Substances likely to be harmful to bees will also be outlawed as bees are essential for the pollination of crops, while 20 percent of pesticides are very toxic to bees. The harmful use of pesticides has been the major reason for the recent sudden die-off of bee communities around the Planet.

Aerial crop spraying of pesticides will also be almost completely prohibited, with minor exceptions.

The EU’s ban of the most toxic pesticides met an unprecedented opposition from the British parliamentarians of the UK’s Tory and LaboUr parties. The great resistance from the UK government and the British agribusiness was based on the primary assertion that food prices would soar as the crop yields would decrease. However, most unbiased agri experts believe there is now grounded verification of those worries, and, on the opposite, many crops varieties have been endangered by the use of toxic pesticides which have ruined the natural balance of pest control in the fields causing major losses in productivity. Not to mention the facts of immense harm caused by those toxins to the health of humans both farmers and consumers.

Organic farmers worldwide prove that better crops with no use of pesticides can be grown without any losses of yields. Moreover, such pesticide-free crops can be preserved much better. The UK’s Soil Association says research based on UK government data suggests that more food could in fact be produced under organic production compared to conventional farming.

A study published by the United States National Research Council in 1993 determined that for infants and children, the major source of exposure to pesticides is through diet. A study in 2006 measured the levels of organophosphorus pesticide exposure in 23 school children before and after replacing their diet with organic food (food grown without synthetic pesticides). In this study it was found that levels of organophosphorus pesticide exposure dropped dramatically and immediately when the children switched to an organic diet. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticides)

As an African American farmer from Mississippi who has visited and traveled to Africa many times, I am stunned that the real solutions continue to be ignored. We face multiple crises — financial, climate, energy, and water. Business as usual will not solve our global hunger crisis. More expensive genetically modified seeds, pesticides and chemical-intensive practices won’t help the hungry and will only allow more profits and control for seed companies like Monsanto and Syngenta.

While the G8 calls for more “free trade” in agriculture and more biotechnology, groundbreaking scientific reports and actions at the United Nations are actively calling for a different vision of agriculture. This would be based on agroecological methods that respects our planet’s resources and provide a decent living for family farmers. In 2008, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), backed by United Nations agencies, the World Bank and over 400 contributing scientists from 80 countries found that the most promising solutions to the world’s food crisis include investing in agroecological research, extension and farming.=2 0The Congress and Obama Administration need to take a serious look at the IAASTD report before funneling scarce resources into another Green Revolution in Africa.

Past public-private partnerships in Africa have proven to be failures, such as the 14-year project between Monsanto, USAID and the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute to engineer a virus-resistant sweet potato. The GM sweet potato failed to show any resistance to the virus while local varieties actually outperformed the GM variety in field trials. The U.S. approach to helping Africa should not be a top-down process that excludes the voices of African farmers who have the knowledge of their land and what food to grow.

The UN is helping to move the discussion towards “food sovereignty” by appointing a Special Rapporteur on the “Right to Food.” and convening a Panel on the Right to Food. I was privileged to hear General Coordinator of La Via Campesina Henry Saragih of Indonesia and Professor Olivier De Schutter before the United Nations General Assembly. De Schutter said, “the right to food is not simply about more production, but about distribution and access. While high food prices are bad for consumers, so too are depressed prices for farmers who can’t20make a living. De Schutter pointed out that 60% of hungry people in the world are small farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and others who make a living off the land. An additional 20% are landless agriculture workers.”

A “right to food” framework therefore goes deeper than simply the misguided obsession with yields and productivity, and more fundamentally towards questions regarding democracy and access to resources, including land, water and credit. A recent report by Union of Concerned Scientists titled “Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops,” showed that despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields while only driving up costs for farmers.

In comparison, traditional breeding continues to deliver better results. The scientific research and renewed focus on the “right to food” exposes why we must move away from Green Revolution monoculture practices and instead embrace ecologically sound practices, more equitable trade rules and local food distribution systems to empower family farmers. Now the governments of the world and the Gates Foundation need to finally get the message as well.

GREEN REVOLUTION A FAILURE IN AFRICA
APRIL 22, 2009
– Ben Burkett
Ben Burkett is a Mississippi farmer and President of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives. He is also the President of the National Family Farm Coalition and represents North American on the Food Sovereignty Commission of La Via Campesina. The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) was founded in 1986 to serve as a national link for grassroots organizations working on family farm issues. www.nffc.net