January 13, 2003
Ambassador Tony Hall
US Mission to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture
PSC 59 Box 31
APO, AE 09624
Dear Ambassador Hall,
Enclosed please find a letter addressed to you from 52 organizations and 45 individuals
from 31 countries around the world.
I will be happy to circulate your reply to all of them, if you would kindly send it to me by
email <kdawkins@iatp.org> or post:
Kristin Dawkins, Vice President for International Programs
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
2105 First Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
===================
January 16, 2003
TO: Tony Hall
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies
Dear Ambassador Hall,
We the undersigned citizens of many countries on every continent deplore your
inflammatory remarks (Reuters News Service, December 9) suggesting that African
leaders who reject genetically engineered food aid should be tried "for the highest crimes
against humanity in the highest courts of the world." This reckless comment reeks of
hypocrisy and bad political judgment and has no legal basis in international law. It serves
only to further damage the reputation of the U.S. government already suffering for its
unilateral, aggressive and abusive foreign policy. An apology is in order.
The U.S. has never supported the highest court in the world, the U.N.-sponsored
International Criminal Court. To the contrary, it sought to prevent its existence and since
its establishment in July 2002, the U.S. has used intense diplomatic pressure to weaken
its implementation by other countries. To invoke this institution now in challenging
Zambia and other African nations over their sovereign right to reject foods that European
countries and many others have similarly rejected is utterly disingenuous.
In fact, the only country depriving Africans of much-needed food relief is the U.S., when
it insists that its donation of $51 million be spent ONLY for U.S.-sourced grains. The
purchase of non-genetically engineered food from other African countries, Brazil, China,
Hungary, Russia and other regions as yet free of genetic contamination would readily
alleviate the impending famines and at the same time stimulate agricultural productivity
and economic development in these regions. In fact, some 70% of all corn produced in
the U.S. is still not genetically engineered - so you could even procure what the Africans
prefer from the U.S.'s own farmers, if that were the objective.
You criticize African leaders for protecting their people, while our government sends
food aid containing StarLinkTM, a variety of genetically engineered corn that the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration has not approved for human consumption in this country.
Perhaps the U.S. should be tried for this crime against humanity.
Why should Zambians be expected to eat food that Americans, Europeans and others will
not? Why should any people be expected to eat food that has not been adequately tested
by the manufacturers or the U.S. government for safety in humans, especially if this
untested food will comprise two-thirds of their daily caloric intake? Why should
Zambians ingest genetically engineered corn that may affect the stomach lining and cause
allergies, and contains an antibiotic-resistant gene - when their immune systems are
already weakened by malnutrition?
Your crude remarks seem intended to divert attention from a far more troubling issue: the
political reasons that the U.S. government is foisting genetically modified corn on people
in need around the world, not just in drought-stricken Africa, when supplies of
conventional grain are available. The U.S. has a corn surplus here, because genetically
engineered foods are rejected in many commercial markets. Do you also propose that the
leaders of these countries be tried for high crimes against the U.S.?
A cynical food aid strategy that dumps unsaleable corn in vulnerable communities
relieves the U.S. of these burdensome stocks while giving Monsanto and other
biotechnology companies a boost by destroying competing sources of non-genetically
engineered grains from the world marketplace.
Mr. Hall, you have sacrificed a fine reputation as an advocate for the hungry to serve
Monsanto and the rest of the biotechnology industry that has captured the voice of the
Bush Administration's White House.
Zambian President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa invoked the sovereign rights of
governments to protect their citizens. He said that foods untested for human consumption
posed "a danger to the lives of citizens" and that the import represented an immediate
possible threat of "contaminating local indigenous and hybrid seed stocks" needed to
reconstruct the region's agricultural capacity and food security. His view is shared by
more than 100 other governments around the world that have signed the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety and the Convention on Biological Diversity – both international
treaties negotiated under auspices of the United Nations.
It is also shared by those of us signing this letter below on behalf of 52 organizations and
45 individuals from 31 countries. Are we also to be tried for high crimes?
Sincerely,
ON BEHALF OF THE ATTACHED SIGNATORIES
Cc:
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
U.S. Undersecretary of State Alan Larson
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew Natios
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Jaime Mello Viera
U.N. High Commissioner's Office Special Advisor on Food Jean Ziegler
=================================
Note: Affiliations following an individual's name do not necessarily imply organizational
endorsement.
Australia
Australian Greens
GE-Free Bathurst
Bangladesh
Zakir Md. Hossain, Krisok Krisoker Saar (Farmers' Voice)
Shaila Shahid, Krisok Krisoker Saar (Farmers' Voice)
Brazil
AS-PTA (Assistance and Services to Project on Alternative Agriculture)
Karla Matos
Canada
Jean Arnold
Kelly Senkiw
Denmark
Jan Holm Ingemann, PhD., Head of Department, Agricultural Economics, Aalborg
University
Ecuador
Pedro de la Cruz, President, FENOCIN
France
Anne-Marie Kibongui, Editions Cultures Croisées
Germany
Solidarische Welt e.V Gießen
Alexandra Burmann
Britta Steffenhagen, German League for Nature and Environment
Hungary
The ZHABA Collective
India
Sankalp Navbharat
Sunray Harvesters
Women's Centre, Bombay
Indonesia
Sintesa Foundation
Italy
AMAB-Associazione Mediterranea Agricoltura Biologica
La Leva di Archimede (Association for Freedom of Choice)
Ludo Goossens, cicm, Missionaries of Scheut
Japan
Food Policy Center Vision21
Kenya
The Centre for Advocacy on Legal Ethics and Human Rights Issues (CALER)
Latvia
Green Liberty
Mexico
Areli Carreón , Red de Comunicación de Morelos
Mozambique
LIVANINGO
Namibia
Earthlife Namibia
Netherlands
Iza Kruszewska, ANPED
W. de Lange, XminY Solidarityfunds
Alexander de Roo, MEP Greens/EFA
Jelle Schöttelndreier
New Zealand
GE Free New Zealand
GE Free Northland
Claire Bleakley, GE Free (Wairarapa)
Nicaragua
Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoria en Salud
Comité Regional de Promoción de Salud Comunitaria
International People´s Health Council
Philippines
Ma. Elena Adre, FdCC, Canossian Sisters
Sr. Estela Cordero, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission of the Canossian
Sisters
Spain
Azucena González Coloma, Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales, CSIC
CECU (Confederación de Consumidores y Usuarios)
Sri Lanka
Jerry Moles, NeoSynthesis Research Centre
Theja Weeratne, Simple Wisdom
South Africa
Earthlife Africa
Safe Food Coalition
South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE)
Swaziland
Yonge Nawe Environmental Action Group
Switzerland
Bruno Gurtner , Senior Economist, Swiss Coalition of Development Organizations
Florianne Koechlin, Blueridge-Institute
United Kingdom
The Gaia Trust
Genetic Food Alert UK
Scarborough Against Genetic Engineering
Swindon Friends of the Earth
Barbara Dinham, Director, Pesticide Action Network UK
Matthew Mellen, The Gaia Foundation
Jane Smith
Tina Speck
Bob Speck
Marcus Williamson, Editor, Genetically Modified Food-News
Uruguay
ECOS Centro para el Desarrollo Sustentable
USA
Adrian Dominican Sisters
Africa Faith and Justice Network
Anarchist Action of Rochester
Community Nutrition Institute
Council for Responsible Genetics
Family Farm Defenders
Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
Foundation on Economic Trends
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Morton County Citizens for Responsible Government,
NW Resistance Against Genetic Engineering
Organic Consumers Association
Pesticide Action Network North America
People's Education for a Sustainable Future
Religious Center on Biotechnology, Inc.
Rochester Food Not Bombs
Washington Biotechnology Action Council
Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign
Catherine Arata, SHALOM- The International Network for Justice, Peace, Integrity
of Creation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame
Rev. James P. Brobst, OMI, Director, Oblate house of Theology
Jonathan Frieman, JoMiJo Foundation
Mary Ellen Gondeck, Sisters of St. Joseph Office of Peace and Justice
Ethel Fraga
John Hagelin, Director, Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy
Martha Honey, Co-Director, Foreign Policy in Focus
David C. Korten, People-Centered Development Forum
A.V.Krebs, Corporate Agribusiness Research Project
The Rev. Dr. Wallace Ryan Kuroiwa, United Church of Christ USA
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
Gar Smith, Editor, The-Edge, Earth Island Institute
Laura Ticciati, Executive Director, Mothers for Natural Law
Zambia
Green Living Movement
Dr. Mbololwa Mbikusita-Lewanika
Bonaventure Mpasa, Delegate General for Justce and Peace and the Safeguarding of
Creation (JPSC) for the Conventual Franciscan Friars (OFMConv)
Father Darrell Rupiper, OMI (Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate)
International
49th Parallel Biotechnology Consortium (US-Canada)
Anti-Globalisation Network (UK and international)