Indigenous and Campesinos From 15 Countries Reject GMOs

Indigenous and campesino organizations from 15 countries from the Americas issued a declaration Thursday firmly rejecting transgenic cultivations and agricultural monopolies, while promoting a “campesino-Indigenous agro-ecology” in order to “respond to the civilizational collapse we are living in.”

The organizations committed to fight in their respective countries for gender equality, youth empowerment, to ensure a new generation of rural leaders, and for greater multiculturalism, at the three-day meeting in Mexico City.

They also committed to continue to resist free-trade agreements, which “are an engine devastating the food sovereignty of nations and communities, with the same colonial cruelty of centuries ago, now million of hectares of poor countries are appropriated for speculation for the production of commodities,” stated the declaration.

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“Campesino-Indigenous agriculture is an open and diverse model, deeply-rooted in the past; its goal is to care about ... biodiversity, ecosystems and natural ressources, as well as ancestral knowledge and technologies built via collective thinking,” it added.

The organization also stated they will mobilize between October 10-17 against free-trade deals, and then start promoting agro-ecology in the next U.N. Conference on Climate Change (COP 21) that will take place in Paris in December.

The International Meeting on Campesinos Economy and Agroecology in America was attended by Perú, Guatemala, Brasil, United States, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador and Canadá, among others, and was organized by the National Association of Companies distributing campesinos' products (ANEC).