Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Governments, The Secretary General of the United Nations, Members of Delegations,

Good afternoon, I am Denise O'Brien, a small sustainable farmer from the state of Iowa in the United States. Today I speak to you as a farmer, for all the world's farmers, and not as a representative of the United States government. Up until two years ago my husband and I were medium sized farmers milking 40 dairy cows and raising approximately 80 hectres of crops. Due to the debt crisis of U.S. farmers in the 1980's and the intensive industrialization of agriculture, we gave up farming as our only source of income. My husband now works full time away from the farm. We, as other farmers in the world will spend a great percentage of our income over the next years to pay back the debt.

I now farm by myself full time. My crops are strawberries, raspberries, apples, asparagus, chickens and turkeys. These crops are raised for local consumption and I try to maintain a strict regime of organic practices. My children more than likely will not farm. This age of industrialized agriculture presents few opportunities for someone to enter agriculture. This story is not mine alone. It is a story repeated every hour of every day as more and more people leave the rural areas and leave farming. This is a worldwide phenomonen. The basis for food production on small and medium sized farms is eroding as is the rural society that food producers have sustained.

It is under these auspices that I have been given this awesome task of speaking for farmers of the world. In my 21 years of farming I have always fought the political battle of small and medium producers. During that time I have had small farmers from around the world visit my farm and I have visited small and meduim producers in other countries. I do not pretend that I can speak to all the issues of farmers, but I do know that there are a number of commonalities that we all share.

We shared our experiences when we met at the Earth Summit and wrote the "NGO Sustainable Agriculture Treaty." The last line of the treaty reads, "It is therefore an urgent necessity to break with the dominant predatory model of agriculture in favor of new patterns of sustainability which are equitable and participatory, to guarantee the full control of the means of production and natural resources in the hands of the people who work the land, insuring them a permanent source of income and high level of productivity."

We defined sustainable agriculture as, "...a model of social and economic organization based on a equitable and participatory vision of development which recognizes the environment and natural resources as the foundation of economic activity. Agriculture is sustainable when it is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, culturally appropriated and based on a holistic scientific approach."

As a woman farmer, I shared experiences with others when we met in Rome prior to the World Food Summit in 1996. Women wrote a statement there that declared there needed to be;

* democratization of the access to resources especially land, water, seed and intellectual property. * the promotion of sustainable agriculture and common based resource manangement. * the establishment of local, people-based trade systems and the infrastructure thereof. * the empowerment of women through equal representation in decision-making bodies at local, regional, national and global levels. * access to education for women in general and girl children in particular. * access to credit and other financial support for women. * rurally appropriate education, health, recreation, childcare and other infrastructural support systems designed by and for rural communities with consideration to both genders. * concession of the right of indigenous peoples of the right to their ancestral land.

We also shared experiences when La Via Campesina, a growing international farmer, peasant, farm workers and indigenous peoples' movement, met in April 1996 in Mexico and declared that; "Everyone must have access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food in sufficient quantity to sustain a healthy life with full human dignity. Each nation should declare that access to food is a constitutional right and guarantee the development of the primary sector to insure the concrete realization of this fundamental right."

The industrial model of agriculture has caused social, economic and environmental devastation in our rural areas. Many farmers are questioning the sustainability of a model that uses high inputs of fertilizers, chemicals, and water. As a result farmers are transitioning to more ecological production methods. There are governments that are supporting farmers in this transition. For example, Organic Transition Payments Initiatives developed in the late 1980's in Denmark, Sweden and Germany have been extended to farmers in 15 European Union countries under the common legal framework of Regulation 2078/92.

There is also the example of government involvement in China's Green Food Program. This is a semi-government organization and is a member of IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement). The program limits the use of pesticides and increases the use of farm manures.

One more example comes from my own country, the United States. This program is call SARE - Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education and provides opportunities for farmers to learn how to adopt sustainable practices.

Producing food entails the sustainable care and use of natural resources expecially land, water and seed. Farmers who work the land must have the right to practice sustainable management of natural resources and to preserve biological diversity. Genetic resources are the result of a millenia of evolution and belong to all of humanity. Farming communities must have the right to freely use and protect the diverse genetic resources, including seeds, which have been developed by them throughout history.

We must understand, though, that all of these efforts on the part of farmers, governments and the private sector will be in vain as long as transnational corporations resist the use of sustainable development principles in their operations. None of us are going to witness or participate in a sustainable world as long as transnationals are not held accountable for their unsustainable use of the world's resources. As His Excellency Mugabe, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe said in his speech on June 23 before this same Assembly, "The World Trade Organization has assisted transnational corporations with global economic opportunities, but has not inculcated in them responsibilities on the environment as we are witnessing cut-throat competition and corporate avarice undermining the whole process of sustainable development."

I am not an economist, nor a scientist, nor a researcher, but along with over 450 million farmers, I have what many of you need - a close relationship with our planet Earth. I urge you to become involved with farmers in food production for local consumption. I urge all people to take time to evaluate their lives in terms of how it impacts the very nature of a healthy, livable planet. In order for all of us to survive on this finite planet we must take into consideration every thing we do every day of our lives. We can only survive if we give back what we have taken.