- Who Will Feed Us? is a data-driven report full of unexpected statistics that reveal a tale of two food systems. This is the third edition, and most complete synthesis, of a research exercise that we have been undertaking for several years. Who Will Feed Us? upturns common assumptions about who feeds whom in a hungry world threatened by climate change.Some highlights of the report:
1.Peasants (not food corporations) feed the world: 70% of the world’s population is fed by the Peasant Food Web, using only 25% of resources.
2.Industrial food production fails to feed: Only 24% of the food produced by the Industrial Food Chain actually reaches people – the rest is wasted in meat production inefficiencies; lost in transport, storage and at the household; and diverted to non-food products.
3.Industrial food costs us more: For every dollar spent on industrial food, it costs another 2 dollars to clean up the mess
The theme of World Food Day 2017 is changing the face of migration by investing in food security and rural development. With the right policies, land and rights, peasant-led agroecological strategies could double or even triple rural employment, substantially reducing the pressure for urban migration, significantly improve nutritional quality and availability and eliminate hunger while slashing agriculture’s GHG emissions by more than 90%.
The report is available to download in English (1.4MB, pdf), Spanish and in November 2017, French. For further information, or to give feedback or new information: whowillfeedus -at- etcgroup.org. - National Food Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence), India A short description (and pictures) of the 2nd National Food Alternatives Confluence held in the first week of October in Rajasthan, India, may be of interest: https://ashishkothari51.blogspot.in/2017/10/a-confluence-of-food-alternatives.html.
- From Social Movements to ‘Other’ Societies in Movement. See links below to an indispensable 2-part essay written by analyst, scholar & student of movement, Raúl Zibechi, posted at Al revés Mundial /Upside Down World [http://upsidedownworld.org]. Very useful for those interested in social movement, indigenous movement, struggles against un-controlled extractivism and toward building renewed (‘other’) societies, and many other issues, especially in Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Mexico.
- Black Lives Matter, a revolutionary peace movement: To mark the awarding of the 2017 Sydney Peace Prize to the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the authors reflect on the roots of and responses to a movement that has reignited a global conversation about racism. https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-is-a-revolutionary-peace-movement-85449
- The ENVJUSTICE project has launched the Blockadia map – all the places where people use their bodies in direct actions to jam the fossil fuel chain and #keepitintheground https://ejatlas.org/featured/blockadia
- Large corporations monopolizing the global food-system: New research shows the dramatic impacts of the global food system being rapidly monopolised by ever-fewer, ever-larger corporations at every stage of the food chain. This alarming trend poses risks to consumer choice, jobs and working conditions and food production in the future, warn the authors of the Agrifood Atlas. http://www.foeeurope.org/agrifood-atlas-corporations-stranglehold-food-311117
- ETC Group and Heinrich Böll Foundation have launched an interactive world map of geoengineering experiments: https://map.geoengineeringmonitor.org/
This interactive geoengineering map, prepared by ETC Group and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, is an attempt to shed light on the worldwide state of geoengineering by showing the scope of research and experimentation. There is no complete record of weather and climate control projects so this map is necessarily partial. It builds on an earlier map of Earth Systems Experimentation published in 2012. That original map documented almost 300 projects and experiments related to the field of geoengineering. Five years later over 800 such projects can be identified. These include projects in Carbon Capture, Solar Radiation Management, Weather Modification and other approaches. - How labour-hire villains make millions from Australia’s ‘modern slavery’ market’, by Sarina Locke, ABC News (Australia): www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-11-01/exploitation-or-slavery-of-tongans-malaysians-in-horticulture/9102676
- Water struggle in Chile: This short video, subtitled in english, gives a glance of the water struggle in Chile and our development model….nothing to be proud of https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=OnNKhXqYMxU It is call ironically SECOS that in chilean jargon means something like “to be the best”… but it also means dry/drought.
- GMO assault on Indian food-system https://www.ecologise.in/2017/11/12/criminal-plan-change-genetic-core-indias-food-system/ Despite four high level government reports that have advised against adopting Genetically Modified crops in India, there are alarming reports of GM okra, soyabean & brinjal being cultivated illegally in thousands of acres. The industry’s strategy is to flood the country with illegal GMOs so that there’s nothing you can do about it.
- Tribes create their own food laws to stop USDA from killing native food economies http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/tribes-create-their-own-food-laws-to-stop-usda-from-killing-native-food-economies-20160524
- Lessons from the front lines of anti-colonial pipeline resistance https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/lessons-front-lines-anti-colonial-unistoten-pipeline-resistance/
- Hate Globalisation? Try Localism, Not Nationalism https://theconversation.com/hate-globalisation-try-localism-not-nationalism-86870
- India should freeze nuclear power expansion https://ecologise.in/2017/11/14/india-halt-expansion-nuclear-power-programme/ In a significant article in The Citizen, Dr A.Gopalakrishnan, the former Chairman of the India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, writes: An overall evaluation of the status of the Indian civilian nuclear power sector, and the government’s uncertain future plans, do cause a great deal of concern for the welfare of the country and the safety of our people. Therefore, it is best to freeze all plans for the further expansion of this sector until Parliament and the public are provided full details of the government’s intentions and rationale and a national consensus is reached.
- In El Salvador, Vidalina Morales Is Uprooting Patriarchy While Defending the Environment https://upsidedownworld.org/archives/el-salvador/el-salvador-vidalina-morales-uprooting-patriarchy-defending-environment/
- Deep in the Amazon, a Tiny Tribe Is Beating Big Oil http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/together-with-earth/deep-in-the-amazon-a-tiny-tribe-is-beating-big-oil