food wars ramping up

[ensho]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/22/food-biofuels-land-grab


Rich countries launch great land grab to safeguard food supply
• States and companies target developing nations
• Small farmers at risk from industrial-scale deals


Rich governments and corporations are triggering alarm for the poor as they buy up the rights to millions of hectares of agricultural land in developing countries in an effort to secure their own long-term food supplies.

The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, has warned that the controversial rise in land deals could create a form of "neo-colonialism", with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people.

Rising food prices have already set off a second "scramble for Africa". This week, the South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics announced plans to buy a 99-year lease on a million hectares in Madagascar. Its aim is to grow 5m tonnes of corn a year by 2023, and produce palm oil from a further lease of 120,000 hectares (296,000 acres), relying on a largely South African workforce. Production would be mainly earmarked for South Korea, which wants to lessen dependence on imports.

"These deals can be purely commercial ventures on one level, but sitting behind it is often a food security imperative backed by a government," said Carl Atkin, a consultant at Bidwells Agribusiness, a Cambridge firm helping to arrange some of the big international land deals.
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food and clean drinking water

worth more then gold

are americans buying and selling crop lands?

[msongs]

1. palm oil is bad for health lol nt

[SpiralHawk]

2. Act now. Join or start a CSA.

"Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers a way for every human being to be directly involved in the care and healing of the earth, while also ensuring a supply of clean, healthy food for their families and their neighbors."

Here's one starting point with links:
http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms.html

[Maat]

3. I belong to one!

I feel a whole lot better since I started eating locally-produced organic food from my CSA!