Media Release: 9th November 2010
Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa invites the corporate farmers of the World Dairy Summit to get a real job on a real farm
In response to yesterday’s Federated Farmer’s press release telling protestors of the World Dairy Summit in Auckland to “Get a real job like farming” Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa suggests that Federated Farmer’s listen to their own advice.
Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa spokesperson Gary Cranston says “we support the actions of small scale farmers all over the world who are already living sustainably, feeding their communities and defending their climate-friendly farming practices from mega-scale agribusinesses.”
“As a stream of greenwash spews from the World Dairy Summit into our rivers small-scale farmer’s livelihoods are not only threatened by climate change, they’re also threatened by industrial agriculture itself and the kind of money-making false solutions that the world’s agribusiness giants are pedalling at the UN climate negotiations and through John Key’s Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.”
Showing posts with label farming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farming. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
The lessons of climate history: implications for post-carbon agriculture
by Dan Allen
Post Carbon Institute's Energy Bulletin
17 May 17 2010
“The facts stare us in the face, yet we do not display sufficient humility…In a new climatic era, we would be wise to learn from the climatic lessons of history.”
“All our lives utterly depend on just six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
SUMMARY: Populous civilizations require agriculture. Agriculture requires climatic stability. Industrial civilization is rapidly eroding climatic stability. This can’t end well. But…there’s some stuff we can do, and we have to try. So shut off your damn computer, get outside, and start building some agricultural resiliency!
AGRICULTURE? HUH? THAT'S ALL YOU GOT?
Every so often, one of my suburban New Jersey high-school students asks me what I think will be the biggest problem associated with climate change. Knowing they’re asking the question from a human-centered perspective, I respond simply, “Agriculture might not work if we change the climate.”
They usually just sort of stare blankly back at me and say, “Hmmmm.”
In other words, they don’t get it. “Agriculture? That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? Like farms and stuff? Cows and tractors? But aren’t we in the Information Age now? Isn’t it all about technology these days? Isn’t agriculture so…ummm…last century?”
I think that these kids – like the majority of Americans, really – just don’t understand what is at stake with this whole climate-change thing. I don’t think they understand that we are – that EVERY populous civilization necessarily is – fundamentally an AGRICULTURAL civilization. Agriculture is still now, as it has been for millennia, THE foundation of our species. A population of our density obviously cannot get by on hunting and gathering. So agriculture it is. (Well…for now, at least.)
And despite our fossil-energy-fueled bravado, agriculture is still, as it has always been, a very tenuous endeavor. Even though we’ve ‘progressed’ to having fossil-fuel-powered machines tending the fields instead of humans, we are STILL dependent for our very existence on six inches of topsoil and the somewhat-predictable, relatively-benign climatic regime we’ve enjoyed for the past 10,000 years.
The fact that agriculture in the US has become so thoroughly removed from the everyday thoughts of most of our industrial population does not make its future prospects of any less concern. In fact, quite the contrary. Despite our currently-overflowing supermarket shelves, packed refrigerators, and prodigious waistlines, an honest and thorough look at our coming agricultural challenges is enough to make one literally shake in their boots.
Post Carbon Institute's Energy Bulletin
17 May 17 2010
“The facts stare us in the face, yet we do not display sufficient humility…In a new climatic era, we would be wise to learn from the climatic lessons of history.”
- Brian Fagan
“All our lives utterly depend on just six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
- Anonymous wise person
SUMMARY: Populous civilizations require agriculture. Agriculture requires climatic stability. Industrial civilization is rapidly eroding climatic stability. This can’t end well. But…there’s some stuff we can do, and we have to try. So shut off your damn computer, get outside, and start building some agricultural resiliency!
AGRICULTURE? HUH? THAT'S ALL YOU GOT?
Every so often, one of my suburban New Jersey high-school students asks me what I think will be the biggest problem associated with climate change. Knowing they’re asking the question from a human-centered perspective, I respond simply, “Agriculture might not work if we change the climate.”
They usually just sort of stare blankly back at me and say, “Hmmmm.”
In other words, they don’t get it. “Agriculture? That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? Like farms and stuff? Cows and tractors? But aren’t we in the Information Age now? Isn’t it all about technology these days? Isn’t agriculture so…ummm…last century?”
I think that these kids – like the majority of Americans, really – just don’t understand what is at stake with this whole climate-change thing. I don’t think they understand that we are – that EVERY populous civilization necessarily is – fundamentally an AGRICULTURAL civilization. Agriculture is still now, as it has been for millennia, THE foundation of our species. A population of our density obviously cannot get by on hunting and gathering. So agriculture it is. (Well…for now, at least.)
And despite our fossil-energy-fueled bravado, agriculture is still, as it has always been, a very tenuous endeavor. Even though we’ve ‘progressed’ to having fossil-fuel-powered machines tending the fields instead of humans, we are STILL dependent for our very existence on six inches of topsoil and the somewhat-predictable, relatively-benign climatic regime we’ve enjoyed for the past 10,000 years.
The fact that agriculture in the US has become so thoroughly removed from the everyday thoughts of most of our industrial population does not make its future prospects of any less concern. In fact, quite the contrary. Despite our currently-overflowing supermarket shelves, packed refrigerators, and prodigious waistlines, an honest and thorough look at our coming agricultural challenges is enough to make one literally shake in their boots.
Thursday, 8 April 2010
Water: ‘When Federated Farmers asks, the Government listens’
by Pat O’Dea
Wondering what is behind the sacking of the Canterbury Regional Council over the control of Canterbury’s water resources? When Federated Farmers ask, the Government listens.
New Zealand’s biggest business pressure group put out their wish list in early February. Since then the Government has been ticking the boxes one by one.
Wondering what is behind the sacking of the Canterbury Regional Council over the control of Canterbury’s water resources? When Federated Farmers ask, the Government listens.
New Zealand’s biggest business pressure group put out their wish list in early February. Since then the Government has been ticking the boxes one by one.
Friday, 5 March 2010
Federated Farmers want poll tax, user pays and no rates
By Pat O’Dea
With the planned rise in GST to 15% tied to income tax cuts, the wealthy are continuing – with the help of their friends in parliament – to transfer the central tax burden away from themselves and onto the rest of the community.
Following success at central government level, the battleground for neo-liberal restructuring and deregulation of the economy is set to move to the local government level.
Hoping to take the advantage of Rodney Hide’s enforced amalgamation and centralisation of councils, right wing business lobby group, Federated Farmers are lobbying for a Maggie Thatcher type poll tax, which they call a “Residents Tax”, to replace rates on property.
The Fed president Don Nicolson sess this as the next step in changing what he calls the “three Fs” for councils: form, function, funding. With changes in form and function well under way, Nicolson says, “I do look forward to taking this third ‘F’ out of the shadows and into the light of day.”
If they are successful in dominating the new council bodies, the Feds and other right wing lobbyists, will seek to fund a huge rates cut for themselves, by imposing a poll tax on every single adult, including pensioners and beneficiaries. They are also demanding much more user pays for council services.
From Nicolson’s speech:
The not quite overt message from Federated Farmers, is that the bulk of the urban and rural working poor are bludgers on the farm and business owners. As race and class are often very much intertwined you can detect the silent dog whistle behind these statements.
With the planned rise in GST to 15% tied to income tax cuts, the wealthy are continuing – with the help of their friends in parliament – to transfer the central tax burden away from themselves and onto the rest of the community.
Following success at central government level, the battleground for neo-liberal restructuring and deregulation of the economy is set to move to the local government level.
Hoping to take the advantage of Rodney Hide’s enforced amalgamation and centralisation of councils, right wing business lobby group, Federated Farmers are lobbying for a Maggie Thatcher type poll tax, which they call a “Residents Tax”, to replace rates on property.
The Fed president Don Nicolson sess this as the next step in changing what he calls the “three Fs” for councils: form, function, funding. With changes in form and function well under way, Nicolson says, “I do look forward to taking this third ‘F’ out of the shadows and into the light of day.”
If they are successful in dominating the new council bodies, the Feds and other right wing lobbyists, will seek to fund a huge rates cut for themselves, by imposing a poll tax on every single adult, including pensioners and beneficiaries. They are also demanding much more user pays for council services.
From Nicolson’s speech:
We want local government to get its tax income from every resident and not just those who are considered to be ‘landed’.
The ‘landed’ should not be expected to subsidise the rest of the community as a result of a theoretical value placed on their property.
Our future must be one where everyone pays for activities where everyone benefits equally – perhaps through a fixed charge on every adult resident.
I believe if it looks like a tax, feels like a tax and impacts your wallet like a tax, then let’s stop calling it rates. Let’s call a spade a spade.
A Residents’ Tax is our preferred outcome as it impacts 100 percent not just 64 percent. Our starting point is that every adult should pay a Residents’ Tax. Handing over your hard-earned money to a local council changes the psychological stake you have in a community. That includes beneficiaries too. Building community wellbeing starts with having an investment in a place. That place being your community.
The not quite overt message from Federated Farmers, is that the bulk of the urban and rural working poor are bludgers on the farm and business owners. As race and class are often very much intertwined you can detect the silent dog whistle behind these statements.
Monday, 1 June 2009
World Farmers’ Alliance Challenges Food Profiteers
31 May 2009
Review by John Riddell (Socialist Voice - Canada) of La Vía Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants by Annette Aurélie.
Historical background to the international of peasant farmers.
Go to http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=395
See also Food Crisis: World Hunger, Agribusiness, and the Food Sovereignty Alternative by Ian Angus
Review by John Riddell (Socialist Voice - Canada) of La Vía Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants by Annette Aurélie.
Historical background to the international of peasant farmers.
Go to http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=395
See also Food Crisis: World Hunger, Agribusiness, and the Food Sovereignty Alternative by Ian Angus
Sunday, 3 May 2009
Mike Davis: Capitalism and the flu
by Mike Davis
from Socialist Worker (US)
27 April 2009
Mike Davis, whose 2006 book The Monster at Our Door warned of the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, explains how globalised agribusiness set the stage for a frightening outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico.
The spring break hordes returned from Cancun this year with an invisible but sinister souvenir. The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever.
Initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection rate already travelling at higher velocity than the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.
Continue at http://socialistworker.org/print/2009/04/27/capitalism-and-the-flu
See also Swine flu and a sick social system: Why the poor die and the rich sniffle
from Socialist Worker (US)
27 April 2009
Mike Davis, whose 2006 book The Monster at Our Door warned of the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, explains how globalised agribusiness set the stage for a frightening outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico.
The spring break hordes returned from Cancun this year with an invisible but sinister souvenir. The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever.
Initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection rate already travelling at higher velocity than the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.
Continue at http://socialistworker.org/print/2009/04/27/capitalism-and-the-flu
Monday, 16 June 2008
GM will make global food crisis worse
Two competing scenarios are unfolding for the future of farming around the planet: organic & local versus industrialised & dependent on seed-varieties owned by multinational corporations. Linked into industrialised farming is the "bad science" of genetic modification (GM), which makes many crops dangerous to life as well as less productive. Our food security demands a return to local and organic farming.
Lecture by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho at the conference, TRADITIONAL SEEDS OUR NATIONAL TREASURE AND HERITAGE, 17 May 2008, Warsaw, Poland.
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho is the co-founder of The Institute of Science In Society The Brave New World of GM Science In 1994, I met some of the most remarkable leaders in the Third World: Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher (Institute of Sustainable Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), Martin Khor (Third World Network, Penang, Malaysia), and Vandana Shiva (Navdanya, New Delhi, India), who persuaded me to look into genetically modified organisms (GMOs), especially GM crops, which they rightly saw as a special threat to small family farmers. The biotech industry was promising miracle GM crops that would boost yield to feed the world, improve nutrition, and clean up and protect the environment. Monsanto's Flavr Savr tomato, the first GM crop, had just been commercialised, though it turned out to be a complete flop, and was withdrawn several years later.
Saturday, 14 June 2008
A Hunger for Justice
by Health Unionist
So it’s happening already. Rising food prices in this country are “making people more prone to sickness”. That’s what food specialists say in a recent Dominion Post article Families' health hit as food costs soar.
The Wellington managing director of Foodstuffs (Pak’N’Save, New World and 4 Square supermarkets) rattles off the usual suspects behind the price rises. Poor harvests, high fuel costs, higher demand from Asia, biofuels. You have to dig a little deeper to get the full picture, which corporate managing directors can’t, and won’t tell you. Poor harvests are linked to climate change, which rolls on unabated thanks to corporate opposition to measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Oil prices are rising for the same reason. High oil prices, in turn, make it profitable for corporate agribusinesses to grow crops for biofuels instead of food. “Higher demand” from Asia is actually driven by the growth of a small, wealthy middle class, mainly in China, which has a taste for meat. Grain is now being diverted to animal feed, to produce meat for this lucrative new market. The corporate elite behind the food crisis, which is now growing here in New Zealand as the Dominion Post reports, have no answers. Neither do all the mainstream political parties which serve them. It’s an absolute disgrace that National, ACT, Labour and the Greens all reject such a simple, immediate step as scrapping GST on food. Ultimately, there is no global food shortage. There’s only a shortage of politicians willing to stand up to the corporate agenda. RAM (Residents Action Movement) has the answers that the corporate elite and all the mainstream politicians lack. RAM is building a grassroots movement that puts people and the environment before the almighty dollar – starting by scrapping GST tax on all our food.
So it’s happening already. Rising food prices in this country are “making people more prone to sickness”. That’s what food specialists say in a recent Dominion Post article Families' health hit as food costs soar.
The Wellington managing director of Foodstuffs (Pak’N’Save, New World and 4 Square supermarkets) rattles off the usual suspects behind the price rises. Poor harvests, high fuel costs, higher demand from Asia, biofuels. You have to dig a little deeper to get the full picture, which corporate managing directors can’t, and won’t tell you. Poor harvests are linked to climate change, which rolls on unabated thanks to corporate opposition to measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Oil prices are rising for the same reason. High oil prices, in turn, make it profitable for corporate agribusinesses to grow crops for biofuels instead of food. “Higher demand” from Asia is actually driven by the growth of a small, wealthy middle class, mainly in China, which has a taste for meat. Grain is now being diverted to animal feed, to produce meat for this lucrative new market. The corporate elite behind the food crisis, which is now growing here in New Zealand as the Dominion Post reports, have no answers. Neither do all the mainstream political parties which serve them. It’s an absolute disgrace that National, ACT, Labour and the Greens all reject such a simple, immediate step as scrapping GST on food. Ultimately, there is no global food shortage. There’s only a shortage of politicians willing to stand up to the corporate agenda. RAM (Residents Action Movement) has the answers that the corporate elite and all the mainstream politicians lack. RAM is building a grassroots movement that puts people and the environment before the almighty dollar – starting by scrapping GST tax on all our food.
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