‘Climate Smart Agriculture' can be applied to anything from industrial monocultures to agroecology, writes Helena Paul - and fertiliser, biotech and agribusiness corporations are seizing the chance to cash in. Now COP21 host France is proposing to use soils as a giant carbon sink - a fine idea in itself, but not if it's used to 'offset' continued fossil fuel emissions, and to greenwash industrial agriculture.
… ‘Climate-Smart Agriculture' - preparing for a corporate soil … France Corporations farm.jpg ‘Climate Smart Agriculture' can be applied to anything from … fuel emissions, and to greenwash industrial agriculture. We know that agriculture is …
'Climate smart agriculture' has become the buzz phrase at high level international policy discussions. But now there is a struggle over its definition. Is it the latest manifestation for corporate social responsibility or the title of a manifesto for real, grassroots led, change, ask PETER NEWELL, JENNIFER CLAPP and ZOE BRENT
… Will 'climate smart agriculture' serve the public interest - or … | 19th January 2018 Comment Climate Smart Agriculture Climate Change Agriculture Corporations …
Climate Smart Agriculture sounds like a great idea, write hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide. But in truth it's a PR front for international agribusiness to promote corporate agriculture, pesticides and fertilisers at COP21, with a heavy dose of greenwash. Countries must resist the siren calls - and give their support to true agroecology that sustains soil, health, life and climate.
… No to 'Climate Smart Agriculture', yes to agroecology Climate Smart Agriculture Concerns | 21st October 2015 … COP21 rice-philippines-cut.jpg Climate Smart Agriculture sounds like a great idea, write …
The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture made its high-profile launch at the New York Climate Summit. But for a huge coalition of civil society organizations, it's a 'greenwash' initiative designed to promote intensive profit-driven industrial agriculture at the expense of small farmers, environment, and the real solutions.
… the Global Alliance on Climate-Smart Agriculture Climate Smart Ag Concerns | 30th … Gold. The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture made its high-profile launch at … to promote intensive profit-driven industrial agriculture at the expense of small farmers, …
India celebrates its Independence Day today, writes Colin Todhunter. But the highly visible system of British colonial dominance has been replaced by a new imperial hegemony: the invisible, systemic rule of transnational capital, enforced by global institutions like the World Bank, while US-based global agribusiness corporations have stepped into the boots of the former East India Company.
… India to shift hundreds of millions out of agriculture. In return for up to £90 billion … system, reduce subsidies and run down public agriculture institutions and offer incentives … WTO and the US-India Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, there is a deliberate strategy to …
Palestinian children as young as 11 work on Israeli farms in the occupied West Bank, an HRW investigation reveals. While the EU buys produce worth $300m a year from the illegal 'settlements', undocumented child labourers are exposed to pesticides, paid well below the minimum wage, enjoy no employment rights, and toil long hours in hot fields and greenhouses.
… would pressure Israel to end settlement agriculture and lift related restrictions on … Palestinian children working in settlement agriculture whom we interviewed had ever … labor-law violations. Expanding settlement agriculture, restrictive anti-Palestinian …
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.
… it represents a truly viable alternative to agriculture for corporate profit. But such are … becoming increasingly apparent that food and agriculture across the world is in crisis. … of millions. This crisis stems from food and agriculture being wedded to power structures …
The Gates Foundation - widely assumed to be 'doing good', is imposing a neoliberal model of development and corporate domination that's opening up Africa's agriculture to land and seed-grabbing global agribusiness, writes Colin Todhunter. In the process it is foreclosing on the real solutions - enhancing food security, food sovereignty and the move to agroecological farming.
… the neoliberal plunder of African agriculture Colin Todhunter | 21st January … domination that's opening up Africa's agriculture to land and seed-grabbing global … influence on issues of global health and agriculture. The charges are laid in a new …
Governments must shift subsidies and research funding from agro-industrial monoculture to small farmers using 'agroecological' methods, according to the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. And as Nafeez Ahmed notes, her call coincides with a new agroecology initiative within the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.
… initiative within the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. Modern industrial … which would empower rural small farmers. Agriculture needs a new direction: agroecology … a leading international think tank. "Modern agriculture, which began in the 1950s, is more …
Industrial agriculture has become a prime driver of many of the world's most serious problems, writes Henrietta Moore: the loss of wild and farmed biodiversity, huge climate-changing emissions, and the entrapment of small farmers in ever-deepening cycles of poverty. But there is a solution: the widespread adoption of agroecological farming.
… Can agroecology save us from 'scorched-earth' agriculture? Professor Henrietta Moore | 6th … agroecology-china-cut.jpg Industrial agriculture has become a prime driver of many … in the last century. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that, …
Bayer's $66 billion takeover of Monsanto represents another big click on the ratchet of corporate power over farming and food, writes Colin Todhunter. With the 'big six' of global agribusiness now set to turn into the 'even bigger three', farmers and consumers are facing more GMOs and pesticides, less choice, and deeper price gouging. Agroecology has never looked more attractive.
… Monsanto and Bayer: food and agriculture just took a turn for the worse … of this magnitude cannot be the standard for agriculture, nor should we allow it to … and Monsanto marks the fifth major deal in agriculture in the last year ... "For the last …
Missouri voters have narrowly passed a 'right to farm' amendment to the state constitution. But small farmers already enjoy such rights, writes Ben Whitford. The beneficiaries will be industrial-scale corporate producers who now have a legal shield against regulation on GMOs, pollution, animal welfare and health standards - and, of course, the lawyers.
… Missouri: corporate agriculture wins 'Right to Farm' Ben Whitford … farming operations. A victory for corporate agriculture While the constitutional "right to … those same rights on to big corporations, big agriculture, Monsanto, the rest of that crew." …
A farming revolution is under way in Africa, pushed by giant corporations and the UK's aid budget. It will surely be good for the global economy, writes Sophie Morlin-Yron, but will Africa's small farmers see the benefit?
… farmers see the benefit? World leaders in agriculture and development gathered in London … she insisted, "is not about industrial agriculture producing more food - our global … 27 speakers at the event were Nestlé Head of Agriculture Hans Joehr, Monsanto CEO Hugh …
New research indicates that agricultural policies aimed at alleviating poverty in Africa are making things worse, writes Lawrence Woodward. Backed by 'development' aid, big business is forcing modern farming practices on unwilling rural communities. Only the rich benefit, while the poor carry the burden of landlessness and debt.
… Intensive, corporate agriculture is increasing poverty in Africa … countries are smallholder farmers reliant on agriculture. Dr Neil Dawson, the study's lead … of the 2008 International Assessment of Agriculture Science and Technology (IAASTD) …
Hidden from mainstream media exposure, the World Bank and IMF loan has opened up Ukraine to major corporate inroads, writes Joyce Nelson. Loan conditions are forcing the deeply indebted country to open up to GMO crops, and lift the ban on private sector land ownership. US corporations are jubilant at the 'goldmine' that awaits them.
… and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture. The report is entitled ' Walking … of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in agriculture, Article 404 of the EU agreement, which relates to agriculture, includes a clause that has …
As the G7 leaders prepare to meet in Bavaria this weekend, small-scale farmers from around the world call on them to abandon their disastrous plan for the corporate takeover of global agriculture and the extirpation of small-scale farmers everywhere - those who produce most of the world's food. True food security must be rooted in local control over land, seeds and water.
… plan for the corporate takeover of global agriculture and the extirpation of small-scale … are collectively the leading investors in agriculture, estimated to produce 70% of the … and international donors support to African agriculture increasingly focuses on the …
As thousands rely on food banks to make it through the winter and a milk price crash threatens the survival of Britain's independent dairy farmers, Colin Tudge - co-founder of this week's Oxford Real Farming Conference - examines the growing need for an agrarian renaissance to tackle the increasingly obvious failings of neoliberal agriculture.
… increasingly obvious failings of neoliberal agriculture. The sad state of Britain's … of our fellow creatures. That is a global agriculture, and indeed a global economy, that … education. In truth, today's industrial agriculture - basically now a field exercise …
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.
… of neglect and weak investment in African agriculture, there is renewed interest in funding African agriculture. These new investments take the … the potentially huge profitability of African agriculture - and seed systems are a key …
India's farmers are the targets of structural violence aimed at uprooting indigenous agriculture and replacing it with an intensive corporate model based on GMOs and agrochemicals, writes Colin Todhunter. But as Monsanto's GM cotton succumbs to insect infestations despite repeated pesticide applications, agroecological farming is an increasingly attractive option for cultivators.
… violence aimed at uprooting indigenous agriculture and replacing it with an intensive … such as the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture and the Transatlantic Trade and … (TTIP), which help grant it access to agriculture across the globe and recast it for …
A Pennsylvania seed library stands accused of 'agri-terrorism' over alleged breaches of the Seed Act 2004, reports a bemused Kevin Carson. Have USDA and state agriculture departments become the enforcement branch of the agribusiness crime syndicate?
… a bemused Kevin Carson. Have USDA and state agriculture departments become the enforcement … Seed Library Investigated by Department of Agriculture '), the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is investigating an heirloom seed …
What's the point of farming? To produce an abundance of wholesome food, writes Colin Tudge, while supporting a flourishing rural economy and a sustainable, biodiverse countryside. Yet the powers that be, determined to advance industrial agriculture at all costs, are achieving the precise opposite. It's time for a revolution in our food and farming culture, led by the people at large.
… that be, determined to advance industrial agriculture at all costs, are achieving the … then we need all to re-think and re-design agriculture - what amount to an Agrarian … who do not fall by the wayside. The kind of agriculture that the oligarchs now advocate - …
The European Parliament has had a great week, writes Molly Scott Cato MEP - for those who oppose GMOs in food and farming. MEPs voted on five occasions to say no to GMOs, and gave their support to agroecology as the only sustainable way to feed the world.
… Bayer with Monsanto. As a member of both the Agriculture and Economics Committees in the … with a pesticide. The problems of industrial agriculture will not be solved through GMOs or … these systems, rather than pouring 67% of its agriculture research budget into biotechnology …
Corporate interests have skewed the entire development agenda for agriculture in Africa, writes Ian Fitzpatrick. Instead of investing in sustainable, small scale farming along agroecological principles that raise production and support rural communities, governments - including the UK's - are backing destructive industrial farming and land grabs.
… have skewed the entire development agenda for agriculture in Africa, writes Ian Fitzpatrick. … food than large-scale corporate-controlled agriculture. For example, research by the UN … bias in favour of large-scale industrial agriculture. This bias is created through an …
Across Africa, laws are being rewritten to open farming up to an agribusiness invasion - displacing the millions of small cultivators that now feed the continent, and replacing them with a new model of profit-oriented agriculture using patented seeds and varieties. The agencies effecting the transformation are legion - but they are all marching to a single drum.
… them with a new model of profit-oriented agriculture using patented seeds and … ores, forests, oil, renewable energy sources. Agriculture is one of the most important … Development Bank, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the G8, the …