New Zealand - February 2015
Pr. Gu Xiulin (China), Dr. Melissa Lalani Yee (Hawaii), Dr. Vandana Shiva (India) et Claire Chauvet (New Caledonia) call people Pacific to get together for seed freedom and GMO free Pacific.
"We need a Trans-Pacific Partneship of the people for seed freedom and for the planet"
Today, March 8th, International Women’s Day, the Via Campesina calls for the coordination of actions to highlight the fundamental role played by
women in guaranteeing Food Sovereignty – not only as a means of confronting the food crisis but as an essential ethical principle that has as its basis social justice and equality. On this day of
struggle, we denounce the prevailing violence, against women specifically, because the agribusiness model and capitalist interests in the countryside have exacerbated social and gender
inequalities.
On this International Day of March 8th, we are defending comprehensive land reform and the natural goods – land, water, and territory - that
together guarantee food sovereignty through agroecological production and a renewed awareness of the value of peasant and small-scale agriculture. For this reason, we strongly decry the
destruction and depredation resulting from monoculture and the indiscriminate use of toxic chemical inputs and from the harmful effects of the activities of the transnationals in our territories.
Greater profitability and productivity in the countryside means a decline in decent living conditions for millions of women and men peasants and small-scale farmers. The market cannot continue to
dictate agricultural policies and to damage the health of people and of nature.
La Via Campesina website ICI