Several popular movements and struggles in the countryside are organizing this Saturday (21/05) a day of protests in various regions of Venezuela against the multinational giants of the agrochemical sector Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta.
Militants in defense of food sovereignty, producers, peasants and artists are expected at the main event, in Caracas, at Plaza Los Museos de Bellas Artes, which adds to the worldwide mobilization that takes place annually against these international companies.
The demonstration, organized by the GMO-Free Venezuela Campaign, the Conuquera Agroecological Fair and the Pueblo a Pueblo Foundation, aims to raise public awareness of the risks that genetically modified foods and seeds pose to health and food sovereignty in the country.
According to Gisella Perdomo, one of the organizers of the march, it is necessary to explain to the population how transgenic products work and how these agrochemical companies operate in the sector.
“Monsanto implements a type of industrial agriculture that does not favor people or ecosystems, treating agriculture only as a business, not as a form of sovereignty, nor as a form of healthy eating”, explains Perdomo to the Brazil de facto
We are waiting for you this Saturday # 21mayo from 1pm in the Plaza de Los Museos de Bellas Artes, within the framework of the world day against Monsanto, to defend our Seed Law and say NO to GMOs #DefendYourSeedLaw #VenezuelaLibredeTransgenicos pic.twitter.com/HT03LV1fe6
— VenezuelaLibreDeOGM (@vzlalibredeogm) May 19, 2022
Unlike conventional seeds, also called creoles, transgenic seeds depend on large amounts of chemical fertilizers that harm the soil, in addition to the fact that they are protected by patents, which ends up creating a dependency for the agricultural sector and favors the monopoly of multinational producers .
In 2018, the German company Bayer bought the North American Monsanto for US$ 66 billion (equivalent to R$ 275 billion), giving rise to the largest group of pesticides and GMOs in the world.
Seed Law threatened?
Perdomo explains that, in Venezuela, the use of transgenic seeds protected by patents has been prohibited since 2015 and one of the goals of this Saturday’s act is to denounce any attempt to modify the so-called Seed Law, drawn up by popular movements fighting for food sovereignty.
“The Seed Law was created by our movements that now come to its defense. It prohibits the use of transgenic seeds in Venezuela, prohibits patents on seeds and recognizes that mechanisms of popular power can guarantee the quality of national seeds, boosting production indigenous and Afro-descendants”, explains the activist.
However, Perdomo denounces that there are currently attempts by businessmen and politicians to modify points of the law passed in 2015 to criminalize the activities of popular movements in the countryside and to reintroduce products such as those manufactured by multinationals in the agrochemical sector such as Bayer and Monsanto into the country. .
The movement’s idea is to reinforce the agroecological agriculture agenda / Reproduction
“At this particular moment, when we see some attacks against the Seed Law, we want to denounce even more what transgenics are, what problems they generate for our food sovereignty, for the health of peasants and consumers”, he says.
Also according to the activist, crisis situations caused “by the economic blockade could serve as a justification for some people in the government to allow the entry of these seeds, either by modifying the Seed Law or by other legal mechanisms that serve to combat sanctions”.
“That’s why we need to fight these ideas right now, because the presence of transgenic seeds protected by patents would only enslave us to these companies”, he says.
Editing: Arturo Hartmann
