Statement: April 17th: Anti-GMO Picket At The Kaneshie Market

April 17th: International Day of Farmers' Struggles in defence of Peasants' and Farmers' Seeds!

The Coalition for Farmers Rights and Advocacy Against GMOs will embark on a picket of the Kaneshie Market this Thursday at 10am, April 17 as part of the activities marking this year's International Day of Farmers' Struggles in defence of Peasants'.

Every year on that day actions take place around the world in defence of peasants and small-scale farmers struggling for their rights. This year's anniversary, April 17th is rightfully dubbed: International Day of Farmers' Struggles in defence of Peasants' and Farmers' Seeds. We intend to use this occasion to reiterate our call for a moratorium or complete ban on GM foods, and the introduction of GMOs into our food chain. We see this as an unnecessary threat to public health, integrity of our water resources, air, and the natural environment.

April 17 is the International Day of Peasant Struggle, commemorating the massacre of 19 peasants struggling for land and justice in Brazil in 1996. This activity marks the beginning of a collaboration between Food Sovereignty Ghana, COFAM, the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge on Organization Development, Peasant Farmers Associations and other civil society organizations is starting a grass-roots farmers mobilization around the issues of the Plant Breeders bill, The Seed And Fertilizer Act and the Biosafety Act.

Let's unite to:
To stop land grabbing and reclaim grabbed land – the land should be in the hands of tillers.

To implement genuine agrarian reform in order to bring about social justice in rural areas.

To end the control over billions of people's lives exercised by a few investors and transnational companies.

To oppose the principles of “responsible agricultural investment” (RAI) proposed by the World Bank as it can never be “responsible” for investors and corporations to grab farmers' land.

To strengthen the agriculture production model based on family farming and food sovereignty.

We invite everyone who can make it, to make it a point to meet us in front of the Kaneshie Market Complex, at 10am.

For Life, the Environment, and Social Justice!
Duke Tagoe
Deputy Chairperson, FSG
Website: http://foodsovereigntyghana.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoodSovereignGH
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoodSovereigntyGhana