Scientist, feminist, ecologist and author, Vandana Shiva, presenting the keynote address at the 2009 Organicology Conference in Portland, Oregon, on February 28, 2009.
more about “Vandana Shiva: The Future of Food and…“, posted with vodpod
Monsanto GM-corn harvest fails massively in South Africa 29 Mar 2009 South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds... Environmental activitist Marian Mayet, director of the Africa-centre for biosecurity in Johannesburg, demands an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods, blaming the crop failure on Monsanto's genetically-manipulated technology.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/270101 _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
From: Freedom Law School (760) 868-4271 | LiveFreeNow.org
Say goodbye to farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside stands unless we STOP HR 875, HR 814, SR 425 and SOON, HR 759!
The above so called "food safety" bills in Congress were written by the nation-less corporations such as; Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc. These bills are all associated with the opposite of food safety. What is this all about then?
- By Linn Cohen-Cole - March 3, 2009
In the simplest terms, organic food and a rebirth of farming were winning. Not in absolute numbers but in a deep and growing shift by the public toward understanding the connection between their food and their health, between good food and true social pleasures, between their own involvement in food and the
improvement in their lives in general, between local food and a burgeoning local economy.
Slow Food was right - limit your food to what comes from your region and from real farmers, and slow down to cook it and linger over it with friends and family, and the world begins to change for the better.
And as we face an unprecedented economic crisis, and it is hard to be sure what has value, one thing that always does is food. Which is why the corporations are after absolute control over it. But what obstacles to a complete lock on food do they face? All the people in this country who are "banking" on organic farming and urban gardens and most of all, everyone's deepening pleasure in and increasing involvement with everything about food.
Farmers markets. Local farmers. Real milk. Fresh eggs. Vegetable stands.
Those are things we not only all want, but things we are actively getting involved in, and things we very much need. And where they are truly good, they are growing.....
The international financial corporations which have wreaked havoc around the world with astounding nonsensical "solutions" that are destructive of everyone but them, are brothers to the international agribusiness giants (Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.) which are just as aggressively after their own form of "taking."
Just seeds, animals, water, land.
And freedom.
Because human beings are by in large good and by in large incredibly resilient and clever, and left to their own devices - that is, free - they would handle this gargantuan financial stupidity the corporations brought us with NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT and all other globalized schemes (which they hope to eventually top off with CODEX). How? By being productive in real ways and locally. And farming is the solid ground under that. Farmers produce something of real value (something we used to take for granted), and from that base, businesses grow up. Local markets, local food processors, local seed companies, local tool and
supply companies, local stores ...and an economy based on reality and something truly good for us, too, begins to grow.
So, look again at what has been exciting us - Farmers markets. Local farmers. Real milk. Fresh eggs. Vegetable stands. - and realize that they are not only wonderfully healthy but fun and naturally community building. And more, they are a real economy and deeply democratic - and just at a time we need something that works economically, that supports our democratic rebirth, and that protects food itself and our easy access to it.
And it is all those things that threaten the corporations...which is why we now have these massive "fake food safety" bills in Congress. Everything is going under thanks to these fools, and they wish to be there like vultures to make sure that every drop of blood that can be sucked out of our resources and us, is theirs.
To wit, they must get rid of such good and innocent things and yet truly powerful things as: Farmers markets. Local farmers. Real milk. Fresh eggs. Vegetable stands.
And how will those who contaminate our country's food with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and more, do that? Why, by setting standards for "food safety" that are so grotesquely and inappropriately and even cruelly applied to a local, independent farmers and ranchers that there is no way they can manage.
Imagine your being faced with a 100 page IRS form and facing a million dollar a day penalty for screwing up. That would be in the ball park of the impossible complexity mixed with threat facing our farmers.
Imagine having the government and corporations deciding every single thing you can do and must do in your kitchen and backing that up with the threat of 10 years in prison for screwing up - though you have never made anyone sick, and those corporations have.
Imagine being surveilled 24 hours a day by GPS tracking devices that feed into ... a corporate data bank, one they have now moved out of the country so no one here can have legal access to see what is in it.
Imagine the devil himself - or a whole boardrooms of them, dressed in suits - defining the only safe and healthy food in this country as dangerous and burdening hard working farmers with more work then anyone could bear, while his own, their own, food is so dangerous at this point that ....in the last 10 years alone, diabetes has gone up 90%.
And how did they get this far with such a scheme to apply insane industrial standards to every farm in the country? Through fear of diseases and of outbreaks of food borne illnesses, both of which they cause themselves.
How it works: Tyson helps Bill Clinton get into office. Bill Clinton immediately and significantly lowers contamination standards for poultry as a thank you. And it is such contaminated waste from transnational poultry factories which is now implicated as the source of bird flu.- Then fortunes on made on that fear. And then ........poultry industry uses the crisis they created to push out small farmers ..........and take greater control than ever. Their mantra? Biodiversity not only be
damned but be eliminated. And get rid of those damn farmers who protect it while we're at it.
The bills would require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections,
licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market - no one could manage it. And THAT is the point. The whole dirty tricks point. The whole "be in tight control of everything needed for survival because it'll be worth a fortune" point.
So, if you like farmers markets, local farmers, fresh milk, fresh eggs, vegetables stands, and freedom, let your friends know that it's all on the line right now with those "fake food safety" bills brought to us with well-planned evil and more of it to come, by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.
Slow Food reminds us of just where we need to be (and notice how much would help any local economy):.
Forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems,
Developing an."Ark of Taste".for each.eco-region where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated;
Preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation;
Organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products);
Organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields.held in some cities in Canada);
Promoting "taste education;"
Educating consumers about the risks of.fast food;
Educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms;
Educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes.or varieties;
Developing various political programs to preserve family farms;
Lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming.concerns within agricultural policy;
Lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering; Lobbying against the use of pesticides; Teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners;
Encouraging ethical buying.in local marketplaces.
To truly make a difference; we recommend a direct person to person contact, such as phone calls, faxing and paying personal visit to their offices and see how they are ruining our lives. - We need to stop these bills first, or we are left with no money from the financial bail-out and no food from the food steal-out.
President, Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Ginger, Turmeric, Neem Declared "Hazardous" in Thailand After Chemical Companies Try to Protect Pesticide Profits By David Gutierrez 07 Apr 2009 The government of Thailand has classified 13 plants - traditionally used as herbal medicines and natural pesticides - as "hazardous substances," causing outrage among farmers and advocates of traditional medicine. The plants - including ginger, turmeric, neem and chili - have been classified by the Industry Ministry as "hazardous substances type 1," requiring all manufacturers, growers, importers or exporters of any products made from the plants to follow strict safety and quality control rules or face up to six months in jail and a 50,000 baht ($1,400) fine.
Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn
articles.mercola.com
Hungary's decision to destroy nearly 1,000 acres of corn because they were grown with genetically modified organisms should be a wake-up call for the U.S.
As you sip your morning coffee or tea, accompanied perhaps by a chocolate biscuit, or a banana for the more health-conscious, think hard about where your breakfast comes from. Increasingly, a handful of multinationals are tightening their grip on the commodity markets, with potentially dramatic effects for consumers and food producers alike.
The livelihoods of millions of smallholders who produce the drinks and snacks we consume every day are "seriously under threat", warns a report to be published tomorrow to mark the start of Fairtraide Fortnight. Extreme price volatility, high food prices and more concentrated food markets threaten to leave farmers "condemned to poverty".
Three companies now account for more than 40 per cent of global coffee sales, eight companies control the supply of cocoa and chocolate, seven control 85 per cent of tea production, five account for 75 per cent of the world banana trade, and the largest six sugar traders account for about two-thirds of world trade, according to the new publication from the Fairtrade Foundation.
Such tight control of the markets by multinationals – which can use their "buyer power" to dictate how the supply chain is run – can leave smallholders "marginalised", surviving on precarious contracts, poverty wages, and with poor health and safety practices, the report warns. It stresses that, with the G8 summit to be held in Northern Ireland in June, this is the year "to put the politics of food on the public agenda and find better solutions to the insanity of our broken food system".
More people may be shopping ethically – sales of Fairtrade cocoa grew by more than 20 per cent last year to £153m – but, according to the report, the world's food system is "dangerously out of control". Cocoa growers now receive 3.5 to 6 per cent of the average retail value of a chocolate bar; in the 1980s they got 18 per cent.
The report is being published to coincide with the launch of a three-year food campaign by the Fairtrade Foundation, to "pull our broken food system back from the brink and make it work for all". Its recommendations include asking governments to ensure greater transparency and "fair competition" in international supply chains.
Michael Gidney, chief executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: "Putting too much power into the hands of too few companies increases the risk of exploitation in food supply chains, where producers have no choice but to sell for low prices, while consumers face a bewildering array of products on shop shelves even though their purchases benefit only a small number of brands.
"Unless we do something now, millions of small farmers are condemned to poverty. If they are in crisis, and farmers see no future in farming, then many of our foods could be at risk."
About 500 million smallholders produce 70 per cent of the world's food, but make up half the world's hungry. Women at are the helm – producing 60 to 80 per cent of the food in developing countries and acting as the main producers.
'Last year I got $2.20 per pound, this year $1.40'
Gerardo Arias Camacho, 43, a coffee farmer from Costa Rica, has been producing coffee since he was taken out of school to help his father at the age of 10. He works 13 hours a day to produce coffee from five hectares. Mr Camacho, a board member of the first Fairtrade-certified co-op in his country, said this year he might struggle to profit at all from some of the coffee he sells.
"About 40 per cent of our coffee is sold to multinationals, but the problem with the free market is there is no minimum price. Last year, I got $2.20 per pound of coffee; this year it's about $1.40. This is really bad for us, as the cost of producing is about $1.60.
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