12.06.2010

'Foro Global Por La Vida La Justicia Ambiental Y Social' gets under way in Cancun

Alternative Global Forum for Life, Environmental and Social Justice, led by Via Campesina-the International Peasant Movement, farmers have been travelling around Mexico before their caravans arrived here. Among the major actions planned is a day of protests on December 7 to reject the “false and market-based solutions” to climate change. Positioned as a direct challenge to the United Nations meetings, Via Campesina, which has a presence in more than 70 countries, has been uniting farmers, workers and indigenous people to stake a claim for their rights and make their voices heard.

Agribusiness is corporate business, they're only goal is short term profit, it matters not if we mortgage the future, if we burn up the resources, if we turn the arable land into deserts. Agribusiness is in the business of not paying all those inconvenient long term costs, and a lotta others [like how much is a depleted aquifer worth]. Agribusiness sells cheap food to the world by not paying anywhere near the full costs of producing it. Agribusiness depletes our real wealth, pollutes our Mother Earth and enriches the few while enslaving the many.

Organic farming and range management do pay their share, they sequester CO2, increase arable land area, create soils that hold water and is a part of the great circle of life we are immersed in. Paul Hepperly, The Rodale Institute's research manager, says, "The extent of carbon sequestration found and the impressive ability of organic systems to capture carbon are important results that should be used by policy makers when planning future agriculture development."

Small is beautiful. Having spent a good portion of my life on my knees with my hands in the earth i learned...to love the weeds, to love the worms, to see the circle of the seasons and this one life turn. i learned that the magic is in the process not the product, that, once the basics of survival are covered, more money doesn't equal more happiness, often, more is less...

Farmers to denounce “market-based solutions” to climate change

Opening day of Global Forum for Life and Environmental and Social Justice