The industrial food system, which dominates how we grow, distribute and consume food across the world, is under the control of global food and finance corporations. Their focus is to produce “agrocommodities”, such as palm oil, soy, corn and meat, for trade in global markets. Their central aim is to extract the highest profit possible. “Agrocommodity companies operate in a…
For many years, communities and civil society organisations in Japan have been repeatedly calling on their government to suspend support for new coal-fired power projects in Indonesia and Bangladesh, notably the Indramayu and Matarbari power plant projects. Not only would these projects fuel the climate crisis, they would also damage the livelihoods of local people and worsen the oversupply of…
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…
Togo is one of the smallest countries in Africa and home to 8.6 million people. Since the shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic, increasingly extreme weather and recent food price rises, the state of food security in Togo has greatly deteriorated. In 2022, 1 in 5 people in the country don’t have access to or can’t afford enough healthy, nutritious food. Yet…
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…
On 23 August, Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) together with social movements and organisations from the region held a public event in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, to discuss the urgent need to agree an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and human rights. The goal is to gain the support of democratic governments…
Farming in Europe is increasingly dominated by monocultures and factory farms. So what does it mean to be a young small-scale farmer in this context? How can they get the power and resources to produce and distribute food sustainably? Three young farmers from Denmark, Malta and Sweden have shared with us their story: why they became farmers, the agricultural situation…
Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) launched on Friday a new study entitled “Internationalist Solidarity and the struggle against corporate power. Reflections on the Covid 19 pandemic and corporate violations of peoples’ rights and their human rights.” The study responded to the need to better explain “the meaning of peoples’ rights and the direct link with…
The EU-Mercosur trade deal, agreed in 2019 but yet to be ratified, is set to benefit European agrochemical companies whilst having dire consequences for nature, local communities and Indigenous communities in South America. It will lead to a steep increase in exports of crop to Europe and import of dangerous agrochemicals to the southern cone, particularly Brazil. This is why…
Welcome to Real World Radio’s special show celebrating 50 years of Friends of the Earth International. We spoke to former chairs and a founding director of the world’s largest grassroots environmental organisation - started in 1971 - to chart its emergence and development in political, strategic and structural terms, and in relation to the external world. The participants included: Edwin…
