The G8 is using the food crisis to promote their free trade agenda (Hokkaido, 9 July 2008) Reacting to the G8 Leaders statement on Global Food Security issued last night in Hokkaido, Via Campesina farmer leader Mr. Yoshitaka Mashima said: «We do not understand why the G8 leaders pretend to solve the food crisis with more free trade while it is the liberalisation of agriculture and food markets that continue to lead us to the current crisis. People need to eat local food to protect themselves from the instability of world markets. We do not need more imported food».
At a press conference today, farmers leaders said that the G8 governments were mistakenly using the current food and climate crisis to promote the free trade agenda that is serving large companies and not producers of food and consumers. The G8 leader’s statement insists on reviving the agonising WTO negotiations and on preventing countries from regulating food exports.
However, small farmers around the world, men and wo…



