The police was present with tens of patrol cars. They stopped the march several times with sirens amid a totally peaceful demonstration.

“These pigs are mainly fed with genetically modified organisms industrially produced in deforested areas in South America, while the actual owners of those lands are displaced. Large amounts of fuel are used to transport soy and to export pigs. Agriculture linked with the pig industry turns the Danish soil into carbon dioxide and dead dust”, explained La Via Campesina’s call.

At the end of the demonstration, Real World Radio interviewed Alberto Gomez, member of La Via Campesina Mexico. He explained the reasons for the action and the current situation of the Mexican countryside.

“The ’mystica’ and the demonstration were aimed at exposing that that kind of agriculture they are promoting, industrial agriculture is not the alternative. That agriculture that depends on oil, it implies monoculture plantations and the excessive use of agrochemicals and GMOs, is not the alternative. We wanted to say that to all the participants”, said Gomez.

“Industrial pig and bird farming is also not the alternative because of the pollution it implies, because strange flus have emerged from that, bird flu two years ago, now we have swine flu. It implies pollution and soil degradation, and we wanted to expose that”.

Gomez said that intensive industrial cattle and food farming are not alternatives to the food crisis. He also said agrofuels are a false solution to climate change. “We cannot produce food for cars, we need to feed people, so agrofuels are not the alternative either”, he claimed.

“So we say that our agriculture, peasant sustainable agriculture, is the one that can cool the planet and produce food in the amount and quality needed by humanity. That is the basis of food sovereignty and that is our message”, he said.

About the situation of the Mexican countryside, Gomez said that they are going through their worst crisis. “The governments favored food imports, 2.5 million jobs were lost, and people were forced to move to the cities, but mainly to the US”.

The Mexican peasant said that almost 24 million Mexicans currently live in the US, 12 million of which are undocumented. “People have gone to the US to try to get money to support their families”, he explained.

He then said that Mexico has a population of over 100 million people, 70 per cent of which are poor, and over 30 per cent live under the poverty line. He added that 20 million Mexicans live in rural areas, and are the most affected. “Our countryside is in crisis, it seems to have been abandoned”, he said.

Photo: Radio Mundo Real