There, the peasant movement is demanding the authorities present a radical change away from the current free market policies, and will expose that large-scale industrial agriculture and monoculture plantations are “the root causes of today’s biodiversity, food and climate crises”, according to a press release issued by the organization.

Also, the grassroots movement points out that we are “facing a war for control over seeds” and that “the outcome of this war will determine the future of humanity.”

“One actor in this war is the seed industry that uses genetic engineering, hybrid technologies and agrochemicals. Its aim is the ownership of seeds as a source of increased profits. They do this by forcing farmers to consume its seeds and become dependent on them. The other actor is peasants and family farmers who preserve and reproduce seeds within living, local, peasant and indigenous seed systems, seeds that are the heritage of our peoples, cared for and reproduced by men and women peasants. They are a treasure that we farmers generously place at the service of humanity”, reads the declaration.

With reference to this, the movement points out that the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture “recognizes and legitimizes industrial property over seeds, thus creating the required conditions for theft and monopoly control”, and that “it is a contradictory and ambiguous treaty, which in the final analysis comes down on the side of theft.”

Although on the other side, La Via states that not everything is lost in terms of the Treaty, since it could be positive if substantial corrections are made, giving priority to peasant rights and traditional production models, avoiding industrial property rights on living beings through binding agroecological public policies.

The answer, according to La Via Campesina, is to deepen the model of agroecological agriculture, which has positive effects on the reduction of climate change and allows the development of more resistant plant varieties in a natural way, as opposed to industrial agriculture.

Photo: Avans