The new peasants’ revolt
Katharine Ainger takes issue with a model of agriculture that’s turning small farmers from stewards of the land into servants.

Food sovereignty
The outlines of a new agricultural paradigm.

How (not) to feed Africa
As famine stalks Africa Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher
demands a rethink about food aid, small farms, genetic
modification and debt.

Tricks of the trade
The rules of the global trading system – who makes them and why, as they apply to rice, meat, dairy products, sugar, wheat, coffee and genetically modified soya and maize.

Robin Hood in reverse
The 2002 Farm Bill pumps a $250-billion subsidy into
big farming business in the US. The losers, says
Anuradha Mittal, are almost everyone else.

Tainted tortillas
Maize in Mexico has been contaminated by genetically
modified organisms. Tania Molina Ramírez reports on
a scandal – and what the ‘people of maize’ are doing
about it.

FOOD AND FARMING – THE FACTS

The market and the monsoon
In a special report from the state of Andhra Pradesh
in India, Katharine Ainger looks through the dust
and the desperation at Vision 2020 – a plan to
remove 20 million people from their land.

Cutting the wire
The Landless Movement (MST) in Brazil came to prominence by occupying land. Now, reports Sue Branford, the movement’s getting serious about sustainable farming, too.

Farming solutions
Tracing the practical steps already being taken in Japan, the Philippines, Laos, China, Kenya, Madagascar, Tunisia, Brazil, Argentina and Germany.

The magic bean
The way forward, says Jules Pretty, involves learning from
the 350,000 generations of farmers, not just the last two generations of industry.

The delicious revolution (or what you can do)

The World Chronicle 2002

Ten Myths About World Hunger
Wall poster explaining the 10 biggest myths about
the World Hunger crisis. Available as an Acrobat PDF file.
Click here to download the free PDF reader if you don't have it installed on your computer.

Photo: Katharine Ainger

CHARLES DE GAULLE once said of
France: ‘How can you govern a
country that has 246 varieties of
cheese?’ Diversity in food and
farming systems has never been so
popular with the public, and yet so far
off the policy agenda. Too often those
who question industrial agriculture
are blackmailed into silence by
accusations that they are denying
progress to the malnourished poor.

Famine is caused by many factors –
war, debt, poverty, soil degradation,
unequal terms of trade... never by
asking questions. As famine threatens
millions in Southern Africa, and even
greater numbers suffer daily
malnourishment in South Asia, asking
difficult political questions is more,
not less of a duty.

Why did the International
Monetary Fund tell Malawi to slash
its grain reserves? Should
corporations patent staple food
crops? Is a free-trade economy that
takes control away from the majority
of rural people really the best model
we’ve got?

Voices – many belonging to activist
farmers from the South – speaking of
diverse agricultural alternatives have
been left out of these discussions for
far too long.

Pass the cheese.

Katharine Ainger
for the New Internationalist
Co-operative
kat@newint.org