Planet Diversity will be a global congress and festival on the future of food and agriculture, organised by NGOs, GMO-Free Regions, farmers and social movements around the world. From 12 to 16 May 2008 this event will involve about 500 participants on location and thousands of people, who will participate through the internet and by spreading the word before and after this first "Planet Diversity" congress. The message is: Local-Diverse-GMO Free.

Preliminary Outline of Events
Monday, May 12th (Pentecost): A Festival of Diversity
A public festival of the senses will mark the beginning of Planet Diversity and the kick-off of the government negotiations within the framework of the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to take place over the next three weeks. 

 

Monthly e-newsletter from Focus on the Global South, India


From 3-14 December, hundreds of policy makers, environmental scientists, media representatives and activists from 180 countries will descend on the Indonesian resort town of Bali to deliberate on what is arguably the single most important issue for the survival of humanity today; the climate crisis (better known by the euphemism of 'global warming'). Ironically the majority of those travelling to the crucial United Nations Climate Change Conference will do so by aircraft, one of the biggest contributors to the emission of green house gases. The global peasant coalition Via Campesina has a simple but powerful message to the Bali conclave; one of the key ways to cool the planet is small scale sustainable farming (see 2c)

But tempers were heated back home in Mumbai where there was a showdown between water activists and local municipal councillors. Six activists were arrested for 'unlawful assembly' when they raised questions on the World Bank funded move to privatise Mumbai's water supply. The press release in this issue demands the withdrawal of the flawed project and calls for improving the public utility to meet the needs of Mumbai's citizens.  

Remember the World Social Forum? Well its back again in a couple of months. In 2008 its avatar will be one global day of action on January 26. Groups and individuals interested to be part of the process can sign on to the statement (2a)

November 5, 2007

Current global modes of production, consumption and trade have caused massive environmental destruction including global warming that is putting at risk our planet's ecosystems and pushing human communities into disasters. Global warming shows the failure of a development model based on high fossil energy consumption, overproduction and trade liberalization.

Farmers - men and women - around the world are joining hands with other social movements, organizations, people and communities to ask for and to develop radical social, economic and political transformations to reverse the current trend.