancer and congenital disorders that now abound are largely due to GMOs. What Monsanto and other agrochemical corporations are doing is a very dangerous thing, not only to the health of our people but to the environment as well", she explained.

Mr. Percy Schmeiser from Canada talked about his experience with Monsanto on a sterling case of a Northern Farmer's struggle against corporate control to defend farmers' rights to seeds. In 1997, Monsanto filed a case against Schmeiser for illegally planting its patented genetically engineered canola, resistant to the broad-spectrum glyphosate herbicide, RoundUp. Both are produced by Monsanto. In May 2004, by a narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada reaffirmed the earlier decisions of the lower courts that Schmeiser infringed on Monsanto's patent while recognizing that the company's genetically engineered RR [RoundUp Ready] canola contaminated his field. The Court did not ask Percy to pay the damages as demanded by Monsanto since it ruled that he did not profit from the patented seeds.

In opposition, the canola farmer, who once served in the Canadian Parliament and as mayor of Saskatoon, contended that Monsanto contaminated his canola field with its GE seeds resulting to the loss of the heritage seed stocks that his family conserved for 50 years. Schmeiser filed a counter lawsuit against Monsanto which remains pending in the Canadian courts.

The Canadian Supreme Court decision on Schmeiser's case raised widespread outrage as it undermines the rights of farmers worldwide and threatens global food security and biological diversity. The ruling implies that a farmer in possession of seeds or plants containing a patented gene, regardless of how the seeds were obtained, holds the burden of proving that she/he is not infringing on a company's propriety right over the seeds.

As Schmeiser stated during the Supreme Court proceedings, "We stood up against Monsanto because we felt that if farmers ever lose their right to use their own seeds, we would be trapped in a feudal system and corporations would have control over the food supply."

Also present in the forum were farmers from the Cordillera region in the northern part of the Philippines, who showed great interest in the intense discussions since they are also beginning to encounter such problems.

At the end of the Forum, participants lauded the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions on food sovereignty and expressed interest for future international cooperations and events such as the People’s Caravan.