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INVESTIGATION
Foreign Policy, July 11, 2014
WHEN WALL STREET WENT TO AFRICA
A New York tycoon won a sweetheart deal to build a massive "sustainable" palm oil plantation in Cameroon. What followed were accusations of intimidation, corruption, bribery, and deceit.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/11/bruce_wrobel_cameroon_palm_oil_herakles_greenpeace_logging
Pambazuka,March 16, 2014
▶ HEDGE FUNDS AND CORPORATE RAIDERS IN AFRICA: SPACE INVADERS OF THE THIRD KIND. The new wave of ‘looting’ of land and other natural resources will likely continue on a scale hitherto unknown. Whatever the supposed benefits of this trend, urgent attention ought to be turned to the thousands of people in Africa and other emerging nations who will become landless in the countries of their birth.
http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category/features/94233
Mint Press News, December 23, 2014
▶ ATTACK OF THE LAND-GRABBERS: THE RACE FOR LAND IN AFRICA http://www.mintpressnews.com/MyMPN/attack-land-grabbers-race-land-africa/
farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014
▶ CAN 'LAND GRABS' BY FOREIGN INVESTORS IN AFRICA FEED THE HUNGRY? http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23794
Common Dreams, February 06, 2015
▶ THE RE-COLONIZATION OF AFRICA http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/06/re-colonization-africa
Farmlandgrab, January 03, 2015
▶ BARBARIANS AT THE FARM GATE http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24381
Washington Post, August 05, 2014
▶ VULTURE CAPITALISTS CIRCLING? HOW OTHER COUNTRIES ARE SCRAMBLING FOR AFRICA ALONGSIDE THE U.S. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/05/how-other-countries-are-scrambling-for-africa-alongside-the-u-s/?wpisrc=nl-wv&wpmm=1
May 25, 2012 - PR Watch
▶ HOW THE U.S. SOLD AFRICA TO MULTINATIONALS LIKE MONSANTO, CARGILL, DUPONT, PEPSICO AND OTHERS http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11530/how-us-sold-africa-multinationals-monsanto-cargill-dupont-pepsico-and-others
MintPress News, April 01, 2015
-▶ GEORGE SOROS LOOKS TO CO-OWN UKRAINE AND AFRICA.The Hungarian-born economic hitman may be more interested in helping his, and other investor’s, pockets, rather than the people of Ukraine. http://www.mintpressnews.com/george-soros-looks-to-co-own-ukraine/203866/
The Ecologist, March 21, 2014
-▶ UKRAINE: THE CORPORATE ANNEXATION: MEGA PROFITS FOR MULTI-NATIONAL AGRI-BUSINESS AND ENERGY EXPLOITATION http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2328765/ukraine_the_corporate_annexation.html
THE 21st CENTURY CORPORATE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA
World Development Movement
-▶ STOP THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AFRICA'S FOOD. Under the guise of tackling hunger, initiatives like the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will help corporations take control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets - at the expense of small farmers. Join our campaign to oppose this twenty-first century corporate scramble for Africa. - See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food#sthash.dgDwkdF0.dpuf http://www.wdm.org.uk/food
THE NEW SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. - INFOGRAPH
In the nineteenth century scramble for Africa, European colonial powers took control of the continent’s land, resources and people. Today’s multinational corporations, aided by governments, are taking control over Africa’s food system. http://www.wdm.org.uk/new-scramble-africa-food-monsanto-syngenta-yara/
WATCH
"BIG MEN" (1:23:00)
Big Men provides an unprecedented inside look at the global deal making and dark underside of energy development in Ghana, Nigeria, Africa — a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/bigmen/full.php
▶ AFRICA AN EL DORADO FOR SOUTH AFRICA'S AGRIBUSINESS GIANTS http://www.acbio.org.za/index.php/publications/seedfood-sovereignty/465-africa-an-el-dorado-for-south-africas-agribusiness-giants
Sustainable Pulse, February 25, 2015
▶ US GOVERNMENT, MONSANTO AND GATES FOUNDATION PUSH GMOs ON UNWILLING AFRICA http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/02/23/us-agencies-monsanto-gates-foundation-work-together-force-gmos-africa/#.VPjmUWZQW6B
Friends of the earth international, February 23, 2015
▶ U.S. FORCE FEEDS GM CROPS TO AFRICAN NATIONS, SAYS NEW REPORT http://www.foei.org/press/archive-by-subject/food-sovereignty-press/us-force-feeds-gm-crops-african-nations-says-new-report/
-- WATCH --
Documentary: Farmland Grab
"PLANET FOR SALE"
BIG AG BUYING UP WORLD'S FERTILE LAND
http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/18542
The Ecologist, February 12, 2015
▶ LAND AND SEED LAWS UNDER ATTACK AS AFRICA IS GROOMED FOR CORPORATE RECOLONIZATION. A battle is raging for control of resources in Africa - land, water, seeds, minerals, ores, forests, oil, renewable energy sources... http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2752051/land_and_seed_laws_under_attack_as_africa_is_groomed_for_corporate_recolonization.html
AFRICA - SOLD
OBAMA PUTS G8, BIG 6 BIOTECH CHEMICAL GMO GIANTS IN CHARGE OF "ENDING HUNGER" IN AFRICA
-▶ THE CORPORATE 'PHILANTHROCAPITALISTS' TAKEOVER OF AFRICAN AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY http://sco.lt/6CHP3R
WATCH (56:27)
STEALING AFRICA: WHY POVERTY?
HOW MUCH PROFIT IS FAIR?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNYemuiAOfU
▶ Pambazuka, August 13, 2014
US-AFRICAN LEADERS' SUMMIT - NOTHING MORE THAN THE CONTINUED EXPLOITATION OF AFRICA FOR EXTERNAL BENEFICIARIES http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/92814
farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014
▶ CAN 'LAND GRABS' BY FOREIGN INVESTORS IN AFRICA FEED THE HUNGRY? http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23794
SPECIAL ISSUE: PAMBAZUKA NEWS
GMOs, FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND AFRICA
http://pambazuka.org/en/issue/688
Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa
▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS
There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.
History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful. Classic amongst these is the famine which wracked the West African Sahel during the early 1970s. While people were dying of hunger in Senegal, Mali and Niger, peanuts — a key sauce ingredient and source of protein across the region — were being exported to Europe....
...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise... http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, July 19, 2014
▶ TOWARDS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY TO FEED AFRICA: NURTURE THE ENVIRONMENT AND PUT FARMER AT THE CENTER http://afsafrica.org/towards-food-sovereignty-to-feed-africa-nurture-the-environment-and-put-farmers-at-the-center/
farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014
▶ LAND GRABS AND RESPONSIBLE AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT IN AFRICA http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23794
GRAIN, October 23, 2014
▶ HARVEST OF HARDSHIP: YALA SWAMP LAND GRAB DESTROYS KENYAN FARMERS' LIVELIHOOD. Dominion Farms arrived in Kenya's Yala Swamp basin in 2004 with big promises. The company claimed it would turn a defunct state demonstration farm into a modern rice plantation, provide locals with good jobs, and build hospitals and schools. The American owner of the company, Calvin Burgess, presented himself as a 'man of God', on a mission to bring US-style progress to Africa. The locals, sold on this grand vision, decided – with some hesitation and dissent – to allow Dominion to farm on 3,700 ha of their lands... http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5061-harvest-of-hardship-yala-swamp-land-grab-destroys-kenyan-farmers-livelihoods
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE http://sco.lt/5YJpKb
▶ CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE IS CORPORATE GREEN-WASHING - AGRA http://sco.lt/8Ry4Wn
HuffPost Politics, November 28, 2014
▶ OBAMA'S PLAN TO 'POWER AFRICA' GETS OFF TO A DIM START. As with many African aid projects, rights groups have criticized Power Africa as mostly being a vehicle to subsidize U.S. companies. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/28/obama-africa-aid_n_6234774.html
GHANA AND GMOs
Genetic engineering is about private corporate control of the food system.
Pambazuka, February 19, 2015
▶ THE RABID TACTICS OF THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY TO GAIN CONTROL OF GHANA'S FOOD SYSTEM Whose interests does Prof. Alhassan represent? Prof. Alhassan was been quoted as dismissing anti-GMO groups because, according to him, they allegedly do not have any scientific proof or knowledge to offer when it comes GMO technology. But he is wrong. Ghanaian farmers need to abhor and reject scientists laden with conflicts of interest. Monsanto and Syngenta are particularly greedy to get their hands on Ghana’s agriculture and control the seed market here.Professor Alhassan is attempting to control the information farmers and the public see and hear just like the industry he represents....
“Today, large numbers of scientists are in the employ of Big Pharma, Big Ag, and all kinds of corporations with anti-environmental and anti-social justice agendas.”(2)... Professor Alhassan is a key employee of Big Ag, and has been for his entire career....
http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category/comment/94029
GMWatch, August 15, 2014
▶ BRITISH THINK TANK TELLS AFRICANS TO GROW AND EAT GMOS
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2014/15591-british-think-tank-tells-africans-to-grow-and-eat-gmos
Pambazuka, July 24. 2014
-▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA?
African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the facts http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594
Mongabay, August 20, 2014
LOOMING MINING 'TSUNAMI' SET TO TAKE AFRICA BY STORM. A new report published by a team of scientists from James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, documents a surging tide of foreign interest in mining in Africa and cautions that the sector’s unchecked development and expansion could devastate the environment. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0820-gfrn-john-cannon-africa-mining-tsunami.html?n3ws1ttr
farmlandgrab.org, August 04, 2014
▶ CORPORATE INFLUENCE THROUGH THE G8NA AND OBAMA'S NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN AFRICA. In recent times, new partnerships models between governments, business and civil society are increasingly gaining attention. One prominent example is the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition" (G8NA), inaugurated at the G8 summit 2012 in the United States.
This working paper concludes that the approach and objectives of the G8NA are highly problematic. The initiative serves as an enforcing mechanism for corporate driven blueprints for agriculture and sidelines national plans and international standards. It is dominated and tailored towards the interests of big corporate actors and is based on a reductionist approach of agricultural “development”. And lastly, the G8NA is poorly institutionalized and disregards fundamental principles of transparency participation and accountability. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23793
INDEPTH REPORT
GRAIN, September 16, 2014
AFRICA'S AG GIANTS "GREEN" REVOLUTION
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AFRICA' BURGEONING CHEMICAL FERTILISER RUSH
WATCH
"LAND RUSH - WHY POVERTY?:
THE UGLY RISE OF MONOCULTURE FARMING AND GLOBALIZED FOOD
Ecocentric, March 17,2015
▶ THE DANGER OF MONOCROPS: LESSONS FROM THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE http://www.gracelinks.org/blog/1150/the-danger-of-monocrops-lessons-from-the-irish-potato-famin
Truthout, December 04, 2014
▶ SEEDS OF THE FUTURE DIMINISHING AS MONO INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE DOMINATES THE WORLD. A third of the world's land area is dedicated to agriculture. Farmers' fields and pastures comprise (after the oceans) the second largest ecosystem on the planet. This vast tract has been largely transformed into sterile monoculture deserts in which all other organisms are suppressed with agrochemicals, and only the cash crop is allowed to thrive. Whether it is soy in the Brazilian Amazon, wheat on the Ukrainian steppes or corn in Iowa, a single high-yield variety typically dominates the landscape for as far as the eye can see. http://truth-out.org/news/item/27760-seeds-of-the-future
Inter Press Service, August 04, 2014
▶ THE 'GLOBAL' LAND RUSH. The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, it spiked the interest of investors as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent. http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/the-global-land-rush/
▶ GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS NOT THE SOLUTION FOR "FEEDING THE WORLD" http://sco.lt/9Gdbxh
FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY:
MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OR FEEDING THE CORPORATE COFFERS?
BAN GMOs NOW
A Special Report, Institute of Science In Society
========================
SHOULD WE "WESTERNIZE" AFRICA FOR OUR OWN GAINS?
========================
The Washington Post, August 05, 2014
▶ AFRICA AGRICULTURAL INITIATIVE GETS $7 BILLION "BOOST" FROM MEGA MULTI- NATIONAL CORPORATIONS - BUT IS THIS THE BEST FOR AFRICA? http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/africa-agricultural-initiative-gets-7-billion-boost-from-private-companies/2014/08/04/276214d2-1be3-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html
EuroActive, July 10, 2014
▶ A PRIVATE AFFAIR: REPORT SHOWS HOW DEVELOPMENT FINANCE INSTITUTIONS BENEFIT THE RICH IN WESTERN COUNTRIES The European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) launched today the study A Private Affair in which it shows how the world’s biggest multilateral lenders are using billions of euros of loans in developing countries to finance Western-based companies while excluding governments and citizens of countries they are meant to assist from decision-making.
The analysis, which looks among others at loans by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s lending arm, analyses the consequences of the gradual shift from aid to private finance at the core of global and national development initiatives.http://bankwatch.blogactiv.eu/2014/07/10/a-private-affair-report-shows-how-development-finance-institutions-benefit-the-rich-in-western-countries/
▶ OBAMA SUGGESTS U.S. IS BETTER PARTNER THAN CHINA TO AFRICAN LEADERS AT SUMMIT http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/obama-africa-leaders-us-china-investment-summit
The Washington Post, August 06, 2014
▶ JUMPING SHIP: U.S. POLICYMAKERS BRACE FOR RASH OF CORPORATE EXPATRIATIONS: DESERTING AMERICA FOR GREENER TAX PASTURES, LESS REGULATION http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-policymakers-gird-for-rash-of-corporate-expatriations/2014/08/05/4898ca5e-18d9-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most
INDEPTH REPORT
GRAIN, September 16, 2014
AFRICA'S AG GIANTS "GREEN" REVOLUTION
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AFRICA' BURGEONING CHEMICAL FERTILISER RUSH
======================
THE HUNGER GAMES
HOW UK AND USA GOVERNMENTS SUPPORT FOR BIG AGRIBUSINESS IS FUELING POVERTY http://sco.lt/6UGd17
-▶ FROM GROWING PROFIT TO GROWING FOOD: CHALLENGING CORPORATE RULE http://sco.lt/7Dg37p
▶ WALL STREET, CORPORATIONS BUYING UP AMERICAN & FOREIGN FARMLAND, THREATENING FUTURE OF U.S. AND WORLD AGRICULTURE http://sco.lt/8mcmbR
▶ BANKS AND LAND GRABS. IS YOUR BANK INVOLVED IN LAND GRABBING? https://www.oxfam.org.au/banks-and-land-grabs/
Guardian, May 28, 2014
▶ CORPORATE STRANGLEHOLD OF FARMLAND A RISK TO WORLD FOOD SECURITY, STUDY SAYS. Small farmers are being squeezed out as mega-farms and plantations gobble up their land http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/28/farmland-food-security-small-farmers
Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014
▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY. “Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report. http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/
▶ WORLD BANK AND UN CARBON OFFSET SCHEME 'COMPLICIT' IN GENOCIDAL LAND GRABS http://sco.lt/5IxW2j
▶ LAND GRABBING FOR BIOFUELS MUST STOP http://sco.lt/5kSOFl
▶ BIOFUELS LAND RUSH. WHY POVERTY? THE UGLY RISE OF MONOCULTURE FARMING AND GLOBALIZED FOOD http://sco.lt/5z3gzB
▶ OBESITY QUADRUPLE TO NEARLY ONE BILLION IN DEVELOPING WORLD AS WESTERN DIETS/LIFESTYLE ENCROACHES http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25576400
BIG FOOD:
WALL STREET HAS WAY TOO MUCH INFLUENCE OVER WHAT WE EAT http://sco.lt/4zR9LV
▶ A VIP READ: THE ECONOMICS OF CURBING SPECULATION IN FOOD, WATER AND VITAL RESOURCES http://sco.lt/8YbdY1
THE CURSE OF INDUSTRIAL FARM FERTILIZERS AND RUNOFF
▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTH http://sco.lt/63qRl3
========================
ENOUGHNESS:
WESTERN THOUGHT vs INDIGENOUS PHILOSOPHY
VIDEO:
FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING A CULTURE OF DEPENDENCY http://sco.lt/4l725B
MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMS http://sco.lt/8nJQf3
AFRICA: PALM OIL DEVELOPERS THREATEN AFRICA'S RAINFORESTS http://sco.lt/6WKXFB
ONE SHORT VIDEO
▶ WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CORPORATE PALM OIL -- IN ONE SHORT VIDEO -- DEFORESTATION, ECOCIDE http://sco.lt/6ni33R
▶ MAJOR PALM OIL COMPANIES ACCUSED OF ECOCIDE, BREAKING ETHICAL PROMISES IN ASIA AND AFRICA http://sco.lt/7DsLLd
THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM.
DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"
FINANCIALIZING NATURE COULD BANKRUPT US ALL.
OLD ECONOMICS OR SUSTAINING POLICY?
-▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT? http://sco.lt/72Hsf3
AN URGENT MEMO TO THE WORLD
The Natural Eye Project
http://thenaturaleye.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/an-urgent-memo-to-the-world/
THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION IS UPON US.
CAN HUMANS SURVIVE?
WATCH
"HOME"
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
An Exquisite Dedication To the Stewards of Our Planet
Solutions For A Sustainable Planet
http://thenaturaleye.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/home-an-exquisite-story-of-our-world/
A REALLY GOOD RESOURCE:
AgriCultures Network (@agriculturesnet) | Twitter http://ow.ly/JscXx
http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATES @pdjmoo
▶ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY http://www.scoop.it/t/environmental-and-human-health
▶ CLIMATE CHANGE WILL IMPACT US ALL http://www.scoop.it/t/changingplanet
▶ BIODIVERSITY IS LIFE http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life
▶ OUR OCEANS NEED US http://www.scoop.it/t/our-oceans-need-us
▶ OUR FOOD, OUR HEALTH http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides