What is fair and equitable trade and commerce? In the current market-driven traditional system of trade the most important goal is to maximize profit. Money replaces man, and the economic interests of capitalist enterprise, trumps the collective good. This system promotes overproduction and over consumption, until resources are exhausted, without thinking of future generations or the treat to the planet. All means are acceptable and can be used to increase and accumulate wealth, including unfair manipulation of markets and other cheating, forced displacement and relocation, exclusion, racism…even war.
A fair and equitable commerce promotes the collective good, where mankind and the planet are the first priority in economic exchanges, not money and wealth accumulation. It is the process of working toward and contributing to the construction of a more just and humane society. Wealth is produced by cooperative and interdependent work and community and not by the exploitation of “the other”. Our goal is production that takes place responsibly and in harmony without compromising our children’s futures and the survival of the planet. Where consumption is a reflective action and not the result of commercial publicity and manipulation. Where wealth is not concentrated in one person or group but is shared in an equitable way between all those who have a part in producing the product or service.

Attached to the nourishing earth as I was since my childhood, I was astounded to see to what point our connection to nature and other living beings have degraded. Money has become the master; “tell me how much you possess and I will tell you what you are worth”. With this diminished view of our humanity, one is permitted to eliminate the competition by any means necessary: “the end justifies the means.” With little oversight on the part of the governments, and often with their support, enterprises exhaust natural resources, deplete the soil, pollute the water and air, break laws, hide information, fix the market rules, cheat their colleagues, in fact modify the order and natural equilibrium, putting in danger our communities and our planet. Scientific research and technologies are put to the service of this wealth accumulation.

Today, the perfection and sophistication of the weapons of war and mass destruction far exceeds anything seen in science fiction. The results are discouraging; millions killed, orphaned, displaced, the people without access to the earth, potable water, basic medical care. This destruction comes with other lethal consequences with possibly irreversible effects: chemical industries, intensive agriculture and over farming, the pharmaceutical industry and the introduction of GMO. Business figures show the production of chemical fertilizers and pesticides increasing in recent years, and the pharmaceutical industry is booming. The more we spray toxic chemicals on grains, fruits and vegetables, the weaker become the antibodies of consumers, leaving viruses and illness stronger and stronger.

Faced with these problems a good number of governments and political decision makers close their eyes and let it be. It is money that rules their world. So with their eyes closed they allow the production of these toxins, destined to eliminate what some have decided are the “bad weeds”. In the same way they do not hesitate to penalize according to market demands, the livelihood and culture of those people determined to be “illegal” or unimportant. They do not take into account the longstanding traditions and cultures of indigenous populations. I do not think there are in the natural world good and bad weeds, but living beings; that nature in her wisdom, gives a specific needed role in the fragile equilibrium of life.

Faced with parasites for example, the fact that they exist in the same space as different species of plants, each with its own characteristics, allows the regulation of the uncontrolled proliferation of one or the other. Related good and “bad weeds” become therefore less vulnerable to climate changes and other natural attacks. This natural partnership is not without a reason, as in all ecosystems, union and diversity makes strength and prosperity. And in this win-win relationship, man, the cultivator, has always a contribution to make to the natural order. In cutting the plants that he is not using for his immediate nutritional or medical needs, and that prevents those crops to develop as he wishes, he assures his survival and that of his fellow creatures. The grasses cut and left in the fields decompose and nourish other crops to the benefit of future good harvests. Plus, the fallen seeds on the ground replenish the soil for future plantings.

This respectful interplay permits nature’s cycles to renew each season and thanks to that the farmer contributes to the preservation of his natural environment, that allows him to nourish his crops, his family and other living beings, not counting the economic benefit he receives from the sale of his excess production. It is therefore an ecological production, humane and economically viable, because everyone wins. Unfortunately, in the “new economic order”, this harmonious partnership between man and nature has been broken in a disturbing way. To face unfair competition and respond to global market demand, the small farmer is pushed to use pesticides in his farming and has to forget the other spaces where he lives, shares or that depend on him for survival. The soil becomes depleted and unproductive, so the farmer has to call on the chemical fertilizers sold in the market as miracle products. By using them, he thinks he will get a “good harvest”.

But even if the fruits and vegetables are abundant with good color and good size the farmer observes that they have neither flavor nor taste and probably little nutritional value. Then he questions the health problems that arise. In this social plan the life offered to the farmer is worse than pitiful, Pesticides and chemical fertilizers have displaced the workforce; the fields and the villages empty out and he finds himself alone. His neighbors have taken the road to the big cities, where the lifestyle projected by the television beckons them. He finds, furthermore, that the days, like the nights have become especially quiet; he sees fewer creatures and insects, he does not hear birds singing, and the croaking of the frogs has become rare.

And if that was not bad enough, a good part of the benefit he thought he would get from the sale of his crops is taken by the bank, from whom he had to take a loan to buy the pesticides and fertilizers. Without thinking, he got rid of the “bad weeds”, who had been his partner, and finds himself in a trap: pesticides have taken his place in nature, pesticides took his work and the work of his neighbors, pesticides have cut his link with nature. For his part, he abandons his land and sets himself up in the city with the hope of a better future. But he finds himself alone again because he no longer has a landmark. He discovers that the real values have disappeared along with the bad weeds. He learns that in this “new world order”, the worth of a man, of nature, of life itself, is only being measured in terms of money. He will become even sicker when he understands that the more man accumulates money, the more value it has, and that the more the earth produces money, the more important she is.

Since he has neither money accumulated nor productive land he feels suddenly devalued, marginalized. Our governments, ever eager for publicity, will have to ask themselves, for once, if rather than relying on research tied to the OGM, it would not be wiser, as well as more profitable for all, to use the resources of the taxpayers in the rehabilitation and economic development of agriculture directly, to grant it the importance it deserves, and to ensure that farmers receive the financial support they need. This would permit little by little the harmful effects of the development model that does not meet the needs of man and puts in danger the life of the planet.

It is something therefore for the ministries of agriculture, health, and the environment of every country to take into account. You do not have to be a scientist to understand that modifying or altering the natural equilibrium will lead to dramatic consequences for living beings. Genetic modifications are likely to produce a chain reaction that man may not be able to control, simply because they rise above the human ladder

What good is it to invest vast sums of money in scientific research to improve and prolong life, while in parallel, one looks to change the natural order without any knowledge of the long term effects? The ambition and the vanity of those who hold the power and the money, the incompetence and the cowardice of some of our elected officials and the indifference of a great number of us, these are the only “bad weeds” that we must eradicate.

Lucia AMADO
Silfiac, 21/10/2007