The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), along with the anti-agrochemical trans-national corporations alliance RESIST and foreign personalities Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher and Mr. Percy Schmeiser were one in saying that the current crisis and the consequent hunger that its effect to the people of the world is caused by the enormous greed of big agro-chemical corporations and the governments that are protecting them. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, secretary general of KMP, “the number of hungry and malnourished people across the globe will continue to increase due to the drive for enormous profits, of large companies like Monsanto. In the Philippines alone more than 16 million Filipinos do not take breakfast anymore because of the perpetual increase in the price of basic commodities,”

“This is further aggravated when companies like Monsanto, Syngenta and Cargill comes into our economy and forces their products into our farmers. The sad part is that the government itself is the one that protects and encourages these companies to do this. Thereby tying the farmers to products which are not only harmful to their health but to the land as well. Another setback is that the technology being peddled by these greedy companies are extremely expensive and very destructive to the environment,” added the peasant leader.

As for her part Natalie Pulvinar, convenor of RESIST, “what is ironic is that these companies are saying that through their technology hunger can be solved. But what is happening, is that with their technology more and more farmers are going bankrupt, not only because of its steep price but due to the lawsuits that Monsanto files on farmers whose crops are invaded by Monsanto’s invasive technology, like what happened to Mr. Percy Schmeiser,”

“The government is also accountable for Monsanto’s crimes because it is the one who allowed these companies to test these technologies like the Bt corn and the Bb rice into our country. It has done this even with the strong objection of farmers and these technologies’ ban in other countries due to its harmful effects. Now with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s all-out implementation of the globalization policy under the WTO, these companies are wrecking havoc on our farmers and our economy,” ended Pulvinar. # # #
 

KMP - 13 September 2005