Posts Tagged ‘agriculture’
Colonisation Never Ended
Seed patenting laws are a global threat, but people are fighting back. For over 10,000 years, seeds have been the bedrock of human civilisation. From the moment our ancestors traded their nomadic hunter-gatherer ways for a life rooted in place, communities have freely collected, cultivated, saved, exchanged, and sown seeds as acts of sustenance and…
Read MoreThe Food You Eat Is Poisoned
The Food You Eat Is Poisoned: Decolonizing Agriculture and Reviving Ecological Knowledge in Kurdistan. Farming in the mountains and plains of Kurdistan has always been more than a way to feed families; it is a way of life, a form of resistance, a connection to land holding deep memory. Long before industrial agriculture and state…
Read MoreHow Then Shall We Live?
How then shall we live? – a short story of old roots and new shoots in Transylvania “Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there” – Gary Snyder “The place will tell us what to do.” Robyn made this prediction more than 20 years ago. Now we understand more what…
Read MoreWhy Agroecology Needs Social Movements
Women in Nigeria grow and sell orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Image by Sonii David/Community Eye Health via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) The 2nd East African Agroecology Conference was a three-day event, from March 25-28, and according to the organizers’ report, over 700 people participated. Alongside a range of side events, there were exhibitions showcasing everything from…
Read MoreLand, Culture, Farming, and Movements in 2025
To work in agriculture in the current economic and social context can look and feel foolish. The average cost of farmland in the U.S. has doubled since 2009. The cost of housing has increased 47% just since 2020. You’d be lucky to find a small house for half a million dollars in many parts of…
Read MoreTechno Feudalism Takes Root on the Farm in India and China
– Techno feudalism: a term first coined by Yanis Varoufakis in his 2023 book Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism, describes a rent-driven, technology-dominated society—echoing conditions similar to those that existed before capitalism, known as feudalism. The largest tech corporations have all launched initiatives in agriculture in recent years. But, among these tech giants, Microsoft is…
Read MoreThe Globalized, Industrialized Food System Is Destroying the World
The Globalized, Industrialized Food System Is Destroying the World — We Urgently Need to Support Local Food Economies Our food system is linked to an economic system fundamentally biased against what’s good for people and the planet. Introduction We can thank small farmers, environmentalists, academic researchers, and food and farming activists for advancing ecologically sound…
Read MoreResisting US-India Agri-Imperialism
A “high-powered US trade delegation” recently visited India to “explore opportunities in the country’s huge agribusiness sector and further promote American products among India’s rising middle class.” So reads the opening line of one of a few recent articles (see others here and here) in the Indian elite press announcing this momentous visit, and in…
Read MoreGlobalising Hope – the Courageous Journey of La Via Campesina
Collective work cannot succeed in homogeneity —the foundations for a better world lie in the power of plurality; of thought, of cultures, of perspectives. La Via Campesina, the world’s largest peasant and social movement, with over 200 million members across the globe, has demonstrated for the past 30 years that unity is key to advancing…
Read MoreAfrica’s Forgotten Farmers
Recently, renowned environmental and human rights advocate George Monbiot shared his perspectives on global food systems. Monbiot, once an advocate for small-scale African food producers, now seems to align more with corporate narratives: that they alone can address the world’s hunger problems. While the ongoing debate between British authors over the future of global food…
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