friends of the earth in the media

In 2003, Friends of the Earth International continued to increase its media presence around the world. Throughout the year, more than 100 press releases were sent to some 4,000 journalists covering all continents.

Friends of the Earth’s Real World Radio ( www.radiomundoreal.fm ) started broadcasting in Spanish, Portuguese and English at the September World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, and has been on the air ever since. It is picked up by tens of community radio stations throughout Latin America and the rest of the world.

on food aid with genetically modified crops
"Food aid is being used, particularly by the US, as a marketing tool to capture new markets. Big agribusinesses are huge beneficiaries of the current food aid system," alleged Ricardo Navarro, the Salvadorean chairman of Friends of the Earth International. "GM crops are not the solution to hunger. If Bush wanted to tackle hunger he would be answering the real causes of hunger, like poverty, debt, lack of infrastructure that make it impossible for small farmers to compete in world markets."
Sunday Herald (Scotland), 29 June 2003.

on the world economic forum
"Prosperity for the World Economic Forum means prosperity for the huge multinational corporations that write the rules of world trade – rules that help them, but often hurt the global environment and the poorest people. It is deeply worrying and quite wrong for world trade policy to be decided in secret and while dissenters are excluded."
Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth International Vice Chair and Director of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in a 20 January 2003 IPS article.

on mining
"We welcome any move that takes mining pressure off such [World Heritage Site] areas, however we still want to see a halt to all resource extraction, not only because of the effect on environment and biodiversity, but also the negative effect on local communities. Our call is, no more mining."
Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International mining coordinator, in a 22 August 2003 Reuters article.

on the collapse of world trade talks in cancún
''This is a triumph of reason, a triumph of the poor countries and civil society, because we could not allow the rich countries to once again impose their views and their pressure. The World Trade Organization has lead feet, and is moving slower and slower. I don't foresee a good future for it."
Alberto Villareal, Friends of the Earth Uruguay, commenting on the collapse of the Cancún World Trade Organization talks in a 15 September 2003 IPS article.

on shell
"They are like a colonial force running the communities. But we want access to our resources."
Oronto Douglas, Friends of the Earth Nigeria, attending Shell’s annual meeting, in a 23 April IPS article.

on the g8
"These eight leaders are more responsible than anyone for the actions of their multinationals. But they are more interested in the interest of multinationals than they are in people and the environment."
Matt Philipps, Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in a 3 June 2003 Press Association article.

on trade, agriculture and deforestation
"The large-scale, export-oriented agriculture that is promoted in current WTO proposals is [...] the main cause of deforestation, especially in tropical areas. It is now widely recognized that the recent increase of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is mainly caused by the rapid expansion of soy bean production for the mainly European export market.”
Simone Lovera, Friends of the Earth International, in a 9 September 2003 BBC World Service article.