"GLOBALISATION CHEAPENS EVERYTHING."-- The True Cost of Cheap Food.

[Hattie the Hen]

:bee

Hi Ladyhawke !

You are full of surprises (& almost too much information........ re: bowel movement) ........ Well we old ladies tend to be a bit pre-occupied along those lines........ ...

Very interesting information in your post -- I learn so much every day on this forum. Of course it means I get fewer of my chores done as I go poking around on my laptop..... but I can live with that. Thank you!


:bee Hattie :bee

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Good morning,

I have just found an article I would like you to comment on as I think it very pertinent to this thread.

I also want to read the book. I will try to borrow it from my library.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/25-11


Hattie

 

[wifezilla]

There is a danger in conflating the proximate and root causes of the food crisis in searching for solutions, warns Holt-Gimnez. When we focus only on the symptoms of the problem (grain speculation, increased agri-fuel production, lower crop yields) we easily reach the conclusion that genetically modified food and industrial agriculture present a "solution," or an immediate fix to world hunger. Not so fast. Looking at the root causes, we see that loss of crop diversity, market flooding and farmer bankruptcy are actually all part of the quick fix that fuels the agri-foods industrial complex. It is the consolidation of land and power.

We need our seeds and we need our small farmers. We need them not just for biodiversity, not just for distribution of power, but for the pure know-how they possess. There can be a place for small farmers and an alternative food system. As long as our planet has a smallholder population, we have a chance, Holt-Gimnez argues, citing La Via Campesina as a hopeful example. Low-input, small operations can indeed be high-yielding. They needn't be reinvented, just supported. We can't use a corporate food system to fix symptoms of the corporate food system itself.

 

[Ladyhawke1]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/13-0

And so it goes. :/ The only way this will stop is when there are a lot of rich kids born with a third eye in the middle of their foreheads.