January 2006 ( 1.9 MB)
Type: Whole issue
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2006

The real meaning of Hong Kong: India and Brazil join the big boys' club (329 kb)
Type: Editorial
Author: Walden Bello Date: January 2006

What was at stake at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting was the institutional survival of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). After the collapse of two ministerials in Seattle and Cancun, a third unravelling would have seriously eroded the usefulness of the WTO as the key engine of global trade liberalisation. A deal was needed, and that deal was arrived at. How, why, and by whom that deal was delivered was the real story of the December 2005 meeting in Hong Kong.

This article was first published by Focus on the Global South in December 2006 (http://www.focusweb.org/content/view/799/55/)

Translated into: français   Español

Conservation Refugees: When conservation means kicking people out (455 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Mark Dowie Date: January 2006

It’s no secret that millions of indigenous peoples around the world have been pushed off their land to make room for big oil, big metal, big timber, and big agriculture. But few people realise that the same thing has been happening for a much nobler cause: land and wildlife conservation. It’s not just corporations that have a bad name amongst indigenous communities, but also, and increasingly, some international non-governmental organisations.

GM soybean: Latin America's new colonizer (344 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Miguel Altieri and Walter Pengue Date: January 2006

n Latin America, the frontiers to soybean production are being pushed back aggressively in all directions at a breathtaking rate. Driven by export pressures and supported by government incentives, soybean fields are taking over forests and savannah in an unprecedented manner. The implications of the monoculture model and its supporting machinery for the environment, farmers and communities are discussed below.

Translated into: Español

Liberating diversity: from defence to offence... (105 kb)
Type: Sprouting up
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2006

A European Seminar on Seeds entitled “Liberate Diversity” was held in Poitiers, France, in November 2005

Brand Name Bullies & Arts Under Pressure (162 kb)
Type: Resources
Author: Brewster Kneen Date: January 2006

Brewster Kneen reviews two quite different books that discuss the excessive applications of copyright and trademark law mainly in the US.

Sowing Autonomy - Gender and seed politics in semi-arid India (97 kb)
Type: Resources
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2006

GRAIN reviews this new book by Carine Pionetti