Global Farmers Fight Back

My comrades who are Free Market Libertarians and mutualists who oppose capitalism in favour of a cooperative marketplace, will find much to praise in this new farmers movement. It poses a real alternative to capitalist globalization and corporatist free trade. None other than creation of a new movement for a cooperative commonwealth.

The latest attempt to destroy the Wheat Board in Canada is an example of the attack by the State on small farmers in favour of the Agribusiness cartels in the developed world. The Green Revolution, the push for GMO crops and patents on crops as well as using arable land for production for export; palm oil, are examples of non sustainable agribusiness versus the sustainable production of local farmers.

The recent Fraser Institute report by Preston Manning and Mike Harris calling for the end of supply management, the Wheat Board , and subsidies in the market place for farmers, does nothing but open up the farm marketplace to the agribusiness oligopolies. Ironic since Manning's daddy ran a party; Social Credit, made up of farmers that saw these same oligopolies as enemies of a producer run economy.


The fact is that the majority of farmers in the world are family farmers, not far removed from their peasant roots. It is the peasantry that provides the basis for the survival of the food economy. But with the advent of capitalist globalization the peasantry has become a new force in the world economy as Warren Bellow points out.

It is agricultural reform, the privatization of the inherent collectivism of peasant farming, the enclosure of common lands that led to the creation of capitalism in Britain. Forced off the land the peasants move to the cities to look for work becoming the proletariat.

But not all have done so, since it is the farmers who support the cities with their food production. And forced by globalization to collectivize farmers are reforming cooperatives to deal with the new demands of the marketplace.

Thai pig farmers protest at CPF headquarters

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What began in England over 400 hundred years ago is now writ wide across the globe. It is not Free Trade nor Free Markets but the concentration of capital and its power to monopolize the market. It is the transformation of agriculture from sustainable economics to the economics of unrestrained growth. Thus the land, people and environment suffer as we see in Indonesia as the islands there burn for the sake of the agribusiness palm oil industry.

Whereas export crops like organic and fair trade coffee have become a basis for sustainable export farming, which can support sustainable agriculture as well as meet the farmers need to be part of a global market place.


Free Trade vs. Small Farmers

Walden Bello is Executive Director of Focus on the Global South, a Bangkok-based research and advocacy institute, and a Professor of Sociology at the University of the Philippines at Diliman.

The main battle cry of Via Campesina, whose coordinating center is located in Indonesia, is “WTO Out of Agriculture” and its alternative program is food sovereignty. Food sovereignty means first and foremost the immediate adoption of policies that favor small producers. This would include, according to Indonesian farmer Henry Saragih, Via's coordinator, and Ahmad Ya'kub, Deputy for Policy Studies of the Indonesian Peasant Union Federation (FSPI), “the protection of the domestic market from low-priced imports, remunerative prices for all farmers and fishers, abolition of all direct and indirect export subsidies, and the phasing out of domestic subsidies that promote unsustainable agriculture.”

Via's program, however, goes beyond the adoption of pro-smallholder trade policies. It also calls for an end to the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights regime, which allows corporations to patent plant seeds, thus appropriating for private profit what has evolved through the creative interaction of the natural world with human communities over eons. Seeds and all other plant genetic resources should be considered part of the common heritage of humanity, the group believes, and not be subject to privatization.

Agrarian reform, long avoided by landed elites in countries like the Philippines, is a central element in Via's platform, as is sustainable, ecologically sensitive organic or biodynamic farming by small peasant producers. The organization has set itself apart from both the First Green Revolution based on chemical-intensive agriculture and the Second Green Revolution driven by genetic engineering (GE). The disastrous environmental side effects of the first are well known, says Via, which means all the more that the precautionary principle must be rigorously applied to the second, to avoid negative health and environmental outcomes.

The opposition to GE-based agriculture has created a powerful link between farmers and consumers who are angry at corporations for marketing genetically modified commodities without proper labeling, thus denying consumers a choice. In the European Union, a solid alliance of farmers, consumers, and environmentalists prevented the import of GE-modified products from the United States for several years. Although the EU has cautiously allowed in a few GE imports since 2004, 54% of European consumers continue to think GE food is ”dangerous.” Opposition to other harmful processes such as food irradiation has also contributed to the tightening of ties between farmers and consumers, large numbers of whom now think that public health and environmental impact should be more important determinants of consumer behavior than price.

More and more people are beginning to realize that local production and culinary traditions are intimately related, and that this relationship is threatened by corporate control of food production, processing, marketing, and consumption. This is why Jose Bove's justification for dismantling a MacDonald's resonated widely in Asia: “When we said we would protest by dismantling the half-built McDonald's in our town, everybody understood why -- the symbolism was so strong. It was for proper food against malbouffe [awful standardized food], agricultural workers against multinationals. The extreme right and other nationalists tried to make out it was anti-Americanism, but the vast majority knew it was no such thing. It was a protest against a form of production that wants to dominate the world.”

Many economists, technocrats, policymakers, and urban intellectuals have long viewed small farmers as a doomed class. Once regarded as passive objects to be manipulated by elites, they are now resisting the capitalist, socialist, and developmentalist paradigms that would consign them to ruin. They have become what Karl Marx described as a politically conscious “class-for-itself.” And even as peasants refuse to “go gently into that good night,” to borrow a line from Dylan Thomas, developments in the 21st century are revealing traditional pro-development visions to be deeply flawed. The escalating protests of peasant groups such as Via Campesina, are not a return to the past. As environmental crises multiply and the social dysfunctions of urban-industrial life pile up, the farmers' movement has relevance not only to peasants but to everyone who is threatened by the catastrophic consequences of obsolete modernist paradigms for organizing production, community, and life.

Farmers hungry for change

At this week's intergovernmental meeting in Rome to assess progress towards the pledge to halve hunger by 2015, the mood was sombre. Figures from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) show not a reduction but an increase of more than 25 million chronically undernourished people since 1996. The figure, now at more than 850 million, is testament to how current global policies are consigning the hungry to stay hungry.

So what is going wrong? In 2002, when the UN World Food Summit pledge was last reviewed, the parallel Forum for Food Sovereignty, organised by non-governmental groups representing small farmers and those who feel the sharp end of hunger directly, concluded that the problem was not a lack of political will, as the FAO asserted, but the opposite. Trade liberalisation, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering and military dominance, it said, were now the main causes of hunger.

The farmers, from 30 countries, who participated in the conference were eloquent about how farming for small producers is more than just a food production system. Edgar Gonzales Castro, from Peru, said his vision of the future was "traditional" agriculture aimed at satisfying the needs of farmers, rather than generating profit. "What matters is that, on the family plot of land, farmers and their families have a range of crops to fill the cooking pot," he said.

"When governments decide to hold public consultations to help guide their decisions, policy experts as well as representatives of large farmers and agrifood corporations are usually centre stage, not small-scale producers, consumers and their organisations," says Pimbert.

The message of the report is that small-scale farmers - the majority of growers in the world - want radically different policies from those being promoted by their governments. The call is for policies to start from the perspectives of food producers and consumers rather than the demand for profit.

If "one-planet farming" means that western governments will only support farming practices that provide healthy, local food, maintain livelihoods for local producers and conserve resilient landscapes, then there is common ground with small-scale farmers. But if it means a uniform system for all, this will accelerate the hunt to source food globally and as cheaply as possible.

This will result in a continuing decline in food quality, with ever higher social and environmental costs, and be lorded over by fewer and fewer transnational agribusinesses. It would lead both to greater obesity and greater starvation, and see the eradication of more farmers and further loss of farmland.

Farmers' Views on the Future of Food and Small Scale Producers is at http://www.iied.org/pubs/pdf/full/14503IIED.pdf

Friends of African Farmers & Fishermen

Friends of African Farmers & Fishermen is a Non Profit local community organisation formed by local women and men who are farmers and fishermen. Due to increasing poverty in the area, the local people formed this organisation of Volunteers to help themselves. Due to lack of money and machinery for farming and fishing, wish to appeal for donations of Farm Machinery ie, tractors, irrigation equipment etc. Donations for our Agricultural and development projects in Volta Region of Ghana. To help women and children to have food to eat.Train the young women and youth to acquire the needed skills. To also help farmers with farming machinery and fishing equipment. This would generate income for the local people.Non Profit Organisation.

SEE:

Free Trade Not Aid

Free Trade and Africa

The War For Chocolate

IWD Economic Freedom for Women

Water War

Development Versus Population Growth

WTO: Privatization of Water

Is There a Silver Lining to the WTO Talks? No




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A H/T to Driving the Porcelain Bus.

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NOT GOP STUPID

Texas A&M AgriLife to lead historic investment in Texas’ efforts to become ‘climate-smart’

Texas A&M AgriLife Research receives largest competitive grant in its history

Grant and Award Announcement

TEXAS A&M AGRILIFE COMMUNICATION

Texas A&M AgriLife Research is anticipating the largest competitive grant in the organization’s history, up to $65 million, to execute a five-year multi-commodity project to work with Texas’ large agricultural sector on expanding climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices.

The grants are not just historic for The Texas A&M University System, but for the nation, as part of a federal investment in 70 partnerships recently announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to the USDA announcement, these federal projects will expand markets for climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers.

“We are proud to lead this major effort,” said Chancellor John Sharp. “The diversity of Texas’ climates, soils and agriculture allows a carefully crafted Texas Climate-Smart Initiative to serve as a model for future climate-smart programs nationwide. This grant further cements Texas A&M as the No. 1 research university in Texas and the Southwest.”

“Production agriculture is the backbone of the Texas economy,” said Jeffrey W. Savell, Ph.D., vice chancellor and dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences. “This grant proves that when we assemble a team of expert researchers and leaders, while simultaneously staying focused on being responsive to the needs of Texas and key priority areas, that real magic can happen. We’re proud to be creating meaningful solutions for the people of Texas.”

Project partners will be tasked with providing technical and financial assistance to producers to implement climate-smart production practices on a voluntary basis on working lands.

“Sustainable production systems that strengthen economies and bolster human health are cornerstone priorities for our research enterprise,” said Cliff Lamb, Ph.D., director of AgriLife Research. “Over the next five years, we will build on all the competitive advantages that make AgriLife Research the premier agency to lead a research initiative of this magnitude in Texas.”

Texas A&M AgriLife's internal members for this initiative include AgriLife Research, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M Forest Service and the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

For The Texas Climate-Smart Initiative, AgriLife Research will partner with the Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board, Prairie View A&M University, University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, Tarleton State University, BCarbon, Nori, Plains Cotton Growers Association, Texas Wheat Producers Board, Texas Corn Producers Board, Texas Sorghum Producers Board, Texas Rice Producers Board, U.S. Rice Producers Association, Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Texas International Produce Association, Texas Citrus Mutual, Texas Pecan Growers Association, Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Organization, 100Ranchers, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Texas Association of Dairymen, Texas Poultry Federation, Texas Forestry Association, Texas Chapter of National Women in Agriculture, Global Revive, Small Producers Initiative and American Plant Food.

Additional commodity-specific funding awarded to Texas A&M AgriLife Research for projects relating to climate-smart production  

Texas A&M AgriLife also will serve as a major contributor to four other partnership projects totaling $185 million that focus on cotton, beef and bison production, and sorghum systems:

• U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program, led by US Cotton Trust Protocol: This project, with potential funding up to $90 million, will build markets for climate-smart cotton and aid more than 1,000 cotton farmers, including historically underserved cotton producers, across the country.
• Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable & Innovative Supply Chain Approach, led by ECOM USA, LLC: This project, with potential funding of $30 million, will strive to implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs.
• Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities, led by South Dakota State University: This project, with potential funding up to $80 million, will create stronger market opportunities for beef and bison producers, educate producers on practices best suited for their operations and manage large-scale data.
• National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project, led by National Sorghum Producers Association: This project, with potential funding up to $65 million, plans to implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands over a five-year period, with the goal to reduce hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and develop markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity.

For a comprehensive listing of projects and participating organizations included, visit: https://www.usda.gov/climate-solutions/climate-smart-commodities/projects.

-30-

SASK Protesters rally to support farmers challenging controversial laws in India

© Laura Sciarpelletti/CBC Farmer protesters have faced violence from the Indian government. In response, there were 200 shoes lined up at the Legislative building on Wednesday to represent the people who have lost their lives in India during the unrest.

Regina's blistering cold weather did not deter dozens of people from chanting "No farmer, no food!", holding posters and voicing their outrage during a solidarity rally in front of the legislative building Wednesday.

They were supporting Indian farmers who have been protesting controversial agricultural laws in India since August.

The laws will change the rules around the sale, pricing and storage of crops from the country's agricultural regions. Farmers there say the changes will ravage the livelihoods of small farmers and eliminate some of the government supports that regulate prices and allow private companies to exploit the market.

Since the summer, tens of thousands have marched to New Delhi, India's capital, where they have clashed with police and set up protest camps.

Protesters have faced violence from the Indian government.

Gagandeep Singh, organizer of Wednesday's rally, says the Canadian protests largely began in Victoria, British Columbia. Protesters displayed 200 shoes in front of the B.C. Legislative Building. The shoes represent many of the people who have lost their lives in India during the unrest.

© Laura Sciarpelletti/CBC Protester Simranjot Singh stands in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in Regina, where he is showing solidarity with farmers in India.

B.C. protesters then challenged residents of Alberta to do the same and mailed the shoes over. Saskatchewan was next to receive the shoes and do their part to support the farmers in India.

"Canada is known for its diversity. It's a multicultural society here. Canada is always standing for human rights ... Not only are those farm bills affecting the farmers negatively, also they're violating the human rights," said Singh.

The protest followed public health guidelines for COVID-19, and had volunteers circulating to ensure everyone in attendance was wearing a mask and physical distancing.

Trudeau voiced concern

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has voiced concern over the Indian government's response to the protesters.

Despite anger from an Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, who called Trudeau's comments "ill informed," the prime minister reiterated his support.

"Canada will always stand up for the right of peaceful protest anywhere around the world, and we're pleased to see moves toward de-escalation and dialogue," Trudeau said.

But Singh says he wants Trudeau to do more.

"We want the Canadian government to speak up ... to step up for the farmers. We want Mr. Justin Trudeau to speak up for the farmers. We want him to talk with the Indian government."

Singh says he thinks the Indian government will take notice of the solidarity protests in Canada.

"This thing is going to pressurize them too. That's why we're standing up here. We can't go back to India right right now in this COVID. So that's how we are giving our support to the farmers who are sitting on the outskirts [of New Delhi]. We just want to strengthen them and say we are with you and you guys are doing good and we love you for that."

© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters People attend a Maha Panchayat or grand village council meeting as part of a farmers' protest against farm laws at Kandela village in Jind district in the northern state of Haryana, India, on Feb. 3.

Moe agrees with Indian government

While the protesters in Regina want the Canadian government to speak out against the new laws, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe made it clear he supports the Indian government's position.

Moe says the Sask. government is often in contact with members of the government of India.

"As painful and challenging as the discussion is in India, I think Saskatchewan can provide an example of moving through the years away from sustenance agriculture to producing more and decreasing your risks of lack of food in your community and in your country, and ultimately moving toward a market-based agriculture system that provides opportunities for higher production and sustainability," said Moe. 

© Laura Sciarpelletti/CBC Regina's cold weather didn't deter dozens from chanting, holding posters and voicing their outrage at a solidarity rally at the Legislative building.

The premier pointed to the removal of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), a former mandatory producer marketing system for wheat and barley in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and parts of B.C. During the time of CWB, it was illegal for any farmer in areas under the organization's jurisdiction to sell their wheat and barley through any other channel than the CWB.

"It has created opportunities for us to increase our production. And now we are one of the highest producing agricultural regions in the world. We have a high quality product that we sell very competitively," Moe said.

Saskatchewan now has a trade office in India. Moe says his government has visited India and met with many farmers, and values the trading relationship between the country and the province.

PSAC: Remote work demands helping drag out Canada civil-service strike

Randy Thanthong-Knight, Bloomberg News

The right to work from home is one of the key outstanding issues at the center of negotiations to end one of Canada’s largest strikes. 

More than 155,000 civil servants have been on strike since Wednesday to demand higher wages from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, the country’s largest employer. In addition to better pay and a right to work remotely, they’re also pushing for a ban on contracting out jobs and a requirement that seniority be respected during layoffs.

Entrenching the right to work-from-home could set an important precedent in Canada, for both public and private sectors, as workers call for more flexible arrangements while employers try to push back or impose hybrid requirements. Any return to something resembling the full-remote-work model seen during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic would have major ramifications on real estate in major cities, as well as downtown businesses. 

 “We have proposed to review, jointly with unions, the current telework directive,” Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board, said in an open letter on Monday. “The directive has not been re-assessed for a post-pandemic world, so a formal review would help ensure that our approach is modern, fair, and supportive” for our employees.

Last October, business groups warned that government departments were lagging “significantly” behind the private sector in bringing employees back to offices — particularly in the Ottawa-Gatineau area that is home tens of thousands of federal workers. 

The government said the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the country’s largest federal-worker union representing the Treasury Board and Canada Revenue Agency workers who are staging a nationwide strike, came to the table with more than 570 demands, and that it has managed agree “on most of them” during negotiations. 

Still, the union said despite some headway on remote work and wage increases, it’s “not there yet.” It threatened to escalate its demonstrations, particularly at ports, as a result.

The strike has resulted in a delay or pause in several government services. Impacts at key agencies include: 

• Some Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada programs and services may be affected, including research centers, poultry and wine sector programs, as well as a youth employment program
• There will be delays in processing some income tax and benefit returns at Canada Revenue Agency, particularly those filed by paper
• At Employment and Social Development Canada and Service Canada, services will be partially or fully disrupted including the temporary foreign worker program, job banks and biometrics collection
• Delays are expected for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada citizenship events, passport services, grants and contributions services, as well as immigration-related appointments and applications processing
• Transport Canada’s regulatory work, aircraft services, issuance of licenses, certificates or registrations, and the complaints and recalls hotline are expected to be partially or fully disrupted
• The public may also have trouble accessing some Government of Canada buildings where services are delivered 

Civil servants’ push for remote work has Canadian employers watching anxiously

Randy Thanthong-Knight, Bloomberg News

Canada’s government is grappling with what comes after the “forced experiment” of remote work brought on by the pandemic as it negotiates with striking civil servants, the country’s labour minister said. 

More than 155,000 federal employees launched one of the country’s largest strikes a week ago in a dispute that primarily focuses on wages and enshrining the right to work from home. 

With talks at a standstill, the union has escalated its demonstrations, targeting major ports for exports of grain and other commodities. While that’s prompted calls from industry for the government to step in, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan declined to comment on the status of negotiations. 

Though O’Regan said the government doesn’t dictate what works for other employers or sectors, a deal that cements a right to remote work may set a precedent. If the civil servants are successful, it may strengthen the negotiating leverage of workers in other sectors to push back against employers who favour a return to office.

“The government as an employer is trying to figure it out. We as a society are trying to work this out,” O’Regan said in an interview at his Ottawa office. “We had a crazy forced experiment of remote work imposed on us. There are some workers who had no choice but to go to work. There were a lot of people who didn’t have to go anymore, and yet we functioned and our economy got through it.”

When most COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, employers started mandating a return to office or hybrid work, saying that it would foster collaboration and boost productivity. But some workers are eager to keep the autonomy and flexibility they enjoyed during the pandemic lockdowns.

LIKELY PRECEDENT

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is demanding that the arrangement be included in a new collective agreement. If that happens, it has the potential to influence the outcome of future talks between unions and provincial governments, municipalities, and even private-sector businesses. 

About a dozen clients who are currently negotiating collective agreements have already asked to delay the process to see the eventual deal from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, according to Patrick Groom, a labor lawyer at McMillan LLP in Toronto. 

“This is going to set the standard for collective-bargaining negotiations and employee expectations, even in non-union environments across the country,” Groom said. “If the federal government agrees to working from home arrangements, that’s going to be a serious and difficult challenge to overcome for employers who want to have their workforces return.” 

Employee resistance has left many business districts from Toronto to New York and San Francisco much emptier than in pre-COVID times. That’s been particularly acute in Ottawa, where more than 45% of workers were still working from home last year, compared with a national average of about 25%, according to Statistics Canada.   

In an open letter earlier this week, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier — the cabinet minister who’s leading the talks for Trudeau — said the government has proposed to review the current telework directive jointly with unions to “help ensure that our approach is modern, fair, and supportive” for employees.

“We value our workers. We’re like any other firms out there. We want make sure that we retain them,” O’Regan said. “The government has a vested interest in making sure that it gets the best employees at the best value for the taxpayer. I’m very hopeful that we’ll land in a good place.”

Farmers grow concerned as striking PSAC workers block grain exports

By David George-Cosh

David George-Cosh

Reporter

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Some Canadian farmer groups are becoming increasingly concerned about the economic impact on the country’s agricultural sector after striking federal workers blocked grain exports across several Canadian ports earlier this week.

Union workers from the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) picketed the Cascadia Terminal in Vancouver on Monday, preventing grain exports from receiving their final inspection before being shipped overseas. Federal workers also picketed outside Thunder Bay, Ont. and Montreal ports, according to Milton Dyck, president of the Agricultural Union within the PSAC.

More than 100,000 federal workers walked off the job last week after failing to negotiate a new contract with the Treasury Board amid a dispute over wages and remote work. Economists estimated that the strike could see between a 0.2 per cent to 1 per cent hit to Canada’s gross domestic product in April, depending on how long the job action lasts.

The Wheat Growers Association, an industry trade group that represents Western Canadian farmers, said in a statement on Tuesday that it was “stunned” to learn that PSAC workers intentionally targeted the Cascadia Terminal and disrupted grain exports. 

“A strike is one thing, but to intentionally target a port that is critical to the lives of grain farmers and to the entire Canadian economy is the height of reckless irresponsibility,” said Wheat Growers president Gunter Jochum in a statement. “It’s time for the federal government to intervene.”

The Wheat Growers added that the Canada Grain Act needs to be amended to allow more third-party grain inspectors to handle grading and weighing services to avoid “double inspections.” It noted that Canadian farmers pay over $60 million per year to have staff from the Canadian Grain Commission inspect grain exports.

The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) also issued a statement on Tuesday urging the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Marie-Claude Bibeau to come to an agreement with the federal workers to avoid prolonging any additional impact the strike would have on farmers.

“Delayed inspections will cause backlogs at ports. Every day a ship must wait means demurrage charges to grain companies, and these costs always make their way to the farmer,” said Ian Boxall, president of the APAS, in a statement.

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg, Dyck said that Canadian Grain Commission inspectors should be considered essential workers and are key to ensuring that Canada’s grain exports meet the high-quality standards sought after by importing nations. While he acknowledged that some farmers will likely see additional costs from demurrage charges being passed to them, those are not as significant as what the trade groups are suggesting.

“I can’t see why the costs would be onerous from one day of blocking the port,” he said.

The grain export dispute comes as Statistics Canada issued its latest outlook on farmer crop planting for this year’s harvest with 27 million acres of wheat expected to be planted, an increase of six per cent from 2022 and the biggest amount since 2001. Wheat prices have fallen by nearly 50 per cent since reaching all-time highs in 2022, while they’re up about 16 per cent from pre-pandemic levels.

NAFTA Poisioning

With the liberalization of trade regulations, and the neo-con agenda of de-regulation, reducing public services, the privatization and contracting out of inspection services leads to consumer poisoning.

And it ain't just China that's to blame.

NAFTA2 aka the SPP is also to blame.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to consume Los Angeles Salad Company Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots because the product may be contaminated with Shigella.

The item is labelled as product of Mexico and is sold in 672 gram plastic bags and sell by dates up to and including August 13th, this year.

The agency says the product was sold in Costco stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland.

This is not the news story the three amigos and their corporate buddies wanted to hear this morning.

The Canadian Press reported Sunday night that the leaders will issue a statement regarding procedures aimed at keeping borders open should another 9/11-type emergency occur, yet political activists say there's apparent secrecy on other issues up for discussion.

They say business leaders have been invited to meetings with the "Three Amigos" in Montebello, while protesters have been shut out. Their signs and shouts will only be available to leaders via video link.

"We want Canadians, Americans and Mexicans to know that this is a big-business driven process, for them and by them, to deregulate all sorts of regulations across the board -- environment, health, safety worker standards," said Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, the main group behind a protest in Ottawa on Sunday.

Last time it was organic American spinach, then organic carrots. And under the SPP agreement being discussed today America wants Canada to reduce its food safety regulations.

Regulatory harmonization, or regulatory co-operation as it is euphemistically called, is another top priority for business. Leaders have asked their officials to complete a "regulatory framework agreement" in time for the Montebello meeting. This will set the guidelines for many SPP initiatives. It is unlikely that we will see the full framework agreement, and even less so that we will see how it is applied in specific circumstances. Critics believe the government is preparing to weaken Canadian health, safety and environmental regulations and standards in the name of trade.

Let’s take the example of food safety. The SPP’s business council (the NACC) called for the harmonization of Canadian and U.S. lists of toxic substances, which are preventing some U.S. products from being sold in Canada. We also know that an SPP committee is working to resolve differences in pesticide maximum-residue limits. But will we ever know the outcome of these negotiations?

In this case, we do know now, thanks to an astute Ottawa Citizen reporter, who discovered that the Canadian government is in fact planning under the SPP to relax its requirements on pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables entering from the U.S. Some 40 per cent of the pesticides Canada regulates have stricter limits than U.S. regulations. The U.S. sees them as trade barriers and wants the list of priority pesticides to be relaxed. With the Bush administration aggressively dismantling its own regulatory systems, this harmonization concession amounts to Canada importing U.S. deregulation. Will this be the norm or the exception?

SEE:


The Truth About the Farm Crisis

Alberta State Capitalism

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Record Declines in Grain Prices May Ease Global Food Crisis

By ZeroHedge - Jan 02, 2024

• Corn futures fell 31%, and wheat contracts decreased 21%, the largest drop since 2013.
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• The decline in grain prices is attributed to bumper crops in Brazil, the U.S., and Russia, along with expectations of reduced costs for staple foods and animal feed.
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• Despite the decline in global food prices, there's still uncertainty about the pace of price reductions and its impact on preventing food riots in emerging markets.
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Despite the El Nino-related weather disturbances affecting key agricultural areas globally and the disruptions in the Black Sea stemming from the war in Ukraine, there is encouraging data suggesting further easing in food inflation in the new year. This development comes amid the soaring risks of food riots in emerging markets, as the weakening of EM currencies against the dollar has made staple foods increasingly more expensive for poorer populations worldwide. 

Bloomberg data shows corn and wheat prices have recorded their largest annual declines in a decade. This is primarily because of bumper crops in key ag regions and might lead to further easing of food inflation into the first half of 2024. 

Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade plunged 31% this year, and wheat contracts fell 21% - the largest annual declines since 2013. Soybeans were down 15%. This led the Bloomberg Grains Spot Subindex to slide 22.8%. This is good news for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization World Food Price Index, which has already come off record highs. 

"The rout was driven by bumper crops in key crop suppliers Brazil, US and Russia following years of disruptions caused by extreme weather, the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine that pushed prices to record highs in 2022," Bloomberg wrote in a note, adding, "Lower prices for staple grains could bring down the cost of bread and make it less expensive to feed livestock, dairy herds and even biofuels. Analysts are anticipating even lower prices for corn and soybeans in 2024, while wheat is expected to rebound amid tighter supplies." 

However, there is still uncertainty about whether global food prices will decrease swiftly enough to prevent food riots in EM countries. The current food price levels are comparable to those that sparked the Arab Spring riots in the Middle East in 2010.

Sara Menker, founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence, warned last month in an interview with Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Singapore that the current food crisis surpassed the one in 2007-08. She explained this is mostly because of elevated crop prices and steep declines in local currencies against the dollar. 

By Zerohedge.com