GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems
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.
Americans gave away almost $400 billion in 2016. Billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg are applauded for their generosity. But who actually benefits from their donations? For every dollar of charitable giving, the U.S. taxpayer has to fork out 50 cents in lost tax revenue. An interesting podcast by Tara Cleary, including an interview with GRAIN about our 2014 report about the role of the Gates Foundation in Africa.
GRAIN has just updated its dataset showing how so-called free trade agreements (FTAs) push for the privatisation of seeds and livestock beyond the rules agreed to at the World Trade Organisation. FTAs often do this by obliging countries to adopt or implement the UPOV convention, what some call "Monsanto laws".
On 3 August, a Federal judge in Brasilia, ruled the immediate prohibition of new licenses for products based on three chemicals: Abamectin, Glyphosate and Tiram. The judge also gave a period of up to 30 days for the withdrawal of those already released in the market. The decision still gave another term to the Agência Nacional de vigilância sanitaria (the national sanitary surveillance agency – ANVISA, by its acronym in Portuguese) who has until the end of 2018 to complete the toxicological reassessment of the three chemicals. The decision is valid for the whole country.
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists |
19 August 2018
| corporations
| Brazil
Tax havens – and the financial secrecy they provide – may bolster industries tied to Amazon deforestation and the unsustainable management of natural resources, a new study has found.
Words of Ceferina Guerrero, one of the founders of Conamuri, a native of Repatriación in the department of Coaguazú, Paraguay, speaking on a panel called "Our Seeds Make Us Free" during the “Heñói Jey Paraguay” fair, 3 and 4 August 2018 in Asunción, Paraguay.
Joint action committee against foreign retail and e-commerce |
10 August 2018
| corporations, actions
| India
The Joint Action Committee Against Foreign Retail and E-commerce greatly condemns the go-head to Walmart’s takeover of Flipkart by the Competition Commission of India. Flipkart indulges in gross and widely-reported violations of current FDI norms for e-commerce as expressed in the Press Note 3. These violations are all market distorting. The government has sat over scores of complaints given to it for such violations, and a case is also currently in the Supreme Court. Before investigating and deciding on these existing ongoing by Flipkart, billions of dollars of new FDI cannot be allowed to come in and compound these ongoing violations against India’s markets, economy and citizens.
With the arrival of big agricultural investment to the Nacala Corridor, one of the most fertile and populated areas of Mozambique, thousands of people were dispossessed of their land and are still waiting for the promise of a better life to come true.
Five years ago today, more than 400 farmers, women, youth and consumers uprooted the secret Golden Rice field trials in Pili, Camarines Sur, decisively showing the rejection of the people against the genetically modified rice. The historic action has resulted to increased awareness and renewed debate globally and has driven the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to postpone the commercialization slated in 2016 supposedly due to the lower yields of the Golden Rice.
More than 80 participants representing trade union, farmers, indigenous peoples, and other civil society organitations gathered in Thailand on the sidelines of the latest negotiations RCEP mega trade agreement in Asia. Here is their statement.
The COASP and COPAGEN, their members and allies are outraged by the drive of our regional institutions to harmonize the regional seed legislation for the benefit of the seed industry in particular and the agrochemical sector in general.
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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. 
