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Letter to the Editor of the Warsaw Voice

April 19, 1998 No. 16 (495)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the editor should be adressed to
The Warsaw Voice 64 Ksiecia Janusza St., (5th floor) 01-452 Warsaw, Poland

Letters must include writer's full name and address, and may be edited for purposes of clarity or space

E-mail can be sent to the Voice at: Voice@warsawvoice.com.pl

 

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Dear Editor,

In your article on the World Bank Report (March 22), you reported that one of the main impediments to Poland's integration into the European Union was its agricultural sector. The World Bank task force that reported this "finding" was not aware of a pilot project supported by the International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) Global Environmental Facilities (GEF) Fund. Both of these organizations are under the World Bank.

The pilot project takes another perspective on Polish agriculture, a perspective where it is a great asset rather than a great liability.

Throughout Europe and the United States, problems associated with having only 2 to 5 percent of a country's population producing food for everyone are fueling a re-thinking of industrial agriculture. The costs of industrial agriculture are too high, environmentally and medically. Consumers are demanding a change.

The United States and European governments are funding projects to make agriculture more sustainable and safer. The answer is an agricultural system that more closely resembles Poland's than Germany's. This is an agriculture based on the traditions that Poland has preserved despite, rather than because of, the communist era.

The pilot project is Symbio Impex Polska Sp. z o.o., a Polish company backed by Caresbac Polska SA and Symbio Impex Corp. of the United States. Symbio and its strategic partners, including the largest French organic wholesaler, Pro Natura, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the Federation for the Development of Polish Agriculture (FDPA) and the ecotourism group (ECEAT), are banking on Poland's wealth in traditional organic agriculture by certifying it organic and investing in processing and distribution. The wealth of potential organic food is attracting the largest European food processors who know, even if the World Bank task force doesn't, that the organic market is the fastest-growing food sector and that Poland will be a winner in that market.

Modernizing Polish agriculture is not only environmentally problematic, but politically unrealistic. For the Polish farmer, it is not a matter of "getting another job." It is a way of life they want to preserve, and they are willing to cast their vote to protect that way of life. Any agricultural policy that does not take 25 percent of feelings into account is doomed to failure, at least in a democracy.

The task force's recommendation for Polish agriculture is outdated at its birth. As the report's ink dries, an international array of companies and organizations are mobilizing to preserve biodiversity in Poland and invest heavily in Poland's greatest asset, its family-owned farms.

Tokya Eugene Dammond, CEO
Symbio Impex Corp.
Woodstock, New York