More Proof NAFTA Is A BAD Trade Deal!

You are right to ask if we need any more proof that NAFTA (and all the rest of the scam trade treaties) are not good for working class people, Catherine. Apparently we do need more proof or we need wider exposure of the proofs that we already have. What to do when the rich control most of the means of communication. Just what you are doing, cast it out on the net. Good post as usual.

We predicted this would happen 20 years ago when we were fighting the FTA, with David Orchard one of the leading figures in the fight.

Now, the GDP etc, fraudulent statistics show Mexico as the biggest winner under NAFTA, with the middlecasses wiped out and 70% below poverty rates.

Is it true that Orchard now sold out to the Liberals, who are pushing the GATS, that will eliminate not only farmers, but all public control over services and imported slave labour to replace Canadians ?

As Martin said : "Globalization is unstoppable!" and now all our politicians are crapping out it its service.

The Greens are making the right noises, but when they're in governments, as they have been in Europe for years, they become just one of the crowd jumping on the bandwagon of self destruction.

I admire the CAP's ideas and have exchanged a number of letters with Connie Fogal years ago, but for some reason, they don't seem to be able to catch the public's imagination.

In this solid unionist area only the NDP has about the chance of a snowflake in hell to unseat the present useless, Reform, CRAP, Alliance, Conservative seatwarmer by the name of Dick Harris, with the appropriate name.

Figure this one out ?

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

The unfortunate problem with free trade agreements, is that the people most effected by it, are not envolved with the decisions. Politicans and big business decide what is good for labour and the farmer. Those people most effected, have no input. The only "free" thing about the agreement is what big business have with the reigns. Society today has accepted "profit for corporations" as all what we strive for. More proof that the political system no longer hears the voice of the people.

The bias in this article against "primitive" farming practices and in support of hybrid corn seed is quite disgusting and seriously misinformed. When will the mainstream finally acknowledge that the "Green Revolution" was and is an absolute failure?

By putting all the power behind corporations, governments and economists are counting on the "trickle down" effect, that should "lift all ships with the rising tide"

When my neighbour David Zirnhelt was our NDP MLA, some 15 years ago, he wrote in our paper: "Those who believe in trickle down will be trickled on". Very wise words., as we can see it in our daily lives.

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

More Proof CAP is grasping at straws...

Anonymous said:<br />
>>>The bias in this article against "primitive" farming practices and in support of hybrid corn seed is quite disgusting and seriously misinformed.<<<<<br />
<br />
Good point. Check out the articles from the website of the UK based Institute of Science in Sociey <a href="http://www.i-sis.org.uk">http://www.i-sis.org.uk</a> for information on how some third world farmers are saving money and getting improved crop yields by returning to organic and other more traditional approaches to planting and growing their crops. <br />
<br />
Here's a snip from a recent article on organic cotton in Zambia.<br />
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Br. Paul's Organic Cotton and Vegetable Farm<br />
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Brother Paul Desmarais of the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre of Lusaka in Zambia is a happy man. He has just demonstrated that cotton can be grown organically, and furthermore, at yields up to more than twice the national average. That is quite an achievement as cotton is notorious for consuming the most agrochemicals of any crop, some 21 percent of that consumed worldwide; and most people have been led to believe that cotton cannot be grown without chemical sprays.<br />
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“I am confident that anyone can grow cotton organically in Zambia”, says Br. Paul, beaming from ear to ear. You need to do only two things: increase the fertility of the soil with organic matter, and put extra local plant species into the cotton fields to control insect pests.” <br />
<br />
SNIP<br />
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Hybrid seeds are sold by companies for their potential to give higher yields than non-hybrid seeds. But because they do not breed true, farmers must purchase the seeds from the companies every year if they want to keep up the same performance. In contrast, non-hybrid seeds, or open pollinated varieties (OPVs), though lower yielding, have allowed the farmers to save and replant seeds every year. That is what every student of agriculture and genetics has been told, and it has become a dogma among academic plant scientists that open pollinated varieties can never yield as much as hybrids.<br />
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Br. Paul has proven them wrong. OPVs, obtained from local small-scale farmers who have been saving them for years, gave yields equal or better than some hybrid varieties grown under the same organic management regime. Table 6 shows the yields of OPV and hybrid maize under organic management. <br />
<br />
SNIP<br />
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The high yields from OPVs show that they perform better in low external input systems, as opposed to hybrids that require high external inputs to fulfil their high yielding potentials. That is good news for small-scale farmers, not only in providing food security, but also the right to save, exchange and replant their own seeds, which they have had for millennia, instead of depending on the companies, and worse, in the case of GM crops, pay extra “technology fees”.<br />
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“We are told that hybrid maize seeds will yield three times as much as the OPVs.” Br. Paul says, “But one member of staff at Kasisi last year planted an OPV maize variety using compost and manure teas as fertiliser. Well he has been able to sell his surplus maize to his neighbour who planted hybrid maize seed and used fertiliser. Who has food security?” <br />
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Remainder of article at:<br />
<a href="http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BrPaulsOrganicFarm.php">http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BrPaulsOrganicFarm.php</a><br />
<br />
More articles on sustainable agriculture here:<br />
<a href="http://www.i-sis.org.uk/susag.php">http://www.i-sis.org.uk/susag.php</a><br />

>Hybrid seeds are sold by companies for their potential to give higher yields than non-hybrid seeds.<<

It has become the new world order to produce volume instead of quality. The cost of producing food has overwhelmed the need to produce quality and consequently the growers create more volume then the demand. The market has to grow so the farmer can still plant by volume. It's become an endless cycle where the corporations creating hybrid seeds, can sell more.

>>It has become the new world order to produce volume instead of quality<<

Maybe because there are people who are starving...

Maybe because there are people who are starving...<<

Wouldn't it be nice if they got the excess? The marketing boards are not buying and selling to those who need it, they are selling to the highest bidder.