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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE REGISTRATION OPENS FOR PLANET DIVERSITY CONGRESS MAY 12-16 IN BONN, GERMANY 
BONN, Germany, January 28, 2008 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- In May the world will focus on issues of biodiversity when official negotiations of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety are held in Bonn, Germany. As the meetings open, the Planet Diversity World Congress on the Future of Food and Agriculture will celebrate the biological and cultural diversity of farming, gardening and food cultures with a public demonstration and festival on Monday, 12 May (Pentecost), followed by a three-day conference for 500 participants from all continents and realms of society.
"Food and agriculture are key to the unprecedented challenges of global hunger and injustice, of climate change and loss of biodiversity caused by man," stated Benedikt Haerlin on behalf of a broad-based organising and international advisory committee. "At this alternative people’s summit of diversity, we want to discuss how different movements of farmers and peasants, consumers, food producers, women, environmentalists, gardeners, indigenous peoples, cooperatives and their communities can cooperate to enrich, share and defend both biological and cultural diversity. We see a new global movement in the making to oppose environmentally and socially destructive corporate monocultures that threaten the web of life, of which we are all part," he added. Among the speakers of the event are alternative Nobel Prize winners Vandana Shiva, Percy Schmeiser, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Ibrahim Abouleish, Ryoko Shimizu and Tewolde Egziabher as well as Jakob von Uexküll, of the World Future Council, World Food Prize winner Hans Herren, the agricultural ministers of Tuscany and Tasmania and scientists such as quantum physicist Hans-Peter Dürr, Miguel Altieri, President of Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology and Ulrich Köpke, President of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research, theologist and biologist Günter Altner and many more. "Most importantly, we will hear from spiritual leaders and representatives of small farmers’, environmental, consumer and women’s organisations, indigenous communities, seed savers and gardeners and the thousands of grassroots initiatives who really make a difference for the diversity of life and culture on this planet," said Haerlin. Participatory workshops will complement the plenary sessions and allow for intensive exchange and strategising on key issues such as: food sovereignty and access to healthy food, water and land; consumer rights and fair relations with producers; food and agricultural tradition and quality; GMO-free regions; special concerns of women and youth; free exchange of seeds and participatory breeding; patents on life; agro-fuels; indigenous rights and knowledge; a new scientific, political and ethical paradigm of diversity. Those interested in attending the conference are encouraged to register by 31 March. Those needing visas to enter Germany should register by the end of January. You may register in English, Spanish, French or German at: www.planet-diversity.org/registration.html Planet Diversity calendar of events:
Planet Diversity is jointly organised by: German Family Farmers Union (AbL); Protestant Church Development Service (EED);Friends of the Earth International; GENET (European NGO Network on Genetic Engineering); NGO Forum on Environment and Development; Gene-ethical Network; Greenpeace International; Heinrich Böll Foundation; IFOAM (World Organic Agricultural Movements); Initiative for GE-free Seeds and Breeding (IGS); Save Our Seeds (Foundation on Future Farming); Federation of German Scientists (VDW) CONTACT: Shannon von Scheele Foundation on Future Farming Tel: +49(0)30 275-903-09 Fax: +49(0)30 275-903-12 info@planet-diversity.org |
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