The Uses of the Periphery – Farmland
November 2nd, 2009 by SocProf and tagged Biodiversity, Environment, Globalization, Sustainability
The Oakland Institute report on land grab can be found here. Of course, one can see that “food insecurity” is defined in unilateral terms “our” (rich countries) food insecurity is the problem to be solved by using the land in countries in the global South. Food and agricultural sustainability in the global South is simply an investment and technology issue: invest in the global South, push for genetically modified monocultures (gotta feed the cattle that ends up as burgers!), use the short-term productivity gains as proof of the necessity of bio-food.
However, according to Olivier de Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, there are several problems with this view, as he detailed in a report, and that is that the current regime of intellectual property rights does not improve prospects of food security on the long-term:
So, for De Schutter, the rights of small farmers have to be protected against the power of biotech firms and some wealthy non-profit organizations that promote biotech food, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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