When advocates of free trade policies pick a developing country poster-child, they often go for Brazil and Argentina. Which is why a new report, below, is especially useful in undermining the myths around agricultural trade liberalisation. The most important observation: Continue reading “Trade Lessons from Latin America”
Behind the Scenes at a Food Riot
The excellent Avi Lewis, whose documentary with Naomi Klein — The Take — is well worth watching, has turned his attention to the struggles around rice in Haiti. Here, in seventeen minutes, is one of the best treatments of the recent food riots in Haiti, and their long history.
Nature’s Constitution
Quietly last Monday, the Ecuadorian Constitutional Assembly changed the world. Seriously. As the report below shows, they approved legislation that would transform the planet, and ecosystems, from mere things into entities with legal rights to exist and flourish. It’s the sort of thing that will give jurisprudence something to work on for a good long while.
Food Crisis: The Sixth Element
More on the food crisis, this time from the US member of Via Campesina, the National Family Farm Coalition. They’ve got some great analysis to balance out the World Bank claims that 75% of the price rise is biofuels related which, on reflection, seem somewhat inflated.
G8: Uninspiring, Unrepentant, Untargeted
The good folk at ActionAid have sent along a fine precis of the G8 Summit in Hokkaido.
Africa: uninspiring Continue reading “G8: Uninspiring, Unrepentant, Untargeted”
World Bank: Biofuels Push Up the Price of Food By 75%
Bless them, the Guardian have published the internal World Bank document that suggests that biofuels are responsible for up to three quarters of the recent food price increases. It has so dramatically pushed up the estimate of the share of biofuels in the current crisis that even Robert Zoellick has said
Continue reading “World Bank: Biofuels Push Up the Price of Food By 75%”
The Architecture of Victory
The San Francisco Victory Garden is well underway, as you can see here. For me, one of the most exciting parts of this lies in the thinking behind the planting.
Sod Off
So the San Francisco Victory Garden is underway. Above, the breaking of ground and the removing of sod. It’ll start getting more interesting as the beds are prepared and laid out. Ultimately, it’ll look like this: