Scientist and animal/human health workers are worried, but the public is told ‘nothing to see, nothing to worry about, move on’.
The massive power of agribusiness is threatening the world we live in and also (for those who don't really care), our health by incubating new and dangerous illnesses.
Del Monte Turning Kenya Into Pineapple Republic
Del Monte impunity in Kenya goes beyond its security’s alleged murder of pineapple thieves
US corporation’s leverage allowed it to swallow Kenyan land, labor in quest for profit
"How do you murder nine men for stealing fruit and get away with it?"
"Del Monte is content to let thousands of Kenya’s most fertile acres lie fallow while its north is beleaguered by hunger."
The threat to a sacred way of life -- each year #Wixárika people, an #Aztecan group in #Mexico, travel to the semi-arid desert of San Luis Potosí:
'Their destination is Wirikuta, a sacred gathering place where, according to their beliefs, the world was created from a drop of water.
'Once gathered, the pilgrims await a special night on which peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus at the heart of the Wixárika people’s spiritual rituals, is blessed and distributed. But for the past five years a shadow has loomed over the ceremony: drought.'
A survey released by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) showed that #cattle pastures occupied 75% of the deforested area on public lands in the Amazon. Other causes of deforestation include the construction of new highways, #logging roads, #dams, and #mines.
Hunger and undernourishment are two elements of food insecurity that have plagued Africa for years. Genetically modified crops could provide a solution, although the technology remains controversial.
The idea of solving hunger on the African continent with GM (genetically modified) crops is terribly flawed.
However, usually (and this article is no exception) a real analysis about the socio-economic reasons for hunger is totally absent.
There are so many things to say:
Hunger is currently not a problem of production, but of distribution and access.
Food security (there is enough food on the market) is not the same as food sovereignity (th provision of food is in the hands of local comminities, resulting in a resilient system).
GM crops are developed mainly by profit-driven corporations. These corporations have neither an interest nor an incentive to help the poor. In the best case, GM crops are developed by public institutions, but also then ideology and institutions prevent real transdiscipliniary cooperation with small-scale farmers.
Subsidized (publicly funded scientific innovation is also a subsidy!) industrial agriculture destroys soils, water, the climate and biodiversity. The social and environmental costs are then externalized to all of us. Small-scalle farmers, the backbone of food provision, especially for the rural poor in the global south (including themselves) get outcompeted and fall into poverty.
GM crops are industrial hybrid crops. Maybe the researchers achieve to insert one gene to resolve a specific problem. But the crop will still require large inputs of synthetic fertilizer or pesticides. Additionally, until now, seeds from GM crops cannot be multiplied and resown by the farmers, increasing their dependency on companies, markets and fossil fuels.
"The dispute is an early glimpse of the type of fights the U.S. will face as the warming #climate supercharges drought, wildfires, storms and floods, forcing wrenching choices over which communities get protected.
#California's proposal would almost entirely cut off #Colorado River deliveries to Phoenix, Tucson and the 11 Native American tribes getting #water from central #Arizona’s primary canal before California’s agricultural users would face any mandatory cuts."
"Any legitimate plan for the #ColoradoRiver must directly confront a key driver of the crisis in the first place: the overuse and abuse of limited #water resources by big #agribusiness and #FossilFuel corporations—the very same industries contributing to #climate chaos in the first place."