New from GRAIN
25 June 2006

Sustainable Monoculture? No, thanks!

Click here for further information / the full report.

GRAIN today has published a new report, "Sustainable monoculture? No thanks!", which takes a critical look at corporate initiatives to promote sustainable monocultures. The report draws attention to a disturbing new trend where NGOS and farmers groups are participating in this industry greenwashing.

- In south-east Asia the "Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil" has a membership of palm oil growers, processors, retailers and investors, plus a smattering of regional and international NGOs. And although the impact of palm oil on communities and the environment has been horrendous, the agreed criteria of this Roundtable on environmental and social behaviour are so weak that little will change. Furthermore, the very local communities who are affected by palm oil have no voice in the Roundtable.

- Meanwhile, in Latin America, another similar initiative was set up titled "Sustainable Soy", where again monocultures of soybean would be squeezed into a sustainable category. The reaction of civil society and peasant organisations was so fierce, that this popular resistance forced the industry to pull the plug on "Sustainable Soy", only for the same initiative to re-emerge a few months later under the banner of "Responsible Soy".

It is flawed to think that a monoculture of one crop can be sustainable. By its very nature, this agricultural model is dependent on large amounts of fertiliser and pesticide, it requires large tracts of land, heavy mechanisation, external investments which must be repaid and moreover the complete alienation of local peasant and indigenous communities.

Local organisations are speaking out against these attempts to use "sustainability" as a smokescreen for agribusiness' continued exploitation, plunder and destruction of their lands. They have made it clear that unless the starting point of a project is the full and active participation of local communities, in a manner that respects their own forms of organisation, it is absurd to imagine a "sustainable" outcome.

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GRAIN, Sustainable monocultures? No thanks!, "Against the grain", June 2006, www.grain.org/articles/?id=16

Click here for further information / the full report.