Farmers bringing message of "Stop Corporate Control over Food" to the Food Crisis Summit in Rome were expelled

Rome, Italy
June 3, 2008
Watch the video here: http://wsftv.net

Farmer and civil society leaders carrying out a peaceful action today in
Rome, Italy at the FAO Summit on the Food Crisis were forcefully removed
from the premises. At around 1:30pm farmers and representatives of civil
society organizations staged an action at the press room to deliver a
message that millions of additional people are joining the ranks of the
hungry as the corporations that control the global food system are making
record profits.

The issues of corporate control and speculation, which are leading causes
of recent spikes in food prices, are not being discussed by the government
delegations and the international agencies meeting in Rome to debate
solutions to the crisis.

"We are outraged that such fundamental aspects of the food crisis were
nowhere on the agenda for the Summit," says Paul Nicholson, member of the International Coordinating Committee of Via Campesina and one of the
farmer leaders who was expelled from the Summit.

The 10 people involved in the action carried posters contrasting the
record profits of agribusiness corporations during the lastest reporting
financial quarter of 2008 with the estimated 100 million people in the world
who now, alongside 800 million or so others, are hungry because they
cannot afford to eat. Profits for Monsanto, the world's largest seed
company, were up 108 per cent, while Cargill and Archer Daniel Midlands,
the world's largest food traders, registered profit increases of 86 and 42
per cent respectively. Profits for Mosaic, one of the world's largest
fertiliser companies, rose 1,134 per cent.

The action was necessary to bring to the world's attention that the main
causes of the world food crisis are not being dealt with and that the
world's food producers-- the farmers, fisherfolk, agricultural workers and
indigenous people-- have been shut out of the discussion. In previous
high-level FAO events, civil society was given more space to express its
views and to have a dialogue with the delegates. For this Summit, civil
society was blocked from meaningful participation in the preparation and
in the event itself.

"We are concerned that this Summit will only reinforce corporate control
of the food system and lead to a further destruction of the way of life of
indigenous peoples and their survival," says Saul Vicente Vasquez of the
International Indian Treaty Council and one of the supporters of the
action. "It is time for indigenous people and other food producers to take
charge of food policy."

Those involved in the action have been meeting with other civil society
organizations at the Terra Preta* civil society forum, parallel to the FAO
Summit.

A video of the action and the suppression of the action will soon be
available on http://wsftv.net. During the action, the security guards
seized a banner reading: "Stop corporate control over food!."

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For further information about the action, please contact:
Isabelle Delforge: +39 349 161 0296
Henk Hobbelink: +34 639 329047

Information about Terra Preta and a statement from the forum can be found at www.foodsovereignty.org

The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) is a facilitation mechanism of some 40 NGOs/CSOs/Social Movements concerned with food sovereignty issues and programmes. It includes organizations that represent small farmers, fisher folk, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, women, youth, agricultural workers’ trade unions and NGOs.
- La Via Campesina, Isabelle Delforge, phone: +32498522163, e-mail: idelforge@viacampesina.org, www.viacampesina.org (English, Français, Español)
La Via Campesina is the international movement of peasants, small and medium sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers active in more than 56 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
- ROPPA, Ousseini Ouédrago, phone: +22676614226, e-mail ouedraogo@roppa-ao.org, www.http://www.roppa.info (Français)
Le Réseau des organisations paysannes et de producteurs de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (ROPPA)