The  undersigned  representatives  of  peasant  and  other  Civil  Society  organizations,  men and  women,  express  our  concern  and  alarm  about  the FAO  International  Symposium  on “The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition”1
to be held at FAO headquarters in Rome on 15-17 February 2016.

We are concerned as to why FAO has decided to hold this Symposium, and why now. We remember  the  disastrous  last  attempt  by  FAO to act  as  an  undercover  agent  for biotechnology  companies,  by  organizing  the  International  Technical  Conference  on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2010.²

We  are  alarmed  that FAO  is  once  again  fronting  for  the  same  corporations,  just  when these  companies  are  talking  about  further  mergers  amongst  themselves,  which  would concentrate  the  commercial  seeds  sector  in  even  fewer  hands.  FAO  should  act  as  a knowledge  center,  rather  than  as  a  promoter  of  the  ideological  approach  of  the  private sector.    Unfortunately  the  program  for  this  symposium  is  designed  to  showcase  the “benefits”  of  GMOs,  artificial  genetic  constructs  created  with  possibly  even  more dangerous technologies, and other biotechnologies held by a handful of TNCs.  

Last  year  FAO  hosted  an  international  symposium  on  agroecology  and  three  regional meetings  to  discuss  with  governments  and  civil  society  how  to  move  the  agroecology agenda forward.³ Those activities were much closer to the way that FAO should act, as a center for knowledge exchange, without a hidden agenda on behalf of a few.  Yet in this case, truly useful peasant-based technologies must take a backseat to those that only serve to advance corporate profits.

It  is  clear  that,  through  the  FAO,  industry  wants  to  re-launch  their  false  message  that genetically  engineered  crops  can  feed  the  world  and  cool  the  planet,  while  the  reality  is that nothing has changed on the biotech front. GMOs don’t feed people, they are mostly planted in a handful of countries on industrial plantations for agrofuels and animal feed, they increase  pesticide  use,  and  they  throw  farmers  off  the  land.⁴ The  industrial  food system that it promotes is one of the main drivers of climate change.⁵