Getting out of the food crisis,
GRAIN, Seedling editorial, July 2008
Published in this issue of Seedling and online at: http://www.grain.org/foodcrisis/
Making a killing from hunger – We need to overturn food policy, now!
GRAIN, Against the grain, April 2008, http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=39
The world food crisis is hurting a lot of people, but global agribusiness firms, traders and speculators are raking in huge profits. The fundamental cause of today’s food crisis is neoliberal globalisation itself, which has transformed food from a source of livelihood security into a mere commodity to be gambled away, even at the cost of widespread hunger among the world’s poorest people. This Against the grain is available in English, French and Spanish.
The food crisis and the hybrid rice surge
GRAIN, Hybrid rice blog, 12 May 2008, http://www.grain.org/hybridrice/?lid=202
With the world in a major rice crisis, hybrid rice is being presented as the logical solution to boost national production the world over. The consequences of such a sudden, large-scale shift from conventional rice to corporate-friendly hybrids would be devastating for small farmers – and for the future of world rice production. This is an expanded version of the article published on page 6 of this issue of Seedling.
Philippines and beyond: rice crisis – reaping the “fruit” of market capitalism
GRAIN, Hybrid rice blog, 22 April 2008, http://www.grain.org/hybridrice/?lid=201
As the whole agricultural system is becoming privatised, rice production has become dependent on private seed and agrochemical companies, currency fluctuations, fertiliser price spikes, and oil price increases, making rice a highly vulnerable traded good. But the governments of the Philippines and Indonesia continue to push the very same mantras of neo-liberalism and green revolution technologies.
The FAO and Terra Preta
From 3 to 5 June the FAO held a summit on the food crisis. This meeting was originally planned to discuss agriculture and global warming but, due to recent developments, the food crisis took centre stage. Parallel to this, the IPC for food sovereignty organised a forum on the same topic called Terra Preta. The forum, which lasted for four days, brought together some 150 participants from all over the world, including representatives from social movements, farmers and NGOs. GRAIN was involved in a number of initiatives and in supporting the Terra Preta forum, which held regular discussions and news conferences. Although promises were made to provide record amounts of money for small farmers, the summit was a failure in that its main message was to encourage the use of more pesticides, more fertiliser, more free trade – exactly the recipe that caused the food crisis in the first place. Terra Preta: http://tinyurl.com/64fkjk