Japan Press Weekly

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2013 July 3 - 9 [ECONOMY]

Japanese farmers share goal of food sovereignty with global peasant movement

Japanese farmers shared experiences with other countries’ farmers in struggling to achieve the common goal of food sovereignty at a conference of La Via Campasina, the transnational peasant movement, held on June 9-12 in Indonesia.

The National Federation of Farmers Movement (Nominren) sent its delegation headed by Saito Toshiyuki to this quadrennial conference in which about 500 delegates in 183 groups from 88 countries took part.

Saito told Akahata on July 6 his impression about the meeting, “I learned first hand how farmers in every country are undergoing a similar situation which kicks us out of our farmland.”

He said that an Indonesian delegate reported that some farmers had been violently ousted from their farm for the sake of establishing palm oil plantations, and that a Mozambican delegate reported on the ongoing large-scale export crops development projects which aim to get rid of peasants.

The Nominren delegation head during the conference spoke about the Japanese farmers’ movement gaining momentum against Japan’s participation in multilateral free-trade deals and against the policy the Abe government and business leaders have to consolidate farmland in order to establish only large farms.

“It was impressive that many delegates reported on activities against large corporations’ water control, struggles to protect traditional seeds from being contaminated by GM seeds, and movements against a corporate monopoly of seeds,” said Saito.

La Via Campesina, which Nominren officially joined in 2005, argues that the profit-oriented free trade system promoted by large multinationals exacerbates global warming as a result of overdevelopment and runs counter to a sustainable society ensuring affordable and nutritional food for all.