Mónica Vargas Collazos of GRAIN on Israeli state backed agribusiness...
Stefan Christoff of Free City Radio (Montreal) interviews Mónica Vargas Collazos of GRAIN on Israeli state backed agribusiness colonialism in the global south.
View ArticleWhen big tech came for the farm: A blueprint of resistance from Asia’s small...
A massive data capture by Big Tech in the agricultural space is unfolding in Asia. Small farmers are resisting this in various ways.
View ArticleChina and Vietnam’s questionable strategy to control Asia’s pig pandemic
In this update to previous GRAIN reports on African swine fever, we look into China and Vietnam’s questionable strategy for controlling Asia’s pig pandemic; the corporate interests behind it, and the...
View ArticleGM mustard in India: Thousands of years of cultural heritage under threat
For Indians, mustard is not just an oilseed but it's part of Indian cuisine and Indian traditional medicine. The commercial release of DMH-11 doesn’t just threaten India’s mustard genetic diversity, it...
View ArticleThe corporate agenda behind carbon farming
In this short video/text, GRAIN explains how giant agribusiness corporations like Bayer are rolling out carbon credit scams (a.k.a. carbon farming) to increase their power over farmers and extract more...
View ArticleThe well is running dry on irrigated agriculture
Groundwater depletion is not just a problem in California. It is a problem for many of the world's major irrigated agricultural areas. According to one study, the global area affected by groundwater...
View ArticleThe need for regulations that protect street vendors from extortion,...
Street vendors are not just a common sight in Asian cities, they are essential to the local economy and food systems. Failure to support street vendors would not only harm their livelihoods but also...
View ArticleHunger profiteers in Latin America
Latin America is the world's largest exporter of food, but 4 in 10 people live with food insecurity in the region. Meanwhile, corporations and investors are making record profits by further entrenching...
View ArticleGrateful respects to the “millet man” of India, PV Satheesh
GRAIN joins the DDS family and many allies around the world in mourning the loss of our friend and mentor PV Satheesh. Satheesh was the founder and director of the Deccan Development Society in India....
View ArticleRest well, Tewolde
Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, the renowned Ethiopian environmental scientist and advocate, has died at the age of 83 on March 21 in Addis Ababa. In the late 1990s, Tewolde served on GRAIN’s board...
View ArticleGRAIN's 2022 activity report
How did forces shaping the global food system unfold in 2022? Read GRAIN’s annual report to see how corporates pushed & social movements fought back around trade deals, land, the climate & seed...
View ArticleInsights into the evolution of China's agri-food system
China’s globalised food strategies have led the country into a “contradiction” between self-sufficiency and food imports. In this interview, GRAIN assesses the impacts of the now corporate-based food...
View ArticleWill more sovereign wealth funds mean less food sovereignty?
A handful of actors form the centre of gravity of global agricultural investing by sovereign wealth funds. Find out what “sovereign wealth funds” are and how they go against people’s struggles for...
View ArticleNew leadership in GRAIN
Today GRAIN’s co-founder & coordinator, Henk Hobbelink will retire & hand over his responsibilities to GRAIN staffer Kartini Samon, based in Indonesia. Thank you to our colleagues, partners,...
View ArticleThe avocados of wrath
Avocados are the world’s third-largest fruit commodity. Their production is taking up an ever-growing area and continually expanding into new countries. What are the implications? What forces are...
View ArticleA corporate cartel fertilises food inflation
A new report reveals rampant profiteering from the fertiliser industry, emphasising the urgent need for global cuts in chemical fertiliser use. Sustainable, agroecological farming systems less reliant...
View ArticleBeyond the ‘informal economy’ of food distribution
Some have adopted terms like “solidarity economy” or “people’s sector” to more accurately convey the important role that the workers of the so-called "informal sector" play in the local economy and...
View ArticlePersecution against rights defenders of the Afro-Ecuadorian commune of...
After months of judicial criminalisation of four peasants that defend their forest from the expansion of oil palm plantations, on 12 June a new possibility of justice will open up for the judges of the...
View ArticleWhy Benin should not join UPOV
Social movements call on Benin to reconsider membership in UPOV, urging protection of local seed systems and food sovereignty.
View ArticleCarbon rice farming: A license to pollute at the expense of small farmers
Corporate interest in rice carbon farming projects is exploding. They are now the second most popular project in the agriculture sector. These greenwashing tactics are burdening small farmers in...
View ArticleThe corn conflict between Mexico and the USA: smoke and mirrors
A months-old conflict is pitting Mexico against the USA over the acceptance or rejection of biotech imports. Mexico wants to ban GM corn imports for direct human consumption. The USA is threatening...
View ArticleWhat future for seeds under the African Free Trade Area?
The African Free Trade Agreement requires the protection of intellectual property rights on seeds. Given that half of African countries are already aligned with the UPOV model, which serves industrial...
View ArticleThe AfDB strategy to agro-industrialise Africa
One of the main objectives of the African Development Bank is to transform African agriculture by moving towards "agro-industrialisation". Who are the actors who benefit the most? What are the...
View ArticleSocial protection for market traders and street vendors in an era of pension...
Following the work of many others who have been organising and working with market traders and street vendors, two important issues come to the forefront: one is the fight against harassments and...
View ArticleThe summit of public development banks in Cartagena cannot greenwash their...
Los bancos públicos de desarrollo no pueden maquillar de verde su apoyo a la agricultura destructiva. Los préstamos otorgados por bancos de desarrollo a las corporaciones, permiten expandir actividades...
View ArticleTransgenic rice once again proposed as solution to bacterial blight...
Scientists from an international rice initiative claim the patented transgenic varieties they have developed are the solution to an outbreak of bacterial blight in rice fields in East Africa. A similar...
View ArticleSqueezing communities dry: water grabbing by the global food industry
Pension fund managers, private equity firms and other financial players are moving aggressively to snatch up lands around the world with access to water for irrigation. Their strategy is to pump as...
View ArticleSan Isidro vs Amway
A Mexican ejido community, faced a protracted land dispute involving the illegal acquisition of 280 hectares by the US company Amway-Nutrilite. After an 80-year struggle, the Mexican government...
View ArticleAfCFTA: More free trade? For whose benefit?
The AfCFTA pushes a model of “development” hinged on increased trade and investment under the guise of pan-Africanism. However, it is “more of the same” trade rules that we see under the WTO and...
View ArticleThe Palestinian people have a right to their lives, land and sovereignty
Since decades, one of the many dimensions of Israel’s colonial project has been the destruction of Palestinian agriculture and fishing. Prior to October 2023, 35% of Gaza’s farmland lay within an...
View ArticleTackling the climate crisis by addressing food consumption
It is now common knowledge that we have to transform both how we produce and how we use energy to disrupt the current trajectory of climate change. Simply switching from “polluting” energy sources to...
View ArticleChallenging e-commerce monopolisation in food distribution
E-commerce continues to expand rapidly into food distribution and retail across Asia, speeding up corporate control. These digital platforms increase the pricing power corporations have over farmers...
View ArticleIndia’s oil palm grand plan: at what cost?
India is currently experiencing a major transformation in its oilseed sector, marked by ambitious plans to expand the cultivation of African oil palm. Yet this grand plan casts a shadow over the...
View ArticleAgrarian reform and land tenure in Colombia
Land tenure is a fundamental issue in every country and Colombia is no exception. The way in which land ownership has been historically regulated and managed has a profound impact on the country's...
View ArticleRegenerative agriculture was a good idea, until corporations got hold of it
This year's COP28 will showcase regenerative agriculture prominently, and the term is gaining traction in policy circles, investor conferences and supermarket shelves. But it is just the latest...
View ArticleStop carbon offsetting now!
Carbon offsetting has undermined real climate action, given rise to human rights and Indigenous rights violations and caused severe harm to frontline communities for over two decades. Despite this, the...
View ArticleLet's bury false solutions at COP28
Everyone is now saying that Africa is the place where climate crisis solutions can be found. Forests, land and other resources are therefore targeted by multiple “grabbers” working in the interests of...
View ArticleA call for civil disobedience against the privatisation of peasant seeds
We are determined to resist the dispossession of seeds from the hands of the people. We vigorously oppose registration, certification, patenting and marketing schemes, treaties, conventions, national...
View ArticleBolivia: yet another testing ground for GMOs?
The climate crisis is both a consequence and a cause of the expansion of agriculture and deforestation. Promoting more GM crops such as HB4 wheat in Bolivia as a response to drought is like trying to...
View ArticleThe 8th conference of La Via Campesina: A call for inclusion of women, youth,...
The 8th conference of La Via Campesina was held in Bogotá, from 1 to 8 December 2023, under the slogan: "Faced with global crises, we build food sovereignty to ensure a future for humanity".
View ArticleExpanding markets, undermining food sovereignty: 10 years of China’s Belt and...
Ten years into the Belt and Road Initiative projects, the expansion of corporate investments in the global agri-food system has reached new heights. As evidenced in this GRAIN report, it is hard to...
View ArticleNo to GM wheat! Global alliance seeks UN intervention against GM Wheat HB4...
Food sovereignty alliance from Latin America, Africa, and Asia approach seven UN Special Rapporteurs for urgent intervention to block cultivation and trade of GM wheat HB4
View ArticleUS Agribusiness – African Agriculture Holdings – Threatens Land and Water...
New York-based African Agriculture Holdings went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange on December 2023. This business venture plans to operate on over 2.9 million hectares in Mauritania, Niger, and...
View ArticleA new wave of land grabs strikes Tanzania
Tanzania’s experience in the global land grab post-2008 led to shattered hopes, land conflicts & misery for small farmers. Yet, the current govt risks repeating history. A new report looks at this...
View ArticleThe Davos-isation of the climate COP
UN climate talks are increasingly being used to cut carbon deals, not emissions. This is the Davos-isation of COP. In this article, GRAIN looks at how this corporate capture played out in the area of...
View ArticlePlastic waste in the food system: corporations continue to binge on...
In this edition we see how in India and China, local markets and street food vendors in Asia that operate outside the corporate system are already finding creative ways to reduce their plastic waste...
View ArticleFood inflation: The math doesn't add up without factoring in corporate power
Farmers’ protests surge in 65 countries, yet global food prices are at historic highs. If farmers aren't benefiting from high food prices, who is?
View ArticleOil palm in Latin America: monoculture and violence
Oil palm plantations in Latin America have quadrupled. Demand is driven by the relatively low price of palm oil and its multiple uses. This crop is creating constant conflicts on peasant, indigenous...
View ArticleSelf-management vs agrotoxins: migrants as bridges
The migrants of El Mentidero carry their knowledge and their seeds with them, making connections through their history and their local methods, and tackle life as survivors of the modern world. Here,...
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