At a protest action in front of the US embassy, as a kick-off of the Peasant Countdown vs. WTO, the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) dumped “imported vegetables” and unhusked rice to show its vehement opposition to the World Trade Organization-Agreement on Agriculture (WTO-AoA) on a farmer, to dramatized the slow death experienced by farmers because of the moribund organization. According to Ka Willy Marbella, internal deputy secretary general of KMP, “the WTO has never been beneficial to us peasants in fact it has further mired us into poverty. Importations of agricultural products ruined the economy and livelihood of farmers and rural producers due to globalization. Rice importation went up by 1,073%, corn by 653%, chicken by 1200 %, beef by 230%, pork by 1700% and vegetables by 169%,”

“The mass flooding of imported agricultural products forced farm gate prices to go down by 7 to 11 percent at the average. Most affected were major crops locally produced such as unhusked rice (5%), sugar cane (6%), coconut (32%), while prices of pineapple, mangoes, coffee, and copra went down further by an average of 13 to 19 percent within the spread of 8 years,” added the peasant leader

“Onion and vegetable growers are already bankrupt due to the flooding of cheap onions and vegetables from China and other countries.  Vegetable growers from the vegetable capital of the Philippines registered a P53 million loss in 2003. Who benefits from all these? It is rather an old question to an already obvious answer: countries such as the US, Japan, and the conglomerate European Union,” he stressed.

“The continuous plunder and monopoly control over food and agriculture post an imminent threat and danger to the food security of many nations.  The poor farmers withstand the worst of the massive onslaught of imperialist globalization. Globalization under the WTO worsened the plight of farmers who are already poor brought about by landlessness and other oppressive and exploitative relations they are into. We are being dealt a slow death by the WTO. The call for its junking has been proven correct. Since we first demanded it even before our entry to the moribund organization, it is high time that it be junked in its 6th ministerial meeting in Hong Kong,” ended Marbella. # # #
 

KMP - 12 December 2005