We commit ourselves to ensuring farmers' access to national and international ex situ collections, including their right to repatriate farmers' varieties. We commit ourselves to preparing and publishing an independent status report on ex situ collections held by national and international public sector institutions that evaluates costs, effectiveness in terms of conservation, and benefits derived through enhancement, and adherence to Farmers' Rights. In addition to cultivated crops, people routinely utilise a wide variety of biodiversity from forests and commons which are an integral part of food security, especially important in times of crisis. Many farmers in the world derive their food security from these diversity-based systems. In addition, as a consequence of technological instabilities and economic costs of relying on the uniform and external input-based Green Revolution, many farmers are shifting to production systems based on diversity, which provide internal inputs and facilitate the ecological control of pests and disease.
Sustainable systems integrate fish, trees, wild foods, livestock and other living resources.
Biotechnology is being promoted as the new Double Green Revolution. Besides further eroding biodiversity, genetic engineering carries the risks of biological pollution and increased vulnerability of food systems. Food and food policy is becoming concentrated under the control of transnational corporations and their local partners through the structural adjustment policies of the International Money Fund and the World Bank and the agricultural trade liberalisation rules of the World Trade Organisation. These trends pose a serious threat to cultural and biological diversity and food security both in the South and North. The rapid conversion of land from agriculture to industry, estates, and tourism threatens the very existence of farming communities and indigenous peoples.