Urban agriculture and food sovereignty in Cuba

The following is the text of a talk given by Jorge Soberon, Cuba’s Consul General in Toronto, Canada, to a meeting of food sovereignty sponsored by the Venezuela We Are With You Coalition (CVEC).
["Food sovereignty" is a term coined by members of Via Campesina in 1996 to refer to a [...]

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One sixth of the planet’s human population going hungry

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that 1 billion people on the planet (or 1/6 of the human population) do not have to enough to sustain themselves; in other words they suffer from hunger, malnutrition and all related after-effects. And while the wealthy countries’ governments are busy spending tax money on bailing out [...]

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Biopiracy, GM Seeds & Rural India

Abhiyan (Seed Freedom Movement) protest against GM
By Priya Kumar
Global Research
“Over 100,000 farmers have committed suicide…” – a very comprehensive and insightful article on India’s agriculture and the immeasurable damage international trade rules, multi-national agro-business conglomerates and the Indian government have inflicted on the traditional farming culture and its people.
Introduction
The reality for [...]

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List of current articles on the global economic and social crisis

The list represents a collection of recent articles by the Global Research Institute:
Sid Shniad, Daniel Estulin, James Petras & Russ Baker on The Global Research News Hour- Host: Stephen Lendman. Program Details, June 1-5 – 2009-06-05
Biopiracy, GM Seeds & Rural India
- by Priya Kumar – 2009-06-02
.

The Economic Crisis in Australia
- by Peter Murray [...]

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Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilisation?

The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse. These are the key concepts of an article in this month’s Scientific American:

Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos.
Such “failed states” can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and [...]

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Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud

The earth’s surface is covered to 70% by water of which only 3% are drinkable. No wonder large multi-nationals are muscling in on controlling this resource, which will become economically even more valuable as the climate disaster will make it more scarce in many parts of the world. With oil production having moved moved past [...]

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Will ‘peak food’ precede ‘peak oil’?

The following Market Skeptics article by Eric deCarbonnel assesses this year’s proposed global food shortages by looking closer at food production predictions for countries and continents around the globe – and the conclusion is grim: we’re heading towards a catastrophe. Does that mean we’re looking at a ‘Peak Food’ phenomenon, similar to ‘Peak Oil’?
Catastrophic Fall [...]

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Another crazy biodiesel idea: fuel made from coffee

The biofuel madness continues unabated. It’s been obvious for years now that the concept has mainly disadvantages from both an ecological as well as a global justice perspective: more forests are chopped down to make room for fuel crops, biofuel production uses more energy than you get from using the end product, less area is [...]

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Freegans & the art of Dumpster Diving

This video is an introduction to finding and creating delicious, healthy and quite safe meals, using ingredients found by dumpster diving behind grocery stores. The concept of cooking gourmet meals from dumpster diving was developed some time in 2004 by the DoEat Collective, a group of artists who wanted to demonstrate [...]

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Tucson Community Food Bank – From handouts to DIY

This is the final example from Orion’s November/December magazine for how people work towards sustainability in their own communities or in their own lives. Here people are working on getting away from foodbank handouts by growing their produce and establishing urban farming and gardening practices. [image inserted by me]

BY KYLE BOELTE, TUCSON, AZ
Published in the November/December [...]

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Forests to fall for food and fuel

By Richard Black 
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

  
Demand for biofuels will add to pressure on forests, the report warns

Demand for land to grow food, fuel crops and wood is set to outstrip supply, leading to the probable destruction of forests, a report warns.
The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) says only half of the extra land needed [...]

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What might happen to world food prices

Meal Ticket
By Chris Mayer in Rude Awakening – 25. November 2008
“In my own case, the Depression brought a strange result,” writes Eddie Cantor in 1931. “Before the crash, I had a million dollars, a house, three cars and four daughters. Now all I’ve got left is five daughters.”
Eddie Cantor (1892-1964) was a comedian, singer, songwriter [...]

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Food aid does not recreate a sustainable planet

Food Aid is counter-productive argues the following article. The equation seems simple: more food aid means more people who will put more pressure on their human and natural environments which in turn will lead to more hunger and more food aid. To break away from this merry-go-round, food aid needs to be slowly replaced by [...]

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Biofuel

Unfortunately, no laughing matter …
[via haha.nu]

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Soaring oil prices

The West goes into recession, the East keeps growing and the planet suffers ever more. Oil prices are moving towards (and soon past) US$120 a barrel in New York, despite America going deeper into an economic downturn. Air conditioners in Dubai and other rich Middle-Eastern Countries as well as growing consumer appetites in China, Russia [...]

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A new cause for rising fuel prices: drought

The biofuel insanity does not only make the poor on this planet starve more, while greenhouse gas emissions are increasing through eradicating forests to make way for biofuel plantations; the Los Angeles Times made me aware of something I hadn’t thought of so far: the link between fuel prices and drought.
In the US, corn is [...]

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