Farmers Reject Bali Climate Change Solutions

Farmers from around the globe have gathered in Bali to register their protests about the climate change negotiations that are taking place. The farmers say that solutions that are being put forward are not tackling the problem.

Henry Saragih is the international coordinator for La Via Campesina and he and farmers from around the globe have gathered at Nusa Dua, Bali to register their dissatisfaction with the climate change solutions that are being put forward, according to a report in the Jarkata Post. Henry believes that the way to combat global climate change is by promoting food sovereignty through the development of small scale sustainable agriculture. “The answer is food sovereignty based on family agriculture,” Henry said. Henry states that industrialized agriculture has been a major contributor to global climate change and he pointed out that corporate food production and consumption are significantly contributing to global warming, and the destruction of communities as international food transport, intensive monoculture plant production, land and forest destruction and the use of chemical inputs in agriculture transform the sector into an energy consumer. The protesters, numbered in the dozens, wore green headscarves and were accompanied by musicians playing percussion, chanted their opposition to neo-colonialism. The protesters also stated their support for local energy sovereignty and other measures such as reducing the distance between work places and homes and radically changing current production and consumption patterns. “We should oppose the free market system. We should oppose the privatization of agriculture,” Henry said. “Promoting agrofuel or biofuel as they call it is not the answer as it only causes a world dependent on food to use food as fuel. In Indonesia alone we see how palm oil for cooking oil is being exported for agro-fuel and in Brazil, corn is being used for ethanol,” Henry added. Members of the group said that governments are not taking climate change seriously. “They are here to do business. They are here to think of how they can benefit or make money out of climate change,” Joao Palate from Mozambique said. Farmers, especially those who live in rural communities in developing countries, are among the first to suffer from climate change. “We are the one who are most affected by climate change. However, in this conference, the voice of the most affected are not being heard,” Palate said.