Filipino peasant women in defence of life.

Abstract

AMIHAN, the Peasant Women's Federation, is working to counteract the devastating impact on agricultural workers and the environment of the Philippine government policy of appropriating farm land for industrial development purposes. Peasant women organized by AMIHAN have, in some cases, forced survey teams and tractors prepared to clear the land to turn away. A major target for protest has been the Calabarzon development project, which seeks to construct industrial estates for export processing in the fertile agricultural areas surrounding Metro Manila. This process will require the displacement of 100,000 peasant families without any guarantee of compensation. Lacking any other means of feeding their children, peasant women in the areas covered by the Calabarzon project are selling their bodies to engineers, soldiers, and other project staff in exchange for rice. Not only are Filipino peasant women facing economic displacement and degradation, they also are witnessing the long-term effects of prolonged exposure to the pesticides and chemical fertilizers that were forced upon them during the so-called Green Revolution. Increased rates of spontaneous abortions and stillbirths, as well as chronic health problems, have been recorded. Many of the foreign-based corporations that will be setting up plants in the project area have been shut down in their own countries due to pollution hazards, meaning that such health problems will intensify further. Moreover, since the project area is a leading fruit, coconut, and rice producing region, food self-sufficiency will become a national crisis and the percentage share of land devoted to food crops versus cash crops will decline dramatically from the 1989 level of 63%. Biodiversity and soil fertility are threatened in the upland areas to which peasants are migrating. AMIHAN is working to end the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides through integrated pest management and is promoting organic farming methods to restore soil fertility.