Colin Todhunter Today, in the mainstream narrative, there is much talk of a ‘food transition’. Big agribusiness and ‘philanthropic’ foundations position themselves as the saviours of humanity due to their much- promoted plans to ‘feed the world’ with ‘precision’ farming’, ‘data-driven’ agriculture and ‘sustainable’ production. These are the very institutions responsible for the social, ecological …
Colin Todhunter In 2014, the organisation GRAIN revealed that small farms produce most of the world’s food in its report Hungry for land: small farmers feed the world with less than a quarter of all farmland. The report Small-scale Farmers and Peasants Still Feed the World (ETC Group, 2022) confirmed this. Small farmers produce up to …
Colin Todhunter It’s a lose-lose situation for Ukrainians. While they are dying, financial institutions are insidiously supporting the consolidation of farmland by oligarchs and Western financial interests. So says Frédéric Mousseau, Policy Director of the Oakland Institute, an independent think tank. Depending on which sources to believe, between 100,000 and 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers (possibly more) …
Colin Todhunter Why is much modern food of inferior quality? Why is health suffering and smallholder farmers who feed most of the world being forced out of agriculture? Mainly because of the mindset of the likes of Larry Fink of BlackRock – the world’s biggest asset management firm – and the economic system they profit …
Demeter Friday the thirteenth. According to this morning’s headlines, the US annual inflation rate is only 6.5%. The “core” inflation rate (excluding the volatile food and energy sectors) is 5.7%. Meanwhile, in the real world, the price of organic apple juice at the local Walmart was $2.29 for a half gallon until a couple of …
Colin Todhunter In a fair world, Aruna Rodrigues would be heralded as an incredible individual for her ongoing struggle to protect the socio-economic and environmental integrity of India. So says respected environmentalist, author and campaigner Leo Saldanha. He adds: Since 2005, she has tirelessly pursued a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court of India, …
Colin Todhunter If events since March 2020 have shown us anything, it is that fear is a powerful weapon for securing hegemony. Any government can manipulate fear about certain things while conveniently ignoring real dangers that a population faces. Author and researcher Robert J Burrowes says: …if we were seriously concerned about our world, the gravest …
Colin Todhunter Disaster capitalism and crisis narratives are currently being used to manipulate popular sentiment and push through a set of unpalatable policies that would otherwise lack sufficient political support. These policies are being promoted by wealthy interests that stand to make billions of dollars from what is being proposed. They seek to gain full control …
Colin Todhunter Many scientists lobbying for the deregulation of agricultural biotechnology ‘new genomic techniques’ (NGTs) in the European Union have either direct or indirect interests in commercialising and marketing new genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They have patents or patent applications or other connections to the seed industry. That is the conclusion of a September 2022 …
Colin todhunter “Ecomodernists offer no solutions to contemporary problems other than technical innovation and further integration into private markets which are structured systematically by centralized state power in favour of the wealthy…” Chris Smaje In 2017, the then Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley argued that his company made a mistake in not reaching out to the …
