Cog Awards 2008

Best Peoples (and Environment) Defense:

MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra, Brazil) and “Keno”
For its continuing fight against GMOs in Brazil, and in memory of Valmir Mota de Oliveira (“Keno”), who was shot and killed October 2007 by a militia under contract with Syngenta, one of the world’s largest seed and agrochemical companies. Keno was with 150 MST members occupying an illegal field of Syngenta’s experimental GM maize in the buffer zone of the Iguazu National Park, Paraná.

Best Organized Advocacy:

Filipino / Philippine civil society organizations, fisherfolk and individuals who stood up for the Sulu Sea
For petitioning the Philippine government to stop Australian-based Ocean Nourishment Corp.’s (ONC) urea-dumping activities in the Sulu Sea. The petition’s signatories demanded broad consultations and comprehensive environmental and socio-economic impact assessments of ONC’s plan to artificially promote growth of algal blooms (that the company claims will sequester carbon).

Biggest Pioneer on Smallest Technology:

Joint Winners: Soil Association and International Union of Food, Farm and Hotel Workers (IUF)
To Soil Association, the UK’s largest organic certifier and, now, the first certifying body in the world to forbid products containing human-made nanoparticles – including foods, cosmetics and sunscreens – from qualifying as organic. And to IUF for passing a resolution (March 2007) demanding that governments and international organizations apply the precautionary principle and prohibit the sale of products containing nanomaterials until they are proven safe.

Most Creative:

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy
For standing in solidarity with Mexican and Latin American movements in their struggle against transgenic maize. The self-identified “most dangerous tortilla art collective in the world” uses the corn tortilla as a canvas to make art that raises public awareness.

Best Defense of Food Sovereignty:

Nyéléni, World Forum on Food Sovereignty
For advocating the right to food sovereignty and the primacy of community-based food production. Organized by an alliance of social movements, more than 500 people from over 80 countries met in Mali (February 2007), including representatives from organizations of peasants/family farmers, artisanal fisherfolk, pastoralists, forest communities, indigenous peoples, landless peoples, rural workers, migrants, women, youth, consumers, environmental and urban movements.

“Lone Voice in the Belly of the Beast” Award:

Red de Coordinación en Biodiversidad (The Biodiversity Coordination Network), Costa Rica
For bringing together, beginning in the mid-1990s, environmentalists, indigenous organizations, peasant organizations, and academics to fight against international trade and predatory intellectual property regimes (e.g., CAFTA and TRIPS) that attempt to legitimate the appropriation, commodification, and privatization of biodiversity and knowledge.