The future of agriculture deserves better than Syngenta
31 March 2017 - A press release from FIAN Belgium
More than fifty Belgian, European and international organisations are hosting an action today to denounce the 10th Forum for the Future of Agriculture, a large lobbying event organised by the world’s biggest pesticides producer Syngenta and the EU lobby group of large landowners, the European Landowners’ Organisation.
This coalItion of farmers unions, civil society organisations and citizens opposes the false solutions advertised by agribusiness multinationals, and states that farming sustainably can only happen by first stopping the destruction of soil, nature and farmers. Yet the economic success of the FFA organisers over the past decades has been built on this very destruction.
During the FFA, participating businesses and corporate lobby groups are presenting false solutions to today’s environmental and food production challenges, with a model of agriculture that depends heavily on pesticides and fossil fuels, and is automated, standardised and industrial by design. Aside from the catastrophic impacts of these agribusiness methods on biodiversity, human health and soil, and thereby the future potential for food production, this vision of agriculture promoted by lobbies and multinational corporations aggravates the dependency and debt of farmers and accelerates their disappearance.
A recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) comes to the same conclusion and highlights the problematic approach taken by agrochemical companies like Syngenta. It also exposes the myth maintained by FFA organisers that pesticides would be essential to bolster the food security of an ever-growing global population.
According to the UN experts, agroecology on the contrary is a solution which can successfully meet today’s environmental and food challenges without putting the environment and human health on the line. The FAO praises agroecology as a model that replaces “chemical inputs with ecological processes” and promotes agricultural practices that “stimulate beneficial biological interactions between different plants and species to build long-term fertility and soil health”.
Martin Pigeon from CEO said: “We are standing in solidarity with farmers and citizens who have mobilised today against the disastrous consequences of Big Agribusiness’s grip on EU policy-making. Politicians in the EU and worldwide need to become very serious about investing in the agroecological transition of the sector, which is the only way to boost food security and sustainability in the long term.”
Notes to editors: The call and list of all signatories can be found here.
Contact: Martin Pigeon, Corporate Europe Observatory, +32 484 671 909
