The National Farmers Union issued a news release announcing its opposition to the World Trade Organization and trade deals that hurt low-income farmers.
It said “the National Farmers Union joins our allies in the global peasant movement, La Via Campesina, to commemorate the sacrifice of Korean peasant leader, Lee Kyung Hae who 21 years ago on this day at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, took his life in protest against the WTO wearing a sign that read “WTO Kills Farmers.”
“Today, farmers, farm workers, peasants and Indigenous peoples organized in La Via Campesina honour Mr. Lee and continue to fight in the Global Day of Action Against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements,” the NFU said.
“We see this power grab most evidently today in the acceleration of attacks on farmer’s seed rights, farmland grabs, rural depopulation, farm income crisis, worker exploitation, forced migration, environmental degradation, climate crisis and on-going patriarchy, colonization, war and imperialism that fundamentally violate human rights and the rights of nature,” the NFU said.
“We especially denounce the inhumane free market logic that is enabling the on-going genocide in Gaza, as arms continue to be supplied and food continues to be used as a weapon of war.
“We also see how this unjust trade regime is being used by the United States government, under the Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), with support from Canada, to challenge Mexico’s restrictions on the use of genetically modified (GM) corn (maize)— a staple of the Mexican diet that is central to Mexican culture, history and identity, and integral to Indigenous food sovereignty and spirituality.”
