Alliance for Responsible Trade

Call to the second phase of the National Campaign Sin Maíz no hay País campaign. (Without Corn there is No Country). 

CONSIDERING THAT:

The National Campaign “Sin Maiz no hay Pais” was launched a year ago because of the profound crisis which we have observed in the Mexican countryside, with the objective of  highlighting this theme for all Mexicans.

We demand that there be a reactivation of the Mexican countryside, and that the government renegotiate the agricultural chapter of NAFTA.

It is incomprehensible that we allowed this model to be imposed on the Mexican countryside during the last 25 years, because it forces millions of peasants to look for work in the United States in deplorable conditions and in turn Mexico has to import expensive and poor quality food products. Recently, it was announced that the amount spent to the importation of food is equivalent to the remittances sent back by Mexicans. 

During this campaign, we have planted corn in the middle of roads, parks and gardens of Mexico City and other cities; we launched campaigns in 18 states and collected almost a million signatures; organized concerts, festivals and fairs; carried out meetings and took over government intuitions. On January 1, 2008 we were on the Las Americas international bridge in Ciudad Juarez and we accompanied a tractor caravan from el Chamizal to Mexico City to participate in the National Peasant March on January 31^st. 

The response of the federal government to the now worldwide anguishing reality has been indifference and disdain. In the last 18% months, the price of food has increased by more than 70%, severely affecting the economy and nutrition of the majority of Mexican families, while salaries have  increased less than10%.

Expensive food has provoked enormous suffering for Mexican families, mainly the poorest. Twenty million Mexican people suffer malnutrition and anemia; at the same time, there has been a growth in obesity rates. Today, a third of the population is overweight. Over half of the population, more than 60 million Mexicans, live in conditions of poverty.

The persistent stagnation of the national economy deepens our dependency on agricultural imports. Because the existence of a crisis is consistently denied by the Calderon regime, the structural causes of the food crisis in Mexico are not faced. All of their proposed solutions only favor large Mexican and transnational corporations which dominate the agricultural market in Mexico.   This only deepens the political and social crises in the country and erodes our fragile social, economic and political stability.

Our corn is facing a real risk of contamination via genetically modified (GMO) corn, which results in a privatization of our main cultural and sustaining wealth; maize.  At the same time, the result is the devastation of peasant production which is substituted by low quality, expensive products.  

Today the President insists on handing over our food and energy sovereignty to private corporations, as it has been attempting for years with PEMEX, the national oil company. The neoliberal dream of having a countryside without peasants and a Mexico without Indians; where its natural resources can be extracted with impunity (water, minerals, germ plasma) etc. is a false calculation. Either there is a Mexico with peasants and indigenous peoples or there is no Mexico. Because Without Corn there is No Country.  

Peasant, indigenous, women, environmental, human rights, consumer, non governmental, researchers, scientific, artists, intellectual and “people standing up”, we elevate our voices once again to call society to embark upon the defense of our right to eat well, the right to Mexican corn and peasant agriculture, the right of peasants and indigenous peoples to exist with their own culture and forms of living; to establish agricultural policies that promote the national production of a great diversity of corn and Mexican products. We have sounded the alarm about the real risk of having our corn contaminated by GMOs. 

Today, June 23^rd, 2008, we launch the second stage of the Campaign and call all Mexicans and citizens of the world who agree with what we have just stated,  to support the following:

Urgent Measures: 

1. Food Sovereignty. Adopt the principle of food sovereignty as the base and central column of a new agricultural and alimentary policy to address the crisis, short, medium and long term.

2. Alternative public policies and a responsible Government. In face of a dependent model, based on ‘free trade’, which deepens food insecurity and vulnerability, active public policies must be adopted and a renewed role of the State must lead to self determination and food sufficiency.  This must include the entire food system and the processing, distribution and access of food produced by peasants throughout the country. The gravity of the food crisis requires the wide, plural and exclusive participation of all of society and the powers of the Republic. 

3. Revalue and stimulate peasant agriculture. In the last 25 years the contribution, potential and ecological virtues of small and medium scale agriculture have been underestimated, and the contribution of women in the strategy of sustaining rural life in the face of the crisis has been ignored.  Peasants have in their hands 80% of the lands where strategic resources are found; water, germ plasma and minerals which have been sustainably maintained; and have the potential of responding to the food needs of the Mexican people.  

4. Sustainable agriculture and recognition of the multifunctional character of peasant agriculture. The model of agriculture based on large expanses of single crop farming, the increased usage of water, machinery and contaminating chemicals is no longer viable. We propose to move to a sustainable peasant agriculture that promotes the production of healthy products, the conservation of biodiversity the environment and the preservation of cultural and ethnic diversity.  In sum, we propose a recuperation of the multiple contributions of peasant agriculture to society and the economic development of the country.

5. Moratorium on the planting of GMO corn. The genetic richness of Mexico, especially of corn, includes a wide number of varieties adapted to climate change. Moreover, Mexico´s heritage as the center of origin of corn must be preserved. Modern biotechnology will not solve the problems of hunger; rather, transnational companies create dependency when they appropriate germ plasma and charge for the property rights for using their seeds. There is not sufficient evidence that GMOs are not dangerous to health.

6. Prohibition of the use of food crops to produce biofuels. The use of corn and other food to produce ethanol is a crime in the midst of this crisis, especially since our country is an oil producer. It is recognized that biofuels are not environmentally sustainable, because they use a great quantity of water and fossil fuel for their production. 

7. The right to Food. Sustenance is a basic human right that should be guaranteed by the Constitution and enforced by the Mexican State. The right to food means that all people have physical and economic access, regularly and permanently, to adequate and sufficient food, and to the means to produce it according to the cultural tradition of each sector of the population, thus guaranteeing a dignified life. Also, this relates to other rights such as the right to health, labor rights, cultural and environmental rights, among others. Malnourishment, anemia and obesity must be eradicated.  

8. The struggle against the food monopolies and misleading food propaganda. As consumers, we must exercise our right to decide the food we want to eat and whom we want to favor. Large corporations encourage unhealthy consumer patterns through publicity campaigns that lie or exaggerate the nutritional values of the products they sell. It is necessary to encourage responsible consumption through a regulation of the commercials promoted by monopolies.

 We demand:

1) Actions to increase production and implement sustainable measures with small farmers. 

a) A medium term program for the substitution of agricultural imports as a way of moving towards the elimination of the trade deficit.

b) A legislative agenda for the countryside that includes:

*Approval by the Senate of the initiative “Planning for the Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security” and the Natural Gas Processing bill.

*Approval by the Congress of an administrative mechanism regarding external trade of basic and strategic foodstuffs, in conformance with the Law for Sustainable Rural Development.

c) Urgent actions to support peasant agriculture and the promotion of sustainable production technologies.

d) Program for widening the hydroponic agricultural infrastructure and the introduction of irrigation technologies focused on sustainable usage of water.

e) A restructuring of rural sector programs and institutions

f) The renegotiation of NAFTA and Agricultural Agreements at the WTO in order to guarantee food sovereignty and the right to food.

2) Actions to guarantee universal access to food at reasonable prices.

a) Approval by the Deputies Chamber of the Senate initiative which elevates the right to food to a constitutionally guaranteed right.

b) Establishment of a ‘basic food basket’ which includes national products with controlled prices, promoting food purchasing from Mexicans producers associations.

c) Increase the budget for DICONSA to promote the number of regional stores and community shops to 100 and 5,000 respectively, to increase their coverage in rural areas.  The renovation of their truck fleets in order to maintain prices at January 2007 levels.

d) Establishment of regulations which stipulates the requirement of local and regional production purchasing via producers associations.

e) A 100% increase in the support levels to families who benefit from the ‘Opportunities Program’ and the redefinition of support programs to rural women based on the recognition of their role as producers, and conservers of natural resources and as administrators of land and remittances.  

f) Promotion of a program for rural employment for community reforesting, territory improvement, construction of roads and access routes, recovery and maintenance of water resources and the expansion of social and productive infrastructure.

3) Strategic Food Reserve: administered by SAGARPA (Department of Agriculture) and an interdepartmental and inter-sector council, which would maintain 3 million tons of corn, one million tons of wheat, 200,000 tons of beans and a 4 months’ supply of milk powder.    

4) Protection to Corn:

a) Public research oriented to value agricultural ecology and the potential of native seeds.

b) Incentives for using sustainable practices which have demonstrated a high value for solving environmental problems in agriculture

c) Protection of our native corn from transgenic contamination

d) Support to local initiatives to protect native corn species.

e) Bio-security measures that respond to the reality of the country as center of origin and genetic diversity of corn.

f) Creation of a Special Protection Regime of Corn, to be established under  the ‘Bio-security Law related to GMOs’, that protects Mexico as center  of origin and genetic diversity of corn, and guarantees the preservation of diversity of corn in all of the national territory, as well as human and animal health.

g) Establishment of systems for the protection, responsibility and payment to peasants whose conventional or organic cultivations have resulted affected by the contamination through genetic bleed. 

h) Obliged labeling of all products that contain GMOs, as is applied in many countries, responding to the basic right of information to choose.

5) Required budget and sources:

a) 20% reduction of the ordinary budget of the bureaucracy of the Federal Government, Judicial Power and Legislative Power; including salaries, benefits and the elimination of insurance for major medical expenses.  

b) Apply oil profits to a National Fund for Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security.

c) Extraordinary income for the collecting of the IETU (Tax) 

e) Seizures from organized crime (25%)

How to Participate?

Make a commitment to defend our corn! Plant corn in homes, on sidewalks, in medians and in public parks. Make declarations against GMO products. Promote and safeguard GMO free zones all along the country. Demand the recognition of Mexico as center of origin of corn. Support and make our own the demands of peasant and indigenous organizations to achieve justice and sovereignty in Mexico.

 Consume responsibly, giving preference to national products, and those which are fresh, non- industrialized that come from small and medium size producers under the “Comercio Justo Mexico” seal. Buy in local shops and markets and food stalls, not in super markets. Avoid buying industrialized products from large agro-industrial companies such as: Bimbo, Maseca, Minsa, Bachoco, Nestle, Cargill, Monsanto and others.

Carry out educational activities and diverse actions to denounce the abuses of agro-industrial monopolies. Promote national production and national consumption and inform the people about the risks of authorizing GMO corn in Mexico, as well as in national and regional forums, peasant fairs and concerts in favor of peasant agriculture and food sovereignty.

We call on all Mexicans; women and men, from the cities and the countryside to take up this historical task; to defend our corn and promote an alternative project for the countryside and the country; a rural an national, inclusive, fair, sustainable and solidarity project.

To save Mexico: save the Mexican countryside.  

Respectfully,

National Peasant Organizations: Consejo Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas (AMUCSS, ANEC, CNOC, CEPCO, FDCCH, MAÍZ, RED MOCAF, UNOFOC), Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala (CNPA), El Barzón ? Alianza Nacional de Productores Agropecuarios y Pesqueros (ANPAP), Alianza Mexicana por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos (AMAP).Organizaciones Campesinas Regionales: Integradora Estatal de Productores de Frijol de Zacatecas, Frente de la Cordillera Norte ? Mixteca de Oaxaca, La Red Nacional de Promotoras y Asesoras Rurales, Comisión Estatal Huertos Tecoxdico (Veracruz), Cactus (Oaxaca), Comercializadora ?Venado Azul? (Oaxaca), Frente de Pueblos en Defensa de la Tierra ? Atenco, Frente Campesino Democrático "19 de Octubre" (FCD), Organización Campesina Emiliano Zapata (OCEZ), Unión de Lucha de los Trabajadores Campesinos(ULTCV), y muchas más.

Information circulated by the area of communications and promotion of CENCOS. 

  Translation by Manuel Perez Rocha