We are currently seeing rising food prices due to a combination of an engineered food crisis for geopolitical reasons, financial speculation by hedge funds, pension funds and investment banks and profiteering by global grain trade conglomerates like Cargill, Louis Dreyfus, ADM and Bunge.
Author: F. William Engdahl
A great humanitarian uproar in recent weeks demanding the safe shipping of Ukrainian grain to ease a hunger crisis in Africa and elsewhere is deceptive on many levels. Not the least is who owns the land on which the grain is grown and whether that grain is actually illegal GMO patented corn and other grains. A corrupt Zelenskyy regime has quietly made deals with the major GMO agribusiness companies in the West who have been stealthily taking control of some of the world’s most productive “black earth” farmland.
The following is an abridged version of the second chapter of the author’s short (free-to-read) e-book Food, Dispossession and Dependency (2022)
GM crops are required to feed the world is a well-worn industry slogan trotted out at every available opportunity. Just like the claim of GM crops being a tremendous success, this too is based on a myth.
There is no global shortage of food. Even under any plausible future population scenario, there will be no shortage as evidenced by scientist Dr Jonathan Latham in his paper “The Myth of a Food Crisis” (2020).
As the bill on gene-edited food goes through parliament, Corporate Watch takes a look at the dystopian technologies in the UK dairy industry and on the horizon.
In a new report, we explore the changing context – from the decline in milk consumption and the impact of Brexit, to the rise of the megadairies.
And we examine the technofixes being sold in the perpetual quest for productivity and profit, with mini-profiles on leading companies in each area. These include robotised milking systems, gene editing, ‘robot ready’ cows, low-emission cows, shock collars, and more.
Plus info on alternatives to the Dystopian Farm, and paths for resistance.
Find out more here: https://corporatewatch.org/dystopian-farm-the-uk-dairy-industry-its-technofixes/
If you don’t have time to read the full article, why not check out our interactive infographic here: https://corporatewatch.org/D3/Cow
[Source: orientalreview.org]Soon we shall be covered by wheat.
Did you say, wheat?
Wheat, wheat. – from Woody Allen’s ‘Love and Death’[1]
Ten months before Russian troops poured into Ukraine, that country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill into law authorizing the private sale of farmland, reversing a moratorium that had been in place since 2001.
Dustin Broadbery
As we approach a winter of discontent and Global food systems go from bad to worse, there’s trouble in paradise.
At the root of these problems, Government responses to COVID-19 have contributed to a six-fold increase in famine-like conditions as global supply chains collapse, and field trials for gene-edited crops and farm animals begin in the UK.
The vast majority of 6,440 submissions to the consultation on gene editing deregulation said NO to the proposals – but Defra is going ahead regardless
Environment Secretary George Eustice plans to ignore the results of his own public consultation and push on with proposals to dismantle GM safeguards, warns GM Freeze. Please ask your MP to tell him it’s time to start listening.
Earlier this week George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, revealed plans to stop the likes of me being able to object to field trials of experimental genetically engineered crops. At least, I think that’s what he announced. The details of what is actually going to change were both vague and downplayed, occupying a mere 65 of the 1200-odd words in a Government press release that focused instead on the hypothetical potential for the latest GM techniques on the block to fix, well, just about everything.
UK government’s response to public consultation on gene editing is scientifically indefensible and a slap in the face for democracy
The UK government has released its response to the public consultation on its plans to deregulate gene editing – but only AFTER all the morning news broadcasts hyping the potential of the technology.
Commission reportedly aims to exempt some new GMOs from safety regulations within four years and change regulation for all new GMOs within 10 years
Barbara Van Dyck unpacks the narratives that underpin corporate campaigns to deregulate new GM technologies
EXCERPT: In repeating industry narratives, decision-makers (and the media) pave the ground for a handful of corporations to advance false solutions that serve their encroachment of food systems. To help clarify valid claims from technological bluff, we recommend institutions, regulators and funders to carry out a ‘hype test’ by asking: What makes gene editing superior to other, more systemic options including agroecology, that makes it successful in producing healthier plants, animals and crops and healthier food?
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Continue reading
14 July 2021 — GMWatch
The EU Commission has rejected criticism of its report on plants and New GE (New Genetic Engineering, genome editing). In a letter to Testbiotech, the Commission stated that there were no new risks associated with plants derived from genetically engineered plants compared to conventionally bred plants, as long as no transgenes were inserted. The Commission is directly repeating claims made by industry and affiliated experts that are contrary to existing scientific evidence. Testbiotech is therefore warning against the spread of misinformation and disregarding of science.
23 June 2021 — GMWatch
Camilla Cavendish promotes false and misleading narratives to warm up the public to deregulated GMOs.
Report: Claire Robinson
An article has been published in the Financial Times, with the headline, “We must overcome the fear of genetic engineering in our food”, and the subhead, “From countering climate change to saving bananas, new gene-editing technology could prove crucial”.
3 June 2021 — GMWatch
Change in law could speed commercialisation of GM wheat for people who can’t “use a toaster properly”
This month the UK government is expected to follow through on Boris Johnson’s promise to “liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti–genetic modification rules” by removing safety checks and (probably) GMO labelling and traceability from some crops and livestock made with experimental new genetic engineering techniques.
21 April 2021 — GMWatch
“We don’t want this toxic weedkiller sprayed in our community” – Guerrilla Gardeners
In Midlothian, Scotland, residents who are concerned about the use of toxic weedkiller in their community have come together to adopt public land and stop council workers spraying it, according to a report in Midlothian View.
Following is an excellent article about a new peer-reviewed paper with a message that should be highlighted first and last in any discussion about the supposed need for GMOs and pesticides in order to maximise food production. That is: There is no food crisis, nor is there ever likely to be one, in spite of the world’s growing population.
1. Agriculture’s greatest myth – commentary on new peer-reviewed paper
2. The myth of a food crisis – details of the new paper
Continue reading
6 April 2021 — GMWatch
1. Why new genetic techniques need to be stringently regulated – comment on new study
2. Differentiated impacts of human interventions on nature: Scaling the conversation on regulation of gene technologies – new study abstract
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6 April 2021 — Global Research
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and an assortment of high-profile figures and policy makers are pushing for unregulated gene-editing technologies, the rollout of bio-synthetic food created in laboratories, the expanded use of patented seeds and the roll back of subsidies and support for farmers in places like India.
Wheat for people “who are unable to use a toaster properly” will be planted in open field
The New Dark Age 