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World Food Day @ ESF (Saturday 16th October)

Patrick Mulvany | 11.10.2004 19:37 | European Social Forum | Bio-technology | Globalisation | Technology | London

“Feed people not profits: challenging corporate control"
World Food Day (16th October) events @ ESF will champion the demands of smallholder farmers organisations and CSOs for international recognition of the right to Food Sovereignty. They will challenge WTO and TNC dominance of the global food system that feeds corporations not people. See www.ukabc.org.

World Food Day @ ESF
World Food Day @ ESF


World Food Day @ ESF

“Feed people not profits: challenging corporate control"

World Food Day (16th October) events @ ESF will champion the demands of smallholder farmers organisations and CSOs for international recognition of the right to Food Sovereignty. They will challenge WTO and TNC dominance of the global food system that feeds corporations not people. See www.ukabc.org.

World Food Day is the time to remember that:

· 840 million people go to bed hungry each night in a world with 1.5 billion overfed people that spends $900 billion a year on weapons and war.
· 1 European farm disappears every minute of every day
· Unfair trade and dumping of surplus food impoverishes small-scale food producers throughout the world
· 10% of the population owns 90% of the fertile land in Brazil
· 4 supermarket chains control 75% of the food market in the UK
· 95% of the world’s crop varieties, developed by farmers, have disappeared since the advent of industrial agriculture
· 75% of maize seed sales controlled by 4 Trans National Corporations
· FAO and other UN agencies are now promoting GM crops that are irrelevant to ending hunger and poverty.


Food sovereignty policies are needed now to ensure that 6.5 billion people are fed today and 9 billion tomorrow. These policies will:

· regulate international trade in favour of local markets, farmers and consumers;
· implement the fundamental Right to Food for all peoples and ensure Farmers’ Rights;
· ensure equitable access to land, water, GM-free seeds, livestock breeds and agricultural biodiversity for threatened farmers and landless families;
· promote sustainable, GM-free, localised food production and agroecology.

Come debate the issues, meet-up and organise on: food sovereignty + land rights + Farmers' Rights + agricultural biodiversity + unfair trade rules + corporate control + obesity + famine + FAO pushing GM crops for the poor + WTO + intellectual property rights and seed control + and what we must do…

PROGRAMME on World FOOD DAY

1 Plenary, 3 Seminars and 4 Workshops will address these issues and more.

Alexandra Palace

11:30am Plenary: Politics on Your Plate

9:00am CAP Seminar

4:30pm Food Sovereignty Seminar

7:00pm Land Rights Seminar

Bloomsbury

11:30am Nanotechnology Workshop

2:00pm Resisting Corporate Monopolies Workshop

2:00pm CORE Workshop

7:00pm Boycott Nestlé Workshop

Updated Details, Venues, Speaker on www.ukabc.org

Patrick Mulvany
- e-mail: patrickmulvany@clara.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.ukabc.org

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Weapons of Mass Destruction and World Food Day

13.10.2004 12:10

The Vegan Society will be at The European Social Forum and also in Regents Park on World Food Day.

World Food Day - The Real Weapons of Mass Destruction 16th Oct

To celebrate The United Nations World Food Day, between 12 and 3pm at The Frieze Art Fair in London’s Regents Park on Sat 16th Oct the 60 year old Vegan Society will be highlighting logical solutions to problems facing 21st century society with free food and an interactive art instillation.

Our water supplies are being wasted, our environment polluted, rainforest chopped down, fish populations decimated, our health threatened and millions of animals tortured and killed to sustain the UK’s consumption of meat, dairy and eggs - it's time to stop the mass destruction.

Free Lunch
As part of The Vegan Society’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, dairy and meat free delicious, nutritious vegan food will be on offer from Redwoods , Alpro and other purveyors of fine vegan foods.

Weapons of Mass Destruction – Changing the Picture
2,500 animals are slaughtered every 90 seconds in the UK. Artists Geoff Francis and Gwen Yeomans will be on hand to orchestrate the world’s largest picture of the real potential weapons of mass destruction a plate, knife and fork using 2,500 pictures of farm animals helped by an altered consciousness amongst hungry visitors. Please come and change the future and symbolically make a difference.

STATISTICS of Mass Destruction
In the UK our population of nearly 60 million people eat nearly one billion animals a year * (972 million DEFRA 2002)

Of those roughly 7-10% are vegetarian or avoid meat –so that’s 17 animals per year per person if you live to 80 that could be 1360 animals.

Of the nearly one billion animals killed annually in the UK for food approximately 96% chickens, 2% sheep, 1.5% pigs and just less than half % are cows.

Half of all chicks born for egg laying (35 million per year in the UK) are immediately gassed or minced alive because they are useless male chicks chicks. The other 35 million born per year get to live as long as 1-2 years when their performance drops and they end up as soup or petfood.

In addition at least 20% of fish caught are for animal feed.

Vegan Outreach in the USA claim During his or her lifetime, the average American meat-eater is responsible for the suffering and deaths of more than 2,500 animals on factory farms (approximately 2,500 chickens, 80 turkeys, 30 pigs, and 10 cows and calves), and many thousands of sea animals as well.


09/09/2004 - A UN survey points out that it takes 7,000 litres of water to produce 100 grammes of beef, as opposed to 550 litres to produce enough flour for a loaf of bread.

The World Water Week in Stockholm was told the growth in demand for meat and dairy products is unsustainable.

 http://www.worldveganday.org/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=508

About 23,750 square kilometres of tropical rainforest were cleared between August 2002 and August 2003, according to statistics released by the Brazilian government according to New Scientist. The Bulk of this is for beef or soya for animal feed production.

800 million chickens, 15 million sheep, 9 million pigs and 3 million cattle are slaughtered every year in the UK. (Compassion in World Farming)

It takes 100.000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of beef and just 500 litres for one kilogram of potatoes. (from Compassion in World Farming Trust, 2002).

About three-fifth of world consumption of coarse grains is used for animal feed. A growing share of wheat is used for animal feed in the industrial countries - 45 percent of total use in the EU.

It is expected that "even by 2030 about 440 million undernourished may
remain" (Source: FAO - World agriculture 2015/2030)

Tony Bishop Weston
mail e-mail: media@vegansociety.com
- Homepage: http://www.worldveganday.org