Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa invites the corporate farmers of the World Dairy Summit to get a real job on a real farm

In response to yesterday’s Federated Farmer’s press release telling protestors of the World Dairy Summit in Auckland to “Get a real job like farming” Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa suggests that Federated Farmer’s listen to their own advice.

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa spokesperson Gary Cranston says “we support the actions of small scale farmers all over the world who are already living sustainably, feeding their communities and defending their climate-friendly farming practices from mega-scale agribusinesses.”

“As a stream of greenwash spews from the World Dairy Summit into our rivers small-scale farmer’s livelihoods are not only threatened by climate change, they’re also threatened by industrial agriculture itself and the kind of money-making false solutions that the world’s agribusiness giants are pedalling at the UN climate negotiations and through John Key’s Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.”

“Particularly dangerous are solutions being cooked up specifically to generate more and more cheap carbon trading loopholes for Fonterra such as genetic manipulation of all sorts of organisms and land grabbing for Biochar production.”

“With New Zealand becoming the world’s de facto agricultural greenwasher at the floundering UN climate negotiations, we support the thousands of farmers from all over South America who will travel to Cancun en masse to confront Fonterra and the rest of the corporate agribusiness machine at the conference centre.”

“While Andrew Ferrier of Fonterra gets a 1.5 million dollar pay rise, real kiwi workers are under increasing pressure to feed their families real food as prices rise with GST. Colonised land the world over could instead be redistributed to those who will use it responsibly to feed communities and create thousands of jobs. There are plenty of New Zealanders who would rather be doing something more meaningful than working like dogs to make others rich, if they’re lucky enough to have a job in the first place.”

“It is time to radically change the way we produce, trade and consume food and agricultural products. Sustainable small-scale farming and localised food consumption can reverse the devastation inflicted by industrial dairying and support millions of farming families instead. Agriculture can contribute to cooling down the earth by using practices which store greenhouse gases and heavily reduce the use of energy on farm. However, this approach is completely incompatible with Fonterra’s business model and the obscene salaries of those attending the World Dairy Summit.”

“Real farmers grow food, these guys just want to grow their profits” said Cranston.

Camp for Climate Action website: www.climatecamp.org.nz

Coalition Against the World Dairy Summit website: http://cawds.org.nz

La Via Campesina [the world’s largest farming movement] calls for international solidarity with farmers facing the COP16 UN climate negotiations in Cancun Mexico December 2010: http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=941:the-people-create-thousands-of-solutions-to-confront-climate-change&catid=48:-climate-change-and-agrofuels&Itemid=75

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