On Friday June 4, the peasants who were threatened by genetic contamination disguised as humanitarian aid, marched along 7 kilometers from the training center of the Papaya Peasant Movement (MPP), to Hinche town.

To begin the march, the demonstrators harvested creole maize and trees to symbolize their determination to eat their own grains from local, organic seeds.

Monsanto “donated” 475 tons of GM maize to the Haitian government, which had previously denied permission to cultivate it there.

The night before the mobilization a documentary was shown in the cultural room of Hinche’s Catholic Church, explaining the negative impacts of Monsanto’s products and the support that the transnational corporation gets from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make its products find their way to Haiti.

Iderle Breenus, from La Via Campesina in the Caribbean told Real World Radio that the Haitian peasant agriculture has been traditionally agroecology. That is why there is strong rejection to the introduction of GM varieties.

Deadly donation
The people who participated in the demonstration not only sympathized with the peasants, but they also expressed their opposition to the political position of Rene Preval and Joseph Jean Max Bellerive’s administration, whom they accuse of their complicity with imperialism of selling the national heritage of their country, reports La Via Campesina’s website.

Iderle Breenus explained what are the threats posed by GM crops to the peasants and the Haitian population.
“We know that Monsanto produced agent orange in Vietnam and that its chemical fertilizers pollute the water and air and cause cancer and other diseases”, he said.

“We have our own creole seeds in Haiti and we can use them to rebuild our agriculture, we don’t need to contaminate them with GM seeds”, said the activist.

When assessing the role of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), and the strong militarization by the US after the earthquake of last January, Iderle said that “of every US dollar that comes to Haiti as humanitarian aid, the US soldiers get 43 cents”.

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