From Via Alterna
Unite Against the Glyphosate Downpour
Press Release of the National Coffee Growers Association
Aurelio Suarez Montoya
National President
Pereira, February 13, 2003
Two days before the arrival of the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, at the 62nd National Coffee Growers Congress, President Alvaro Uribe Velez announced to the delegates of this event that coffee growing regions with a known presence of coca crops will be fumigated by air with glyphosate. Afterwards, on a visit to Washington, the Colombian Foreign minister ratified "that commitment" with the North American government.
At the beginning of this year, the governor of Caldas indicated that fumigations would be initiated in the the eastern part of the state, and this week, the Interior Minister, Fernando Londono Hoyos, in a arrogant tone warned that "glyphosate will rain down on you."
The National Coffee Growers Association has warned beforehand about the grave consequences that this government action will bring for the coffee industry in Colombia. Besides the damage that the aerial application of this toxic product will bring to other crops, there is also coffee, people, water, the environment and biodiversity, and the spraying may influence the good reputation of the Colombian coffee bean in foreign markets.
The news that "Colombia's coffee zone is being fumigated by air with glyphosate" would put the high quality of coffee at risk and in addition it would spoil its value in markets, and consequently put an end to many special coffee projects that many coffee growers are carrying out. It will not be easy to explain abroad what the difference is between affected and non-affected areas.
In addition to the fact that this method has already shown its ineffectiveness, it is known that the dose of ten liters per hectare, which is the amount planned for application, is highly toxic, and in light of the statement of Londono Hoyos, resolution 1065 of 2001, which prohibits fumigation in strategic environmental zones, will not be followed.
Just as plans are not being adopted to favor the communities involved, which would prove, by all means, to be much more cost effective, if one has in mind that fumigating one hectare of coca by air costs 467 dollars, much more that any alternative project, which in their majority are financed with public borrowing. These considerations coincide with those that the Ombudsman's Office criticized the actions against illicit crops in Putumayo.
Consequently, the National Coffee Growers Association asks that activities to aerially fumigate Colombian coffee farms with glyphosate not be carried forward, and we also call on mayors, State Assemblies, County Boards, State Governments, Coffee growing counties, NGO's, Coffee growers and society in general to stand against the harmful government actions that clearly obey foreign plans, and against this new additional problem for the Coffee Region, and in other coffee growing areas.