|
WTO NCRLC Update September 10, 2003 1400 The 5th ministerial meetings of the WTO officially began this morning. Security was tight around the Cancun Convention Center, but we had little trouble moving through the well-patrolled streets. Given the limited number of passes to get into the convention center, Br. Dave and I opted to spend the morning and early afternoon at the NGO center a few blocks away. During the official meetings of trade ministers, various NGO groups hold parallel or "shadow" forums to discuss trade and development issues. The morning began slow when two forums, one by Public Citizen and another by Oxfam, failed to produce any speakers. Although this may seem like poor organization by the NGOs, we speculated that they had to sign up for rooms weeks or months in advanced, but inevitably changed their programs -- and venues -- in the dynamics of this international gathering. Simultaneous meetings are taking place at another site, and no doubt that is where many NGO participants can be found. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to get the word around. Nevertheless, an 11 am meeting convened by the International Commission on the Future on Food and Agriculture did take place. And once again Vandana Shiva served as moderator. This commission first met in Tuscany, Italy (where the regional government declared their area GMO-free) and began work on a manifesto to critique the global industrial agri-food system. They also presented a framework for a new model of agriculture, based on agro-ecological principles, food sovereignty and agricultural biodiversity. Their manifesto is not unlike the same platform and principles stated by our sustainable agriculture network in the United States. This international call for a new model of farming is certainly welcomed. But not by all. A gentleman from South Africa challenged the presenters in their analysis that trade liberalization was leading to hunger and poverty. He claimed that more open trade in South Africa since the days of apartheid was helping small farmers. If I heard him correctly, his organization is called the "free farm foundation". Perhaps worth a google search to see if where he is coming from -- and whether he truly speaks in the name of the poor and hungry, as he claimed. The presenters, including Vandana Shiva, argued their point persuasively. A recent report from the UNDP shows that more than 40 vulnerable nations have slipped in their overall development indicators over the past 5-10 years. This is the same period of time that the benefits of more open trade have been heralded. Perhaps South Africa is a shining exception to the more obverse turn in basic human needs over the past decade. The protests that were peacefully organized in Johannesburg seemed to suggest that resource-poor and landless people had yet to benefit from the dominant world system. Were they actually protesting for a more liberal trade regime? They were certainly looking for ways to gain access to the market system, but a fair and transparent one. And one that allows for the principle of subsidiarity, which is to say a foundation of local production and local self-reliance. Not a market dominated by global corporations, as argued by the International Commission on the Future on Food and Agriculture. So the debates continue here in Cancun that we hear back home in the American heartland. Br. Dave and I continue to join these discussions, and in fact now head to one featuring Prof. Darryl Ray, University of Tennessee, and his recent study on "Rethinking US Agricultural Policy". If you are not familiar with this report, you may want to download it at http://agpolicy.org (which is UT- Knoxville Agricultural Policy Analysis Center). Robert Gronski National Catholic Rural Life Conference |