WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/854 
20 June 2008 
 
 (08-2939) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
  
 
COMPREHENSIVE AGRICULTURAL HEALTH SYSTEM 
 
Communication from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
 
  
 The following communication, received on 19 June 2008, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
. 
 
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1. As part of the process aimed at ensuring social progress among the country's population, the 
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela now provides agri cultural producers with legal instruments that 
allow the development of productive forces and the implementation of revolu tionary rural policies 
aimed at establishing a social order which unifies empowerment of the people and plant and animal 
production thanks to agricultural economic planning whic h is conducive to a state of social justice and 
wellbeing respectful of the environment, in which agri-food sovereignty enables the population to 
enjoy a nutritional, suitable, healthy and optimum diet, through systematic action designed to overcome economic and social discrepancies between rural and urban areas. 
2. An analysis of the current animal, plant and human health situation in Venezuela shows the 
extensive damage caused by the u se of agro-toxic substances over th e last 40 years.  Venezuela is 
sadly not only the Latin American country with the highest rates of teratoge nic defects and congenital 
deformation but it is also affected by the following problems: 
(a) Acute problems such as dermatitis, loss of consciousness, convulsions and respiratory 
depression; 
(b) chronic problems such as neurological disorders, behavioural disorders, reproductive 
disorders, cancer, mutagenesis and disruption of the endocrine system, 
methaemoglobinaemia in children caused by excess nitrates and nitrites in water and 
food; 
(c) permanent or residual environmental damage  to land, water and air due to excess 
nitrates and other substances; 
(d) permanent or residual damage to wild a nd domestic plant and animal species which 
has generated ecological imbalances. 
3. Articles 127 and 305 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela stipulate 
protection of the environment and the practice of sustainable agriculture: 
"Article 127:  It is the right and duty of  each generation to protect and maintain the 
environment for its own benefit and that of the world of the future.  Everyone has the 
right, individually and collectively, to enjoy a safe, healthful and ecologically G/SPS/GEN/854 
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  balanced life and environment.  The State shall protect the environment, biological 
and genetic diversity, ecological processes,  national parks and natural monuments, 
and other areas of particular ecological importance." 
4. The genome of a living being shall not be patent able, and the field shall be regulated by the 
law relating to the principles of bioethics.  It is  a fundamental duty of the State, with the active 
participation of society, to ensure that the popul ation develops in a pollu tion-free environment in 
which air, water, soil, coasts, climate, the ozone layer and living species receive special protection, in accordance with the law. 
5. Food sovereignty is considered to be "self-d etermination and independence of a nation based 
on social management of food production, storage,  processing, distribution and consumption, the 
primary objective being to ensure that its populatio n enjoys a healthy, bala nced and adequate diet, 
with physical and economic access and equitable distribution, on the basis of citizen training, the comprehensive control of germplasm, access to na tural tangible and intangible elements, and the 
appropriation of sustainable knowledge and technologi es based on historical, social, cultural, political, 
economic and agro-ecological values and potential which protect nature". 
6. We propose a new conceptual theoretical-philo sophical framework which goes beyond the 
idea of merely ensuring the health of plants a nd animals, products and by -products and promotes a 
geocentric ancestral vision ( pacha mama ) according to which the quality of the soil, water and air and 
people's health are closely linke d, under agro-ecological principles conducive to sustainability, 
sovereignty and citizen participation through the de velopment of measures, rules and projects for the 
prevention, control and eradication of pests and diseases. 
7. The projects that contribute to the achievement  of these institutional and State objectives are 
as follows. 
(a) Promotion and implementation of the new comprehensive agricultural health system
, 
which favours ownership and involvement of animal and plant producers through 
communal councils, farmers' councils and co mprehensive animal and plant health 
councils in campaigns for the prevention, c ontrol and eradication of the main diseases 
and pests (foot-and-mouth disease, brucellosis and avian influenza), and integrated crop management; 
(b) development of a health sovereignty and defence system
 covering 19 international 
ports, 13 national and international airports  and six border posts, as well as permanent 
surveillance by the National Guard; 
(c) building up and development of a national ne twork of diagnostic and phytosanitary 
and zoosanitary biological resource production laboratories  consisting of one national 
reference laboratory, two State referen ce laboratories, 12 communal phytosanitary 
and zoosanitary diagnostic laboratories, 17 biocontrol production laboratories, nine 
biofertilizer production laboratories and one high-security quarantine station for a 
total of 42 sites in 23 federal bodies, with a federal support service ensuring coverage 
of 78 per cent of national territory; 
(d) introduction of a national technical georeferencing platform  to keep official 
information up to date so as to facilitate decision making and the adoption of preventive and/or prophylactic measures, and the direction of domestic policies which are centralized but devolved according to each region's social and biological features.  G/SPS/GEN/854 
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  8. In view of the foregoing and on the strength of  the arguments outlined above, we propose to 
this Committee and the world at large to move be yond the reductionist model of the green revolution 
and develop and promote the agro-ecological model of comprehensive agricultural health . 
 
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