Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for many in the Philippines. 25-30% of working people are involved in cultivation, animal rearing or fish farming, and the sector contributes around one tenth of the country’s economy. The industrial food system, with its focus on monocropping and chemical inputs to maximise harvests for export, is devastating the environment and livelihoods of…
Before the Green Revolution came to Sri Lanka in the 1960s, with the imposition of modernised machinery, high yielding varieties, increased use of fertilisers and other agrochemical inputs, the country had an ecologically sustainable agricultural system. Farmers used mixed farming techniques and cultivated in a manner that protected the natural environment and human health. They maintained soil fertility through the…
The Israeli blockade in Palestine has severe impacts on the daily lives of people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: from blocking their access to water, to limiting their food sovereignty. Missile bombings over decades have damaged crop lands and wells, destroyed crops, killed hundreds of animals and deeply damaged artisanal fisheries. These were some of the impacts…
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released, on 9 August 2021, the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report: “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis”. The rest of the report will be released over the next few months. “Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and…
It has been a month since police opened fire on a workers peaceful demonstration at the under-construction Banshkhali Coal Power plant in Bangladesh. They were defending their worker's rights and payment of their overdue salary. "They were protesting because of their underwages, disgusting working conditions and also because they want to reduce a few working hours during Ramadan month", summarized…
On 30 December 2020, nine Tumandok indigenous leaders were killed and 16 others arrested by the Philippine Army and National Police in a joint operation on Panay Island, located south of the Philippines. State forces allege that those killed were members of an insurgent group and that upon being served search warrants for illegal possession of firearms and explosives, they…
“The US's recent decision to back the waiver of intellectual property rights of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shows that people power works,” said Sam Cossar, Co-coordinator of the Economic Justice and Resisting Neoliberalism program of Friends of the Earth International (FOEI). “The pressure is really now on the European Union (EU) and Australia not to continue blocking it. It…
Golfrid Siregar, member of the legal advocacy team of WALHI North Sumatra was found unconscious on a roadside on 3 October 2019, and died three days later in hospital. Despite being found fatally injured under very suspicious circumstances, the police said that his death was the result of a traffic accident. “Last year, the police held a press conference regarding…
On 10 September 2020, La Via Campesina will once again mark the International Day of Action against WTO and FTAs. On this day, in memory of Lee Kyung Hae’ sacrifice, LVC intend to hold a web-dialogue between peasant leaders and activists from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. They will elaborate and argue why agriculture must remain out of all…
In the early hours of Wednesday 29 July, Abu Saker and his 22-year-old son Sakher were arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 20 hours, without food or water. The police accused them of "stealing water" from Israel's national water company, Mekorot, which -in fact- "illegally appropriates Palestinians to serve, among others, Israel's settlement project", reported the website Stop The…
