La Via Campesina in defense of Right to Food and public stock holding in CFS- FAO

Here is the text of  S.Kannaiyan who spoke on behalf of La via Campesina and civil society mechanism in defense of Right to Food and Public stock holding program of India in  the CFS plenary in FAO on 14th October, 2014.

Thank you madam chair and I take the floor representing 

La Via Campesina which is an active member in the civil society mechanism here.

Civil Society endorses the stance that India has taken here today on the public stock holding issue. We, as civil society believe in the principle of coherence of human rights, which is enshrined in the UDHR. Human Rights are indivisible and inter-dependent.

We cannot have a right to adequate food in practice only by ensuring minimalistic entitlements and by negating the principle of policy coherence.

The complete hypocrisy of the developed countries particularly the US and the EU needs to be throughly exposed. Whilst protecting the interests of their farmers and agri-business, they are using the blatantly unjust WTO rules to arm-twist India and other developing countries.

Public stock holding is vital to the food and nutrition security of any country. It is one of the principal weapons that we have against food price volatility. A guaranteed minimum floor price mechanism can potentially help small and marginal farmers, especially women farmers. Any trade measure that comes in the way of countries assisting the poorest and most marginalised people is unacceptable to us.

We condemn the unfair trade rules that have permitted the developed countries to put most of their subsidies in the Green box, while developing countries are being squeezed to cut their subsidies.

We believe that there should be a full discussion on the public stock holding issue in CFS 42. We believe that the CFS is THE legitimate forum for the discussion on public stock-holding and food security issues and not the WTO.

The principle of coherence of human rights over-rides any trade negotiation or agreement that comes in the way of food security of our constituent groups.

Thank you.