This event is due to take place over 10 days in Thailand.  Please send messages of support for the long march to the address at the end, in Thailand.  If you have a very brief piece of news to send them about actions you are taking in your region, that would be great! Please also alert any press contacts you have.  If you do not get your message there for the 6th, it does not matter too much; there will be a big event at the end as well.Thank you for your solidarity, All good wishes, Helena <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>  

The Long March for Biodiversity:Mobile campaign on the threat of GMOs and the promise of peoples' alternatives for food security and agricultural biodiversity in Asia

Thailand 6-16 September 2000
WHY HAVE A LONG MARCH?

Genetically modified crops and foods being introduced into Thailand and other countries in South and Southeast Asia have stirred up a huge debate since 1997.  The controversy focuses on the implication of genetic engineering for food security, the increasing domination of transnational corporations in the region, and the impact on local bio-diversity.

In the past few years, transnational corporations, which develop genetically modified crops, have collaborated with governments in countries such as Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia to bring GM cotton, corn and soon rice seeds for field testing.  This poses many problems.  There are many uncertainties about the technology and regulatory systems in these countries are so weak and lacking in public participation that GM seeds are introduced with insufficient oversight and information. Already, Bt cotton seeds from Monsanto have been found growing illegally in Thailand.  While NGOs blew the alarm on this finding in 1999, no one has yet taken responsibility for this act nor solved the problems it raises.

The challenge at hand is for Asian countries to better define their options and set directions for agricultural research and development that are most appropriate to the people.

Northern governments, transnational corporations, private foundations and international agricultural research institutes have played a major role in guiding and informing policy-makers to influence their decision-making as well as conducting mass media campaigns to boast "the bright side" of this technology and win over Asian scientific and political consent through the lure of funding. So the governments and institutes for science and technology in these countries are likely to support this technology.  For example, researchers in Switzerland who developed vitamin-A rice now claim that scientists and policy-makers in Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and Bangladesh are eager to embrace this new technology, despite the total lack of discussion on the implications for - and with! - farmers and local people.Farmers and people in Asia have learned and experienced the failure of the Green Revolution.  Therefore, agricultural development should not take that direction any longer.  At present, transnational corporations, international agricultural research institutes and some schools of scientists rationalize their slant with the problems of increasing populations, lack of food, drought and pests.  This was the same justification for the Green Revolution four decades ago - although now we have soil infertility, genetic erosion, debt, landlessness and much greater dependency on external inputs because of that Green Revolution.  The point is: farmers, consumers and local people in these countries have been marginalized from these discussions and decisions, despite the fact that they are the first and most directly affected.  So they should be encouraged and empowered to play a more significant role at national and regional levels in these discussion and to generate more people-oriented ideas for action.
WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING?

The Long March is a continuous caravan-type of mobile campaign that will traverse six areas of Thailand (five provincial sites plus Bangkok). The sites that will be visited are all areas where farmers and other local organizations have already initiated their own activities concerning these issues. Local groups will host the campaigners and will organise the scheduled events. All events are open to the public.

The Long March is designed to bring information from the national and international levels to the grassroots people and, at the same time, generate information, ideas and concrete planning proposals from the local perspective that can feed the national and international campaigns. In each site, the programme involves a mixture of activates: speeches, panel presentations, cultural shows, seed exchanges, distribution of research reports, exhibits, dialogues with the media and open fora. It is expected that the foreign participants will engage in constant sharing with the Thai communities to enrich peoples' strategies on GE and IPR across the region.

The Long March will be captured on video in order to share the experience with other groups and countries.

See Annex 1 for details.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & PARTICIPATION

For media inquiries and other information on The Long March, please contact:  Mr Witoon Lianchamroon BIOTHAI 801/8 Ngamwongwan 27 Soi 5 Muang, Nonthaburi 11000 Thailand Tel: (66-2) 952 7371 or 952 7953 Fax: (66-2) 952 8312 Email (new!): mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Web hosting of this document: http://www.grain.org