Sacramento becomes battleground over genetically engineered
food
By Jamie Hurlbut
Sacramento, Calif.
A conference here sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture brought together World Trade
Organization agriculture ministers from over 120 countries. The
five-day conference, which began on June 23, was designed to
boost an ailing biotech industry hurt by over-speculation and
negative publicity. It served as a trade show for the latest
developments in genetically engineered crops.
Delegates were courted by giant companies like Cargill,
which has been invited by the U.S. government to profit from
developing cash-crop agriculture in Iraq. Bush administration
figures like Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, a former
Monsanto attorney, were also working the crowd.
The conference represented the latest attempt by the Bush
administration to help pave the way for the domination of local
agriculture markets by U.S. corporations. They hoped the
countries represented in the conference would take their side
in Wash ington's dispute with the European Union and some Third
World countries over trade policy toward genetically engineered
(GE) food.
At the conference Secretary Veneman repeated the Bush
administration line that GE food is the key to eradicating
world hunger. This argument is dispelled by the fact that
corporate agriculture often throws away food in order to
maintain market prices. It is ironic that California, the state
with the largest agricultural economy, lets millions of people
go undernourished.
The issue is not scarcity, it is that food is produced
primarily for profit. Food will soon be California's most
shipped product, and is exported as far as 12,000 miles
away.
Environmental activists have accurate ly described the lack
of control inherent in GE crops. They argue that corporate agri
business's rush for profit makes it impossible to test for the
long-term effects of eating GE food or for reactions caused by
inaccuracies in gene-splicing technology.
The convention center and hotel where the delegates stayed
in downtown Sacra mento was surrounded by barricades and
fencing. Thousands of cops in black armor ringed the perimeter,
armed with assault rifles and tear gas and driving armored
personnel carriers. Demonstra tors from across the country
converged outside.
Forty-six people were plucked from the bands of roving
demonstrators and arrested by the police on Sunday, June 22,
even before the conference had begun. Direct actions took place
at both conference events and sites of local community
struggles. On Monday morning several thousand protesters met on
the Capitol steps to hear speakers before a short march through
Sacra mento. The speakers included United Farm Workers
co-founder Dolores Huerta. A family farmer from Idaho and
member of the worldwide Via Campesina movement spoke about how
the fight against corporate agribusiness is a worldwide
struggle across the global North and South.
Reprinted from the July 10, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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