“Every really successful system of agriculture…..must be based on the long view, otherwise the day of reckoning is certain.” Importance of rice in Asia Rice is Asia’s staple food and pivotal to the Asian way of life, culture, customs, traditions...
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Worldwide, industrial mono-culture farming has displaced traditional food production and farmers, wreaking havoc on food prices and food sovereignty. This is particularly true for the global south, where land has been concentrated for crops destined for biodiesel and animal feed. In response, peasants and small farmers organized actions in more than 53 countries on...
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Michael R. Taylor’s appointment by the Obama administration to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 7th sparked immediate debate and even outrage among many food and agriculture researchers, NGOs and activists. The Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Corp. from 1998 until 2001, Taylor exemplifies the revolving door between the food...
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Scientists must ask corporations for permission before publishing independent research on genetically modified crops Advances in agricultural technology—including, but not limited to, the genetic modification of food crops—have made fields more productive than ever. Farmers grow more crops and feed more people using less land. They are able to use fewer pesticides and to...
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Scientific Tests Must Be Approved by Industry First One of the great mysteries surrounding the spread of GMO plants around the world since the first commercial crops were released in the early 1990’s in the USA and Argentina has been the absence of independent scientific studies of possible long-term effects of a diet of...
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The “world food crisis” of 2007-08 was the tip of an iceberg. Hunger and food crises are endemic to the modern world, and the eruption of a rapid increase in food prices provided a fresh window on this cultural fact. Much like Susan George’s well-known observation that famines represent the final stage in an...
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‘A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.’ – Ted Turner to Audubon Magazine, 1996 In an April 18th 2009 article on the development of GM-Food for the African continent, ‘Strange Fruit: Could genetically modified foods offer a solution to the world’s food crisis? the author...
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Soil Not Oil by Vandana Shiva South End Press, 2008, 160 pages The following is an excerpt from the book: The industrialized, globalized food system is based on oil. It is under threat because of the inevitability of “peak oil.” It is also under threat because it is more vulnerable than traditional agriculture to...
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Jim Rogers, the bow tie-wearing fund manager who made George Soros a billionaire, thinks it’s time to get back to the land. Agriculture has “been a terrible business for 30 years,” he says in this CNBC Asia discussion of China’s stimulus package. “It’s about to be a fabulous business.” Rogers points out that global...
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The reality for the average Indian remains the same: agricultural cultivation and the ability to farm is the bedrock of rural living. With its historical practices, values, and communal sentiments of respect, cultivation and the practice of farming has embedded roots. Farming for Indians is not only a source of income – it is...
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Earlier in the decade, biofuels were hailed as the energy panacea, the silver bullet to solve oil shortages and abide by environmental concerns. The European Union recently took the lead in imposing the use of these liquid or gaseous fuels made from plants. But the green credentials of biofuels have since been disputed. The...
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Following training by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a hundred farmers in central Kenya, armed with an improved understanding of their local markets are commanding higher prices for their bananas. “These farmers used to sell bananas by just looking at the bunch. A trader would come and dictate the price. Before,...
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