That’s what I’ll be asking on Monday, when I call the Lao Embassy in Washington on Monday between 9:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 16:30 Eastern time on (202) 332-6416/7. “It has been 100 days; Where is Sombath?” And then I’ll send em this fax on (202) 332-4923.
This essay first appeared in The Earth Island Journal special issue on The Anthropocene. More here.
Three last things on the Mark Lynas story (some of which is reprised by the CBC here). First, thanks to Daniel “Foodieana Jones” Bowman Simon for observing that I have, contrary to a previous statement, heard of Mark Lynas. I’ve even cited him, in an academic piece on food rebellions. Although his original ‘Selling Starvation’ piece in CorporateWatch magazine isn’t on the original site, the good folk at the Internet Archive have it here.
Via Campesina Africa Solidarity Statement on the farmworkers mobilization in South Africa
Stop rural slavery! Respect the farmworkers!
(Maputo 14th January 2013) – During the month of November last year, the world watched farmworkers strikes, particularly those working in vinyards, in the Western Cape Province, in South Africa. They were protesting against exploitation and poor working and living conditions on farms, demanding an increase in minimum wages. In many cases, South African police responded to the demonstrations with violence and intolerance and showed no respect for laws. Many farmworkers and activists were arrested, including peasants of The Agrarian Reform for Food Sovereignty Campaign, a member of La Via Campesina.
It was such a non-issue that I really didn’t want to write about it at all. I didn’t know who Mark Lynas was and didn’t know that he had changed his mind about genetically modified crops from being an opponent to a fan. But, clearly, it was a slow news week. The killing and the rape and the corporate crime and the climate change had been successfully reported. So a range of news outlets decided to give Lynas the air time he wanted, following this speech.
Big Ag is running a massive misinformation campaign here in California to persuade people to vote against labeling genetically modified crops. (Michele Simon has been following it diligently.) Yesterday, the campaign’s endgame fluttered through Berkeley residents’ mail boxes.
It’s a strange voter guide that looks sufficiently like the California Democratic Party’s actual endorsements to be plausible, but with two changes.
The fine Anna Lappé has put together a splendid short film on the lies told by industrial agriculture lobbyists, and the ad agencies that love them.
Please share far and wide, and check out the resources at FoodMythBusters.
The top grossing film in the United States this weekend was Argo, an above average caper about how the CIA smuggled six embassy staff out of the country during the Iran hostage crisis.
Argo’s Agricultural Attaché (right)
It’s not just pith-helmeted Europeans or slick North Americans headed off to buy up Africa. Brazil and Japan are in on the game too. But there’s always a fight back – this time from the UNAC peasant movement in Mozambique. Below the fold, you can read their views on this exciting development opportunity. Keep Reading »
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