No to the privatisation of biodiversity

In this video members of the farmers organisation Via Campesina talk about the dangers of the privatisation of natural resources, the commericalisation of family farming and GMOs. We hear voices from different continents stating the destruction caused by adaptation of local agriculture to the dictate of neoliberal globalization and with the agroindustrial model – for the sake of profit and not for the benefit of the people!

http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=-2432253857028677659&hl=de 

The lessons of Cuban peak oil

I interviewed visiting Cuban environmentalist Roberto Perez for Earth Matters.

You can download the podcast from the 3cr website.

With oil hitting $110 a barrel, Cuba provides a powerful example of how an industrialized country can survive a so-called “peak oil” scenario, where oil availability goes into an inevitable decline.

When the soviet union collapsed, Cuba lost a huge percentage of its vital oil imports.

The country also lost important trading partners which provided the country’s food needs and important export revenue.

Cuba was pushed into an immediate food and energy crisis, a situation compounded by long-standing US embargoes.

After responding to the crisis with a more localised economy and organic food production system, Cuba is now being celebrated as a model of self-sufficiency.

It was the only country in the 2007 World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet report that met a set of criteria for sustainable development.

Roberto Perez is a cuban biologist and permaculturist who is currently touring Australia.

He’s been telling audiences about Cuba’s experience and what it means for oil-dependant countries like Australia.

More information about Roberto’s Australian tour is available at http://www.permaculture.com.au

Big end of US agriculture don’t like farmers markets

Well, big agro is at it again in the land of the free – once more making it hard for small scale producers to supply the growing demand for local, sustainably produced food.

This recent op-ed piece in the New York times has got a fair bit of traction in the media.

It’s written by a farmer who describes the legislative barriers to being a small-time producer supplying local markets like farmers markets.

US laws reinforce the domination of a large scale producers who truck their industrial produce from one side of the country to the other, with huge energy, social and environmental overheads.

This has been the story of small-time farmers for a long time. It’s becoming a huge issue now because there’s increasing numbers of consumers who want sustainably produced local food.

I wonder what the situation for Australia in this regard. I know that local producers have a hard time getting their stuff into the large supermarket chains.

I know that deregulation, of the dairy industry for example, makes agricultural products so cheap that only those with larger farms are viable. And that this then creates a vicious cycle where the small farms are eaten up by bigger farms which become massive monsters chewing up resouces and spitting out industrial food.

But I don’t know of regulatory impediments to being a local supplier. I’m not a farmer.

I’m sure they exist.