The bulletin board is a place where GRAIN staff and others post their comments, suggestions, hints and assessments of documents, places or events. Or just share information that we think is interesting.
ACB, AFSA and others | 17 May 2013 | corporations, technologies, actions
African civil society organisations are up in arms about the new corporate and donor initiatives to 'help' Africa. They have launched an appeal against the plans of the G8, AGRA, and others to drive corporate agriculture into the continent. Read and support their appeal online. (also in French and Portuguese)
Lorna Jones | 26 April 2013 | land grabbing | Uganda
Ochen Solomon is one of four Ugandan schoolboys who wrote essays about the effects of land grabbing on the lives of their families and community as part of the annual Essay Contest for Children and Young People of African Descent 2013. This London-originated initiative encourages and supports educational development in children aged 7 to 16 years in Africa and across the African diaspora.
Ochen and his schoolmates chose to read GRAIN's report, "Squeezing Africa Dry" from a list of documents on contemporary issues.
The questions they had to address were: What are your views on the topic of land grabbing? What are your solutions to these challenges? What is your family, or people you know, doing about it?
They then conducted their own independent research on their chosen topic, and then provided their perspective on it.
Glenn Ashton | 23 April 2013 | food sovereignty, seeds & biodiversity, laws & policies
Seed and the control of seed lies at the heart of agriculture. In Africa around 80% of seed comes from local and community saved seed resources. This seed is adapted to local conditions. It forms an integral part of community food security and agricultural integrity. This entire traditional system is now under threat.
ADECRU | 17 April 2013 | food sovereignty, laws & policies | Mozambique
Youth and student group Academic Action for the Development of Rural Communities (ADECRU) call G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa an attack against Africa's food sovereignty, cultural diversity and biodiversity.
The Ilısu Dam, an 11 billion-cubic-meter hydroelectric project on the Tigris River in Turkey will reduce the river’s downstream flow from 20 billion cubic meters to just 9, destroying about 670,000 hectares of arable land in Iraq. A National Geographic story of a disaster in the making.
Dr. Rachel Smolker | 09 April 2013 | corporations, climate crisis, GMOs | United States
The realities of climate change have become altogether painfully obvious. Many are working to address this by reducing consumption, and protecting landscapes and biodiversity. ArborGen and other tree biotechnology companies, however, have a different vision. They want to develop so-called “bio-energy” from massive plantations of genetically engineered (GE) trees.
ACB and others | 03 April 2013 | corporations, seeds & biodiversity, actions | Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Civil society organisations from the SADC region, and around the world have condemned the SADC draft Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (Plant Breeders’ Rights) as spelling disaster for small farmers and food security in the region. These groups, representing millions of farmers in Africa and around the world have submitted their concerns to the SADC Secretariat. They are calling for the rejection of the Protocol and urgent consultations with farmers, farmer movements and civil society before it’s too late.
Via Campesina, GRAIN, ETC Group | 02 April 2013 | corporations, seeds & biodiversity
Nyéléni Newsletter | 20 March 2013 | food sovereignty | Colombia
The latest edition of the Nyéléni newsletter is dedicated to the struggles for food sovereignty that help us to hope for a better world, including this story of how peasants in Colombia are fending off the advance of supermarkets and managing to build up their own markets in Bogotá.
FOEE, CEO | 19 March 2013 | corporations, technologies, food sovereignty, actions, GMOs | EU
In the last 15 years only two GM crops have been authorized for cultivation in Europe. This was a result of public rejection and successful opposition by the environmental, social and farmers movements. However, we are still faced with around 25 GM crops in the pipeline that are close to getting approved, many of them resistant to (multiple) herbicides, and Bt-crops. Therefore, we are launching a new campaign on Monday 18 March to stop new GMO approvals for cultivation in the EU: Stop the Crop!
Other websites that GRAIN is involved in:
