Raindrops keep falling on my head, but that don’t mean the water’s free
By Heather Quinlan
Water is an essential input for both farms and gardens. Who controls water determines who controls our food system. Major multinational water corporations continue to push to buy up water systems around the world. The current global recession makes many communities vulnerable to accepting the substantial up-front payments offered in return for long-term private leases of water systems.
Labor in the Food System
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 | Labor Fact Sheet2.pdf | 1022.6 KB |
By Zoe Brent
Throughout its value chain, the US Food System employs approximately 18% of all US workers. Yet, food workers are being exploited - many are even going hungry!
This undermines the sustainability of the entire food system.
Jobs in the food sector are bad and getting worse!
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 Economic Report, food preparation and serving related occupations are the lowest paid of
all occupational categories, followed by farming, fishing and forestry occupations. real wages of meatpacking workers have fallen.
Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA)
Green Revolution advocates promote toxic high-tech solutions to a food crisis they invented. The real path to truly addressing hunger is through re-regulating the market, reducing the power of the agri-foods industrial complex, and building ecologically resilient family agriculture.
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| AGRA Fact Sheet 9-09 by Tanya Kerssen.pdf | 1.73 MB |
By Tanya Kerssen
Although AGRA claims to be a farmer-led, African initiative, all of its institutional structures and decision-making processes were developed without consulting even with Africa’s largest farmer organizations and federations. AGRA’s definition of participation is highly limited. prompting one farm leader to confront AGRA saying, "“You come. You buy the land. You make a plan. You build a house. Now you ask me, what color do I want to paint the kitchen? This is not participation!”
Read more in the attached pdf file.
Ecuador Paves Way for Terminator Technology?
By Karla Peña
The Food Sovereignty Organic Law in Ecuador was approved by the National Assembly with President Rafael Correa’s Partial Veto in March of this year.
Shocking New Report Reveals that In the U.S. More Than 3.5 Million (one in six) Children Under the Age of Five Are Food Insecure
Chicago, Illinois
May 6, 2009
One in six young children live on the brink of hunger in 26 states in the U.S., according to a new report issued today by Feeding America. The rate of food insecurity in young children is 33 percent higher than in U.S. adults, where one in eight live at risk of hunger.
U.S. Ethanol Production in Fewer Hands
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| May_2009_Ethanol_CR4.pdf | 295.86 KB |
By Annie Shattuck
What was once an industry characterized by farmer co-ops and locally owned refineries, the U.S. ethanol industry is rapidly becoming more corporate. In the past two years, farmers' share of total ethanol production capacity has fallen from 34% to approximately 16%. The top four ethanol producers in the country now own 32.7% of the nation's total production capacity. Out of 20 new plants planned or under construction, none are locally or farmer owned.
Putting Food First in the Constitution of Ecuador
by Karla Pena
Unprecedented!
Ecuador established Food Sovereignty in their Constitution approved by a referendum vote of 64% of the population on September 28, 2008. The people of Ecuador have the right to "Good Living," a healthy environment ecologically harmonized to guarantee the right to food. The State will enforce the established rights to aid in recent food price increase and localize their food systems by supporting their small and medium farmers in sustainable development (Agroecology).
Is this new constitution a prototype that other countries can look to?
Green Gold: Why cellulosic ethanol is a threat to farmers and the planet
By Annie Shattuck
Cellulosic ethanol has everyone from John McCain to the Natural Resources Defense Council excited with the promise of greening the planet and the economy in one stroke. … The irony of cellulosics however, is the unprecedented threat they pose to small farmers, the environment and our global carbon balance: the very things they pretend to protect.
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| greengold_10-6-081.pdf | 56.55 KB |
Small farms as a planetary ecological asset: Five key reasons why we should support the revitalization of small farms in the Global South
by Miguel A. Altieri
President, Sociedad Cientifica LatinoAmericana de Agroecologia (SOCLA)
What's for dinner? Corn ethanol, feedlots and what you eat
by Annie Shattuck
April 10, 2008
The debate over renewable energy is raging. The U.S. Congress recently passed a renewable fuels mandate which will effectively create an artificial market for at least 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol per year. Numerous studies have criticized ethanol's environmental footprint. From negligible greenhouse gas savings to increased ground level ozone, and dependency on high-input agriculture–corn ethanol's critics have painted a picture of a costly band-aid for our energy crisis.