Skip to main content

  • Pambazuka - Profits before people: The great African liquidation sale

    "it was all summed up clearly for me by members of COPAGEN, a coalition of African farmer associations, scientists, civil society groups and activists who work to protect Africa’s genetic heritage, farmer rights, and their sovereignty over their land, seeds and food. All these knowledgeable people have shown me that the answer is quite straightforward: many of those imported mistakes, disguised as solutions for Africa, are very, very profitable. At least for those who design and make them."

    pambazuka.org/...60010 - Preview

    gmos foodsecurity food genetically modified agriculture africa pambazuka international development crisis agribusiness security on 2009-11-07

    • it was all summed up clearly for me by members of COPAGEN, a coalition of African farmer associations, scientists, civil society groups and activists who work to protect Africa’s genetic heritage, farmer rights, and their sovereignty over their land, seeds and food. All these knowledgeable people have shown me that the answer is quite straightforward: many of those imported mistakes, disguised as solutions for Africa, are very, very profitable. At least for those who design and make them.
    • These monetarist schemes have helped to make Africa poorer and even more dependent on foreign donors and capital, and thus more vulnerable to still more of the big plans, so that now, even as Africans struggle to confront the perfect storm of the global food crisis, financial crisis and climate change – all of which are the offspring of the unfettered free-market financial system – the same big planners are at it again with more sweeping solutions (profitable ones) for the problems they themselves caused.
    • 4 more annotations...

  • Press Release: The Great Land Grab

    The Great Land Grab critically examines the role of the private sector in agricultural development and exposes implications of private sector control over food resources. The report concludes that those who promote the benefits of private sector growth in agriculture fail to recognize that acquisition of crucial food-producing lands by foreign private entities poses a threat to rural economies and livelihoods, land reform agendas, and other efforts aimed at making access to food more equitable.

    www.oaklandinstitute.org/?q=node/view/526 - Preview

    land reform food security corporate agriculture agribusiness oakland institute on 2009-10-11

  • BRAZIL: Agribusiness Driving Land Concentration - IPS ipsnews.net

    From the census figures by state, analysts observe that in areas like São Paulo, the planting of more sugarcane is associated with a 6.1 percent increase in land concentration compared to the previous census, thanks to incentives for the production of biofuels, like ethanol.\n\nThose responsible for the IBGE survey, presented Sept. 30, said the situation in the state of São Paulo shows that one of the main factors in the concentration of land ownership is the expansion of agribusiness and large monoculture crops for export, such as soybeans and maize.

    www.ipsnews.net/news.asp - Preview

    brazil land corporate exploitation biofuels on 2009-10-06

    • From the census figures by state, analysts observe that in areas like São Paulo, the planting of more sugarcane is associated with a 6.1 percent increase in land concentration compared to the previous census, thanks to incentives for the production of biofuels, like ethanol.



      Those responsible for the IBGE survey, presented Sept. 30, said the situation in the state of São Paulo shows that one of the main factors in the concentration of land ownership is the expansion of agribusiness and large monoculture crops for export, such as soybeans and maize.

  • Manufacturing a Food Crisis

    an intriguing question escaped many observers: how on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US imports in the first place?

    The Mexican food crisis cannot be fully understood without taking into account the fact that in the years preceding the tortilla crisis, the homeland of corn had been converted to a corn-importing economy by "free market" policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and Washington.

    www.thenation.com/...bello - Preview

    food security crisis international development neoliberalism bello on 2008-05-26 and saved by 6 people

    • an
      intriguing question escaped many observers: how on earth did Mexicans,
      who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US
      imports in the first place?
    • The Mexican food crisis cannot be fully understood without taking into
      account the fact that in the years preceding the tortilla crisis, the
      homeland of corn had been converted to a corn-importing economy by "free
      market" policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the
      World Bank and Washington. The process began with the early 1980s debt
      crisis. One of the two largest developing-country debtors, Mexico was
      forced to beg for money from the Bank and IMF to service its debt to
      international commercial banks. The quid pro quo for a
      multibillion-dollar bailout was what a member of the World Bank
      executive board described as "unprecedented thoroughgoing
      interventionism" designed to eliminate high tariffs, state regulations
      and government support institutions, which neoliberal doctrine
      identified as barriers to economic efficiency.



      Interest payments rose from 19 percent of total government expenditures
      in 1982 to 57 percent in 1988, while capital expenditures dropped from
      an already low 19.3 percent to 4.4 percent. The contraction of
      government spending translated into the dismantling of state credit,
      government-subsidized agricultural inputs, price supports, state
      marketing boards and extension services. Unilateral liberalization of
      agricultural trade pushed by the IMF and World Bank also contributed to
      the destabilization of peasant producers.




      This blow to peasant agriculture was followed by an even larger one in
      1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.
      Although NAFTA had a fifteen-year phaseout of tariff protection for
      agricultural products, including corn, highly subsidized US corn quickly
      flooded in, reducing prices by half and plunging the corn sector into
      chronic crisis. Largely as a result of this agreement, Mexico's status
      as a net food importer has now been firmly established.

1 - 9 of 9
Showing 20▼ items per page
List Comments (0)