Farmers' first line of defence against pests is the ecosystem in and around their fields, write Jonathan Lundgren & Scott Fausti. With widespread or indiscriminate use of pesticides essential biodiversity is lost - and the result is more frequent and serious infestations, and a decline in food security.
… Biodiversity is the best defence against corn … indiscriminate use of pesticides essential biodiversity is lost - and the result is more … and a decline in food security. Biodiversity performs critical ecosystem …
The global homogenisation of food carries costs, writes Sayed Azam-Ali - notably the world's the increasing dependence on just a few 'elite crops', creating a precarious food system vulnerable to climate change. We must diversify our diets, and the crops that that feed us.
… In a warming world, food security means crop diversity Sayed Azam-Ali | 10th October 2014 … succeed at higher temperatures. Increase the diversity of our food crops So what should we …
There's quite a fashion now for creating enormous ocean nature reserves, write Peter J S Jones & Elizabeth De Santo. The UK kicked off the trend last year at Pitcairn Island, and now the US has followed up with a 1.5m sq.km reserve around Hawaii. But while these look like big conservation gains, the more serious task is to manage sustainably the intensely exploited seas close to home.
… Under the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, signed by almost every country in … this focus on a few big areas. The marine biodiversity target is about much more than the … and block their access to markets. The biodiversity target also specifies that the MPA …
Agroecology is key to retaking control over food, farming and land from the 'monstrous machine' of agribusiness, biotech, big finance and 'free trade', writes Colin Todhunter, as it represents a truly viable alternative to agriculture for corporate profit. But such are the powers ranged against the world's small farmers that it must be supported by a broad-based, global people's movement.
… diverse. There is a loss of plant and insect diversity, which threatens food security, …
It's been another disastrous year for North America's Monarch butterflies, with the insect's population down 27% in a single year. The sudden decline is blamed on severe winter storms in Mexico, and the impacts of GMO crops, herbicides and insecticides on US farms.
… 10th February 2017 News Extinction Insects Biodiversity Farming Pesticides USA Mexico Canada … senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. A recent study by the US Geological … of the monarch led the Center for Biological Diversity, the Center for Food Safety, the …
Naomi Klein famously called for a 'grand coalition' of the progressive left to fight climate change and Earth-destroying capitalism, writes Alexander Reid Ross. And now it's happening, drawing together diverse strands that encompass the fight for social and racial justice, the right to work, health, clean air and fresh water, and our freedom to be alive and thrive on this our one planet.
… droughts. They are destroying the complex diversity that the web of life requires to … how to understand and appreciate both biodiversity and human diversity, how to live together amongst both …
Among the risks of fracking are fragmentation of wildlife habitats, groundwater depletion, surface water pollution. The risks are compounded by a failure among companies and regulators to record or disclose essential information - from the chemicals used, to the time and place of toxic spills.
… occur in regions of exceptional biological diversity. For example, the Devonian and … areas of amphibian and freshwater fish diversity in the United States. Each of the …
A coalition of fishing, consumer, and environmental groups are suing the FDA for its 'unlawful' approval of Aquabounty's GM salmon, as it relied on treating the fish as an 'animal drug' under a 1938 law, and ignored serious risks to wild salmon and fishing communities.
… fisherman and the Center for Biological Diversity's Alaska representative. "This kind … Food & Water Watch, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Cascadia …
The latest salvo in the battle over Africa's seed systems has been fired, writes Stephen Greenberg, with the Gates Foundation and USAID playing puppet-masters to Africa's governments - now meeting in Addis Ababa - as they drive forward corporation-friendly seed regulations that exclude and marginalize the small farmers whose seeds and labour feed the continent.
Grabbing Africa's seeds: USAID, EU and Gates Foundation back agribusiness seed takeover Stephen Greenberg Oliver Tickell | 23rd March 2015 News Africa Farming Seeds Corporations USA EU maria banda …
Japan is living under the shadow of US militarism, write Taisuke Komatsu & Semanur Karaman - and most of all in Okinawa, the nation's southernmost archipelago. Against overwhelming local opposition but backed by Japan's government, the US is building a new military base that is seizing land and threatens the unique ecology of Oura Bay with its seagrass beds, dugongs and coral reefs.
… an MA in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity at the University of Essex and a …
The US Fisheries Service has repeatedly failed to give highly endangered Right whales adequate protection. Now wildlife groups are suing the Agency to demand a more than tenfold expansion of 'critical habitat' to protect the species along the US's Atlantic coast.
… the United States, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and Whale and … attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The whales face an ocean dense …
With Monarch butterfly numbers down by 90% in 20 years - largely as a result of GMO crops in key feeding areas - the US Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the insect's status with a view to granting it legal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
… to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity , Center for Food Safety, Xerces … senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, added: "The Endangered Species Act …
Federal Agencies have capitulated to an armed militia protecting a Nevada rancher running his cattle on 100s of 1,000s of acres of public land reserved for 'threatened' Desert tortoises - despite multiple court orders and over $1 million in unpaid fines.
… senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Instead it is allowing a … In April 2012 the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the …
The over-enrichment of waters and ecosystems with waste nutrients from industrial corn farming is one of America's greatest environmental problems, writes Donald Scavia. And it's a problem that can be solved - by eating less meat and sugar, by adopting rational energy policies, and by demanding sustainably-grown food.
Industrial corn farming is ruining our health and polluting our watersheds Donald Scavia | 29th April 2015 Comment Food Farming USA corn-farm-cut.jpg The over-enrichment of waters and ecosystems with …
In California, water no longer runs to the sea - it runs towards money, writes Will Parrish. Most of the state's water is already controlled by agribusiness elites. Now, backed by politicians, they are planning to grab the little that's left, leaving nature and indigenous communities high and dry.
Stealing the Sacramento River - California agro-barons' last huge water grab Will Parrish | 17th June 2014 News Water USA Indigenous Peoples Farming Corporations sacramento-sunset-eric-leslie-cut.jpg …
The US Environmental Protection Agency has just withdrawn its authorization for a toxic mix of two herbicides, glyphosate and 2,4-D, to be used on GM crops. The move came in response to a lawsuit claiming the initial registration was unlawful.
… Beyond Pesticides, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Working Group, the … Health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "As we gather with our families for …
President Obama will shortly be on his way to India. In this Open Letter, Vandana Shiva invites him to join in securing the essential human freedoms to seeds and food - and to set aside any plans to pressure India into changing its laws to allow the corporate domination of life.
… the rights of their citizens and their biodiversity. Both nations were founded on the … Property Rights in the area of biodiversity, seeds , and living biological … corporations have gained control over the diversity of life on earth, and people's …
Large scale salmon deaths are imminent on the Klamath River and its tributaries in northern California due to low flows and high temperatures. Native American tribes are protesting in the state capital as federal agencies illegally prioritize water for large scale agribusiness over fish and indigenous people.
Fish before agribusiness! California river tribes demand water Oliver Tickell | 22nd August 2014 News Indigenous Peoples USA Water Fish Farming trinityalgae2014-cut.jpg Large scale salmon deaths are …
Campaigners for the labeling of GMOs in food are winning their battle against corporate America, writes Ralph Nader. No wonder the corporations are fighting back with lawsuits and scare stories ... they're on the back foot, and they know it.
GMOs: the 'right to know' campaign is winning Ralph Nader | 30th June 2014 Activism USA GMOs Food Corporations Society Law gmo-right2know-cut.jpg Campaigners for the labeling of GMOs in food are …
Adam Weissman spills the beans on the Trans Pacific Partnership, which threatens to undermine democracy in the US and other countries at its roots. If passed it will represent a massive handover of power from nations to corporations - but as Mickey Z writes, there is still time to organize and defeat Obama's TTP campaign.
Defeating TTP - a Pandora's Box of corporate power Mickey Z | 25th August 2014 Comment Trade USA ttip-rally-cut.jpg Adam Weissman spills the beans on the Trans Pacific Partnership, which threatens to …
The shutoff of water to thousands of Detroit residents, the proposed privatization of the water system, and the diversion of the system's revenue to banks are possible, writes Pete Dolak, because water - the most basic human need - has become a means to extract profit from the City's people.
Detroit: what happens when water is a commodity, not a human right Pete Dolack | 19th August 2013 Comment USA Water Economics Finance dwb-shu-on-megaphone-cut.jpg The Detroit Water Brigade crew help …
We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr Frances Kelsey, write Helena Paul & Philip Bereano. In 1960, she defied her bosses at the FDA to prevent the licensing of thalidomide in the USA, saving thousands from being born with serious deformities. Her tough approach to minimising the risk from new drugs contains lessons we ignore at our peril.
… such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety … forests; oil exploitation in the tropics; biodiversity, including agricultural biodiversity; patents on life and genetic …
An elite group of aid donors and agribusiness corporations met in London this week to plan the takeover of Africa's seeds, writes Ian Fitzpatrick, replacing traditional seed breeding and saving by small farmers with a corporate model of privatized, 'improved', patented, genetically uniform and hybrid seeds in a profit-driven market.
… today, and embody immensely valuable genetic diversity. That's because for Deloitte, Gates … make to it through their preservation of seed diversity and farmers' own innovation, …
A coalition of farmer and public interest groups are suing the US Environmental Protection Agency for unlawfully approving the use of Monsanto's highly toxic herbicide dicamba on its dicamba-resistant GMO soybeans and cotton, without consulting wildlife and fisheries agencies.
… are concerned about its impacts to biodiversity: dicamba drift threatens plants that … a scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Iconic species like endangered … for Food Safety, and Center for Biological Diversity, represented jointly by legal …