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WATCH THIS FILM NOW Running Time 53:22
GLOBAL VOICES "LAND RUSH"
Land Rush looks at how multinational agribusiness is threatening African farmers' ability to feed their communities.http://www.itvs.org/films/land-rush
How do you feed the world? 75% of Mali's population are farmers, but rich foreign corporations are leasing Mali's land in order to turn large areas into American-style agribusiness monoculture mechanized farms for their own profit and export, destroying and changing ecosystems and the culture. Many Malian peasants do not welcome these efforts, seeing them as yet another manifestation of imperialism threatening their ability to feed themselves. As Mali experiences a military coup, the developers are scared off but can Mali's farmers combat food shortages and escape poverty on their own terms?
Africa produces 10 percent less food than it did in 1960. In Mali, an American plan for a vast genetically engineered sugar cane (biofuel) operation on the banks of the Niger River threatens small-scale native rice farmers who have fed their communities for generations.... http://video.pbs.org/video/2296680847
MORE ABOUT THE FILM http://www.itvs.org/films/land-rush
Ecocentric, March 17,2015
▶ THE DANGER OF MONOCROPS: LESSONS FROM THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/1150/the-danger-of-monocrops-lessons-from-the-irish-potato-famin
Truthout, December 04, 2014
▶ SEEDS OF THE FUTURE DIMINISHING AS MONO INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE DOMINATES THE WORLD. A third of the world's land area is dedicated to agriculture. Farmers' fields and pastures comprise (after the oceans) the second largest ecosystem on the planet. This vast tract has been largely transformed into sterile monoculture deserts in which all other organisms are suppressed with agrochemicals, and only the cash crop is allowed to thrive. Whether it is soy in the Brazilian Amazon, wheat on the Ukrainian steppes or corn in Iowa, a single high-yield variety typically dominates the landscape for as far as the eye can see. http://truth-out.org/news/item/27760-seeds-of-the-future
The Ecologist, February 12, 2015
▶ LAND AND SEED LAWS UNDER ATTACK AS AFRICA IS GROOMED FOR CORPORATE RECOLONIZATION. A battle is raging for control of resources in Africa - land, water, seeds, minerals, ores, forests, oil, renewable energy sources... http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2752051/land_and_seed_laws_under_attack_as_africa_is_groomed_for_corporate_recolonization.html
Common Dreams, February 06, 2015
▶ THE RE-COLONIZATION OF AFRICA http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/06/re-colonization-africa
Farmlandgrab, January 03, 2015
▶ BARBARIANS AT THE FARM GATE http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24381
AFRICA G8 - FOOD SECURITY FOR WHOM?
CORPORATE PROFITS v SMALL HOLDER FARMERS INTEREST
One Green Planet, February 26, 2017
▶ HOW THE GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL FOOD COMPLEX LEAVES PEOPLE HUNGRY AND UNDERNOURISHED http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/whos-eating-the-worlds-grain/
DO WE REALLY NEED CORPORATE 'CLIMATE-SMART' AGRICULTURE GREENWASH? - AGRA http://sco.lt/7GeSET
WATCH
THE MYTH OF THE AFRICAN 'GREEN REVOLUTION' http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides/p/1562042292/the-myth-of-the-african-green-revolution-video-vandana-shiva
INVESTIGATION
Foreign Policy, July 11, 2014
WHEN WALL STREET WENT TO AFRICA
http://sco.lt/6jxBxZ
▶ WALL STREET, CORPORATIONS BUYING UP AMERICAN & FOREIGN FARMLAND, THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTURE http://sco.lt/8mcmbR
AFRICA G8 - FOOD SECURITY FOR WHOM?
CORPORATE PROFITS v SMALL HOLDER FARMERS INTEREST
GHANA AND GMOs
Genetic engineering is about private corporate control of the food system.
Pambazuka, February 19, 2015
▶ THE RABID TACTICS OF THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY TO GAIN CONTROL OF GHANA'S FOOD SYSTEM Whose interests does Prof. Alhassan represent? Prof. Alhassan was been quoted as dismissing anti-GMO groups because, according to him, they allegedly do not have any scientific proof or knowledge to offer when it comes GMO technology. But he is wrong.
Ghanaian farmers need to abhor and reject scientists laden with conflicts of interest. Monsanto and Syngenta are particularly greedy to get their hands on Ghana’s agriculture and control the seed market here.Professor Alhassan is attempting to control the information farmers and the public see and hear just like the industry he represents....
“Today, large numbers of scientists are in the employ of Big Pharma, Big Ag, and all kinds of corporations with anti-environmental and anti-social justice agendas.”(2)... Professor Alhassan is a key employee of Big Ag, and has been for his entire career....
http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category/comment/94029
29 March, 2013 - Brownfield Ag News For America
▶ AGRICULTURAL LAND PRICES: DEMAND OR BUBBLE http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/03/29/ag-land-prices-demand-or-bubble/
March 1, 2013 Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
▶ GOVERNMENTS MUST PROTECT LAND, FOOD SYSTEMS AS TRADE LIBERALIZATION ACCELERATES LAND GRABBING http://iatp.org/blog-agriculture
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE http://sco.lt/5YJpKb
▶ FOOD, FUEL AND THE GLOBAL LAND GRAB - THE INCOME DIVIDE FOOD WARS http://sco.lt/8f8GfJ
VIDEO REPORT
LAND GRAB, SPECULATION, BIOFUELS = FOOD CRISIS http://sco.lt/5Wd0xV
-- WATCH --
"PLANET FOR SALE"
BIG AG BUYING UP WORLD'S FERTILE LAND
May 3, 2011 FarmlandGrab
http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/18542
▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTH http://sco.lt/63qRl3
FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY
MEETING THE OBJECTIVE...OR FEEDING THE BIG AG BIOTECH CHEMICAL CARTEL COFFERS http://sco.lt/6bJSgD
Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa
▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS
There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.
History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful. Classic amongst these is the famine which wracked the West African Sahel during the early 1970s. While people were dying of hunger in Senegal, Mali and Niger, peanuts — a key sauce ingredient and source of protein across the region — were being exported to Europe....
...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise... http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291
▶ BUYING UP THE OPPOSITION: GIANT AGRI-FOOD CORPORATIONS GOBBLING UP NATION'S $63 BILLION YEARLY ORGANIC FOOD BUSINESS http://sco.lt/4oTOEr
BAN GMOs NOW - A Special ISIS Report
http://sco.lt/5CPilt
Malaysia Feb. 4, 2013 The Sun Daily
▶ BIOFUELS: BIODIESEL BOOST FOR PALM OIL INDUSTRY - THE CORPORATE RACE FOR PROFITS, DESTROYING FORESTS AND ECOSYSTEMS AS THEY GO http://www.thesundaily.my/news/605492
Feb 1, 2013
▶ CROP-BASED BIOFUELS IS UNSUSTAINABLE. GROWING PALM OIL COULD SPEED UP CLIMATE CHANGE , WHILE DEVASTATING BIODIVERSITY AND NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS http://planetark.org/wen/67793
April 27, 2012
▶ EPA SAYS PALM-BASED BIOFUELS SHOULD NOT QUALIFY FOR INCLUSION IN RENEWABLE FUELS STANDARD http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life/p/1679460426/epa-says-palm-based-biofuels-should-not-qualify-for-inclusion-in-renewable-fuels-standard
May 7, 2013 EurActive - The BioFuel Industry Push Back
▶ BIOFUELS INDUSTRY SENT "THREE MAILS AN HOUR" IN ILUC LOBBY OFFENSIVE http://www.euractiv.com/energy/biofuels-industry-sent-mails-hou-news-519531
MORE ON HOW FOREIGN LAND GRABS http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life?q=land+grab
MORE ON BIOFUELS http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life?q=BIOFUELS
Via pdjmoo
When profits overide local culture, destroy ecosystems and environment for the western ideal of monoculture agriculture, owned by multi-nationals, displacing local indigenous peoples, it is time to draw a line.
In this instance, in Mali, the sugar cane is for export, not for local food supply and the indigenous peoples will be doomed to working laborers in an environment of big agriculture for little money. Creating dependency on foreign aid and hand-outs for food for survival while foreign entities profit greatly is NOT where we should be going for the future.
Money is not the currency for many cultures, it is producing food locally for themselves and their community and we have no right to impose our outside mega gmo agriculture on anyone, destroying their connection to their lands and livelihoods.
This is just horrible..no words..