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agriculture | farmers | food

Food is not a commodity
5-Feb-2016 ISC
Kim-Hwang Kyeongsan, General Secretary of the Korean Woman Peasants’ Association, explains the government’s recent rice policy that hurts rice farmers and impacts Korea’s food sovereignty and how FTAs make it worse.
Brussels biotech lobby’s last push for ’GM 2.0’ technologies to escape regulation
3-Feb-2016 The Ecologist
With TTIP negotiations proceeding apace, environmental and sustainable farming groups must stay actively protect our hard-won - albeit imperfect - GM laws.
The future of rice farming in Japan
2-Feb-2016 The Japan Times
There is growing concern among Japanese farmers that the country’s rice-producing capabilities are diminishing in the face of international trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
AEC not so sweet a deal: sugar exporter
2-Feb-2016 Khmer Times
The sweet promise that the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) would pave the way for a single market among the 10-member bloc of more than 600 million people at the end of last year has so far excluded sugar exports from Cambodia.
Haiti’s fraudulent presidential frontrunner seizes land for his own banana republic
22-Jan-2016 Other Worlds
Farmers remain homeless and out of work while the land grabbed by the company Jovenel Moïse founded, Agritrans, now hosts a private banana plantation. Moïse is the only man running in Haiti’s fraudulent runoff presidential elections this Sunday, and is connected to the land grab responsible for the expulsion of as many as 800 peasants.
Chilean social groups to protest Monsanto, anti-democratic TPP
22-Jan-2016 Tele Sur
Citizen opposition to the signing of the TPP will take place throughout the region, with joint mobilizations taking place in Peru and Argentina.
What does China want in a free trade deal?
21-Jan-2016 Embassy
It’s unclear where China’s requests end and its demands begin.
US targets new opportunities in Latin America
20-Jan-2016 America Fruit
Economic growth and expanding middle class is fuelling demand for US agricultural products.
China open to historic free-trade deal with Canada under certain provisos
15-Jan-2016 The Globe and Mail
China wants to forge a trade deal with Canada but this will require Canadian concessions on investment restrictions and a commitment to build an energy pipeline to the coast.
TTIP: The downfall of EU agriculture?
12-Jan-2016 EurActiv
A new study has concluded that TTIP threatens to completely change the way small and medium sized farms operate, through the use of more genetic engineering and more hormone-treated meat.
South Africa ends trade row with US over chicken imports
12-Jan-2016 BBC
South Africa has resolved a trade row with the US which threatened to throw South Africa out of its preferential trade programme over its refusal to allow the importation of American chickens.
Karuturi challenges Ethiopia decision to cancel farm project
11-Jan-2016 Bloomberg
Karuturi Global Ltd., one of the largest investors in Ethiopia’s farm industry, is challenging the termination of its project, claiming the government broke the terms of its agreement with the company.
Beef exports to Canada to start within three months
11-Jan-2016 Irish Farmers Journal
Ireland will become one of the first EU regions to export beef to Canada as part of the CETA trade agreement.
West Africa: EPA - U.S. $8.94 billion development package tears Ecowas apart
5-Jan-2016 All Africa
The negative effects of opening up 75 percent of ECOWAS markets, with its 300 million consumers, to Europe over a 20-year period, are legion and cut across all facets of the economic life of Africa.
Kenyan Sugar Gets Extra 1 Year Comesa Safeguard
2-Jan-2016
Kenya has been granted a one-year extension of sugar import limits from the regional trade bloc Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to revamp its ailing sugar industry.
COMESA tackles maize trade
2-Jan-2016
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched a roadmap that will address differences in standards and regulations that hinder regional trade in maize.
EU Agriculture would be gross losers in TTIP Agreement - Anderson MEP
30-Dec-2015 Farming Life
A study carried out on behalf of the US Department of Agriculture shows that EU Agriculture would be the gross loser in any of the three scenarios considered.
Korea FTA to boost NZ’s farming, dairy firms
21-Dec-2015
The most significant characteristic of the Korea-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, which came into force on Sunday, is that it was a "catch-up deal" rather than a new one, says New Zealand Ambassador to Korea Clare Fearnley.
Land deals and investment treaties
18-Dec-2015 IIED
The vast majority of the land deals from the recent wave of agribusiness investments in low and middle-income countries are protected by at least one investment treaty.
Omnibus bill shows trade deals can, in fact, rewrite U.S. laws
17-Dec-2015 Huffington Post
A short provision will remove labels telling consumers where their beef and pork comes from, but it will reveal something else.