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.
Mamadou Cissokho | 23 May 2012 | corporations, food crisis, food sovereignty
In the lead up to the May 2012 G8 summit in the USA, a meeting was organised to give agribusiness a platform to explain their views and initiatives to acieve food security in Africa. The G8 also dealt with the issue. Here is what the African farmers have to say about it.
GRAIN | 15 May 2012 | corporations | Sweden
TetraPak says the world's 2.7 billion low-income people are the next big growth opportunity for the dairy industry. Those people are currently served fresh milk and dairy products by small farmers and local markets. TetraPak wants them buying packaged "alternatives to whole milk" produced by corporations.
Pierre Sultana | 29 April 2012 | seeds & biodiversity, actions | EU
The European Commission (DG SANCO) is presently working on a review of EU legislation on the Marketing of Seed and Propagating Material. Arche Noah invites you to join an open letter demanding positive change in favour of biodiversity, small farmers, seed savers and consumers.
Wade Rathke, Acorn International | 25 April 2012 | corporations | India, Mexico
A recent New York Times article exposed how Walmart paid at least $24 million in bribes to facilitate its expansion in Mexico. Wade Rathke of Acorn International wonders whether the same system has been active in Walmart's work to expand and find a foothold in India where their efforts and others to modify the restrictions on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail have been huge political issues in recent months, bringing government to a standstill at some points.
GRAIN | 25 April 2012 | food crisis, hybrid rice | Philippines
The Philippines' Agriculture Secretary announces his government is going ahead with a large-scale evaluation of three Basmati rice varieties for export to Kuwait and Qatar, while, at the same time, he says they are pursuing the outsourcing of hybrid rice production in Cambodia.
League for Pastoral Peoples | 16 April 2012 | corporations
Study investigates the impact of the Livestock Revolution on farmers. It finds that livestock has turned in many cases from an asset into a liability, since farmers and livestock keepers, in order to remain competitive, are drawn into a debt trap, because of high initial investments on one side, and because they are squeezed between escalating input prices and the consolidated power of the food processors and supermarket chains on the other.
Olivier De Schutter | 12 March 2012 | food crisis
Oakland and Polaris Institutes | 15 February 2012 | land grabbing | Ethiopia, Mali, Tanzania
An excellent new report from Polaris and the Oakland institute on the impact of landgrabbing on water use in Africa. 'If all the 40 million hectares of land that were acquired on the continent in 2009 come under cultivation, a staggering volume of water would be required for irrigation (…) approximately twice the volume of water that was used for agriculture in all of Africa in 2005'.
Occupy Cargill | 23 January 2012 | corporations | United States
A colorful crowd of 40 Occupy activists, food justice advocates, farmers, and anti-corporate-personhood protestors braved below freezing temperatures to voice their grievances and stage a mock citizen’s arrest of Cargill Inc. in downtown Minneapolis, USA.
Heather Gies | 23 January 2012 | land grabbing, food sovereignty, actions | Honduras
The Aguán River Valley in the department of Colón, Honduras, is a site of both an ongoing conflict and a powerful social movement. The situation of the local farmers was further exacerbated by the 2009 military coup in Honduras. But their communities are also unfailingly resilient. A story of repression and resistance.
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