Międzynarodowa Koalicja Dla Ochrony Polskiej Wsi
The just-published research paper providing important evidence of the destructive effects of top-down policies, including agriculture, forest management, and conservation
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An environmental nonprofit has obtained documents showing the extent to which the European Commission has been lobbied by pesticide producers
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New report published about patents on seeds and call for a public protest
23 October 2014 The international coalition of No Patents on Seeds! today published a report on patents on seeds. The report was prompted by the fact that the European Patent Office (EPO) has already granted several thousand patents on plants and seeds, with a steadily increasing number of patents on plants and seeds derived from conventional breeding. Around 2400 patents on plants and 1400 patents on animals have been granted in Europe since the 1980s. More than 7500 patent applications for plants and around 5000 patents for animals are pending. Amongst others, the EPO has already granted more than 120 patents on conventional breeding and about 1000 such patent applications are pending. The scope of many of the patents is extremely broad and very often covers the whole food chain from production to consumption.
Amongst the patents granted recently, are 'inventions' such as peppers bred from wild varieties originating from Jamaica, tomatoes that were developed through sourcing the international gene bank in Germany, sunflowers from random mutagenesis and a selection of wild relatives of soybeans found in Asia and Australia.
Congratulations to Michael Schmidt – the Ontario farmer who’s due in a Newmarket court today for the verdict on charges he violated the provincial Milk Act by selling unpasteurized milk – for standing up to the anti-raw-milk lobbyists. I am very aware of what he and his supporters are up against, having founded the Association for Unpasteurised Milk Producers and Consumers in the United Kingdom back in 1989 to prevent the British government’s proposed ban of unpasteurized milk – and again in 1997. We won our battle on both occasions, maybe because of the “and Consumers” factor and much press support.
Read moreAn international bi-annual event entitled “World Farmers Congress” is being held in Warsaw and surrounds 30 May to 7 June 2008. Neither ICPPC nor the Coalition for a GMO Free Poland have been invited.
Two organisations have their names prominently featured: The International Federation of Agricultural Producers (FIPA) and The National Union of Farmers, Circles and Agricultural Organisations (KR). Both these organisations support mainstream, agrichemical/GMO farming practices and trading commodities on the global “free” market. The programme, which can be accessed on Google (type in world farmers congress) includes a presentation from Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank; Crawford Falconer, chairman of the Agricultural Negotiations Committee of the World Trade Association and Donald Tusk.
Read moreDuring the 20th century, the word ‘Horsepower’ has been adapted to describe the power output of the internal combustion engine. However, the early road hauling and agricultural steam engines were quite literally described as being three, four or five ‘Horse power’, thus one could equate the strength of the horses to that of the steam engines of this new era. These steel beasts lead the charge of the all-conquering industrial revolution, followed by the dominance of the internal combustion engine and the almost total dependence on oil for the great majority of agricultural and transport needs.
Read moreIt is becoming increasingly hard in most of Western Europe and North America, to buy any food from farms situated close to where one lives – i.e. ‘local food.’
In England, where over 80% of food is now purchased in Supermarkets, the contents of a typical supermarket trolley of food has traveled more than 3,000 kilometers before it reaches the display shelves. This contributes greatly to planetary pollution and depleted food quality.
Read more” A Taste of Things to Come?”– Resisting the Threat to Polish Family Farms – Poland’s food and farming traditions
Read moreA seminar organized by ICPPC (The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside) took place in Stryszow and Cracow on May 25th – 26th. Among the participants were: Ake Karlsson – president of Swedish Small Farmers Organization, Sir Richard Body – the Member of UK Parliament, author of many books about the European agriculture and the development of Europe, Luise Hemmer Pihl – Danish journalist and member of People’s Movement Against EU, Hanna Mitoñska – Farmers Union “Ojczyzna”, Ma³gorzata Cieœlak – secretary of Polish Christian Entrepreneurs Association as well as small family farmers from Stryszow area and journalists from press TV and radio stations.
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I have been thinking how to convince small farmers that they are facing a big opportunity, and if they will use this opportunity, it will strengthen the socio-economic position of their farms. First of all this chance depends on their own activities and initiative, not that of the government, and their appreciation of the value of what they have. If we don’t take any action, we will be blamed by future generations that we allowed the destruction of Polish traditions, culture, and the countryside landscape, and voluntarily allowed colonization by the EU. Based on my observations during my visits to Western Europe and the U.S.A., I can state that in general the Polish countryside is rich. This is a quite shocking statement, because for many years we have been taught that the Polish countryside is poor and backward, and that we need to modernize, chemisize and urbanize the countryside. The propaganda was so strong that we as countryside people believed it, forgetting that we are the citizens of these villages, and that these foreign ideas were imposed by a small but strong group of business people. Why is it like this? Simply because the interests of countryside people and these business people are different.
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