I’m sitting opposite the large Coca-Cola bottling plant next to the village of Plachimada in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Plachimada is a farming village of about 800 families, many of them tribal. The ugly factory looks rather out of place in such a beautiful setting, the Western Ghats mountains clearly visible in the distance.
… district, Chittur taluk, was known as the rice bowl of Kerala. We had the most fertile … in the state. But now the ground is dry, rice and coconut harvests across the taluk …
Ladakh is framed by the Karakoram mountains to the north and the Himalayas to the south. Yet even in this remote environment the forces of global consumerism are intruding. Nicola Graydon reports on the locals' inspiring defence of their culture
… the story is very different. Subsidised rice, sugar, wheat and other foodstuffs, … diet and, more importantly, undercutting the price of locally harvested produce. A … flour, for instance, sells for half the price of local flour and is destroying the …
Haiti is a failed state: one of those places that just can’t seem to get its act together, despite the best efforts of benevolent Western powers. Or so the mainstream media would have you believe. Yet history tells us a more complicated story.
… minister. Consequently, import tariffs on rice were eliminated, which led to a massive increase in subsidised US rice exports to Haiti and the devastation of Haitian rice growers. The US also demanded the right …
Wealthy countries and agribusiness want farmland, poorer countries need capital – but what happens to the locals? By Martin Large and Neil Ravenscroft
… Large and Neil Ravenscroft Rising food prices, the drive for food security, biofuels … The corporations sell the crops at high prices to the rich north. The result is that … plans for acquiring 500,000ha of basmati rice land in Indonesia. Middle Eastern states …
Ros Coward reports from Murcia in southern Spain, the driest place in Europe, where tourism and intensive agriculture is draining its meagre water supplies and causing a growing environmental crisis.
… What really makes your mind up though is the price of the flight – as little as £4.50. For … is still dependent on the river (for growing rice, fishing and transportation), walls in … and the flow of fresh water permits the rice cultivation. Its levels are already …
As the world’s poorest countries sink further and further into debt, Western corporations grow fat from government-backed projects that fuel conflicts, harm the environment and have built-in kickbacks.
… ‘Ex-Im can be a powerful ally,’ Edmund B Rice, president of the US corporate lobbying … people. Indeed, it is commonplace for the prices of projects that receive ECA funding to …
Since colonising Tibet in 1959, China has ripped out virgin forests, dug up minerals and metals, and dumped nuclear waste with little regard for the fragile ecology of the Tibetan plateau.
… the dams have a profound impact on the rice growers and fishermen of downstream …
‘This is the Indian dream!’ shouts Mohit, clutching a tattered plastic bag as he joins the impatient throng gathering at Hall A of the Auto Expo in New Delhi. Around us more than 100,000 Indians are aggressively jostling for space and a precious glimpse of the £1,200 Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car. It is a vehicle that, put simply, costs less than the optional DVD player on the new Lexus LX470 SUV.
… Small wonder since the Nano costs half the price of the cheapest car currently on the … at no more than 100,000 rupees ‘the new price point translates into a 65 per cent … for the global auto industry. As petrol prices continue to rise, consumer tastes around …