Ministry of Agriculture of Guyana

REMARKS BY HON. ROBERT M. PERSAUD, MBA, MP, MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE On the occasion of the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Caribbean Region of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) on the 11-12th February, 2008

t I wish to note that the IUF seeks to create an international union counterweight to the power of the transnational companies (TNC’s). Guyana’s hotel industry is “homegrown” and not significantly “international”. There was a significant increase in hotel accommodation generated because of our hosting of Cricket World Cup in 2007.

t We intend to develop “agro-tourism”. For example, tourists may be interested in visiting sugar estates to see the field and factory operations involved in sugar manufacture. Many sugar estates already have guest houses which can be used in the beginning of such a promotion. Similarly, the rice industry can cater for interested tourists at specific times such as planting, harvesting and milling. Amerindian Communities involved in agricultural production may also offer special attraction.

t I am particularly impressed by the work of the IUF in responding to the effects of Globalization. You have recognized that defending workers’ right is a fundamental class issue and that workers cannot organise in defense of their interests in an anti-democratic environment.

t Clearly, as Minister of Agriculture, I am greatly concerned in the health, welfare and safety of agricultural workers.

t .3 Billion people are involved in agricultural production; globally, the agri sector employs half of the world’s labour force.

t 450 million are waged agricultural workers.

t In developing countries the agri sector employs the majority of the workforce and as high as 80% in some countries.

t Women account for more than half of the waged agricultural labour force.

t All agricultural workers and small farmers are both producers and consumers of food, and their livelihood is linked to the livelihoods of those who consume the food.

t Why then do we have the following? :

1) Over 800 million people living in hunger in the world

2) Large numbers of people in food exporting countries living in hunger; and agricultural workers among the malnourished.

t Although the value of annual global exports in agricultural products is over US$600 billion, waged agricultural workers and small farmers register among the highest levels of global poverty.

t Agricultural workers are more prone to die at work than workers in any other sector. Annually, 3 - 4 million people engaged in agricultural work suffer poisoning and other ill effects from hazardous pesticides they are forced to use.

t Just last week a new laboratory was opened for the Pesticide and Toxic Chemicals Board. Apart from facilitating the export of produce from Guyana, a very important aspect of its work would be making the working environment safer for agricultural workers.

t A large part of the problem has been the dominance of the TNC’s in the Global Economy. In the agriculture and food processing industries control has been centralized in the hands of a few global corporations through mergers. When Corporations that supply seed merge with agro chemical and biotechnology companies you have a consolidation of the entire food chain. People are less able to feed themselves without corporate giants and become more dependent on the products and production methods of the TNC’s. The food chain becomes locked.

I have no doubt that when President Jagdeo expressed his criticism of the Economic Partnership Agreement which CARIFORUM agreed to with the European Union (EU), he would have recognised the increasing role of the TNC’s. While the EU market would be opened up to the “so-called” Least Developed Countries (LDC’s), of Africa in particular, it would actually be the TNCs that would be benefiting to our detriment.

t Global agriculture seems to recognise the social and economic crises which are currently built into the current world food system and its negative impact on human lives. The lives of millions of agricultural workers and marginalised small farmers will be devastated.

t The impact of the US decision to quadruple the production of ethanol from corn, albeit inefficiently, has already led to skyrocketing prices for agricultural produce, and this situation is set to further deteriorate globally. The Government of Guyana has already set in train a programme of increased production of foodstuff to ensure food sufficiency at reasonable prices.

t There have been recent calls within CARIFORUM for the removal of the Common External Tariff (CET) so as to allow extra-regional imports to be sold more cheaply. This has been done in the past as in the case of milk in Jamaica; and which eventually killed the vibrant dairy industry in Jamaica. We have now seen the tripling in prices of extra-regional milk over the past year. We need to be careful in moving in this direction and must recognise that production, even if it is done in only two CARICOM states in significant amounts, such as rice in Guyana and Suriname, must be protected from subsidized produce from the US and elsewhere. This is imperative if the Caribbean Single Market and Economy is to have any meaning to our peoples.

I wish to exhort you to seriously approach your deliberations over the next two days and to play your part in building a strategy to ensure that the system is geared towards fulfilling the right to food safety, food security and food sovereignty, and the rights and

February 11, 2008