In response to Trevor Fenning's following statement [7 December]:

Rather the reverse, the process is most painful, as I think I made clear. It is a philosophical discussion point as to whether the gain is worth the pain, even if those countries who have achieved it would not want to return to such systems, but the pain is beyond doubt. Personally, I wonder whether the millions of small scale subsistence farmers want to remain thus (let alone the millions more in such regions who are not farmers at all), or maybe they have other ambitions, like the rest of us, even if achieving it is problematic.

Trevor Fenning, Germany
Fenning@ice.mpg.de

I would like to say that it is a false option to think that the majority of the poor currently living in rural areas can move to the city and find good work with good pay. This is part of the modernization theory myth which says that today's third world countries are following the same development trajectory that Europe and the USA followed earlier, they are just a bit behind and need to catch up. This myth ignores the key difference between these countries today and Europe and the USA in the 19th century -- the existence of powerful global players in the North who set the rules of the global economy for their own benefit, rules which make it impossible for future countries to follow the same development path.

As low farm prices have devastated rural area in the third world (and elsewhere), and millions have moved to the cities, they have *not* found good jobs, and they wallow in deepening urban poverty or migrate on. In this context, finding ways to create economically sustainable and fulfilling livelihoods in rural areas -- based on vibrant small farm economies -- makes more sense than a business-as-usual approach which says "let them move to the cities, no matter how painful that might be."

Peter Rosset
Chiapas, Mexico
rosset@foodfirst.org

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-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod1
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 11:43 AM
To: 'biotech-room1@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: Re: Many biotechnology methods

Referring to Peter Rosset's comments [7 December] about whether "it is a false option to think that the majority of the poor currently living in rural areas can move to the city and find good work with good pay", he may be right but it is perceptions that guide people's actions, which is why the migration is happening anyway. I just doubt whether it is possible to stop it, that is all.

Trevor Fenning, Germany
Fenning@ice.mpg.de

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-----Original Message-----
From: Biotech-Mod1
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 2:58 PM
To: 'biotech-room1@mailserv.fao.org'
Subject: Re: Many biotechnology methods

Trevor Fenning [7 December] wrote:

It is a philosophical discussion point as to whether the gain is worth the pain, even if those countries who have achieved it would not want to return to such systems, but the pain is beyond doubt.

This indicates the precise problem with the whole debate on the use of biotech. It is based on a "philosophical discussion" about whether the pain is worth the gain. Who decides that? Which of the millions of small-scale and subsistence farmers have ever been asked? To those people, it's not a purely philosophical question but one about whether they and their dependents will eat today or not. There is very little evidence indeed that the pain has ever been worth the gain. Colonialism and 'modernisation' and 'development' in the non-industrialised countries (or whatever you want to call them) has basically destroyed social networks and methods of surviving without providing anything to replace them. Thus people are left in a kind of vacuum without being able any longer to rely on past systems but also without having access to the 'new' and 'modern' systems.

There's also a problem with talking about 'countries' wanting to return to, or not return to, ways of living. Countries are composed of different and conflicting groups of people (it surely goes without saying!). Generally, the views we get from 'countries' are the views of the ruling political-economic elites, whether in the US or South Africa or the Phillipines or anywhere else. How are different groups of people living in the present, and what interest do they have in maintaining or changing the way they live? To answer requires a focus on a particular group or groups, rather than on some supposed unified 'national interest'.

Personally, I wonder whether the millions of small scale subsistence farmers want to remain thus (let alone the millions more in such regions who are not farmers at all), or maybe they have other ambitions, like the rest of us, even if achieving it is problematic.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to ensure that those farmers have a voice to say what it is they want, how it is best achieved and the resources and space to actually make that happen. There is danger in just changing systems of living from outside because you think it might benefit people, without really understanding what it is that people want and working together to move in the direction they choose.

Essentially what I'm trying to say is that biotechnology will never be the answer as long as it is imposed from outside. The agenda has to be driven by the farmers themselves - and when I say farmers, I include the vast majority of farmers who are either subsistence producers or petty commodity producers.

Stephen Greenberg
Environmental & Development Agency (EDA) Trust
Johannesburg, South Africa
stephen@eda.org.za

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