We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, March 14, 2016

Feeding The Bank Balance Or Feeding The World: GMOs, Development And The Politics Of Unhappiness

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest (Britain).
Modern state-corporate capitalism is stripping the environment bare through unsustainable levels of consumption. It is legitimised by a deceitful ideology that attempts to justify and sell a system which by its very nature is designed to benefit a minority at the expense of the majority.

This model thrives on the exploitation of peoples and the environment by powerful transnational corporations. Look no further to see how intellectual property rights and agricultural subsidies and the WTO serves the interests of these corporations, for instance, or the roles that 'free trade' agreements,'structural adjustment' and the undermining of non-compliant governments play. Moreover, economic neoliberalism strides the world hand in glove with militarism. The outcome is a programme of endless destabilisations, conflicts and wars over finite resources to enrich elite interests. 
Todhunter has returned to Britain after living a number of years in India where he witnessed the destructive practices of agribusiness, their use of GM seeds together with pesticides, and the transfer of land ownership from small farmers to large corporations who grow crops for export. He explains how all the destructive effects are tied to these powerful capitalist corporations.
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