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Selling out Colombia’s ’tierra querida’
26-Nov-2008 Colombia Reports
Colombian indigenous took their protest to Colombia’s capital Bogotá this weekend. Their struggle is about controlling the land in which they have lived and taken care of for hundreds of years.
Free trade, suicide clause and growing hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean
24-Oct-2008 RMR
The free trade agreements that the US and the European Union “propose” to Latin America and the Caribbean include waiving sovereign control on food flows. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization admits that although food production increased in the region, the number of people suffering hunger also did.
Declaration of Maputo: V International Conference of La Via Campesina
23-Oct-2008 Via Campesina
Now is also the time to redouble our struggle against FTAs and EPAs, and against the WTO, but this time more clearly indicating the central role played by the TNCs.
World Food Day a reminder of a global crisis further sidelined by campaign frenzy, financial woes
20-Oct-2008 DN!
These free trade agreements that the US government is continuing to negotiate, most of the emphasis is usually on the industrial-in the trade in consumer goods, but not in the impact on farming. In the debate this week, for instance, Barack Obama made a distinction that he opposed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, but he supported the Peru Free Trade Agreement, because it had supposed labor safeguards in it. What is the impact of these free trade agreements on farming in this country, as well as in the other countries that are a part, signatories?
Food exports and free trade agreement
10-Oct-2008 GRAIN
One of the non-negotiable elements in the flurry of free trade agreements (FTAs) signed over the last decade or currently being negotiated is that the international flow of goods cannot be controlled or restricted in any way.
Food safety, free trade and the election
8-Oct-2008 The Star
What does food safety have to do with free trade? A great deal, argues Common Frontiers, a Canadian group critical of the trend towards economic integration — harmonization, as it’s politely put — of standards under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Kenya: Tea market tumultuous as trading partners change
23-Sep-2008 IPS
Tea used to be Kenya’s major cash crop earner but ever since the world’s largest consumer of tea, Pakistan, entered into a free trade agreement with seven of its Asian neighbours, the local tea industry has been haemorrhaging.
US family farmers applaud demise of Doha negotiations
15-Aug-2008 Common Dreams
"Farmers don’t export. Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill do. The corporate commodity groups are continuing to push for bilateral FTAs with South Korea, Colombia and pushed for the recent Peru FTA. Meanwhile they also scheme to keep in place a broken US subsidy system that allows US farmers to be paid below cost of production and agribusiness to dump cheap commodities into overseas markets, displacing farmers from Mexico to Indonesia to Ghana to Haiti, with no benefit to US farmers."
Overfishing linked to food crisis, migration
12-Aug-2008 AllAfrica.com
According to a recent report by the nongovernmental organisation ActionAid, West African seas are being devastated by legal and illegal overfishing, while local fishing industries decline. Moreover, the economic partnership agreements in their currently proposed form only exacerbate this problem.
Thailand urged to be a standards leader
29-Jul-2008 TMCnet
Thailand is being urged to upgrade itself as the leader in determining safety standards and relevant laws on food and agricultural products in order to surmount business challenges arising from free trade area agreements.
Costa Rica targets trends for greater food exports
22-Jul-2008 foodnavigator.com
Costa Rican food companies are focusing on major trends like organics and social values to build their export platform, as an association agreement between the EU and Central America is expected to be reached in 2009.
Mad cows, mad people
11-Jul-2008 FPIF
Through the prism of beef, Koreans confront the limitations of key contemporary institutions: democracy, capitalism, and nationalism.
Food safety - rigging the game
2-Jul-2008 GRAIN
In the food safety arena, both the US and the EU are pressing their standards on other countries through bilateral free trade agreements.
’Loophole’ revealed in US ban on downer cattle
26-Jun-2008 OhMyNews
On June 25, the Humane Society released a new investigative report showing extremely sick dairy cows being dragged and shocked in order to move them into an auction ring in the United States
Final declaration of International Conference on Peasants’ Rights
26-Jun-2008 Via Campesina
We face patterns of violations of our rights, by the crimes committed by TNCs and by Free-Trade Agreements (FTAs). In order to address these patterns of violations, we need specific provisions and mechanisms to fully protect our rights.
Devastating floods - man made
26-Jun-2008 Germanwatch
This brochure by Germanwatch and FIAN describes the negative impacts of european exports of poultry and tomato puree on the right to food of Ghanaian smallholder farmers and refers to the further threats by the new economic partnership agreement.
Trade minister recounts beef talks with US
23-Jun-2008 Chosun Ilbo
"Whenever the negotiations went against us or whenever the US side cited ’science’ (to emphasize that US beef is scientifically safe), we pointed to the photo [of the June 10 candlelight vigil in downtown Seoul, with the largest number of protesters] and said, ’Look at this. Do you think this can be explained with science?’ "
South Korea’s beef with America
14-Jun-2008 FPIF
To the rest of the world, South Korean protests over the safety of US beef are portrayed as an expression of simmering anti-Americanism. Without a doubt, anti-American sentiments have historical roots. But Koreans also have a legitimate claim to fear the safety of US beef.
Saudis plan to grow crops overseas
13-Jun-2008 FT
Saudi Arabia has unveiled plans to develop large-scale overseas agricultural projects to secure food supplies, revealing that Riyadh is in discussions with Ukraine, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkey and Egypt.
La tormenta perfecta
9-Jun-2008