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Showing Original Post only (View all)Hundreds of Farmers Block Roads in Protest of Monsanto’s GMO Crops [View all]
Last edited Sun Mar 1, 2015, 01:07 PM - Edit history (3)
In Poland.
Hundreds of Farmers Block Roads in Protest of Monsantos GMO Crops
3/1/2015
A convoy of Polish tractors on the road as part of the biggest farmers' uprising the country has ever experienced. Photo: via Land Workers Alliance.
Polands largest farmer uprising ever has occurred as convoys of tractors took to the roads recently in protest of GMO infiltration and land grabs by biotech and Big Ag corporations.
More than 150 farmers blocked roadways and held numerous demonstrations in order to bring attention to the important issue of food sovereignty in Poland. Their focus is a ban on GMOs and a restoration of small farmers rights after decades of oppressive health and safety regulations which take rights away from small farms and give them to mono-cropping, poisoning Big Ag mega-companies.
The farmers have been stalwart refusing to call off their demonstrations until their demands are met. Rallies and demonstrations have littered the country in over 50 locations. Hundreds are picketing government offices in addition to the road blockades.
In the largest organized farmers protest the country has likely ever seen, the farmers are demanding that legislators protect the small farmer from exploitation by monopolizing companies and refuse the sell off of their countrys land to these behemoths. As the farmers point out, once the land is sold, the Big Ag model cant be stopped, and the land is forever lost.
Read: Record GMO Farmers Switching to NON-GMO Crops in 2015
Until government officials agree to talk with the farming unions, they have vowed to keep up their efforts. Edward Kosmal, chairman of the farmers protest committee for West-Pomeranian Region said:
We are ready for dialogue. We look forward to meeting with you, Prime Minister, and beginning a comprehensive government commitment to solving the problems of Polish agriculture. If you do not enter into a dialogue with the Union, we will be forced to step up our protests....
http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/03/01/hundreds-of-farmers-block-roads-in-protest-of-monsantos-gmo-crops/
3/1/2015
A convoy of Polish tractors on the road as part of the biggest farmers' uprising the country has ever experienced. Photo: via Land Workers Alliance.
Polands largest farmer uprising ever has occurred as convoys of tractors took to the roads recently in protest of GMO infiltration and land grabs by biotech and Big Ag corporations.
More than 150 farmers blocked roadways and held numerous demonstrations in order to bring attention to the important issue of food sovereignty in Poland. Their focus is a ban on GMOs and a restoration of small farmers rights after decades of oppressive health and safety regulations which take rights away from small farms and give them to mono-cropping, poisoning Big Ag mega-companies.
The farmers have been stalwart refusing to call off their demonstrations until their demands are met. Rallies and demonstrations have littered the country in over 50 locations. Hundreds are picketing government offices in addition to the road blockades.
In the largest organized farmers protest the country has likely ever seen, the farmers are demanding that legislators protect the small farmer from exploitation by monopolizing companies and refuse the sell off of their countrys land to these behemoths. As the farmers point out, once the land is sold, the Big Ag model cant be stopped, and the land is forever lost.
Read: Record GMO Farmers Switching to NON-GMO Crops in 2015
Until government officials agree to talk with the farming unions, they have vowed to keep up their efforts. Edward Kosmal, chairman of the farmers protest committee for West-Pomeranian Region said:
We are ready for dialogue. We look forward to meeting with you, Prime Minister, and beginning a comprehensive government commitment to solving the problems of Polish agriculture. If you do not enter into a dialogue with the Union, we will be forced to step up our protests....
http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/03/01/hundreds-of-farmers-block-roads-in-protest-of-monsantos-gmo-crops/
Editing to add info & refute comments below trying to smear this OP with lies, like Fox...
Key demands: land rights, no GMOs, legalize farm food sales
The four key demands of the farmers are:
Land rights - implement regulation to prevent land-grabs by Western companies and to protect family farmers rights to land - from 2016 foreign buyers will be legally able to buy Polish land.
Legalize direct sales of farm produce - the government must take action to improve farmers' position in the market, including the adoption of a law to facilitate direct sales of processed and unprocessed farm products (NB. Poland has the most exclusionary policies in Europe around on-farm processing of food products and direct sales, which make it impossible for family farmers to compete with bigger food companies).
Extend inheritance laws to include land under lease as a fully legal form of land use.
Ban the cultivation and sale of Genetically Modified Organisms in Poland
"We demand a legal ban on GM crops in Poland", said one protesting farmer and Solidarity member. "The value of Polish agriculture, unique in Europe, is the unpolluted environment and high quality food production. That's decisive concerning our competitiveness in global markets."
Another added: "We demand the introduction of legislation that will protect Polish land from exploitation by foreign capital! Agricultural land cannot be sold to commercial companies. It's part of Polish territory. Once sold it will be lost."...
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2747384/polish_farmers_block_motorways_for_land_rights_no_gmos.html
The four key demands of the farmers are:
Land rights - implement regulation to prevent land-grabs by Western companies and to protect family farmers rights to land - from 2016 foreign buyers will be legally able to buy Polish land.
Legalize direct sales of farm produce - the government must take action to improve farmers' position in the market, including the adoption of a law to facilitate direct sales of processed and unprocessed farm products (NB. Poland has the most exclusionary policies in Europe around on-farm processing of food products and direct sales, which make it impossible for family farmers to compete with bigger food companies).
Extend inheritance laws to include land under lease as a fully legal form of land use.
Ban the cultivation and sale of Genetically Modified Organisms in Poland
"We demand a legal ban on GM crops in Poland", said one protesting farmer and Solidarity member. "The value of Polish agriculture, unique in Europe, is the unpolluted environment and high quality food production. That's decisive concerning our competitiveness in global markets."
Another added: "We demand the introduction of legislation that will protect Polish land from exploitation by foreign capital! Agricultural land cannot be sold to commercial companies. It's part of Polish territory. Once sold it will be lost."...
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2747384/polish_farmers_block_motorways_for_land_rights_no_gmos.html
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Hundreds of Farmers Block Roads in Protest of Monsanto’s GMO Crops [View all]
RiverLover
Mar 2015
OP
Another source makes no mention of Monsanto -- says protest is over loss of crops to wild boar
GreatGazoo
Mar 2015
#1
Did you even bother to look it up yourself? (rhetorical question -- I know the answer)
Buzz Clik
Mar 2015
#25
Good jury result. The alert should have been on the post that caused that response. Did you alert on
sabrina 1
Mar 2015
#100
that sucks, you posted this yesterday on Sunday- it's only ONE DAY into the week!
snooper2
Mar 2015
#71
Same land grab MO big ag used in the Us in the 1980's. Big Ag are criminals against the earth.
Dont call me Shirley
Mar 2015
#2
Good way to phrase it & BigAg's land grabs are allowing the GMOs Polish farmers don't want.
RiverLover
Mar 2015
#58
Nye has changed his views on GMOs, and will show that in an updated version of his book.
HuckleB
Mar 2015
#18
"That 14-year-old is the daughter of parents who own a billion dollar organic food and..."
Veilex
Mar 2015
#37
So I'll retract my statment that golden rice has been scraped. The 14 year old activist was still...
Veilex
Mar 2015
#101
"Nye has changed his views on GMOs, and will show that in an updated version of his book."
Veilex
Mar 2015
#38
This is actually a past viewpoint. Nye has admitted that he has changed these views.
HuckleB
Mar 2015
#98
So, she says we can't trust "biotech," but she wants us to trust the anti-GMO movement?
HuckleB
Mar 2015
#49
She brings up good points, but I certainly wouldn't call it a 'trust' issue in re science itself.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
Mar 2015
#53
Me again. There are some solid reasons to be concerned about GMO crop systems
GreatGazoo
Mar 2015
#14
it IS happening here (Unless you mean 'protesting Russian embargoes on Polish produce')
GreatGazoo
Mar 2015
#23
Which just happens to be the exact same reason all other commercial produce is developed
Major Nikon
Mar 2015
#59
Wow. Have you been reading from the Sean Hannity playbook of rebuttals against science?
Buzz Clik
Mar 2015
#109
I see. Science by assimilation. You let your immune system filter out the bad science?
Buzz Clik
Mar 2015
#113
We have been trained to revere giant corporations, through generations of
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
Mar 2015
#54
They're doing it right - addressing the major issues associated with GM.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
Mar 2015
#51
I'm curious -- did you ever acknowledge that this protest was NOT about GMO crops?
Buzz Clik
Mar 2015
#110