by Walden Bello (CETRI, 27 May 2008)

When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices. The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one cause of skyrocketing prices, though speculation on biofuel demand by transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. However, an intriguing question escaped many observers: how on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US imports in the first place ? »»»

Word-key: Movement of the ones Without Ceiling of Salvador; Fight for Housing; Urban conflicts; Urban history of the Gift.

[an english translation of a brief intro about this movement.]

February 26, 2008

TO ALL MEDIAS / For Immediate Press Release

14 September 2007, Manila, Philippines. – A crowd of more than 300 workers, farmers, fishers, and environmentalists from the Magkaisa Junk JPEPA Coalition (MJJC) today called on the Senators of the 14th Congress to look beyond the rosy projections and government hype surrounding the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), and to carefully assess its short-term and long-term implications. The group’s call came on the day of the first scheduled Senate hearing for this historic, precedent-setting treaty.

Wind farm projects are growing like mushrooms after a rainy day, but the air is turbulent in the wind industry. Industrial wind farms are not as nice and green as promoters want us to believe. Like an opponent puts it : “There is more here than immediately meets the eye with industrial wind generators, and often the devil is in the details."

Philippine farmers demand reform and extension of agrarian reform program. Asian farmers join rally in solidarity with their struggle

Stop agrarian violence and killing of farmers!

Implement agrarian reform in contentious landholdings!

Tell your MP to support a Ban on Terminator Seeds in Canada!

Support Ban of Terminator Seeds – Before Dec 7/06
Tell your MP to support a Ban on Terminator Seeds in Canada!

[ For fully linked version, see link below.
Find your Member of Parliament using your Postal Code]

On the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) together with the World Bank in Singapore, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) and other civil society organizations blame “the Fund�? for being the single most influential factor for the worsening poverty in the Philippines and other countries in the South.

Student/Famworker Alliance is a national network of youth and students organizing in solidarity with farmworkers to eliminate sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields. We work in partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a membership-led organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian low-wage immigrant workers in Southwest Florida. Together we won the Taco Bell Boycott in 2005. For more information, visit http://www.sfalliance.org

Canadian international mining company Barrick Gold has plans to relocate three glaciers in the mountain range between Argentina and Chile to gain access to 17.6 million oz. of rich gold and silver deposits.

An article from The Guardian says that "Modified genes from crops in a GM crop trial have transferred into local wild plants, creating a form of herbicide-resistant 'superweed'".

What worse, in Canada crop rotation has conferred multi-herbicide resistance to some of the weeds!

The Death Of Alberta Packing Houses,Lack Of Feedlot Inspections, And Privatization, Led To The BSE Crisis

SPECIAL FOOD ISSUE OF THE INDYPENDENT

For two years running, The Indypendent has won more awards for outstanding reporting from the New York Independent Press Association than any other paper. We are soliciting articles around the themes of problems of the global food production network and locally based alternatives.

Join us to challenge the corporate crime, poisons for profit, and flagrant lies of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (www.bio.org), at the time of their annual international convention, with a creative uprising for truth, life and justice!