Statement by RAFI* to the first Plenary session of “Cultivating Our Futures”: the FAO/Netherlands Conference on the Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land (MFCAL), Maastricht, the Netherlands, 12-17 September, 1999
Thank you Chair for this opportunity to make an intervention and we would also like to thank the FAO and the organisers for inviting us to the meeting.
RAFI, the Rural Advancement Foundation International, is an international civil society organization headquartered in Canada(1).
We think that this conference could make an important contribution not only to CSD 8 and to the FAO (as you have already explained) but also to the Convention on Biological Diversity, whose programme of work on Agricultural Biodiversity, coordinated by the FAO, will be discussed at the 5th session if the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in January 2000 and subsequently by the Conference of the Parties in May 2000. We hope your report will be transmitted to the Executive Secretary of the CBD for presentation at these meetings.
MFCAL is nothing new. Maximising the sustainable use of agro-ecosystems, integrating biological, social, economic and environmental factors is not a novelty for the majority of food producers in the world who juggle multiple factors, activities and resources for their daily livelihood security. But the sunset of this millennium is being soured by the loss of natural resources, agricultural biodiversity, culture and knowledge, unprecedented in the history of humankind(2). As my colleague Pat Mooney has said: “This is the first generation to lose more knowledge than it gains”. This trend must be reversed.
In this regard, a useful outcome of this conference should be not only a celebration of the islands of success represented by the many case studies and experiences related to this meeting, but also a recognition of the sea of causes of the loss of diversity and hence the loss of multifunctionality. Your report could include a recommendation to develop a Plan of Action that will address the main constraints to the use of holistic, safe, healthy, diverse, poverty-alleviating policies and practices that integrate all functions.
To be brief, I would like to focus on one aspect: the sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. I would like to draw attention to the excellent Background Paper #1 on Agricultural Biodiversity and regret that those who do not read English cannot benefit from this input.
This paper increases understanding of the scope and multiple functions of agricultural biodiversity, the threats to its sustainable use and some of the options for sustaining agricultural biodiversity in all types of production systems(3).
However, the paper does not address what we consider is one of the major constraints. That is the diversion of massive resources, including public funds, into the research and development of biotechnologies, at the expense of research and development into more promising, more sustainable and environmentally-friendly and more accessible technologies used in organic agriculture, which sustainably uses and enhances all aspects of agricultural biodiversity in the field, in gardens and on farms.
This investment is being used to destroy livelihoods – I refer in particular to the technologies for preventing the germination of seeds – the so-called Terminator Technologies – the most anti-evolutionary technologies yet conceived(4).
Terminator Technologies are the antithesis of multifunctionality. This conference could articulate the concerns of citizens and institutions worldwide and call for the CSD to reject these technologies(5) that will deny the most basic of Farmers’ Rights, and destroy production systems, local development and livelihoods(6).
Chair, your report could reflect this concern.
Thank you
Statement presented by Patrick Mulvany, ITDG, on behalf of RAFI, 13 September 1999
Return to report on "Cultivating our Futures"
(1) RAFI, the Rural Advancement Foundation International, is an international civil society organization dedicated to the conservation and sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity and to the socially responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies. RAFI is concerned about the loss of genetic diversity - especially in agriculture - and about the impact of intellectual property rights on agriculture and world food security. http://www.rafi.org .
(2) See, for example, "Human Nature: Agricultural Biodiversity and Farm-based Food Security" by Hope Shand, RAFI, for the FAO, which addresses agricultural biodiversity and related issues. http://www.fao.org/sd/epdirect/epre0039.htm .
(3) This paper draws on the report of the Technical Workshop on Sustaining Agricultural Biodiversity and Agro-ecosystem Functions. FAO/SCBD/Govt of the Netherlands, Dec 1998. http://www.fao.org/sd/epdirect/epre0063.htm
(4) Companies are seeking patent monopolies on these technologies in 70-90 countries worldwide, governments should therefore consider the option of rejecting pending patents on the grounds that these patents are contrary to public morality.
(5) By rejecting Terminator Technologies, the CSD will be heeding the advice of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) which has banned Terminator and related genetic seed sterilization technologies from the crop breeding programs of the world's largest international agricultural research network. The strong and unambiguous policy was adopted by CGIAR at a meeting at the World Bank in Washington on Friday, October 30th, 1998. " http://www.rafi.org/pr/release23.html
" CGIAR's policy statement, as presented by the Genetic Resources Policy Committee: "The CGIAR will not incorporate into its breeding materials any genetic systems designed to prevent seed germination. This is in recognition of (a) concerns over potential risks of its inadvertent or unintended spread through pollen; (b) the possibilities of sale or exchange of inviable seed for planting; (c) the importance of farm-saved seed, particularly to resource-poor farmers; (d) potential negative impacts on genetic diversity and (e) the importance of farmer selection and breeding for sustainable agriculture."
(6) For more information see RAFI’s Terminator Technology Index http://www.rafi.org/misc/terminator.html.