Farmers Move Against Monsanto in Haiti

PÉTIONVILLE — Haitian farmers are worried that giant transnational corporations like Monsanto are attempting to gain a larger foothold in the local economy under the guise of earthquake relief and rebuilding.

“Seeds represent a kind of right to life,” peasant leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste told IPS. “That’s why we have a problem today with Monsanto and all the multinationals who sell seeds. Seeds and water are the common patrimony of humanity.”

Earlier this month, in the central square of Hinche, an agricultural town in Haiti’s Plateau Central region, a mass of small farmers wearing red shirts and straw hats burned a symbolic quantity of hybrid corn seed donated to Haiti by the U.S. agricultural-technology giant.

They called on farmers to burn any Monsanto seeds already distributed, and demanded that the government reject further shipments.

The actions in Hinche (pronounced “ansh”) were spearheaded by the Mouvman Peyizan Papay, a regional peasant movement that claims 50,000 members, and the national coalition of some 200,000 members to which it belongs. Despite divisions among Haitian peasant organisations, several of the most important groups joined together to participate.