BELWEDER DECLARATION: “The Charter of Real Farming and Real Food”

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Published on Monday, 26 June 2017 08:31

We, the undersigned, believe that industrial methods of food production constitute a very serious threat to the Polish people and the Polish countryside, and therefore we URGE the President and the Polish Government to respect the voice of the majority of their electorate and immediately implement the postulates of the BELWEDER DECLARATION: “The Charter of Real Farming and Real Food”.

BELWEDER DECLARATION: “The Charter of Real Farming and Real Food”

Having in mind respect for the beautiful traditions of peasant family farms, which in a unique way contribute towards the preservation of culture and biodiversity of crops in the Polish countryside and the best foods available in Europe;

recognising the key role of small and medium farms in the protection and preservation of food sovereignty that is essential for the basic supply of food for the Nation;

and believing that the only way that can guarantee optimal health and good condition of natural environment is the promotion of a diet based on local high-quality foods and the preservation of country landscape marked by natural biodiversity,

we demand that the President and the Polish Government:

• Immediately start implementing a conscious policy whose aim is the protection and promotion of true qualities of the Polish countryside which serve the Polish Nation, and which are currently being irrevocably devastated by rapid globalisation and development of industrial farming.

• Remove the restrictions concerning the possibility to buy a full range of products from local farmers by shops, schools, restaurants and other institutions.

• Support and develop a strategy whose aim is the preservation of a large number of farmers and the traditional mosaic of family farms, and the development of strong, local and regional outlets, including an immediate implementation of a long-standing protection programme, as well as financial, expertise and promotion support for small and medium family farms.

• Support eco-agrotourism, the processing of foods on farms and the use of renewable energy sources.

• Take measures against air pollution (low emission from homesteads and farmhouses) in the Polish countryside.

• Implement an immediate ban on the sales, cultivation and production of GMOs, as well as an effective strategy for the production of GMO-free Polish animal feeds.

• Limit and completely withdraw industrial farming methods and make it possible for a long-term lease of land, currently in the hands of governmental agencies, to young, ambitious farmers who want to produce foods with the use of traditional and organic methods. Today, this will provide jobs form them and in future for their children, and will provide the Nation with good and healthy foods.

• Introduce organic faring methods into schools' and universities' curriculums as one of the main directions and not just an alternative to industrial methods of food production.
  
  

We urge the President and the Polish Government to protect the unique geographical and historical strength of Poland based on traditional Polish countryside and create/draw a new vision of farming in order to prevent the imminent global catastrophe that threatens life and health of mankind and biodiversity.

We urge the President and the Polish Government to stop promoting the current agricultural policy based on highly chemical, industrial farming that can lead hundreds of thousands farmers to bankruptcy, soils to degradation and the country to food catastrophe.

We demand a fast answer concerning the implementation of the above postulates.

I hereby agree to the processing of my personal data for the purposes of the BELWEDER DECLARATION: “The Charter of Real Farming and Real Food”

Sir Julian Rose, farmer and author, the President of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside (ICPPC)
Jadwiga Łopata, Goldman Prize winner, educational organic farm – the ICPPC ECOCETRE

dr Jacek J. Nowak, em. prof. SW, independent scientist, ICPPC's advisor

Edyta Jaroszewska-Nowak, President of Ekoland o/ ZPM, BIOEDEN FARM , NSZZ Solidarność RI o/ ZPM

Anna Bednarek, President of Stowarzyszenie Best Proeko-CIS

Lena Huppert, President of Fundacji Wspierania Rozwoju Kultury i Społeczeństwa Obywatelskiego QLT (QLT Foundation)

Anna Szmelcer, President of Stowarzyszenia Polska Wolna od GMO (GMO Free Poland)

Dorota Staszewska, doctor, Stowarzyszenie Polska Wolna od GMO (GMO Free Poland)

dr Jarosław Sachajko, President of Stowarzyszenie Rolników i Konsumentów Kukiz’15 (Farmers' and Consumers' Association Kukiz'15)

Jolata Dal, family farm Ohanadal, councillor

Polish Policy Makers Support ‘Direct From the Farmer’ Initiative

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Published on Friday, 12 February 2016 13:16

‘Direct From the Farmer’ Gains Ground!

The new government in Poland is responding to our campaign to free-up the drastically repressive food and hygiene regulations that have dogged the Country’s small and medium sized farmers for decades. Up until now, governments have outlawed the sale of on-farm processed foods unless farmers establish their operations as a separate business and in a separate hygienically sanitised building; something that is unaffordable to the great majority of small farmers whose holdings typically range from between 3 and 10 hectares.

However, an International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside campaign to change this position and to free-up Poland’s 1.3 million small family farms to operate autonomously - and to direct-sell their produce locally - is gaining momentum and is not, thus far, seen as being at odds with the agenda of the new government.

Read more: Polish Policy Makers Support ‘Direct From the Farmer’ Initiative

How the War Against Nature Began

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Published on Monday, 26 October 2015 18:13

Julian Rose, Contributor
Waking Times

There can be no more certain way to decimate life on Earth than through the act of setting in reverse the natural expansiveness of nature. Yet that is exactly what has been happening for the past two centuries, through the relentless through the relentless eradication of farm and forest biodiversity in a fixated, tunnel vision pursuit of specialisation and profit.

Polish Farmers Blockade Motorways Across Country. Send your support for Polish farmers

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Published on Wednesday, 11 February 2015 06:29

Sunday 8.02.2015

This week thousands of Polish family farmers from the Solidarity trade union turned out to protest in over 50 locations across the country. Over 150 tractors have been blockading the A2 motorway into Warsaw since the 3rd February and hundreds more have closed roads and are picketing governmental offices in other regions. The farmers are vowing to continue the struggle until the government agrees to enter talks with the union and commit to addressing what they see as a crisis in Polish agriculture.

Read more: Polish Farmers Blockade Motorways Across Country. Send your support for Polish farmers

The Ecologist "Polish farmers block motorways for land rights, no GMOs"

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Published on Tuesday, 10 February 2015 06:15

Thousands of small farmers in Poland are blockading motorways and holding demonstrations to demand land rights, a ban on GMOs and an end to oppressive health and safety regulations - and they are refusing to call off the protests until their demands are met.

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