The head-long dash toward privatization in the world economy, epitomized by the attempt to foster the patenting of nearly everything, including all manner of life forms and microorganisms, could spell disaster for public sector and community control of traditional food security systems. Not to mention the consequences for local culture, family life, livelihoods and patterns of land ownership.

We invite you to join us in this important campaign by endorsing the Declaration of Support for African Small-Holder Farmers. Please share the declaration with your networks and community groups.

Note: To add your name and/or that of your organization, email . Include your country of origin and, if appropriate, your title. For more information, see the article, African Farmers at Risk, which follows the declaration.

Thank you.

Declaration of Support for African Smallholder Farmers African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders … Indigenous agriculture and biological resources are vitally important to the economies, cultures, environment, food security and livelihoods of sub-Saharan Africa, and in particular its small-holder farmers. A significant number of groups (NGO, civil society, labor and faith-based)
within and without Africa are advocating to keep Africa's bio-diversity, seeds, plants, biological resources and food security under the control of its sovereign states, local communities and small-holder farmers.

Public access to and communal prerogative over biological resources are rooted in basic social justice principles directly tied to certain rights.
Those to food, land, secure livelihoods, cultural identity, environmental integrity and the protection of the common good are among the most important. Africa has taken a lead role - exemplified by the initiatives of the Africa Group at the World Trade Organization (WTO) - in resisting efforts to cede control of its biological and agricultural resources through privatization.

To this end, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) has developed African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the Regulation of Access to Biological Resources.

We, the undersigned, affirm the fundamental principles of the African Model Legislation and call on the U.S. Government to respect and support them in its trade, economic and development policies toward Africa and at the WTO, notably:

1. The rights of local communities over their biological resources, knowledge and technologies are of a collective nature and, therefore, are a priori rights, which take precedence over rights based on private interests.

2. African states and the people have the right to ensure the conservation, evaluation and sustainable use of biological resources, knowledge and technologies in order to maintain and improve their diversity as a means of safeguarding their natural support systems.

3. Local communities have the inalienable right to access, use, exchange or share their biological resources in sustaining their livelihood systems as regulated by their customary practices and laws.

4. African states and the people have the right to protect community intellectual rights and farmers' rights according to customary practices and laws.

5. African states and the people have the right to regulate access to biological resources.

6. Because all forms of life are the basis for human survival, the patenting of life in any of its forms violates the fundamental human right to life.

(Mr and Mrs) A. E. Cooper Biscombe Hill Farm UK Andrew Mushita, Executive Director Community Technology Development Trust Zimbabwe Andrew Taynton Safe Food Coalition South Africa Sr. Angelika Laub, OP USA Ann Kamya, Director Uganda Debt Network Anne Turner-Nenguwo, PhD Agricultural Consultant Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia Rev. Anthony Cussen, Coordinator African-Europe Faith and Justice Network, UK (AEFJN-UK)
UK Association OGM dangers (GMO hazards)
France Sr. Barbara Porter Coordinator of Social Justice Desk Conference of Religious for England and Wales Bernard Lindberg, Chairperson Mankato Area Environmentalists (MN)
USA Beth Burrows, Director The Edmonds Institute USA Chris Keene The Anti-Globalisation Network USA Comitato Scientifico Antivivisezionista Italy Community Information Association Australia Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras Spain Dar Darley Oak Park, IL USA Dr. David Fig Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand & Board Chairperson, Biowatch South Africa Devizes and Marlborough Friends of the Earth UK Diane McLoughlin, publisher GE FREE CANADA Ellen Hickey Director of Research and Communications Pesticide Action Network North America Ernst von Weizsaecker Member of the German Parliament Flavio Luiz Schieck Valente, Coordenador Geral ÁGORA Brazil Fred Schneider Ontario, Canada Gladys Schmitz, SSND Mankato, MN USA Glenn Ashton, Director Ekogaia Foundation South Africa The Green Campus Society Saskathcewan Canada Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network (International)

Instituto Sindical de Trabajo, Ambiente y Salud Spain Julie Davids Critical Path AIDS Project Kechua-Aymara Association for Sustainable Livelihoods Kevin Murray, Executive Director Grassroots International USA Jaan Suurkula M.D., Chairman Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology Sweden Jonathan King Prof of Molecular Biology, MIT, Board of Directors, Council for Responsible Genetics USA Joseph Ole Simel, National Co-ordinator Mainyoito Pastoralist Integrated Development Organization Kenya Kate Macintosh, Chair Architects and Engineers for Social Responsibility UK Konrad Knerr Australian Ethical Investment and Superannuation Fund Australia Larry J. Goodwin, Executive Director Africa Faith & Justice Network USA (Revd. Dr.) Leon Spencer, Executive Director Washington Office on Africa USA Linda Elswick International Partners for Sustainable Agriculture (IPSA)
USA Maheswar Ghimire Ecological Services Centre Nepal Margo Bansda (South African)
Washington DC USA Mark Ritchie, President Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy USA Mary C. LaFrance Southgate, Michigan USA Masipag (Farmer Scientist Partnership for Development)
Philippines Meriel Watts, Director Soil & Health Association of NZ New Zealand Michael Sackin UK Miguel A. Altieri, Ph.D., Professor of Agro-ecology University of California, Berkeley USA Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa Eastern Africa Province Peter J. Henriot, S.J.
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection Zambia Peter Montague, Ph.D., Director Environmental Research Foundation USA Peter Rutsch & Company - Attorneys South Africa Peter Stone Rochester Food Not Bombs USA Phil Owen Southern African Water Crisis South Africa Philip Stewart Lecturer: Lands, Parks & Wildlife Management School of Biological, Environmental & Chemical Sciences.
Faculty of Science, IT & Education, Palmerston Campus Northern Territory University Australia P. V. Satheesh Director, Deccan Development Society; India Coordinator, South Asian Network for Food, Ecology and Culture Convener, AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity India Robert Anderson, Member Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Genetics Ronnie Cummins Organic Consumers Association USA Rory Short South Africa Seedgood Foundation (Stichting Zaadgoed)
The Netherlands Silvia Rodriguez Programa CAMBIOS Universidad Nacional Costa Rica Sisters of Mercy U.S. Province Redlands, CA USA Sociedad Española de Agricultura Ecológica Spain Steven Stevenson Collingwood, Victoria Australia Suzanne Hedrick Tom Campbell, Lecturer Development Studies Centre Ireland Tom Forster International Partners for Sustainable Agriculture (IPSA)
USA Troels Dilling-Hansen The Danish Association of Ecovillages, LØS.

VOICE (Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment)
Ireland Wally Menne The Indigenous Plant Network South Africa Wanjiru Kamau, Ed. D., President & CEO African Immigrants Foundation USA Dr. William Fiebig FAO Seed Security Officer Italy Wray Whyte Zimbabwe WTO Watch Qld Australia Wytze de Lange XminY Solidarity Funds The Netherlands To add your organizational or individual endorsement to this declaration, email For more information contact:
Africa Trade Policy Working Group c/o Africa Faith & Justice Network
3035 Fourth Street, NE Washington, DC 20017 Tel. 202 832 3412 E-mail. [email protected] ________________________________________________________

African Small-Holder Farmers At-Risk Among the most fundamental of human rights is the right to food. This involves more than having enough to eat. It means that nature's resources on which humans depend for sustenance -- the seeds we use to produce grains, fruits and vegetables belong to the common heritage of the human race. As such, for countless generations humans have saved, shared and exchanged seeds, the genetic repositories of the nutrient systems that maintain our lives. We have grown, harvested, stored, traded and sold the crops that derive from the seeds, breeding new varieties in the process. Until very recently, the notion that whole varieties of seeds and plants used to produce food crops could become someone's personal property was unthinkable. A traditional farmer could grow wheat, maize, carrots or potatoes to feed the family. She could sell her produce and freely save seed from the crop for the next planting season. He might buy, exchange or barter for seeds from a neighbor or trader, but no one would claim exclusive rights, for example, over an entire species of millet such that he had to pay them for permission to cultivate it.

Globalization's Impact Economic globalization has dramatically altered that landscape. The worldwide push to industrialize agriculture, the advent of genetically modified plant and animal organisms (GMOs) and the expansion of the scope of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) to lay claim on life forms through patent systems significantly change the human relationship to nature. These patents clash with the principle that living organisms exist in their own right, not by human invention, and belong in the public domain, where humans share both access to them for food and medicine and the responsibility to conserve them.

The relationship between IPRs and the right to food finds some parallels in the Intellectual Property Rights debate over HIV/AIDS medicines now being played out between pharmaceutical companies and developing countries. In the developing countries' quest to obtain alternative, more affordable medicines to meet the AIDS pandemic, corporations insist that their patent rights take precedence over individual needs for medicines. In the case of agriculture, industry asserts the precedence of IPRs over communal and traditional knowledge and practice.

As the process of economic globalization unfolds, attempts by international agribusiness to extend the industrial agricultural model to the developing world loom large. The privatization of the agricultural sector goes hand in hand with the industrial model, including rights over seeds and crop varieties, and the widespread attendant use of commercial fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and other chemical or synthetic inputs.

Concerns about GMOs There are major concerns about the effects of GMOs on human health and the environment. In spite of the fact that agribusiness corporations and some U.S. Government agencies claim there is no danger, there has been no independent, long-term testing to really find out. The fact is that no one knows what the long-term effects are. And once they are introduced into the environment, you can't take them back. Nor can they be readily controlled as the recent case of "Starlink" genetically modified corn has shown in the U.S. It was supposed to have been isolated from non-GMO corn in both growing and storage processes, but it was found to have contaminated hundreds of corn food products sold to the public before it was discovered.

Since GMOs are intended primarily for large-scale commercial agriculture, they foster mono-cropping (planting a single crop over large areas), which destroys bio-diversity and invites heavy pest infestation by the very nature of the method. The chemicals necessitated by GMO crops destroy microorganisms needed for the maintenance of healthy soil. The increased irrigation requirements and agricultural run-off that accompany industrial agriculture can also adversely affect local water resources.

Land ownership and usage The industrial model of agriculture that GMOs promote can seriously affect patterns of land ownership and usage. The focus on cash and export crops poses the real risk of cutting local food production, thereby weakening traditional food security systems. In addition to shifting production away from growing food for individual and local consumption -- creating dependence on retail foodstuffs in the process -- it demands lots of acreage, which means that small-holder farmers risk being pushed off the land to make way for larger individual or corporate operations. In Africa, the potential devastation to food security, culture, family life, rural livelihoods and bio-diversity is painfully obvious.

By contrast, documented experience shows that systematic organic and natural farming methods can match or better the yields of industrial agriculture without the negative effects of chemical or synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides or the contamination of GMO cropping. These methods are much better adapted to the multi-crop, limited use acreage of small-holder farmers.

WTO and TRIPS When it comes to globalization's impact on Africa's agriculture, a lot depends on the kind of rules being formulated at the World Trade Organization (WTO). True to the WTO's market-oriented approach, which largely reflects that of the industrialized nations who shape it, privatization and unregulated competition lie at the heart of its policies.
In establishing international trade rules and standards, the WTO works to give transnational corporations maximum access to developing country economies and markets, allowing foreign corporations the same rights and privileges as local citizens and enterprises. A large part of this process involves the WTO supporting the privatization of natural resources. One of the principal ways this happens is through what are called Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). While TRIPS may not be a household term, these trade provisions carry enormous implications for Africa's farmers. TRIPS are the mechanism used to promote the global patenting of life forms and processes, that is seeds, plants and animals and the functions they perform. The WTO is using TRIPS to try to legitimize patents over life forms in international trade policy.

African Initiatives Africans are taking the lead in contesting this trade policy. In preparing for the 1999 WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle, the Africa Group issued a communication on reviewing the TRIPS Agreement that formally opposed the patenting of life forms. Specifically they said, "The review process should clarify that plants and animals as well as microorganisms and all other living organisms and their parts cannot be patented, and that natural processes that produce plants, animals and other living organisms should also not be patentable."

On another front, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) has developed African Model Legislation for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the Regulation of Access to Biological Resources. This model legislation aims to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of Africa's biological and agricultural genetic resources, and safeguard the rights of the public sector over them.
The OAU's hope is that individual African governments will use the Model Legislation as a basis for drafting national laws codifying its principles.

While it is still too early to assess the impact of the OAU model legislation, some African governments are becoming more aware of the urgency to implement measures dealing with these issues. Promoting the model legislation could help African governments establish domestic regimes to regulate biotechnology, control access to genetic resources, ensure equitable benefit sharing from their use, and protect the rights of local farmers, communities and plant breeders. Without protection, small-holder farmers could be blocked from continuing their traditional practices of breeding, saving and exchanging the seeds that they have been growing for generations. They could be pressured into abandoning traditional crop varieties, substituting genetically altered food and cash crops, which have unknown effects on health and the environment, and which could make them dependent on synthetic and chemical agricultural inputs.

Africa Trade Policy Working Group As African NGOs urge their governments to adopt the African Model Legislation, ATPWG and its colleagues are launching a parallel initiative to urge the U.S. government to respect and support the model legislation's principles in U.S. trade policy and at the WTO. Championing the model legislation offers ATPWG and its advocacy partners the opportunity to collaborate on an African-initiated educational and advocacy campaign. It connects us to a wide-ranging network of African NGOs who speak to the issue from a grassroots perspective. It links us to North American and European NGOs and organizations, which consider the impact of TRIPS on African agriculture a priority.

Declaration of Support The main tool for conducting this campaign is the Declaration of Support for African Small-Holder Farmers. The Africa Trade Policy Working Group is circulating this declaration for endorsement by church organizations, NGO and public policy groups, organizations that focus on agricultural issues, especially in developing countries, and everyone interested in small-holder farmers' rights, food security and bio-diversity. We plan to present the declaration to key officials in the U.S. Administration and Congress before the next WTO ministerial to be held in Qatar in November. We hope to persuade the U.S. Government to make its trade policy compatible with the rights of African small-holder farmers.

Please approach your church, professional or community organization to add its name to the Declaration in Support of African Small-Holder Farmers.
Email endorsements to . You may also fax them to
202-832-9051.

For more information contact:
Africa Trade Policy Working Group c/o Africa Faith & Justice Network
3035 Fourth Street, NE Washington, DC 20017 Tel. 202 832 3412 E-mail. [email protected] In our U.S efforts to support the Africa position on Farmers Rights and agricultural biodiversity we request any information you might have on the promotion, support or endorsement of the OAU's , model legislation through African grassroot campaigns, government action or civil action. If you are aware of any present action taking place around this issue, please immediately contact larryjgoodwin@gri@afjn.org _________________________________________________________________
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