[asia-apec 1319] Alternative Nobel Prize Goes to Cuban Group Promoting the Organic Revolu

[Anuradha Mittal]

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 1999

Alternative Nobel Prize Goes to Cuban Group Promoting the Organic 
Revolution

STOCKHOLM and OAKLAND: The Grupo de Agricultura Organica (GAO), the 
Cuban
organic farming association, which has been at the forefront of the
country's transition from industrial to organic agriculture, was named 
as
winner of a major international prize--the Right Livelihood
Award--commonly known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize.'

The Grupo de Agricultura Organica is one of four winners of the 1999 
Right
Livelihood Award, chosen from more than 80 candidates from 40 countries.
GAO brings together farmers, farm managers, field experts, researchers, 
and
government officials to develop and promote organic farming methods.  
Its
aim is to convince Cuban farmers and policy-makers that the country's
previous high-input farming model was too import-dependent and
environmentally damaging to be sustainable, and that the organic
alternative has the potential to achieve equally good yields.

"This award is truely an honor for Cuba, for GAO, and for all the 
farmers,
researchers, and policy makers who have struggled to make organic 
farming
work in Cuba," said Dr. Fernado Funes Aguilar, President of GAO.  "We 
hope
that our efforts will demonstrate to other countries that conventional
chemically-dependent agriculture is not the only way to feed a country."
During the 1990s Cuba overcame a severe food shortage caused by the
collapse of its trade relations with the former Soviet-bloc and the
on-going U.S. trade embargo.  Self-reliant organic farming played a
significant role in overcoming the crisis.

GAO was founded in 1993 as the Asociación Cubana de Agricultura Organica
(ACAO), but recently changed its name when it was legally incorporated 
as
part of the cuban Association of Agricultural and Forest Technicians
(ACTAF).  Over the past five years it has built up an impresive program 
of
lobbying, training courses, workshops, documentation centers, 
demonstration
farms, and exchange visits for farmers, and has held three international
conferences.

"I hope this award will awaken the world to the amazing achievements 
Cuba
has made in organic farming and food security", said Martin Bourque,
Sustainable Agriculture Program Director of Food First/The Institute for
Food and Development Policy.   "Through their hard work,innovation, and
scientific excellence, GAO and the whole Cuban agricultural sector have
demonstrated that low-input sustainable agriculture can work on a 
national
scale." Food First has had a scientific and technical exchange program 
with
GAO, and will co-sponsor GAO's Fourth National Encounter on Organic
Agriculture in May of the year 2000.

GAO is the first Cuban winner of the Right Livelihood Award.  It shares 
the
prize money of SEK 1,800,000 (approximately USD 225,000) with a 
Colombian
network, Consolidation of the Amazon Region (COAMA), working for 
indigenous
rights and biodiversity, and with Chilean-Spanish lawyer Juan Garces, 
who
is honored for his untiring efforts over many years to bring the former
Chilean dictator, General Pinochet, to justice.  One of the world's 
leading
promoters of solar energy, Hermann Scheer, receives an honorary award.

The prizes will be presented at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament on
December 9, the day before the conventional Nobel Prizes.  Founded in 
1980,
the Right Livelihood Award has honored more than 80 outstanding 
individuals
and organizations for work contributing to a better future for the 
world.

Peter Rosset, executive director of Food First, said: "This award shows 
the
enormous potential of sustainable agriculture, so underexploited in 
other
countries.  The whole world should learn from Cuba."  Dr. Rosset went on 
to
say that "in Cuba, organic is for everyone, not just for those who can
afford it."

For more information on GAO or Food First, you can contact Food First 
staff
members who are available for comment, and access the following website:

http://www.foodfirst.org/progs/global/cuba


Grupo de Agricultura Orgánica (GAO)
Tulipán 1011 e/Loma y 47
Apdo. Postal  6236C
Código Postal 10600, Nuevo Vedado
Ciudad de La Habana
CUBA
Phone: +53 7 845 387
Fax.   +53 7 845 387
Email: actaf at minag.gov.cu

Right Livelihood Award Administrative Office
P.O. Box 15072
S-104 65 Stockholm
SWEDEN
Tel: +46 (0) 8 702 03 40
Fax: +46 (0) 8 702 03 38
E-Mail: info at rightlivelihood.se
http://www.rightlivelihood.se

Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy
398 60th Street
Oakland, CA 94618
USA
Phone: (510) 654-4400
Fax:   (510) 654-4551
Email: foodfirst at foodfirst.org
http://www.foodfirst.org

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