[asia-apec 843] Confronting Globalization Asserting Our Right to Food!

[PAN Asia Pacific]

Confronting Globalization Asserting Our Right to Food!

Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture
11 - 12th November 1998

PROGRAMME at a glance

DAY 1  (November 11)

8:30-9:30       Registration

9:30-10:15      Opening Plenary

Overview of Globalisation and its Impacts on Food Security and Agriculture 
Issues

Speakers:       Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology, 
                and Natural Resource Policy, India)
                Sarojeni V. Rengam (Pesticide Action Network- Asia
                and the Pacific, Malaysia) 

10:15- 11:15    Overview of Trade Agreements
                The WTO and Agriculture (Mika Iba, NESFFE)
                The Impacts of NAFTA on Agriculture and Food
                        Security (Ana de Ita, CECCAM, Mexico)

11:15-1:00      Reports from Grassroots Movements: Country Specific
                Mexico, Isabel Gomez Lopez, Women's Network of UNORCA 
                Philippines, Rafael Mariano, Peasant Movement of the 
                        Philippines 
                Thailand, Assembly of the Poor
                Malaysia, PACOS and Tenaganita 
                South Korea, Kyeung-Eun Shin, Korean Wheat Revival 
                        Movement

1:00-2:00       Lunch

2:00-6:00       Workshops

DAY 2 (November 12)

Closing Plenary

9:00-11:00      Reports from Workshops

11:00-1:00      Development of Shared Analysis 

1:00 - 2:00     Lunch

2:00-4:00       Adoption of Final Statement

4:00-6:00       Common Action (to be announced)


FORUM ON LAND, FOOD SECURITY, AND AGRICULTURE
November 11-12, Grand Olympic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

An issue forum of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA)
November 10-15, Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

PAN-Asia and the Pacific and ERA Consumer will host the Forum on Food 
Security and Agriculture as part of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly 
(APPA).  APPA takes place November 10-15, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  
The Forum will be a two-day event at the beginning of the Assembly that 
will bring together concerned individuals, farmers and representatives of 
NGOs, people's organizations, and social movements to build on experiences, 
to develop strategies, and to commit to actions in opposition to current 
agricultural models being promoted in multilateral forums such as APEC and 
the WTO.  


Why a Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture?

Globalization has dramatically altered the rural landscape and our systems 
of food production.  The results are devastating:

Agricultural land is converted to non-food commercial crops, industrial 
zones, urban centres, and golf courses, and forest lands are destroyed for 
mining and logging.  Communities are left landless, impoverished, and 
shattered as corporations reap the profits.  

Food production is shifted away from local and national needs for basic 
foods to the demands of transnational agribusiness.  In Brazil, local 
populations go hungry as nearby large-scale farms grow soybeans to feed 
cattle destined for the North American market.  The logic is to increase 
trade, increase the distance that food travels, increase the amount of 
processing, and increase the amount of packaging. Those who benefit are 
corporations.  Today, a handful of TNCs have significant control of all 
aspects of the agriculture and food systems.  One company, Cargill, now 
controls 60 percent of the global cereal trade.  And, recent developments 
in genetic engineering and the rising number of mergers between transnational 
biotechnology, seed, and agrochemical companies is taking corporate control 
of the food system to new heights.  Agribusiness corporations amass
billions and farmers and rural labourers are left with next to
nothing; in Malaysia, while plantation company profits rose by over
30 per cent last year alone, plantation workers haven't received
real wage increases in the last 10 years. 

The Asian crisis has quickly made it apparent that the
export-led agriculture policies of Asian governments, which left
Asians dependent on food imports, were short-sighted.  As Asians
watch the prices of food escalate, more and more people see the
value of local food systems that do not rely on imported foods,
chemical inputs, and animal feed.  Governments and multilateral
institutions, however, continue to ignore the lesson. 
Liberalisation is pushed along by the WTO, the IMF, and the World
Bank, while unfair agricultural subsidies in the North keep prices
low, Northern exports high, and small farmers in poverty. 

The globalisation of food production and agriculture only
makes sense to the corporations, large-landholders, and elites that
gain from it.  For the hundreds of millions of small farmers
throughout the world, the logic is devastating.  But, the system
continues to expand.  TNCs are winning the battle in government
circles and at the multilateral level.  The WTO and its biggest
fan, APEC, are pushing a liberalization regime that will open the
world up to corporate plunder.  This must change. 

The Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture is about
understanding: Who are those driving this brutal system?  We will
call them by name and reveal what they are doing.  The Forum is
about resistance: We will take actions against those responsible. 
We will build our own communities, our own lives.  The Forum is
also about solidarity: We will come together from all regions of
the Asia-Pacific to unite behind a common vision that will
strengthen our local struggles. 
 
PROGRAMME

DAY 1  (November 11)

8:30-9:30       Registration

9:30-10:15      Opening Plenary

Overview of Globalisation and its Impacts on Food Security and
Agriculture Issues 

Speakers:       Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science,
                        Technology, and Natural Resource Policy,
                        India) 
                Sarojeni V. Rengam (Pesticide Action Network- Asia
                        and the Pacific, Malaysia) 

10:15- 11:15    Overview of Trade Agreements
                The WTO and Agriculture (Mika Iba, NESFFE)
                The Impacts of NAFTA on Agriculture and Food
                        Security (Ana de Ita, CECCAM, Mexico) 

11:15-1:00      Reports from Grassroots Movements: Country Specific
                Mexico, Isabel Gomez Lopez, Women's Network of UNORCA 
                Philippines, Rafael Mariano, Peasant Movement of the 
                        Philippines, 
                Thailand, Assembly of the Poor
                Malaysia, PACOS and Tenaganita, 
                South Korea, Kyeung-Eun Shin, Korean Wheat Revival
                        Movement 

1:00-2:00       Lunch

2:00-6:00       Workshops

DAY 2 (November 12)

Closing Plenary

9:00-11:00      Reports from Workshops

11:00-1:00      Development of Shared Analysis 

1:00 - 2:00     Lunch

2:00-4:00       Adoption of Final Statement

4:00-6:00       Common Action (to be announced)


WORKSHOP: GLOBALIZATION INTENSIFIES LANDLESSNESS "Our Struggle for
Land is a Struggle for Our Lives!"

Lead Organisers:        KMP (Philippine Peasant Movement), 
                        AMIHAN (Federation of Peasant Women
                                Organizations in the Philippines,
                        APWN (Asian Peasant Women's Network) and the
                        AIWPS (Anti-Imperialist World Peasant Summit
                                - Asian Forum)

Objectives:

- To show how imperialist globalization intensifies landlessness of the 
  peasantry; 
  
- To provide a venue where men and women peasant leaders can share
  their experiences of resistance against globalization; and 
  
- To formulate regional/international peasant action against
  imperialism and its scheme of globalization.

Programme 

2:30 p.m.       Workshop Orientation
                by Teresita Oliveros, APWN Convenor, Workshop Moderator

                Welcome Address
                by Rafael Mariano, Chairperson, KMP

SHARINGS

3:00-3:40       Movimento dos Trabaljadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Brazil
                
3:40-4:00       All India People's Resistance Forum (AIPRF) and/or Workers 
                Party of Bangladesh

4:00-4:20       Tea Break

4:20-5:00       Peasant Leader from South Korea 
                Peasant Leader from Japan 

Peasant Women's Struggle for Land in San Francisco, Quezon by Carmen
Buena, National Chairperson, AMIHAN 

5:30-6:45       Open Forum

6:45-7:00       Synthesis by the Moderator

7:00-8:00       Dinner

8:00-9:30       Presentation and Adoption of Resolutions and Unity 
                Statement Action Plans for Regional/International
                Peasant Actions 

9:30-9:45       Closing Remarks 

9:45-           Solidarity Socials

 
WORKSHOP ON GLOBALISATION AND FISHERIES:
"Fisherfolk Says No to Monopoly Capital's Thirst for Profit"

Lead Organisers: PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Fisherfolk 
                 Organizations in the Philippines) and NACFAR
                (Nationwide Coalition of the Fisherfolk for Aquatic
                Reform - Philippines) 

Concept:

Many of the world's most productive ecosystems are found in Asia.
The region  has nine of the world's top fishing nations. 
Ironically, the developing countries of the region have not been
able to derive full benefits from their resources.  It is rather
the developed and affluent countries which have profited from the
exploitation of the region's resources. 

Over the years, the fisheries sector has been on the decline all
over the world, but the solutions that governments, especially Asian
regimes under pressure from global powers, resort to are
liberalization, denationalization and privatization. Lately,
fishery plans under Asian governments have become the center of
attraction in the drive for "globalization" because Asian fisheries
has become the primary target of Japanese, US and European trade
and investments. Wide open are the opportunities to "globalize" the
capital and products of multinational and transnational
corporations (MNCs/TNCs) facilitated by provisions of WTO
agreements and speeded up by regional trade blocks like NAFTA and
APEC. "Globalization," government leaders and technocrats claim, is
the panacea to the woes of the sector and the poverty of the
fisherfolk. 

"Globalization" has given rise instead to the uncontrolled
expansion of large fishing fleets mercilessly devastating productive
fishing grounds with their ever advancing technology and ever
present capital. The result is monopoly of vast waters in the hands
of those who already have the most concentration of capital and the
"best" of technology -- the MNCs/TNCs -- and the global powers --
the US, Japan and the EU. 
 
The wholesale commercialization and subsequent disintegration of
vital fishery resource bases are then used to rationalize the
expansion of unsustainable corporate aquaculture operations as a
placebo to the continued collapse of coastal and traditional
capture fisheries production. Worsened is the degradation of the
already critically fragile coastal zone ecosystems. In the end,
supposed hopes of `saving the environment' become naught with the
reality of unabated degradation of coastal and offshore resources
and ecosystems. 

"Globalization" renders traditional fisheries uncompetitive through
the systematic manipulation of national programs and policies to
suit the profiteering motives of capital-intensive,
commercially-efficient, high-valued and export-geared fisheries
production. What it results into are highly unsustainable fishing
practices, fishery trade crises, and the uncontrollable price
increases of basic fishery commodities. 

The capitalist-imperialist competition for fishery enclaves causes
the vicious depravity of millions of artisanal fisherfolk and the
dangerous imperilment of food security all over the world. But the
very same phenomenon of imperialist globalization that intensifies
global economic and financial crisis strengthens fisherfolk and
peoples' resolve to resist and to struggle to change their
situation. 

Objectives:

Rally strong opposition to corporate take-over of fishing grounds
and hold multinational and domestic fishing monopolies liable for
the rapid destruction of the marine environment and aquatic
resources. 

Come up with a united position against GATT/WTO and APEC
impositions and programs in fisheries and take a solid stand
against trade arrangements and other instruments of imperialist and
state maneuverings. 

Expand and strengthen fisherfolk participation in a broad movement
against globalization's onslaught on food security and on nations'
economies and peoples 

Programme:

2.00-2.30       
Workshop Introduction

2.30-4.30      
Presentations:
                - Liberalization & Privatization in Fisheries: Impact, 
                  Fisherfolk Resistance and Alternatives
                  (PAMALAKAYA) 
                - Impact of Globalization on Marine Environment and Aquatic 
                  Resources (India)
                - Case Studies:
                  * commercial aquaculture (Bangladesh, Thailand or Sri 
                    Lanka)
                  * extensive commercial fishing (Chile or Canada)
                  * BIMP-EAGA (NACFAR) 

4.30-5.00       Tea Break

5.00-7.00       Open Forum: Further discussion of issues and sharing of 
                struggles and alternatives 

7.00-8.00       Dinner

8.00-10.00      Open Forum: Resolutions and Statement of Unity

WORKSHOP ON TRADE AGREEMENTS

Lead Organiser: (MODE Inc., Philippines)

Concept:

On December 10, 1998, the world will celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We take this occasion,
the holding of the Forum on Food Security and Agriculture to affirm
first and foremost the basic human Right to Food.  Everyone has the
right to secure access at all times to safe and nutritious food and
water adequate to sustain an active and healthy life with dignity.

In many countries in Asia-Pacific, growing demands for trade
liberalization are transforming structures of production, trade and
consumption in the agricultural and food sectors. Throughout the
region there is growing concern about the impact of these changes
on rural livelihoods and national food security. 

An overwhelming concern of governments in all developing
countries, especially those in Southeast Asia, has long been in
ensuring a 'cheap food' supply for ever-expanding concentrations of
urban populations and growing numbers of landless workers in the
rural areas. At the same time domestic and foreign agribusiness
corporations have actively promoted the development of 'high value
crops' for the export market. Many developing governments have
pursued these objectives and responded to these developments in
very different ways, with decidedly different outcomes on patterns
of food production, trade and consumption, as well as on the
relative incomes and freedom from hunger of food and non-food
producers in the agricultural sector, on men and women, and rural
and urban populations more generally. 

With the growing trend toward trade liberalization, in the context
of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as efforts to
consolidate Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the issue of
food security is emerging as a common concern throughout the
Asia-Pacific. In each country processes are under way to determine
how to respond to demands by the North, especially the US, that
developing countries liberalize their agricultural, especially
their food markets. 

Of particular relevance is the need for a more thorough
understanding of the interplay between the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and
how both regional trade mechanisms shape and are shaped by the
relations between individual states and ASEAN on the one hand, and
between ASEAN and the other members of APEC on the other. The
discourse on trade liberalization within the context of regional
trade blocs has often been conditioned by an almost singular view
that all regional trade blocs operate in the same way, and share a
coherence in objectives with global trade integration as proposed
by the GATT-WTO. 

Workshop Programme:

2:00-2:40
Inputs:
Dr. James Goodman - MAI and International Trade
Dr. Walden Bello - Current Status and Directions of the WTO Negotiations on 
                   Agreement on Agriculture and NGO/PO Positioning

2:40-5:00  (Tea Break at 3:45) 
The Impact of Trade Agreements on Food Security
        - Sharing of Experiences by Country 
          (2 hours)

Discussion and Consensus on Impact of Trade Agreements
(What is common among countries?)
-jobs/employment
-access to resources
-food availability (production)
-food affordability (prices)
-women
(2 hours)


 HEY TNCs: YOU CAN'T FEED THE WORLD ON GREED!
Workshop on Transnational Corporations

Lead Organiser: Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific

Concept:

"Hunger is the offspring of injustice and the unequal distribution of wealth 
in this world"
-Fidel Castro

Today, a few transnational corporations (TNCs) dominate the world's
food system.  The statistics are appalling:  Cargill, a US based
company, controls 77 per cent of the global cereal trade; 5 TNCs
control between them 90 per cent of the export trade of each of
wheat, corn, coffee, tea, pineapple, cotton, tobacco, jute, and
forest products; and Monsanto, one of the largest and most
notorious agrochemical and biotechnology companies, is now one of
the world's largest seed distributors.  Food and agriculture has
become big business, and the losers far outnumber the winners. 

The transformation of the food system is part of globalisation. 
Globalisation, among other things, consolidates wealth in the hands
of a few and impoverishes many.  TNCs are the major beneficiaries
of this process, and they have well-planned strategies to ensure
that this process continues.  This is certainly true of the food
and agriculture industry.  TNCs are now using genetic engineering
and multilateral trade bodies and lending institutions to protect
their interests and guarantee their markets. 

The current picture is bleak, but throughout the world there is
resistance.  Farmers and consumers in Europe are fighting against
the introduction of genetically engineered crops and food.  In
India, farmers destroyed Cargill seeds and forced the company from
opening operations at a northern port.  In Thailand, farmers are
leading a protest against the attempts of an American company to
patent Jasmine rice. 

The struggle, however, is arduous; TNCs wield resources and influence.  In 
order to succeed, we will have to understand corporate strategies
and the mechanisms that they use to protect and promote their
interests.  The workshop on TNCs will help participants to
understand corporate control of the food system and to find the
best ways to resist it. 

Objectives:

1. Analysis: 
The workshop will develop an analysis of corporate strategies that
highlights how TNCs seek to control the food system.  The analysis
will give specific attention to TNC public relations, to the
benefits of trade liberalisation and trade bodies for TNCs, and  to
the influence of TNCs with government and trade bodies.  The
analysis will also focus on the impacts of corporate strategies on
the food system, specifically on national and household food
security. 

2. Actions:
Workshop participants will use the analysis to decide on a plan of
action.  The actions will consider various means of resistance:
monitoring at the macro and micro levels; direct actions by NGOs,
farmers, consumers and activists; and using existing international
mechanisms and instruments or developing new ones. 

Programme:

November 11, Grand Olympic Hotel

2:00-2:15       
Introduction : Sarojeni V. Rengam (PAN-AP, Malaysia)
                 
2:15-2:45       
Overview of TNCs and the Food System, Brewster Kneen, (Canada)

Mr. Kneen will speak specifically about the corporate strategies of
Cargill and Monsanto; two of the world's greediest TNCs.  Mr. Kneen
will highlight the implications of their strategies for the global
food system.  He will also share his views about how trade
liberalisation and multilateral trade bodies promote the interests
of these TNCs.  Mr. Kneen will end his talk with suggestions for
action. 

2:45-3:45
Stories of Corporate Greed and the Power of Resistance

TNC Handouts: No Thanks!
Farhad Mazhar, (UBINIG, Bangladesh)

Mr. Mazhar will describe how agribusiness is using development
agencies to promote its selfish interests.  He will share the
example of how TNCs used the recent floods in Bangladesh to push
wheat imports.  Farhad will then talk about the Naya Krishi
movement and other ways that people in Bangladesh are resisting
TNCs. 

Don't Believe the Hype!
Barbara Dinham (Pesticides Trust, UK)

Ms. Dinham will speak about the public relations strategies of
Pesticide and Food TNCs in Europe.  She will also describe the
European campaigns and actions to counter these PR strategies. 

TNCs: Get out of Asia!
Dr. Romy Quijano (PAN Philippines)

Dr. Quijano will speak about his own experiences in confronting
agribusiness corporations.  He will also speak about TNC operations
in Asia and what the future implications are for the Asian food
system.  He will then speak about the various mechanism of
resistance that have been used in Asia, such as the PAN Community
Pesticide Action Kit for monitoring at the micro level. 

3:45-4:00       Tea Break

4:00-5:00       Deepening of the Analysis

5:00-7:00       Action Planning


WORKSHOP ON GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE AND ALTERNATIVES

Lead Organiser: SRED (Tamil Nadu)

Concept:

Land has become a commercial commodity.  Lands are taken away from
indigenous people. Common lands, grazing lands are bought by
Multinational Companies (MNCs) to grow cash crops like teak and
cashew.  Deep borewells are sunk and groundwater is extracted and
monopolised by companies, robbing communities of their basic right
to water. 

Land alienation is the deprival of farmers rights. The poor become
poorer from the 'Real Estate' business.  Rights are denied in the
name of 'liberalisation policy'.  After green, white and blue
revolutions there is now a Floriculture revolution: the cultivation
of flowers for export on lands once used for food.  Today, Maxwell
Orchards Ltd. is a modern-day zamindar.  In India, they are
converting thousands of acres of productive land into orchards. 

"Plant a seed; leave it to Maxworth you will harvest a fortune: 
bread, labour, social justice: old fashioned!" -Bastian Whenga 

The globalisation of agriculture does not address the problem of
mass poverty.  Export-oriented, high-tech operations do not protect
or develop the livelihoods and health of the rural poor.  This mode
of production does not generate useful or remunerative employment. 
Instead, it undermines food security. Export-agriculture replaces
subsistence farming and eucalyptus and teak replace food crops. 
Intellectual property rights replace the right to food.  And,
within this globalised system, there are no measures for
conservation of natural bio-diversity. 

Women are threatened by this system.  Within it, their labour is
invisible. Poverty is feminized and women are increasingly
exploited.  They lose access to property which was once common:
land, water, trees.  They are forced to migrate and often end up
selling their bodies to earn a livelihood. 

"Lack of property and resources deny women the ability to define
themselves." -Gail Omvedt 

In Tamil Nadu, however, there are many struggles against the
globalisation of agriculture: 

· On October 10, 1996, in a protest by over 1000 Dalits struggling
to reclaim lands once given to them, two Dalits are shot and killed.
· 13 villages form a committee to halt construction of a dam at
Ramancheri · Women demand "house pattas": a landownership title to
build houses on the women's name. · The Farmer's Liberation Front
cuts down trees at Anubhav Teak Plantations, Sankarapuram. 
Successful campaign to stop prawn aquaculture in Tamil Nadu. 
Landless Labourers Movement continues to struggle to stop the
mechanisation of harvesting. · Fisherfolk agitate to stop foreign
vessels from fishing in "exclusive Economic Zones" 

The workshop will focus on the struggles taking place in Tamil
Nadu, and will also look at other struggles and alternatives taking
place within the Asia-Pacific region. The workshop will also
consider alternative models to the current export-oriented model
pushed by APEC, the World Bank, the WTO, and most governments: 

· Common property
· Local, rural markets
· Collective action and model cooperatives for collective farming
· Collection of native seeds and seed banks
· Peasant movements for land
· Pesticide-free, Natural organic farming
· Networking, campaigning, and advocacy-legal and social
· Questioning government policies for liberalisation and privatisation.

Programme:

Resource people
        Tamil Nadu:     Burned Fathima (SRED)
                        S. Ganapathi (Farmer)
                        Dhanapal (Landless Labourers Movement)
                        M. Venkataiyan (Dalit Peoples Movement)
        Peru:           Luis Gomero (RAAA)
        Philipines:     Elpidio Peria (SEARICE)
        Malaysia:       Elizabeth Thomas (Tenaganita)
                        Jennifer Mourin (PAN AP)