Transgenic in Brazil

J* M*

Dear Friends,
This week the transgenic food was allowed to be sold to our population.
We have already so many problems - social, cultural, economical,
environmental - and now, more this one. A basic one, because the quality
of a population depends on the food the people eat. Instead of improving
the quality of Brazilian food, to heal and empower our population, the
government chose to exchange our health and future by the logic of the
global commodities commerce. They say - and the "scientists" support
them, that Brazil must grow and eat transgenics in order to stay
competitive for the external market. I don't know what external market
it is, because the main market for the Brazilian agriculture produce is
Europe (it buys twice more than the US), and everybody knows that
Europeans are not so inclined to change their food and health for money.

The government, as I said, was the main supporter to introduce
transgenics in our table. They say that Monsanto and other American
corporations (including the International Monetary Fund and the World
Trade Association) - were demanding us to do it, immediately, to
eliminate the marketing differential we had in comparison to the US
agriculture (transgenic) and the option that Europe has now - of buying
traditional produces from Brazil.

The local and international development and relief NGOs working in
Brazil don't care about the nutrition of their clientele, neither about
the long term results of their programming. Only GreenPeace and the
Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense were trying, these last months,
to stop the imports of transgenic seeds and food. To be true, we have
already some products that contain transgenic ingredients in its
composition. The government says it will demand labels informing this
fact, but nobody believes it will someday do it indeed. Now the
Brazilian justice allowed that 30,000 tons of corn be imported to raise
chickens, but nobody knows where these chickens will be sold, and to
whom, and if the consumers will be alerted...

To face this defy (the definite defy), I and some few friends are
starting a system to produce and sell high quality street food, to be
grown and prepared (salads, salad sandwiches, vegetarian meals) by
former street children supported by public and private organizations.
The kids will have opportunity to learn gardening, composting and
recycling, meal processing, marketing, computer skills, business
operations etc., will generate income for them and their families, from
a job that will help the population and raise the kids' self esteem. I
have worked with these kids for years and I know they are ready for it.
And I know that if we don't give them a chance to do it, their lives
will stay very in risk, no matter how much the institutions try to
develop them...

Maybe you or your organization, or some friend, could be in position to
collaborate in this project. There are many ways to contribute and learn
from this program, in Brasilia, where the Brazilian social inequality is
sharper than in any other place. Please send this message to other
people and organizations that could be interested in this interchange,
in a program that could be replicated all around.  Cheers and Thanks,
Joaquim

My former experience in these fields may be evaluated here:
http://www.geocities.com/jmbmoura/cultmil2.htm
My initiatives and ideas in Popular, Community and Organic Agriculture,
here:
http://www.partners-bsbdc.org/hortas01.htm
Here you will meet the former street kids in other garden I helped them
grow.
http://www.geocities.com/jmbmoura/horcasaa.html

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