Stop Monsanto in Copenhagen

http://www.stwr.org/climate-change-environment/the-agribusiness-lobby-arrives-in...

Agribusiness Lobby Arrives In Copenhagen.

How will small scale farmers fare? Will their voices be heard?

Agriculture sector - climate polluter

Over the past few months, the media has been full of worrysome information on climate change. Agriculture is a major contributor to this, mostly due to the keeping of livestock. Keeping livestock is responsible for at least 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all of the traffic worldwide. The gases come from burning fossil fuels in the production of artificial fertilizers, methane emissions from both the animals themselves and from dealing with manure, and the use of fossil fuels in producing animal fodder. Methane especially is a very powerful greenhouse gas, 21 times more harmful per kilogram than CO2. For the production of animal fodder and the need for grazing grounds, there is clear cutting and burning of forest areas. Burning down forests and the oxidation of carbon by soil loss causes massive emissions of CO2. As lost soil is not replaced, this process has been called “agricultural mining," leading to local temperature rise and desertification, and not to mention the effects of transporting all the feed, manure, animals, and the end product – the meat. According to the recent report 'Livestock's long shadow' (2006) from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the livestock sector is responsible for the following worldwide human influenced production of:
CO (2.9%)
methane (35-40%)
nitrous oxides (65%) and
ammonia (64%).

links to:
Soy in numbers http://www.pig8soy.org/en/node/50
WTO for Soy http://www.pig8soy.org/en/node/56
The Structural Adjustment Program Monoculture Drive http://www.pig8soy.org/en/node/57

http://www.pig8soy.org/node/55

Soy for meat - ecosystem threat
"Look what they have to eat. I know this, from before I was liberated. Pure genetically manipulated soy. Every meal. And it all came from Argentina because there, they produce millions of tons of soy for our animal feed, they can't use its fertile land to grow healthy food for its own population. I don't get this world."

In the South American countries of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, the massive expansion of soy production for export has catastrophic consequences for rural communities and ways of living. Soybean cultivation is most profitable when done in a capital intensive and labour extensive way and has displaced more labour intensive production such as vegetables, cotton, and dairy farming. While large parts of Argentina and Brazil are already covered in soy plantations, it is much less known that Paraguay has become the world’s fourth largest soybean exporter.

In 2006, nearly 2.5 million hectares of soy was sown in Paraguay alone, an area comparable to the German State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Paraguayan authorities are planning an increase to 4 million hectares. According to the Paraguayan NGO BASE.IS, “…The expansion of mono-cultures “green deserts” such as large scale soy production promotes a mechanised agriculture without small farmers; without people. All mono-cultures are damaging to the ecosystems they supplant; they destroy biological and agricultural diversity, poison water sources and the soil and undermine the food security and sovereignty of the people and their countries. They cause poverty, unemployment and the eviction and exodus of communities in rural areas.”

In Argentina, nearly all soy grown is “RoundupReady” varieties from the biotech multinational Monsanto. This genetically modified soy plant is made resistant to the “kill all” herbicide “Roundup.” It survives intensive spraying while all other plants and weeds around it are killed. The use of this variety is advancing in Paraguay and Brazil as well.

Soy- an ecosystem threat

The explosion of soy cultivation has caused the destruction of millions of hectares of forest and savannah with extremely high and valuable biodiversity. Between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost nearly 150,000 km2 of forest - an area larger than Greece. Recently, soy beans have become one of the most important contributors to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Soybean production directly causes some forest clearing, but has a much greater impact on deforestation by expanding into savannah and transitional forests, thereby pushing ranchers and slash-and-burn farmers even deeper into the forest frontier. Soybean farming is also a key economic and political impetus for new highways and infrastructure projects, which accelerate deforestation even further.

The large scale monoculture agriculture with its large machinery and terminating pesticide spraying replaces the technique of turning the soil to get rid of weeds. This, together with lack of crop rotation, causes increased erosion by both water and wind. On average, the production of 1 kg of soy beans means the loss of 4 kg of soil.

More information I received from the site:

Dear friends,

Thank you for protesting against the greenwash of irresponsible soy. Together we sent 10.500 mails to the Dutch Government, and earlier on 3.000 to WWF and Solidaridad. This way we give 'responsible' soy the bad name it deserves. The Dutch Ministers Verburg and Koenders replied that they realise the RTRS has a long way to go, but they do see progress and keep supporting it. They don't want to accept that growing (GM) crops with massive use of herbicides can never be responsible. Soy export from South-America as animal feed for pigs and poultry in Europe can in itself never be responsible. Real solutions can be found in growing animal feed in Europe, strongy reducing the meat-industry and supporting the affected communities.

The signatures to the Dutch Government have been handed over officially to Mrs.Verburg on november the 25th. A short report can be found at
http://www.toxicsoy.org/toxicsoy/news/Artikelen/2009/11/26_10.500_protestmails_a...

Next week the climate summit COP 15 in Copenhagen is about to start. Large scale agriculture depends on a massive input of fuel, fertilizer and pesticides and strongly contributes to climate change. Meat industry and transport of animal feed and agrofuels makes it even worse. This is not necessary, concludes an intensive study by 400 scientist from many countries. In the so called IAASTD report they show that use of existing techniques for organic agriculture can feed the world, even in 2050, by mostly local food production. Without toxins, without GMOs, in respect for people, nature and planet. They strongly advise a paradigm change in agriculture.

Trade and Industry don't listen and choose to continue business as usual. Monsanto demands climate subsidy for Roundup Ready soy - supported by WWF and RTRS. Spraying herbicides instead of tilling is supposed to reduce carbon emissions. Nice PR, but without taking all the negative impacts into account. We strongly object to this kind of false climate solutions. For that reason we have nominated Monsanto and the RTRS for the worst Climate Lobby Award in Copenhagen.

Please cast your vote at www.angrymermaid.org

Consider to forward this request to your contacts.

Yours sincerely,

Tjerk Dalhuisen
www.toxicsoy.org

ps We organized the petition to the Dutch Government in cooperation with the German organisation Rainforest Rescue. They support actions to protect forests, people and climate all around the world and make it easy to send protestmails. Fill in your details once and you will be able to take quick action on many topics. See www.rainforest-rescue.org (in German www.regenwald.org and in Spanish www.salvalaselva.org )