Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 12 • 25th June 2004

Civil Society Groups Reject FAO Annual Report as Big Business PR

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On 16 June 650 civil society organisations sent an open letter to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), rejecting its annual State of Food and Agriculture report. The report, released a month earlier, focused on the potential of biotechnology to address the needs of the world’s poor and food-insecure. The civil society response, however, alleged the report to be strongly biased in favour of multinational corporations and their profits, calling it a “disgraceful public relations tool for the genetic engineering industry”. According to the groups, the report, among other things, ignored evidence of negative impacts of biotech products and overlooked the fact that a single company, Monsanto, controls 90 percent of the business. The civil society groups said the report “turns FAO away from food sovereignty and the real needs of the world’s farmers, and is a stab in the back to the farmers and the rural poor FAO is meant to support”.

In response to the open letter, Jacques Diouf, Director General of FAO noted that “while this report emphasises biotechnology, it is not meant to represent all components of FAO’s broad mandate and commitment to promote agricultural development and alleviate hunger”. He stressed the importance for developing countries to “develop their scientific capacity and master the necessary expertise and techniques so that they can understand the implications and make independent choices in order to reach an international consensus on issues that concern all of humanity”.

“FAO Declares War On Farmers, Not On Hunger,” GRAIN RELEASE, 16 June 2004.