April 17, 2001
NFU Officials Address People's Summit in Quebec City
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC: Over 140 farm leaders from North, Central, and South America, and the Carribean met today in Quebec City. The Agricultural Forum is one of nine sectoral forums that make up the People's Summit. The People's Summit coincides with the Summit of the Americas where Prime Minister Jean Chretien and 34 other heads of state will discuss "hemispheric integration" and negotiate on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Ag.Forum participants were unanimous in calling the free trade and globalization experiment a failure for farm families, peasants, and agricultural workers. "Free trade hasn't worked for us," said NFU Women's President Shannon Storey.
NFU Alberta Board member Jan Slomp told the farm leaders: "For Canadian farmers, free trade has meant exchanging better-paying, stable domestic markets for unstable, vulnerable, poorer-paying foreign markets."
While Canadian agri-food exports have more than doubled in the last ten years, imports have increased faster. "We are literally exchanging, dollar for dollar, stable, higher priced markets in Calgary for unstable, lower-price markets in Calcutta," said Slomp.
Slomp, an Alberta dairy farmer, pointed out that Canada's supply-managed dairy sector, which produces almost exclusively for the Canadian domestic market, has largely escaped the current farm income crisis, while sectors which focus on export markets have been devastated. "And now the trade agreements such as NAFTA and the WTO are threatening to destroy the supply management system. If this happens, dairy farmers will enjoy the kind of prosperity grain farmers have had for years," said Slomp
Slomp praised alternatives to the current produce-more, export-more model of agriculture. In addition to supply management, he cited organic and reduced-input agriculture.
"For farmers, prosperity does not come from increased production or increased exports. For us, prosperity requires controlling production and increasing market power. Power and control: This is what supply management gives us. And this is what trade agreements take away."
Slomp ended by noting that the things that work for farmers--organic agriculture, supply-management, reduced input agriculture--embody principles that stand in direct opposition to the production and trade-maximizing principles of the WTO, NAFTA, and proposed FTAA. Slomp called for a new vision for the world agricultural trade and production system, one that promoted stability, health, biodiversity, and culture: one that respects and builds the health and well-being of all people, the earth, the air, and of our animals, now, and for future generations.
Today's agenda also included speakers from Chile, the US, and Mexico.
The Agricultural Forum continues Wednesday, April 18. The People's Summit wraps up on Thursday, April 19. Most of the farm leaders will march together in demonstrations against the destructive effects of the FTAA. Those demonstrations are scheduled for Saturday, April 21.
For photos of today's proceedings, visit http://www.nfu.ca .
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Several NFU officials and staff will be carrying cellular telephones in Quebec: