(Deutsch) Die Sojabombe
Franziska Frielinghaus | 7. May 2012 | Filed under: Struggles • Latin America • Privatization's Consequences • Reichland • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Health/Social Issues • Distribution of Wealth | 2 Comments
Public Goods become Prey of Mega Foundations and Agribusiness (New Report)
Markus Euskirchen | 24. January 2012 | Filed under: Ernährung • Globale Landwirtschaft • Public Goods • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources | Leave a comment
Big foundations like Gates and giant agribusinesses like Syngenta are taking an interest in multilateral public institutions committed to ending hunger. The international agencies are having trouble with the “public/private” boundaries. Read more
African “Pirates” in Hamburg
Markus Euskirchen | 26. October 2010 | Filed under: Africa • Bundeswehr • Ernährung • Europe • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • War | Leave a comment
Somali pirates are about to face trial in Germany for the first time since the EU launched its operation against piracy off the Somali coast in 2008. It’s a clear-cut case — the 10 men were caught red-handed. But it poses a legal and diplomatic headache for the German authorities. Will this be the first Continue reading →
Film Series: “Another World is Plantable!”
Markus Euskirchen | 22. October 2010 | Filed under: Commons • Ernährung • Real Estate • Landgrab • Agriculture • Privatization's Consequences • Cooperative Economy • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Literature/Books • Practical Struggles | Leave a comment
In the film series, “Another World is Plantable!”, community gardens in different parts of the world are presented. At the core of the film series are the activists from the community gardens, the gardens themselves, and the visions the activists have of them. They recount how and why their gardens are not just green oases Continue reading →
Once again pretending to save the world…
Markus Euskirchen | 4. August 2010 | Filed under: Commons • Nature • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources | Leave a comment
…by supposing to turn something into private property: Read the summary of the article “Resolving the Tragedy of the Commons by Creating Private Property Rights in Wildlife” to have another example for the the bullheadedness of the bourgeois mind: During humanity’s relatively brief existence on this planet, it has relied on the bounty of its Continue reading →
Article: Escaping the bondage of the dominant agrifood system: community-based cooperative strategies
Markus Euskirchen | 18. June 2010 | Filed under: Ernährung • Real Estate • Municipalities • Cooperative Economy • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Distribution of Wealth | Leave a comment
The “Missouri School” of critical agrifood studies has provided an effective framework for documenting and understanding the structural dimensions of the global agrifood system and locating important nodes of power. This has directed attention toward the negative impacts of industrialization and corporate concentration on agricultural producers, local communities and economies, and the environment. Using these Continue reading →
Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996–2008
Markus Euskirchen | 15. April 2010 | Filed under: Actors • Ernährung • Intellectual Property • Monsanto • Saatgut • Knowledge • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Data Compendiums | Leave a comment
The commercial seed industry has undergone tremendous consolidation in the last 40 years as transnational corporations entered this agricultural sector, and acquired or merged with competing firms. This trend is associated with impacts that constrain the opportunities for renewable agriculture, such as reductions in seed lines and a declining prevalence of seed saving. To better Continue reading →
Futures Group about the future of food
Markus Euskirchen | 6. April 2010 | Filed under: Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Nature Areas • Practical Struggles • Distribution of Wealth | 1 Comment
The Futures Group looks at possible futures in the timeline 2020-25 for opportunities and threats. It straddles both Asian and Western perspectives. In their own words: Trends/shifts are like seeds today. Some seeds sprout to become towering trees, some seeds will grow for a short while but have no staying power and will die off. Continue reading →
Pirates save fishes
Markus Euskirchen | 26. January 2010 | Filed under: Africa • Ernährung • Meer • Food • Nature • Piraten • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Editor's Choice • Practical Struggles • Distribution of Wealth | 1 Comment
In past years, illegal commercial trawlers parked off Somalia’s coast and scooped up the ocean’s contents. Now, fishermen on the northern coast of neighboring Kenya say, the trawlers are not coming because of pirates. “There is a lot of fish now, there is plenty of fish. There is more fish than people can actually use Continue reading →
Neoliberalism in the oceans: ‘‘rationalization,’’ property rights,
Markus Euskirchen | 14. September 2009 | Filed under: Commons • Property • Meer • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Nature Areas | Leave a comment
Neoliberalism, with its emphasis on privatization and marketization, is becoming a dominant mode of ocean governance. In this paper I show that neoliberalism in ocean fisheries has a specific form and history based on the ways that, for the last 50 years, regulation debates have centered on the question of the commons. Focus on the Continue reading →
NGO warns against biopiracy of climate-resilient crops
Markus Euskirchen | 22. June 2009 | Filed under: Biopatents • Intellectual Property • Monsanto • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources | Leave a comment
Navdanya, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in India, has sought government intervention to stop biopiracy of climate-resilient crops by global gene giants who are reported to have applied for patents on farmers’ innovation of seeds that are resistant to drought, floods and salinity. By attempting to patent farmers’ innovations, the multi-national gene companies are not only Continue reading →
History Commons: Genetic Engineering and the Privatization of Seeds
Markus Euskirchen | 19. June 2009 | Filed under: Biopatents • Commons • Intellectual Property • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources | Leave a comment
History commons presents grassroots investigations like the page for the Genetic Engineering and the Privatization of Seeds investigative project. The data published as part of this investigation has been collected, organized, and published by members of the public who are registered users of this website.
What Has Free Software Got to Do with Patents on Pigs?
Markus Euskirchen | 15. April 2009 | Filed under: Biopatents • Intellectual Property • Struggles • Monsanto • Actors • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Practical Struggles | Leave a comment
Munich, Germany. Marienplatz. Richard Stallman will speak at a joint rally against bio- and software patents in front of the European Patent Office. Read more at No Patents on Seeds and about the action day in Bavaria on April 15th (in German)
Madagascar: The New Land Grab
Markus Euskirchen | 24. February 2009 | Filed under: Africa • Real Estate • Landgrab • Food • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Nature Areas • Distribution of Wealth | Leave a comment
Just when colonialism was considered dead and buried, along comes neo-colonialism in its latest guise. Allied with its close relatives globalisation, free marketeering and lack of transparency, it is currently launching a new offensive on the disempowered population of this continent. Kwame Nkrumah, along with others in the post-colonial Pan Africanist movement, coined the term Continue reading →
Food crisis leading to an unsustainable land grab
Markus Euskirchen | 18. February 2009 | Filed under: Landgrab • Food • Biodiversity/gen.Ressources • Nature Areas | Leave a comment
Private companies across the world are buying huge quantities of foreign land for the mass production of food. Sue Branford wonders if this quick-fix solution risks creating an even bigger environmental crisis.