EU in bed with hunger profiteers : Dying for money

Monday, 16 June 2008

The farmers organisations and social movements CPE, COAG and Seattle to Brussels Network staged a symbolic action in Brussels on Fiday the 13th of June, 2008, to denounce the EU involvment in the corporate profit over the food crisis. Last week in FAO conference on food security, the EU promoted more free-trade by concluding the Doha Round, fuelling cars instead of feeding people and more pesticides and fertilizers. Over the last years, these so-called « solutions » have lead to more profits for the big agribusiness corporations and more poverty and hunger for the people. These figures are for just three months at the beginning of 2008. Number of hungry people: + 100 million people, reaching one billion hungry people in the world (1/6 of the world total population) Grain Trading: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM): Gross profit: $1.15 billion, up 55% from last year Cargill: Net earnings: $1.03 billion, up 86% Bunge: Consolidated gross profit: $867 million, up 189%. Seeds & herbicides: Monsanto: Gross profit: $2.23 billion, up 54%. Dupont Agriculture and Nutrition: Pre-tax operating income: $786 million, up 21% Fertilizer Potash Corporation: Net income: $66 million, up 185.9% Mosaic: Net earnings: $520.8 million, up more than 1,200% Meanwhile, local markets are being destroyed and land, water and seeds are being privatized, preventing peasants and small-scale farmers to supply their communities with appropriate food. Small-scale food producers are able to produce healthy food for everybody. They supply local markets all over the world, while cooling down the earth and protecting biodiversity. For them to continue to do so and prevent further food crisis, we need market regulation and agrarian reform, we need food sovereignty. STOP FREE-TRADE AGREEMENTS ! IMPLEMENT FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ! Contacts: Seattle to Brussels Network: Tom Kurschaz +34 619949053 CPE: Morgan Ody +32 486888845 More information: www.cpefarmers.org www.coag.org www.s2bnetwork.org www.viacampesina.org