Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds

of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto
will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and
vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The
MPP has committed to burning Monsanto's seeds, and has called for a
march to protest the corporation's presence in Haiti on June 4, for
World Environment Day.

In an open letter sent of May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the Executive Director of MPP and the spokesperson for the National Peasant
Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto
seeds into Haiti "a very strong attack on small agriculture, on
farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds..., and on what is left our
environment in Haiti."[1] Haitian social movements have been vocal in
their opposition to agribusiness imports of seeds and food, which
undermines local production with local seed stocks. They have expressed
special concern about the import of genetically modified organisms
(GMOs).

For now, without a law regulating the use of GMOs in Haiti, the
Ministry of Agriculture rejected Monsanto's offer of Roundup Ready GMO
seeds. In an email exchange, a Monsanto representative assured the
Ministry of Agriculture that the seeds being donated are not GMO.

Elizabeth Vancil, Monsanto's Director of Development Initiatives,
called the news that the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture approved the
donation "a fabulous Easter gift" in an April email.[2] Monsanto is
known for aggressively pushing seeds, especially GMO seeds, in both the
global North and South, including through highly restrictive technology
agreements with farmers who are not always made fully aware of what
they are signing. According to interviews by this writer with
representatives of Mexican small farmer organizations, they then find
themselves forced to buy Monsanto seeds each year, under conditions
they find onerous and at costs they sometimes cannot afford.

The hybrid corn seeds Monsanto has donated to Haiti are treated with
the fungicide Maxim XO, and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with
thiram.[3] Thiram belongs to a highly toxic class of chemicals called
ethylene bisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs). Results of tests of EBDCs on mice
and rats caused concern to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), which then ordered a special review. The EPA determined that
EBDC-treated plants are so dangerous to agricultural workers that they
must wear special protective clothing when handling them. Pesticides
containing thiram must contain a special warning label, the EPA ruled.
The EPA also barred marketing of the chemicals for many home garden
products, because it assumes that most gardeners do not have adequately
protective clothing.[4] Monsanto's passing mention of thiram to
Ministry of Agriculture officials in an email contained no explanation
of the dangers, nor any offer of special clothing or training for those
who will be farming with the toxic seeds.

Haitian social movements' concern is not just about the dangers of the
chemicals and the possibility of future GMO imports. They claim that
the future of Haiti depends on local production with local food for
local consumption, in what is called food sovereignty. Monsanto's
arrival in Haiti, they say, is a further threat to this.

"People in the U.S. need to help us produce, not give us food and
seeds. They're ruining our chance to support ourselves," said farmer
Jonas Deronzil of a peasant cooperative in the rural region of
Verrettes.[5]

Monsanto's history has long drawn ire from environmentalists, health
advocates, and small farmers, going back to its production of Agent
Orange during the Vietnam war. Exposure to Agent Orange has caused
cancer in an untold number of U.S. Veterans, and the Vietnamese
government claims that 400,000 Vietnamese people were killed or
disabled by Agent Orange, and 500,000 children were born with birth
defects as a result of their exposure.[6]

Monsanto's former motto, "Without chemicals, life itself would be
impossible," has been replaced by "Imagine." Its web site home page
claims it "help[s] farmers around the world produce more while
conserving more. We help farmers grow yield sustainably so they can be
successful, produce healthier foods... while also reducing
agriculture's impact on our environment."[7] The corporations' record
does not support the claims.

Together with Syngenta, Dupont and Bayer, Monsanto controls more than
half of the world's seeds.[8] The company holds almost 650 seed
patents, most of them for cotton, corn and soy, and almost 30% of the
share of all biotech research and development. Monsanto came to own
such a vast supply by buying major seed companies to stifle
competition, patenting genetic modifications to plant varieties, and
suing small farmers. Monsanto is also one of the leading manufacturers
of GMOs.

As of 2007, Monsanto had filed 112 lawsuits against U.S. farmers for
alleged technology contract violations or GMO patents, involving 372
farmers and 49 small agricultural businesses in 27 different states.
From these, Monsanto has won more than $21.5 million in judgments. The
multinational appears to investigate 500 farmers a year, in estimates
based on Monsanto's own documents and media reports.[9]

"Farmers have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or
seed from someone else's genetically engineered crop [or] when
genetically engineered seed from a previous year's crop has sprouted,
or 'volunteered,' in fields planted with non-genetically engineered
varieties the following year," said Andrew Kimbrell and Joseph
Mendelson of the Center for Food Safety.[10]

In Colombia, Monsanto has received upwards of $25 million from the U.S.
government for providing Roundup Ultra in the anti-drug fumigation
efforts of Plan Colombia. Roundup Ultra is a highly concentrated
version of Monsanto's glyphosate herbicide, with additional ingredients
to increase its lethality. Colombian communities and human rights
organizations have charged that the herbicide has destroyed food crops,
water sources and protected areas, and has led to increased incidents
of birth defects and cancers.

Vía Campesina, the world's largest confederation of farmers with member
organizations in more than sixty countries, has called Monsanto one of
the "principal enemies of peasant sustainable agriculture and food
sovereignty for all peoples."[11] They claim that as Monsanto and other
multinationals control an ever larger share of land and agriculture,
they force small farmers out of their land and jobs. They also claim
that the agribusiness giants contribute to climate change and other
environmental disasters, an outgrowth of industrial agriculture.[12]

The Vía Campesina coalition launched a global campaign against Monsanto
last October 16, on International World Food Day, with protests, land
occupations, and hunger strikes in more than twenty countries. They
carried out a second global day of action against Monsanto on April 17
of this year, in honor of Earth Day.

Non-governmental organizations in the U.S. are challenging Monsanto's
practices, too. The Organic Consumers Association has spearheaded the
campaign "Millions Against Monsanto," calling on the company to stop
intimidating small family farmers, stop marketing untested and
unlabeled genetically engineered foods to consumers, and stop using
billions of dollars of U.S. taypayers' money to subsidize GMO crops.[13]

The Center for Food Safety has led a four-year legal challenge to
Monsanto that has just made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. After
successful litigation against Monsanto and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for illegal promotion of Roundup Ready Alfalfa, the court
heard the Center for Food Safety's case on April 27. A decision on this
first-ever Supreme Court case about GMOs is now pending.[14]

"Fighting hybrid and GMO seeds is critical to save our diversity and
our agriculture," Jean-Baptiste said in an interview in February. "We
have the potential to make our lands produce enough to feed the whole
population and even to export certain products. The policy we need for
this to happen is food sovereignty, where the county has a right to
define it own agricultural policies, to grow first for the family and
then for local market, to grow healthy food in a way which respects the
environment and Mother Earth."