UN Report Says Small Scale Farms are the Way to Reduce Hunger BUT The TPP is Wanting to Do the Exact Opposite….25.9.13 A new report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said that the world needs a paradigm shift in agriculture that moves away from chemically based, industrial monocultures in favour of small sustainable farms and local food production. But, this is exactly the opposite of what the new trade agreements like the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) are advocating. While the report, which was written by over 60 experts and welcomed by a variety of agro ecological groups like GRAIN and La Via Campesina, says that this sort of approach will help alleviate rural hunger and mounting environmental degradation concerns, the TPP wants to increase corporate control of agriculture and to undermine the development of locally based, agro ecological systems. The report goes on to say that resilient agricultural practices can play a significant role "in dealing with resource scarcities and in mitigating and adapting to climate change." But these kinds of soil-building, organic practices are not those fostered by free trade deals that support giant agribusiness firms that use monocultures and industrial farming. “We cannot solve the climate crisis without confronting the industrial food system and the corporations behind it," says GRAIN’s Henk Hobbelink. La Via Campesina’s Elizabeth Mpofu agrees, saying that, “These export-oriented economies bleed Mother Nature in order to exploit the most out of it provoking disruptions in the environment as we are seeing now with climate change, biodiversity loss and the destruction of ecosystems. This is the capitalist logic – nature is just a thing to be exploited for profit. The real beneficiaries of this imbalanced trade are the transnational corporations. In a world of free trade transnational corporations are free to enter and move between countries, choosing those with cheap labour and relaxed regulations and at the same time able to exit and move out just as easily after it has exhausted and grabbed the natural resources, leaving in several cases, their toxic waste. commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/23-5
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 09:21:49 +0000
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