Posts Tagged ‘farming’
The Economics of Eating
The impact of our global economic system on food and farming is disastrous. Giant multinationals and financial speculators are making profit out of destroying diversified, regional farming systems at an alarming rate. In other words, our economic system is set on automatic pilot to drive people off the land into ever bigger cities. And in…
Read MoreTaking Back Our Future: Why Localization Matters
Who decides what happens to your community? Who decides whether farmland becomes subdivisions? Whether forests are logged or protected? Whether your drinking water remains clean? Whether local businesses survive or disappear? Whether your children can afford to live where they grew up? Whether your community produces its own food and energy or becomes dependent on…
Read MoreLocal Food: More Than a Nice-to-Have
While this Sustain report focuses on the UK, many of its findings are relevant to communities everywhere. — Local Futures Local food isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s an essential ingredient of UK economic resilience. Food prices in the UK are rocketing, showing just how exposed our food economy is to global shocks – from geopolitical…
Read MoreColonisation 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 MoreNative Colored Cotton Rescue Project in Mexico
Mexico is the country of origin of Gossypium hirsutum, which is the species of cotton used in 95% of the world´s production. The Costa Chica of Oaxaca is one of the 11 sub-sites of origin in Mexico where wild and cultivated, native cotton are still found. Farmers and artisans in this region have been cultivating…
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…
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