The International Threat to Farms and Farmers

Biodevastation 7: A Forum on Environmental Racism, World Agriculture and Biowarfare

May 16 - 18, 2003, St. Louis, Missouri

Perhaps the best known speaker on the panel is Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian canola farmer who was sued by Monsanto in 1998 for the "crime" of having had his crop contaminated by the company's genetically engineered, herbicide tolerant canola. Percy has appealed his case to the Canadian Supreme Court, and traveled the world telling his story and explaining how the biotechnology industry is systematically undermining the rights of farmers everywhere.

Lawrence Tsimese of the Agricultural Reform Movement in Ghana will offer an African perspective on farmers' growing resistance to genetically engineered crops. Lawrence has been working to educate both farmers and urban dwellers in Ghana about the dangers of pesticides and biotechnology and the benefits of organic agriculture.

George Naylor, the newly elected board president of the National Family Farm Coalition, will relate the problem of biotechnology to the economic plight of farmers in the US. In a setting where a tiny percentage of the largest farmers receive a majority of all the agricultural subsidies, small and medium-sized farms have become increasingly marginalized. George will explain how biotech companies play on farmers' insecurities to sell genetically engineered seeds, and how farmers are organizing for public policies that genuinely benefit both farmers and consumers.

Felder Freeman, an agriculture specialist working in the South Carolina office of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, will relate these issues to the unique struggles of black farmers in the southern United States. The Federation works to help black farmers stay on the land, and to form agricultural cooperatives to facilitate land-based economic development. In recent years, the Federation has become increasingly interested in organic methods as an alternative to the corporate serfdom being perpetrated by agribusiness interests.

The Gathering will also include workshops on resistance to GE crops in Africa, farmer organizing, and on globalization, biowarfare, environmental racism and the impacts of genetic engineering on indigenous agriculture worldwide. The event is the seventh in a series of international grassroots gatherings known as "Biodevastation."

This year's event immediately precedes Monsanto's annual World Agricultural Forum in St. Louis, and promises to be the definitive event linking issues around biotechnology and food genetic engineering with the wider movement for environmental justice. On the afternoon of Sunday, May 18 farmers and supporters will have an anti-globalization convergence at the World Agricultural Forum (http://www.worldagforum.com). Call 314-771-8576 for details.

Biodevastation 7 also includes the following panel discussions:

7:00 pm, Friday, May 16: Globalization, Food Imperialism and War

10:00 am, Saturday, May 17: Backyard Bioweapons: Biolabs, Biodefense, Biotech, & Billions of $

7:30 pm, Saturday, May 17: Environmental Racism

10:00 am, Sunday, May 18: Crop Contamination and the Future of Indigenous Agriculture