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Masipag Statement on Farmers Rights
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MASIPAG
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Aug 25, 2002 21:24 PDT
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Masipag Statement on Farmers Rights
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Adopted at the Workshop, Defend Farmers’ Rights From Threats of the
Philippine Plant Variety Protection Act 2002, Dona Jovita Resort, 2-4th
August 2002.
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Collectively, farmers share the social responsibility to feed society.
For generations, they have nurtured and bred our food crops, and have
conserved and improved the genetic resources that form the basis of food
and agriculture. With farmers’ responsibility to feed society, and
stemming from their enormous contribution, comes farmers’ rights.
Farmers have rights over their innovations, practices, knowledge,
technologies and biological resources evolved through generations, over
the factors and processes of production (land, capital, technology,
inputs), and over legal and political decisions that undermine their
ability to produce food and conserve genetic resources.
The seeds, food, animals and associated knowledge that farmers have
conserved and developed are not the product of any single farmer but are
the collective products of many farming communities through many
generations. Farmers rights are thus collective rights and farmers are
not owners, but stewards, of our biodiversity and genetic resources.
Farmers must be free to produce food, and must be appreciated,
recognized, protected and strengthened in their work by their
inalienable and inviolable rights relating to seeds, production,
biodiversity and genetic resources, politics and decision-making,
culture and knowledge, land, information and research, and
sociopolitical factors as follows:
With respect to LAND farmers have the right to:
- Own land;
- Swift and just land redistribution programs;
- To use abandoned and unproductive lands (both public and private) for
the purposes of food production.
With respect to SEEDS AND GENETIC RESOURCES, recognizing that seeds are
the life of the farmer, farmers have the right to:
- Use, save, exchange, multiply, sell and improve their genetic
resources;
- Control seeds and planting materials including the right to refuse
access to the seeds and knowledge where such access will be detrimental
to farmers rights (such as to transnational corporations and
international research institutions as appropriate);
- Access seeds and genetic resources appropriate to their local
environment and to the capacity and needs of farmers in their
communities;
- Freely choose what seeds, plants and animals to use on his/her farm.
In PRODUCTION farmers have the right to:
- Appropriate technologies which are simple, practical and inexpensive
and do not harm the environment or human health;
- Abundant and safe water systems;
- Prevent technologies, policies, programs and institutions that have
the potential to destroy the resource base of farming, including the
land, the water, the air, and seeds;
- Control the products of the harvest and the benefits of production
including marketing and distribution;
- A fair price for their products.
On BIODIVERSITY farmers have the right to:
- Conserve and protect biodiversity and genetic resources including on
and off-farm biodiversity and watersheds which are an integral part of
farming systems;
- Prevent technologies, policies and institutions that destroy the
watershed and otherwise negatively impact on the ability of farmers to
produce food and conserve biodiversity (e.g. logging, mining, and
chemical based farming).
In POLITICS AND DECISION-MAKING farmers have the right to:
- Join, support and form institutions that protect the rights of
farmers;
- Meaningful participation in formulating policies, laws and programs
that affect farmers’ lives on local, national and international levels;
- Block laws, policies, programs and institutions that are contradictory
to sustainable agriculture or farmers’ rights;
- Government subsidies and support in agriculture including improved
traditional varieties and indigenous resources.
On CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE farmers have the right to:
- Control and use their own traditional knowledge free from the threat
of biopiracy;
- Freely express their local culture and knowledge, and to pass it on to
future generations;
- Respect for their way of life, their farming practices and their
knowledge;
- Live in a world free of privatized intellectual property rights.
In INFORMATION AND RESEARCH farmers have the right to:
- Independent and balanced information about seeds and agriculture in
order to make informed choices;
- Truth in advertising including the right not to be bombarded with
misleading or exaggerated statements designed to promote certain
varieties of seeds for profit;
- Updated, independent and balanced information on issues that affect
farmers’ rights;
- Undertake their own research and develop innovation;
- Provide direction for agricultural research.
In the SOCIOPOLITICAL area farmers have the right to:
- Organize and join organizations to protect and promote their rights;
- Promote sustainable agriculture and ecologically abundant agriculture;
- Live in a community that is peaceful and decent;
- Access safe and healthy food;
- A dignified and meaningful life;
- A viable and sustainable livelihood.
These rights aim to safeguard farmers against the negative effects of
globalization including the excessive power and influence of
transnational corporations. Farmers rights implicitly reject
intellectual property rights and genetic engineering which compromise
farmers’ ability to produce food and to fulfill their obligations as
stewards of genetic resources. Privatization of genetic resources
clashes with the very essence of farmers rights which implies collective
rights and responsibilities. We call on governments and institutions to
recognize and implement these rights at local, regional, national and
international levels. Farmers have the right and duty to defend
themselves, their knowledge, the land and genetic resources against any
threat in whatever form it may take. Food security is only possible if
we allow farmers to freely grow food and protect agrobiodiversity as has
been their right and responsibility for generations. Recognition and
implementation of farmers rights is essential not only to protect
farmers in the present but in order to ensure the continuity of
activities that are crucial for humanity at large.
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