Environmental Issues

For a period of five decades or more, global players in international food security have tried to convince the world that the only way that humanity can sustainably be fed is by practicing large-scale or industrial agriculture and the use of herbicides and pesticides. During the 1940s, a movement referred to as the Green Movement was established towards this cause. According to St. Peter, The Green Revolution that began in the 1940s promised that advanced technologies in machinery, seeds and chemicals would finally eradicate poverty and hunger, and create prosperity for the worlds poor (2). However, the revolution does not appear to have kept to its promises. As St. Peter continues to add on, Yet more than sixty years into the revolution and one billion people live on less than 2 a day, and  cities around the world are bursting at the seems as rural people flee the countryside in search of food and work. This is a clear indication that the Green Movement was a total failure but its ideas have given way to yet another revolution the Biotechnology Revolution. Although the claims and promises remain the same, one significant addition that catches the worlds attention is the introduction of genetically engineered seeds as the solution to sustainable food production in this era of increasing climatic change. It is the Biotechnology Revolution that has given rise to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) which La Via Campesina and other organizations are so much opposed to (St. Peter 2).

What is La Via Campesina
La Via Campesina refers to an international movement that has been conceived from a desire by the worlds peasant or small-scale farmers to oppose corporate dominance in world food production. The movement is made up of over 150 rural social movements based in over 79 countries in the world 12 of which are from Africa (Holt-Gimenez 3). La Via Campesina proposes that world food crisis can only be resolved through food sovereignty a move based on the view that the small scale agriculturalist should have a right in the decision-making process regarding food production as well as food distribution. This is largely because over the past 20-30 years, peasant and family agriculture is slowly being phased out and these small-scale farmers have continually watched as government and national policies, political parties as well as international monetary institutions that supported rural agriculture slowly lost legitimacy in promoting peasant rights such as right to land and right to produce at small-scale. It is the desire to revive the fight for such rights that has re-united peasant farmers all over the world under the La Via Campesina movement or according to Martizez-Torres  Rosset the peasant way(1). Through the movement, their social struggles are linked together on a global platform and social and political policies are addressed in unison. La Via Campesina has largely succeeded in bringing together peasant farmers, workers and landless people from both developed and under-developed countries under one cause. The movement has been relentless in its derisive critiques and protests against WTO (World Trade Organization), FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), FAO (Food Agricultural Organization), World Bank, WSF (World Social Forum) and more recently the transnational corporations like Monsanto and others who have been spearheading GMOs in agricultural production. La Via Campesina owes its success to its ability to bridge diverse cultural divides to create one global voice through different organizations (Martizez-Torres  Rosset s 1-7).

The Objectives of La Via Campesina
Behind the agenda of GMOs has been one transnational corporation, Monsanto, which has aggressively marketed this form of food production to the detriment of not only farmers but the world consumers and ecosystems. Monsanto has benefited from this ostentatious campaign than any other corporation. The corporation has used American Public Media to deceive the listeners and viewers about its commitment to promoting sustainable agriculture, conserving the environment as well as creating biotech and hybrid seeds that will lead to increased crop yields. St. Peter confirms this allegation by stating that, Everyday on Marketplace, a program of American Public Media, listeners around the country hear Monsantos underwriting ad that claims the company is committed to sustainable agriculture..and conserve natural resources (3). But biotech and hybrid seed are not the real solution to alleviating global hunger and poverty. While the players of global food policy and supply continue to ignore these facts, hunger and poverty are in reality the direct results of landlessness, lack of water, sustainable food production technologies as well as local markets. Recently, Roger Beach, a GM crop pioneer under Monsanto was appointed by the Obama Administration to head the newly created NIFA (National Institute of Food and Agriculture) a clear indication of the extent to which Monsanto and other related biotechnology proponents continue to have control over those in key positions of governance. But more genetically engineered seeds, corporate control of food production and supply, as well as global trade policies cannot offer a solution to the broken world food system. This is the reality that La Via Campesina is trying to put across in the campaign against GMOs (La Via Campesina Call to Action  2 St. Peter 3).

Various events that took place in the year 2009 triggered La Via Campesinas campaign against Monsanto and other Transnational Corporations (TNCs). The TNCs used such forums to openly display their intentions to control worldwide agriculture and food systems, lands, water, seeds, markets and probably all in nature that is related to food production. FAO held a Food Security summit in Rome, Italy WTO held a ministerial Conference in the city of Geneva, Switzerland and the United Nations held a climate summit in Copenhagen, Germany. TNCs such as Monsanto, Cargill, Nestle, Archer Daniels and Midland were well represented in these international summits and they went to an extent of hiring armies of lobbyists to these events that would help shape policies in favor of their operations. On April 17, 2010, La Via Campesina members come together in solidarity to commemorate what they refer to as the International Day of Peasant Struggle. The movement is calling upon member organizations as well as their supporters and allies to come together in a campaign against TNCs which appear headed for the complete control and subsequent destruction of the worlds agriculture as well as food production systems through GMOs (La Via Campesina Call to Action s1-2).

Lately, the U.S based Monsanto has even been lobbying for public subsidies for Roundup resistant Soybeans which they claim to be helpful in climate change reduction because they can be planted on un-ploughed land. La Via Campesina supports this claim by stating that, Monsanto claims Roundup Ready soybeans reduce climate change because resistance to Roundup means the soybeans can be grown without ploughing the soil ( 6). By claiming eligibility for carbon credits from the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism, Monsanto and others only ignore the fact that they promote a type of unsustainable industrial agriculture that leads to climatic change and other environmental problems. La Via Campesina is one of the environment friendly movements that are strongly committed to fighting against such deception. Members of the La Via Campesina movement feel that such companies continue to make huge profits at the expenses of the worlds population which continues to wallow in hunger and poverty. Instead of industrial agriculture and genetically modified seeds, the movement proposes an agriculture system in which such companies will be replaced by worldwide peasant farming on medium-sized farms where healthy foods will replace GM foods and will be produced for both local and regional markets. The proposed peasant farming also states its intention to protect water catchment areas (most of which are being cleared of large forests for industrial agriculture) preserve biodiversity revitalize rural economies and impound carbon. Rosset states that, We can have a food system that gives all of us healthy, tasty, affordable and culturally appropriate food. That helps human beings  peasants, family farmers, indigenous people, and others  stay in rural areas, and that protects rural environments and ecosystems (80). To mark the campaign against TNCs, La Via Campesina suggests various methods of raising public awareness such as public debates, protests, organizing of farmers markets, song or picture contests and film screening among others (La Via Campesina Call to Action s 3-6 Rosset et al., 80).

Target Groups participating in La Campesinas Campaign against GMOs
La Via Campesina traces its origin to Latin America where neoliberal policies during the 1980s led to a sharp decline in standards of living made worse by unequal distribution of income as well as land resources. According to Martinez-Torres  Rosset , The birth of La Via Campesina as a global peasant movement was foreshadowed in Latin America by the founding of one of its direct forebears, the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations, or CLOC) in the early 1990s (CLOC 1994). This is not surprising since Latin America is the region of the world with the most unequal distribution of land and income, and the region that particularly experienced a sharp decline of living standards during the lost decade of the 1980s as neoliberal policies hit Latin America ( 12). This gave rise to a networking of the peasant civil society throughout the continent beginning with the 1981 Continental Conference held in Managua in which national, independent as well as revolutionary peasant organizations came together to exchange their experiences. These include landless peasants in Brazil and Mexico, surplus-producing farmers in Indias region of Karnataka, South Korean rice farmers, small-scale German dairy farmers and farm workers in Nicaragua among others. La Via Campesina has become home to many of these organizations spread out in different countries whose struggles were not respected or recognized. Through the movement, these organizations have obtained both national and international respect not only from other institutions but other social movements as well. La Via Campesina is conducting its campaign against GMOs by uniting over one hundred of such organizations worldwide which are supporters of a sustainable pro-poor and rights-based rural expansion. These groups have different political agendas, working methods as well as different world views but they are the best forum for the campaign against GMOs due to certain unifying commonalities that unite them. The most outstanding characteristic about these organizations is that they are somehow representative of those within their sub-national, national or international contexts who are politically and economically marginalized. Such people are the best tool to use in an agenda where certain views need to be successfully put across (Martinez-Torres  Rosset Borras Jr. 3  9).

La Via Campesina has also taken advantage of international events organized by other world organizations as appropriate forums for advancing its campaign against GMOs. October 16, 2009 was for example declared by FAO as an International World Food Day. La Via Campesina took advantage of the food theme to campaign against GMOs by mobilizing its allies globally to protest against Monsanto and GMOs as proposed agents of food sovereignty. The movement organized various events in places like U.S.A, Brazil, Europe, and India. As reported by Hoff, In the United States today, protests and teach-ins against Monsanto are taking place in Maine and Wisconsin. In Brazil, Via Campesina members are carrying out actions in the headquarters of Monsanto and Syngenta. In Europe, where nine countries have prohibited GMOs, Via Campesina organized an anti-Monsanto brigade traveling throughout the region. In India, thousands of farmers and allies are carrying out hunger strikes and occupying lands ( 2). The campaign also spread out across about 20 countries and all other areas where the movement has a strong presence. La Via Campesina had succeeded in using an internationally recognized day to pass the message against GMOs to millions of people worldwide (Hoff s 1-2).

Women are a marginalized group in most parts of the world. La Via Campesina has however gradually realized the kind of input that women have in the agricultural sector and small-scale food production and has identified them in its fight against GMOS. La Via Campesina has subsequently recognized the need to use womens organizations in this campaign recognizing that women form the backbone labor for the agriculture system. Most government policies have for a long time been discriminative of women and La Via Campesina has tried to address this issue through its approach towards gender equality in food sovereignty campaigns. According to Holt-Gimenez  Patel, Central to these efforts have been the work of women and womens organizations-women grow the majority of the food on the continent, yet they shoulder the triple burden of needing to work for a wage, build community, and feed their family (131). The issues of gender and the role of women in food sovereignty were first addressed at the 1996 International Conference of the Via Campesina that was held in the Mexican city of Tlaxcala. The first woman representative, Nettie Wiebe of Canada was appointed at this conference. Four months later, womens representatives from other regions such as North and Central America as well as Europe came together in the first Via Campesina Womens Working Group (VCWWG) at San Salvador. The group later changed name to Via Campesina Womens Commission (VCWC). The movement uses VCWC and other forums to teach women about diversification in agriculture and use of natural seeds for production of healthy foods that should replace the GMOs that have slowly been infiltrating the market. Through this movement, many women farmers have been helped to better their education so that they are better placed in society to teach others about better food production. Rosset and others state that, Rural women have actively participated in the debate and the political construction of this movement, and La Via Campesina is seriously committed to the struggle for gender equality (194).  (Holt-Gimenez  Patel 131 Paget-Clarke Rosset et al., 193-196).

Campaign against GMOs targets TNCs and International Organizations
In its campaign against GMOs, La Via Campesina targets FAO and all those transnational companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, Nestle and others whose corporate interests seem to have taken over the agendas of the organization. The movement accuses FAO of promoting GMOs as the best solution to curbing the global hunger crisis while in reality the technology offers no solution at all. GMOs are a painful and rude slap in the face for La Via Campesina which has been working so hard to defend food sovereignty. For the indigenous people, peasants, consumers, migrants and landless workers who make up the movement, TNCs such as Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont are the main enemies of La Via Campesinas daily struggle towards food sovereignty and sustainable peasant agriculture for all people. This is largely because these corporations have taken control of more than half of the seeds that are being planted worldwide. Through the movement, members are devoted towards the protection of native seed from being phased out by such corporations. By organizing the protests of October 6, 2009, La Via Campesina sought to bring to the attention of the Civil Society the plain truth that food sovereignty was in the hands of the global capital while it should be the right of the people to protect not only the future of their food but also their resources and especially the seeds. La Via Campesina argues that GMOs are not the solution to world food problems but are instead a tool for the powers that control agri-business and global governance to utilize the desperate plight of starving nations and expand GMO-based agriculture globally (Hoff s 3- 4).

Media used by La Via Campesina in the Campaign against GMOs
La Via Campesina has been conducting its campaign against GMOs in several ways that attract both local and international media attention. The movement has for example been organizing international conferences worldwide. By organizing its activities in different cities of the world to take place on the same day or same week, La Via Campesina brings together various activists under one cause. On April 17, 2009 for example, the movement declared an International Day of Peasants and events were organized in different parts of the world. Events to mark this day took place in such places as Syracuse and Chicago, U.S.A Madrid, Zaragoza, Basque County and Galicia, Spain Geneva, Neuchatel and Jura, Switzerland Lille, France Brussels-Liege, Belgium Bangladesh, Uruguay and Camerun. Protests, debate forums, demonstrations, concerts, films and roundtable conferences were among the activities used to advance the campaign against GMOs. La Via Campesina has also taken advantage of forums organized by other organizations like the UN, FAO, and WTO among others to enlighten delegates about the dangers of GMOs and the need to shift from advancing such kind of food production (International Land Coalition Hoff 1-4 Aktionsbundris).

Membership in La Via Campesina is highly diversified. According to Borras, Via Campesina has a highly heterogeneous membership, ranging from dairy farmers in Germany to landless peasants in Brazil, from farm workers in Nicaragua to rice farmers in South Korea (9). Such diversity of people united under a common goal has been a good type of media because these people pass on the messages to one another as they update one another on the progress of the movement. This has been of great help to the movement which has used these groups to establish a political forum that it can use to advance its campaign towards food sovereignty, as well as push WTO out of agriculture besides promoting womens rights, sustainable peasant farming and putting a complete ban on GMOs. During international conferences organized by World Bank and FAO as well as at WTO ministerial meetings, the movement has not only been good in organizing protests but has also been very vocal in demanding an end to land grabbing for industrial agricultural production and advancement of GMOs. According to Borras, It has figured prominently in politically contentious campaigns such as those against the WTO global corporate giants such as McDonalds, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), along with the transnational companies that promote them such as Monsanto (133). The movement has also used such meetings to oppose industrial agro-fuel and has also been calling upon the international community to overlook everything about the Green Revolution and biotechnology (Holt-Gimenez 3-5).

Main Messages used by La Via Campesina in the Campaign against GMOs
One of the main messages used by La Via Campesina is that food is one of the basic rights that every human being is entitled to and all people and nations must therefore have the right to draw up their own food and agricultural policies. As quoted in Holt-Gimenez and Patel, The right to be free from hunger is a fundamental human right (100). Through this concept of food sovereignty, the movement has managed to gain the sympathy of all the marginalized people of the world who have going hungry while TNCs continue to export tones of food from their land. The movement promises its audience that food sovereignty gives priority to local production and consumption and that under this policy, only excess food should be exported. Such strong messages are meant to de-popularize WTO which advocates for the right to import and export and considers food sovereignty an impractical approach to solving the food crisis. One of the strong messages that the movement uses is that WTO should be phased out of agriculture. Rosset states that, La Via Campesina has made WTO out of food and agriculture its rallying cry, backed b farm and peasant organizations worldwide (77) (Holt-Gimenez  Patel 53-54 Rosset 77 Atasoy 272).

By taking advantage of international forums organized by the United Nations and other international organizations, La Via Campesina has hung out banners with several of their messages to attract the attention of delegates and viewers worldwide. During the 9th Conference of Parties for example, the UN organized the Convention on Biodiversity and after secretary general Ban Ki Moon had finished his address, La Via Campesina activists hang banners which according to Aktionsbundnis displayed such messages as, Nature for People Not for Business and No Agro-diversity Without Farmers. The movement had been denied participation at the main celebration day and used the conference to attract delegates attention as well as the attention of the international media. According to La Via Campesina, small-scale farmers not only have the solution to hunger but also the power to safeguard the worlds biodiversity (Aktionsbundnis).

La Via Campesinas Challenges or possible sources of failure
One of the major challenges that La Via Campesina has to overcome is the rapid expansion of the agro-fuel business. Biotech companies such as Monsanto and Sygneta are left with opportunity to irreversibly convert the worlds agriculture production into GM crops if the massive clearing of vast tracks of land for agro-fuel production is not stopped. As stated by Holt-Gimenez  Patel, In 2008, 80 0f corn, 92 of soy and 85 of cotton in the US was genetically modified (GM) (USDA 2008c) (77). Agro-fuels remain a backdoor platform through which GM crops will be grown as energy crops and not food crops. Because no protection is given to indigenous seeds, corn and soy production for ethanol processing plants poses a great risk to contamination of indigenous crops accelerating the already extensive loss of indigenous seeds and disappearance of family farms. Vast tracks of arable land will suffer from soil depletion due to lack of crop rotation or fallow periods, soil erosion and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides  and such land will be rendered unproductive in future. According to Holt-Gimenez  Patel, Environmental degradation has proceeded apace soil erosion excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers soil depletion from the absence of crop rotation and fallow periods the loss of biodiversity due to the spread of monoculture, desertification, and the depletion and contamination of water resources through excessive irrigation have all been among the disastrous consequences of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), (67). The campaign against bio-fuel production is a great necessity as a precaution towards sealing any loopholes that TNCs may be trying to use to advance GMOS (Holt-Gimenez  Patel 67, 77). Another major challenge stems from WTO policies. WTO has been using the food crisis to push its agendas while La Via Campesina sees the crisis as an opportunity to highlight WTOs failures and push the organization out of world food production and distribution (Borras 109 Holt-Gimenez  Patel 53-54, 67, 77).

La Via Campesina also faces the major challenge of engaging in its agenda, big organizations such FAO, European Commission and Parliament as well UNDP and others which have been on the land reform agenda for a long time.  Some members of such institutions are also members of La Via Campesina and while some are pro-reform, others are not. Whether allies or enemies, the only way that Via Campesina can identify their motives is by critically engaging those institutions within which its members are embedded. The movement is also home to various organizations, societies, farmers movements and NGOs. Apart from conflicting views and ideas, LVC also faces such other challenges as Civil Society, participation, accountability, transparency and consultation among others. The significant differences that characterize the positions that La Via Campesina and member organizations take over an issue remains the most challenging factor in the campaigns (Borras Jr. 19-21).

To advance its campaigns, La Via Campesina uses mobilization and demonstration as a defense tactic against her interests by openly opposing those institutions and policies that wage hostility against her interests. The movement also uses collaboration and negotiation as a tactic for influencing policy changes proposed by others. However such issues as culture, history and political context must be addressed. The movements boycotts, direct action and mass demonstrations have however continued to be very effective although at specific political environments and in certain contexts. Cooperation and collaboration nonetheless offers a better option for creating social change in situations where there is room for negotiation. To achieve any kind of success, the movement must be very articulate in addressing the diversity of its membership. Every effort to balance the diverse interests that its membership represents is essential especially the careful addressing of such issues as culture, race, class, gender and NorthSouth solutions which are potential sources of divisions (Borras 137 Borras Jr. 21-23).

La Via Campesinas Measure of Success in the Campaign against GMOs
At the CFSC (Community Food Security Coalition) annual conference held in Des Moines Iowa on October 11-13, 2009, La Via Campesina proudly received the 2009 Prize on Food Sovereignty in recognition of the movements struggle to advance food sovereignty globally and its campaign against industrial agriculture. The movement was hailed for creating a food system that was more democratic in solving hunger worldwide and one that was also environment friendly (St. Peter 3). The movement has also helped to increase the level of awareness about food sovereignty across the globe. Through community and media debates it has spread the message that the world can successfully avert the food crisis through ecological farming and that GMOs have no solution to the crisis. Although multinational corporations appear to be having the upper hand and continue to benefit from the crisis, the message has been driven home (Maiga s 6-7). Small-scale sustainable agriculture has obtained some degree of success in Central America through the Brazilian organization Compesino a Compesino. If the success of such practices would become evident to other farmers around the globe, then La Via Campesina will have an easy job of advancing its campaign against GMOS and towards sustainable small-scale agriculture (Holt-Gimenez 3-6).

Conclusion
Rising food prices have created a global crisis that has coerced governments that had initially ignored La Via Campesina to pay attention to its messages. According to Holt-Gimenez  Patel, Not until the global food crisis burst upon the scene were the worlds governments forced to question the wisdom of using resources for fuel production, (68). Food riots have become a common phenomenon in the Americas, Asia and Africa and many people have suddenly taken notice of this issue and the movements that promise the way out of the crisis. It is also quite evident that the GMOs, herbicides and pesticides promoted by TNCs are destructive to the future productive capacity of agricultural lands. La Via Campesina will have succeeded if it takes advantage of the new kind of attention being paid to its activities for the promotion of ecological farming which has so far been proved to be healthy and environment friendly (Holt-Gimenez  Patel 68, 126)