Food First's blog

Por Angela Rodriguez

Dow Jones Newswire ran a story on November 13th on the effort by the MST and Via Campesina to expel the Syngenta corporation from Brazil after the murder of MST/Via Campesina member Valmir Mota de Oliveira at its experimental farm in western Paraná state on October 21st. Mota was shot with two bullets in the chest at point blank range by one of Syngenta's hired security guards.

Senator Lugar of Indiana and Senator Lautenberg of New Jersey introduced the FRESH ACT. The ACT would end the billions of dollars going to corn, cotton, wheat, rice, soy and other big crops and replace it with a crop insurance program available to all farmers--including the 90% of California farmers who get NO money from the current

This Alert courtesy of OXFAM America:

More than 800 million people around the world face food shortages or malnutrition. The USA is massive donor of food aid, contributing more than one-half of all food aid to meet urgent demands and respond to emergencies.

Dear Friends,

I have just received this press release from Brazil. Its roughly translated English reveals its urgency (I received several others regarding the same event in Spanish and Portuguese). Food First is looking in to the incident.

Eric

PRESS RELEASE

21/10/07

Attack of Syngenta’s armed militia results in deaths and woundeds
Brazil

Dear Friends,
We have been very busy at Food First and I have not had time to do this blog justice! Forgive me. To bring everyone up to speed, I am going to belatedly post accounts of the interesting and hopeful activities in which Food First has been involved.

Conference on the Green Revolution in Mozambique

Submitted by Laura Miller

Submitted by Laura Ann Miller

We left El Paso by bus at 7 AM. After a 4 hour drive across the northern deserts of Mexico, we arrive in Chihuahua, where we are received by Rogelio and Miguel Angel of the Frente Democratico Campesino—FDC. The FDC has been advocating for the rights of smallholder farmers in Chihuahua for over twenty years. Everyone seems to be in western dress: boots, Levi’s, wide belt and cowboy hat. Victor Quintana, a recently-elected representative to the Mexican Congress and a longtime adviser to the Frente gives us a talk over lunch at La Cebolla Roja in Chihuahua.

I’ve recently returned from Food First’s whirlwind reality tour to Mexico: “Along the Immigrant Trail.” We visited five cities (El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Oaxaca City) six villages (Santa Isabel, Anáhuac, Vicente Guerrero, Guelatao, Nochixtlán, and Zaragoza. We met with eleven organizations, spoke with Mexican congressional representatives, and participated in a Via Campesina international meeting on NAFTA – All in eleven days!