When boarding the plane for my trip to Vancouver, I was already anticipating the long and difficult flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong. Fifteen hours suspended in mid-air, what an incredible technological feat!

Actually, what concerned me the most was the other flight, the one with ‘WTO Airlines’. The last chance journey, declared analysts. The one where it would be best to purchase a one-way ticket: no possibility of return, no oxygen mask, no life preserve, no landing plan in case of disaster. This plane flies high above the clouds, where the earth cannot be seen, and the on-board staff tries to view agriculture from up high. I had plenty of reasons to be afraid of flying!

Once on site, I couldn’t help but notice that everywhere I looked, there were office blocks under construction. Incredible skyscrapers. Each one had a huge crane at its base. And surrounding the building, all the way up to the last floor, was scaffolding made exclusively of bamboo. Each structure seemed to artfully rely on this noble lumber. Fifty, sixty, one hundred stories, all connected to modernity by link with traditional, now that is an image I will not soon forget.

Seeing this, I could not help but think that the Chinese are not afraid to flaunt their difference. They paid no heed to construction standards established elsewhere in the world, and opted for a way of doing things that had long served them well. Bamboo is a key element in the success of one of the world’s most thriving economies.

So I framed the following thought on these bamboo stilts as they straddled the sidewalk. I think that our agriculture could continue to subscribe to modernity and still protect its bamboo. Our agriculture relies on communal tools, implements that have supported it throughout its evolution. For more than eighty years, organized labour and the cooperative world have allowed farmers to build an agriculture that meets their aspirations. This way of doing may seem archaic to some, but the result is distinctly modern.

So, why should we scaffold our agriculture in any other way? In the name of what? In the name of trade that, until now, has allowed exports to grow while reducing farmer revenues? In the name of greater competitiveness, which has focused increasingly on wealth rather than on reducing consumer prices? In the name of haphazard product circulation, combined with the proliferation of phyto-sanitary risks?

In fact, I believe that the WTO was on the verge of robbing us, it is our sovereignty. The right of a nation to decide its own future. And it is in this respect that alimentary sovereignty reaches more and more people. Supported by African nations and non-government organizations, it has for several years been marginalized, if not altogether ridiculed. How can we be modern when we are flowing at counter-current, they said? The answer lies with bamboo. It is possible to subscribe to modernity without denying the foundations that have served so well.

Alimentary sovereignty does not get in the way of trade or global exchanges. It supports the determination of each country to produce according to their purpose, whether it represents their needs, capacities, or even their resolve. On the basis of these principles, international trade rules would be reversed, because extending borders would now rest on scarcity rather than on competitiveness. The WTO could then play the role for which it was originally created, which is to make sure global trade rules are respected by each and every member-country.

As I returned to the hotel, more convinced than ever that ‘WTO Airlines’ should not be allowed to fly, or should I say to hover, any longer. I was also convinced that our modernity lies with the ability of our organizations to work together to produce the bamboo required to support our agriculture.

On my way back, I noticed a box on a restaurant door, it had an Olymel label stuck on it. As they say, “it’s really true”.