As protestors gather to oppose yet another illegal war in the Middle East, Colin Todhunter asks why David Cameron is so keen to bomb. Of course there's access to oil and routes for gas pipelines, but beyond that, it's about re-entrenching militarism into our national culture, and re-asserting the dominance of capital over people.
… British public that such action is vital to protect Britain from similar attacks. Although … seemingly high-minded utterances about protecting Britain by attacking the territory …
Scott Tips is president of the National Health Federation, a legitimate advocate of food consumer rights. He has for years been fighting powerful lobbyists as they try and influence regulators around the world through the WHO Codex Alimentarius agency. COLIN TODHUNTER investigates
… stablished in 1955 that works to protect individuals’ rights to choose to … to advance pesticide MRLs that fail to protect consumers but do protect worldwide sales.” Scott Tips and his …
Africa is being opened up like a tin of sardines to a new wave of resource extraction, writes Colin Todhunter. Masked under the soubriquets of 'investment', 'growth' and 'free trade', a handful of vast global corporations are systematically plundering the continent's mineral wealth and leaving desolation in their wake, backed to the hilt by that ever-faithful servant of capital - the UK government.
… African countries putting up regulatory or protective barriers and backed policies … value addition; and for governments to act to protect the rights of people affected by mining rather than protecting the profit margins of corporations …
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.
… research and development, they first want to protect their 'intellectual property'. … allow for certification systems that not only protect certified varieties and royalties … promoting healthy farming and healthy food by protecting soil, water and climate, and …
Seventeen or more secret applications have been made to India's GMO regulators for trials and release of GM crops including rice, wheat, chickpeas, brinjal and mustard, write Colin Todhunter & Oliver Tickell. In a violation of the law regulators have released no information about the applications, raising fears that India's first GMOs will be released with no health, safety or environmental testing.
… hiding and whose interests are they protecting?" She goes on to ask: "Why should … are they hiding and whose interests are they protecting? …
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.
… and lower labour and environmental protection standards - is for their own … reading). The alternative would be to protect indigenous agriculture from rigged …
GMO enthusiasts insist that organic, agroecological farming could never feed the world, writes Colin Todhunter. But it has been feeding us all for millennia - and it's the only way to continue while enriching the soils and biodiversity on which all farming depends. As Mahatma Gandhi once observed, industrial agriculture is but a nine-day wonder. And its time will soon be up.
… sufficient yields, be profitable for farmers, protect and improve the environment and be … human population, be profitable for farmers, protect and improve the environment, while …
Bhaskar Save, the 'Gandhi of natural farming', died last year after a lifetime of organic growing and determined campaigning against the destruction of India's traditional, sustainable agriculture, writes Colin Todhunter. His 2006 open letter, published here, sets out a devastating critique of industrial agriculture and its impacts, and an eloquent and timely agroecological manifesto.
… biomass, shaded the soil from the sun and protected against its erosion under heavy … storage is more efficient, as it is protected from the high evaporation of surface …
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.
… that are 'free' but an economic system protected by legislation that enshrines …
New research suggests that we are heading for an "ecological Armageddon" that will affect all life on the planet, including humans. COLIN TODHUNTER investigates.
… argues that its products are vital for protecting crops and ensuring sufficient food …
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.
… biomass, shaded the soil from the sun and protected against its erosion under heavy …
With EU ministers due to decide tomorrow on the future of the glyphosate in the EU, Colin Todhunter finds evidence of collusion between regulators and the corporations whose sales of the 'probably carcinogenic' herbicide add up to many billions of dollars a year - evidence that underlies a legal action alleging fraud by the European Food Safety Authority against the EU's 508 million citizens.
… environment and the right of nature to be protected. As for the symbolic trial, the …
The more the GM industry claims to enjoy the support of 'science', the more it resorts to emotive attack and insult against its opponents, while doing its best to suppress the many scientific truths that are not to its liking, writes Colin Todhunter. In truth it is driven by profit, politics and ideology, and is based on fraud and the capture and corruption of governments and regulators.
… of institutions that supposedly exist to protect the public interest. The myth of …
The mainstream British media have long acted as cheerleaders for GMOs, but none quite so much as The Times and its disgraced correspondent Matt Ridley, writes Colin Todhunter. His most recent article on the topic is a strange concoction of misrepresentations, falsehoods and blunders dressed up as science, and reflects both his ignorance of the real facts and his deep ideological commitment to corporate profit and power.
… continue to be ignored by those who should be protecting us. Instead our regulators rely on …
India's food system, essentially clean just a generation ago, has been comprehensively contaminated with sugar, bad fats, synthetic additives, GMOs and pesticides under the country's neoliberal 'great leap forwards', writes Colin Todhunter. The result? a surge in obesity, diabetes and cancer incidence, but no let-up in the under-nutrition of those too poor to join in the over-consumption.
… especially as they tend to wear little or no protection. Research by SNSE shows farmers use …