California has responded to the drought by rationing water, with $500 fines for domestic 'water wasters', writes Evan Blake. But agribusiness and water-intensive industries like fracking remain untouched by the restrictions, even though they consume over 90% of the state's water.
… California drought: agribusiness, fracking untouched by … California has responded to the drought by rationing water, with $500 fines … 90% of the state's water. The unprecedented drought gripping California has deepened for …
California's drought is a harbinger of things to come around the world, writes Maude Barlow. Because of global warming, yes - but also because the Golden State is an exemplar of the 'water as property for corporate profit' neoliberal paradigm that's taking over the world. It's now essential to assert water as a Commons - to be both justly shared, and fiercely protected!
… is the 'canary in the coalmine' of global drought Maude Barlow | 1st July 2015 News … Health water-bottles-cut.jpg California's drought is a harbinger of things to come … to impose mandatory water restrictions in his drought stricken state for the first time in …
Ethiopia leads the way in preserving crop seeds by engaging farming communities in the effort, and making the exchange of seeds part of village life and culture, reports Claire Provost. But now it's all at risk from a G8 plan to open Africa to corporate agriculture.
… traditional, indigenous seeds in the face of drought and other threats. The UN Food and … former head of the seed bank, says recurrent droughts have put the country's agricultural … was head of the seed bank in the 1980s, when drought and acute food crises threatened 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.
… this death, just as climate change induced drought have led to the wars in Syria and … low wages. With climate change-induced droughts, many will be forced to flee the … when you look the cyclone of famine and drought in the eye, it looks like our own …
The corporate war on traditional farming is nowhere fiercer than in India, writes Colin Todhunter. After decades of the 'Green Revolution' that have impoverished the nation's soils, water, biodiversity and cultivators alike, agribusiness is poised for its final strike. But now the small scale farmers who produce most of the country's food are rediscovering ancient agroecological alternatives.
… in The Hindu . Prem Singh runs a farm in the drought-hit Bundelkhand area of Uttar Pradesh, … there has been three recent consecutive droughts, with bouts of unseasonal rains and … In Bundelkhand, there were 17 major droughts during the last century, ten of them …
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.
… California is now in the throes of its worst drought since first developing its gargantuan … range of scientists began predicting that the drought may very well be the last straw, …
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.
… that an "enduring lesson of history is that drought and famine feed conflict, and conflict …
Confronted with climate change, disasters and their human victims, governments are all to quick to adopt a security response, write Nick Buxton & Ben Hayes. We saw it in the US after Hurricane Katrina. We see it now in Europe. And there's a host of powerful corporations keen to cash in on the opportunities. But the solutions they offer will only deepen the crises we face.
… defend water infrastructure amid an ongoing drought in the megacity of São Paulo. Absent … of climate change" in the form of "storms, droughts, and floods" . The rest of the …
Biotech corporations have invested billions in a range of new 'GM 2.0' technologies designed to redesign the world's germplasm and create new generations of super-GMOs, writes Nina Holland. And powerful investors have no intention of letting tedious EU regulations get in the way of the profits they are now poised to reap - no matter what the laws actually say.
… objectives allegedly include pest resistance, drought tolerance ... Yet the very first new …
When we speak of WMD, we usually think of weapons - nuclear, biological, or chemical - that are delivered in a moment, writes Tom Engelhardt. But what of climate change: a WMD on a long fuse, already lit and smoking ...
… species extinctions; staggeringly severe droughts across larger parts of the planet (as in the present long-term drought in the American West and Southwest); …
Deep in the Algerian Sahara, the oasis town of Ain Salah is a focus of opposition to a new wave of fracking, with violent confrontations between police and up to 40,000 protestors, writes Alexander Reid Ross. They have two main concerns: preventing pollution to the aquifer that sustains them, and keeping out foreign oil giants like Total and Halliburton.
… increased unrest combined with severe drought and the recent Ebola outbreak to …
Five international judges say Monsanto's activities have negatively affected individuals, communities and biodiversity, writes Claire Robinson. The Monsanto Tribunal's damning ruling denounces the company's harmful impacts on food sovereignty, agricultural production, access to nutrition, the natural environment, seed diversity, climate change, pollution and traditional cultural practices.
… for diversity and resilience in periods of drought or against pests. But the spread of …
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.
… resulting climate change with all the floods, droughts, and uncertainties. But why do the …
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.
… ecocide , degraded soil , water scarcity and drought , and destructive and inappropriate …
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.
… model of agriculture that is less climate / drought resistant, less diverse and unable to …
The global pesticide and bioscience giant Monsanto is a byword for evil for millions of campaigners and concerned citizens, writes JP Sottile. But that has never stopped it getting its way with the people that matter - politicians and regulators. And now the company is on the verge of biggest victory ever - winning clearance to spray biologically active RNA sequences on US crops.
… white coats are not working on 'open-source' drought-resistant crops for cash-starved …
With the International Monsanto Tribunal beginning this week (14-16 October) in The Hague, MICK GRANT reports from Vietnam with this special investigation for The Ecologist five decades after the company's lethal herbicide Agent Orange first devastated the country - and discovers the agribusiness giant is sneaking its way back into Vietnam with modern herbicides and 'Roundup-Ready' GMO crops.
… with changing times. Among these patents are drought-tolerant crops, and strains of …