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New from GRAIN Seedling April 2010 now available New from GRAIN | 4 May 2010
Seedling April 2010 now
available For some time the African continent has been the new frontier for the global food industry. In the April 2010 Seedling, which has a strong African focus, we look in particular at one agency, the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). It has a low public profile but it is playing an increasingly important role by offering grants – not loans – to African countries that are willing to implement far-reaching neo-liberal reforms, particularly the privatisation of land. As you will see, millions of hectares are at stake. There is resistance. We carry an interview with a leader from the Anuak people in Ethiopia, who is fiercely opposed to his government’s eagerness to sell three million hectares of fertile land to foreign investors. The Anuak people are being marginalised, he says, and their whole way of life is being undermined. He believes it amounts to systematic genocide against the indigenous population. This global takeover of land is happening even though Africans themselves are perfectly capable of producing food efficiently and sustainably, provided they are allowed to implement their own knowledge and not pushed into industrial export models. A recent study, extracts of which we publish in this issue, shows that Africa’s pastoralists (who are still, by far, the largest group in the continent) are resourceful, financially canny and adept at developing new strategies for adapting to climate change. Moreover, they repeatedly attain higher rates of productivity than those achieved on modern ranches built on the Western model. A notice for Seedling subscribers: as those of you who normally receive Seedling by post will have noticed, we have not printed the January 2010 issue, and will not be printing this April issue either. GRAIN is currently facing financial constraints, and we have been forced to make a number of cuts. Printing and mailing Seedling is one of them. We hope that this situation will be transitory and are working hard to mobilise resources. We will continue to produce the electronic version of the magazine, and hope to be able to resume printing soon. CONTENTS
IN THIS ISSUE…
TURNING AFRICA’S FARMLAND OVER TO BIG BUSINESS article by
GRAIN
LAND GRABS THREATEN ANUAK Nyikaw Ochalla interviewed by
GRAIN
PASTORALISM article by GRAIN
WATERSHED CATTLE article by John Wilson
LA FAIM, LA BAGNOLE, LE BLÉ ET NOUS reviewed by GRAIN
LANDMARK DECISION FOR AFRICAN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
Sprouting up by Rasmus V. Hansen
CONFRONTING THE FAO TO STOP GMOs article by GRAIN
SEEDS of information, compiled by GRAIN
FEEDING THE CORPORATE COFFERS summary of multi-authored
Briefing on hybrid rice
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