Declaration: Seeding the Future of the Earth and Humanity

DECLARATION

Seeding the Future of the Earth and Humanity

Vasundhara Festival, Navdanya Biodiversity Farm, DehraDun, India

16 October 2024

PREAMBLE

Food and agricultural systems have been spoiled by mechanistic science and voracious corporations; in fact, ecological degradation, infectious and non-communicable diseases, and the collapse of peasantry is under everybody’s eyes. Technologies first based on chemistry, then genetics and now digitalization are wiping-out farmers and farming altogether, to the benefit of a handful companies promising to feed the world with cultured proteins, insects, and 3D-printed ‘food’. By losing connection with Nature, human beings are losing themselves. However, agriculture holds the seeds to reconfigure social life and give a renewal impulse for the future, based on human dignity and regeneration of production means, such as soil and biodiversity.

Sustainable agriculture is a concrete reality worldwide which has not failed on its promise of wellbeing, as industrial food and farming systems did. Different forms of regenerative agriculture, including biodynamic, organic, permaculture, holistic planned grazing and indigenous polyculture balance the ecological, financial, and social needs of complex systems. Community Supported Agriculture and solidarity purchasing groups practice the gift economy concept by creating a partnership between local farmers and consumers whereby risks, responsibilities and rewards of farming activities are shared through long-term agreements. Urgenci, the urban-rural network to generate new forms of exchange between citizens which operates in 40 countries has adopted the Ostrava Declaration in 2016 which defines the key principles of these networks: responsibility in caring for the soil, water, seeds, food as a common good, support for small-scale farming and fair work, building communities around food and spreading relationships of trust.

Against all odds, citizen’ awareness is rapidly growing regarding our connectedness with other human beings and all species on Earth. As the Isha Upanishad remind us, all beings are sacred and all beings have a right to live well, no being has the right to destroy their happiness, health and wellbeing.

The Earth is my mother and I am her child.
If we protect Nature then she will protect us.
Any harm we do to Mother Earth harms us
because our rights flow from the rights of Mother Earth.
(Atharva Veda, Chapter 12)

CONSIDERING THAT:

The entire social life today is under the domination of the world of finance and multinationals that shapes the power of the State, giving rise to a growing totalitarianism and contempt for all of humanity. However, agriculture, coupled with conscientious communities, cannot but respect Earth natural laws of complementarity and the culture of selflessness, and thus create harmony, health and resilience:

Agricultural labor is exploited and paid for like any other commodity, with surplus value captured by companies, thus growing the concentration of capitalist power, with giant companies swallowing up small and medium-sized enterprises and impoverishing the whole society. In agriculture, people meet through daily labour Nature and celestial manifestations that dignify their labour and safeguard the moral aspect of human nature.
The pressure exercised on agricultural economies by markets and financial institutions in the global competitive race forces farming into monoculture, dependence on purchased inputs, environmental pollution, and lower farm gate prices. When a group of people forms an agricultural community to share chores and land care, solidarity and fraternity emerges, because the reason for one’s economic activity is sought in the needs of others.
Capital and technology, including digitalization, expropriate farmers from their lands, making them obsolete, and imposing vast land ownership and exploitation to increase financial flows. People who establish a community find themselves on a cognitive journey that conforms to the essence of living, which develops self-awareness and the free will to unite in a community of initiative who decides what, when and how to produce.
The authoritative regulatory power of the State does not allow the free self-determination of human beings and their responsible development; technology drives the economy and science follows political interests, negatively impacting social and ecological health. Experiencing Nature manifestations and feeling kinship creates trust between human beings, triggering a sense of justice and social consensus that can be condensed in informal agreements or laws.

Seeding the future of the Earth and humanity requires focusing on the future of seeds and breeds, food and agriculture, health, knowledge systems, local economies and democracies:

Seed is the symbol of life. Soil and water are the very basis of our life. Patenting and commodification of seeds, land and water pushes diversity to extinction and farmers into a debt trap.
Industrial globalised agriculture emits half of the greenhouse gases that destabilize climate through deforestation, intensive livestock units, fossil fuel-based fertilisers, packaging, processing, refrigeration, and long-distance transport. Small-scale ecological agriculture is climate neutral, while producing more nutrition per acre and providing about 70% of global food.
Industrial agriculture and processed food have triggered the non-communicable diseases pandemic, both by depleting food nutrients and adding contaminants across the food chain. Bioaccumulation of toxic substances in the environment contaminate natural resources and increases hazards to human health, such as antimicrobial resistance.
The mechanistic worldview and the exclusion of traditional and Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge have narrowed the knowledge base that humanity needs to face multiple crises. Corporate control of science and Intellectual Property Rights imposed by patents undermine the creation and sharing of knowledge.
Local economies are based on the law of return and regeneration of the natural world. Nature’s gifts and people cannot be reduced to ‘inputs‘. Economies which focus on life and the wellbeing of people instead of corporate profits regenerate resources and work for current and future generations.
The rights of Mother Earth and human rights are not separate from each other and are one indivisible continuum. The violence to the Earth and injustice to humanity are part of the same process. Sustainability cannot be separated from justice, human rights and peace.

This is not mine, that is not, say the small minded
The wise believe that the entire world is a family (Vasudhaiv kutumbakam)
Be unattached, be magnanimous
Lift up your mind
Enjoy the fruits of quantum freedom
(Chapter 6, VI.71-73, Maha Upanishad)

WE SHALL PACIFICALLY RESIST TO THE FORCES OF GREED AND COMMIT TO:

Defend seed freedom as the freedom of diverse plant and animal species to evolve, in integrity, self-organisation and diversity, and the freedom of communities everywhere to reclaim open-source seed as a commons. The saving and exchange of open pollinated, non-GMO, non-patented seed is an inalienable right and farmers’ rights over seeds are non-negotiable. We will resist every law and technology that attempts to undermine the freedom of the seed, which is intimately linked to the freedom of Mother Earth, so that future generations are as fortunate as we have been in receiving her gifts of diversity, nourishment and livelihoods. We join and stand together for our seeds and breeds and say no to GMOs, including New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), and no to patents on life.
Practice, protect and promote small-scale ecological agriculture. We will support and create local food systems which provide the answer to the food, nutrition, health and climate crises. We do not accept industrial/synthetic agriculture as a solution to the climate crisis and its failed promise to reduce hunger. We do not recognize false solutions to climate change, such as geo-engineering, “climate-smart” agriculture, genetically engineered “improved” seeds and breeds, or “sustainable intensification”. We will not allow our non-industrial livestock to be exterminated on the false claim that they contribute to climate change. Domesticated animals are our relatives, our co-producers and the regenerators of soils.
Create flourishing communities, regions, biodistricts and organic hubs free from chemical and genetically-engineered inputs. Traditional food processing, which enrich our microbiome and build our immune system, are being marginalized by industrial food safety standards. We reject hyper-processed, nutritionally depleted foods containing toxic residues and artificial ingredients. We do not accept highly energy intensive lab-food, such as synthetic meat, fish, dairy and eggs, that pose unknown risks to health. Scale-appropriate risk assessment food standards need to be developed to safeguard both traditional processing and human health.
Learn from holistic science of life to apply living paradigms of food and agriculture. Diversity and pluralism of knowledge are vital in times of instability and unpredictability. The knowledge sovereignty of communities has to be recognized and freely used and shared.
Promote living circular economies that do not produce waste, nor produce disposable people. We will sustain all others in mutuality through cooperation. We will participate in small-scale localized food systems that preserve the Earth’s ecological processes and ensure that value is captured by producers and processors, so that millions are not displaced and uprooted from their land.
Create living democracies, organised on the principles of diversity, inclusion, sharing, care, non-violence and regeneration for the wellness of all living beings. As conscious Earth Citizens, we recognize that the Earth Community includes ALL species and all peoples in their rich and vibrant diversity. We will stop the harm and correlate with the Earth to regenerate seed and biodiversity, soil and water, economies and freedoms.

WE CALL ON PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD TO SEEDING THE FUTURE THROUGH A TRANSITION:

From commodification of our land, seed, food, and knowledge to the recovery of the commons. Seeding the future of seeds and breeds puts the common good at the centre, and farmers as Earth custodians.
From an industrial agricultural model to an ecological regenerative model. Seeding the future of food and agriculture promotes the One Health approach to soils, plants, animals and humans, while boosting food sovereignty and regenerating life.
From a reductionist and mechanistic paradigm that separates, to living food systems paradigm that connect Nature and people. Seeding the future of food and health promotes diversity in our fields, plates, guts and cultures.
From the appropriation of traditional knowledge and vested interests in science to a diversity of free knowledge systems. Seeding the future of knowledge systems builds on Indigenous Peoples knowledge and farm-based innovations that adapt to continuous changes.
From predatory globalisation and competition that benefit a few to local, circular economies that benefit all. Seeding the future of solidarity-based economies establishes communities of food co-producers while honouring traditional market practices. This helps maintaining farmers on their lands and safeguards the right to choose healthy foods.
From corporate, free trade that is killing the Planet and our democracies, to democracies based on people’s cooperation and food justice. Seeding the future of participatory living democracies establishes vibrant rural-urban food networks, ecotourism, public procurement of healthy produce for schools and hospitals and among all, harmony with Earth and all life forms.

The Earth is living
The living Earth is our Mother
We are all members of the One Earth Family
(Vandana Shiva)