Today it emerged that world leaders are to discuss what is being described as “land grabbing” or “neo-colonialism” at the G8 meeting next week. A spokesman for Japan’s ministry of foreign affairs confirmed that it would raise the issue: “We feel there should be a code of conduct for investment in farmland that will be a win-win situation for both producing and consuming countries,” he said.
Olivier De Schutter, special envoy for food at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “[The trend] is accelerating quickly. All countries observe each other and when one sees others buying land it does the same.”
Some of the largest deals include South Korea’s acquisition of 700,000ha in Sudan, and Saudi Arabia’s purchase of 500,000ha in Tanzania. The Democratic Republic of the Congo expects to shortly conclude an 8m-hectare deal with a group of South African businesses to grow maize and soya beans as well as poultry and dairy farming.
Other countries that have acquired land in the last year include the Gulf states, Sweden, China and Libya. Those targeted include not only fertile countries such as Brazil, Russia and Ukraine, but also poor countries like Cameroon, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Zambia.
De Schutter said that after the food crisis of 2008, many countries found food imports hit their balance of payments, “so now they want to insure themselves”.
Continue Reading Fears For The World’s Poor Countries as The Rich Grab Land to Grow Food
” Localization is like taking a few squares on the edge of the board but if you control enough of those you could make a move on the center….Taxing people and taking what they have limits the opponents ability to make alternatives, all thier resources are spent defending against the center.”
* That is a good point and definitely something to keep in mind. So – what moves can we make to make us more self-determined in the path of localization?
Guy,
In short, we must not go along with their plans, that is our only option. It is therefore imperative to recognize their plans, and to openly discuss them in order to avoid very appealing and propagandized enticements.
This move toward localization is indeed part of their plan, a plan that seeks to establish a dialectic that sets an extremely sophisticated and technologically equipped superclass against the feudal masses.
With respect to the point at which “the individual” allowed to survive independently of vast control systems, I think that is certainly a debatable question. Americans certainly had varying degrees of liberty and independence, and much more freedom was at hand prior to all the institutions that you mentioned. But we can certainly look back at points throughout history and ponder that question…. of when was the tipping point. Here are only a few data points for the purpose of thought and discussion, in rough chronological order:
– The usurpation of the Articles of Confederation with the US Constitution.
– Samuel P. Chase Supreme Court decision to make Forced Tender legal.
– The Civil War’s usurpation of State Power under Federal Power.
– The origination of elite Foundations
– The passage of the Federal Reserve act along with the foundation of the IRS.
– The introduction of the League of Nations
– Academic think tanks introduction of plans to mass produce enlightenment as systems of control.
– Carnegie Foundation’s plan to modify the US Education system and amalgamate it with the Soviet system
– The building of the United Nations and the USA’s membership to this organization
– The successful selling of the manufactured Cold War dialectic and the resulting increased budgets and development of military industrial complex techniques.
– The Club of Rome’s development of new external threats (i.e. “Global Warming” & “Global Scarcity”) in order to replace the soon to abandoned Communism vs Capitalsm dialectic that was soon to be abandoned.
– GATT and the commensurate deployment of an international computer network (“The Internet”)
I guess we could continue with this list for quite an extensive period, and I’m not sure what we would ultimately gain from that exercise other than to learn that the public either goes along with elite plans, or is simply unaware of them, or simply does not understand their intended consequences.
Our key to survival is to reverse this trend, to recognize the techniques as they are deployed, to discuss the intended goals and to refuse to comply. Our complicity is our greatest weakness. For example, we now have 5 agribusiness multinational corporations who virtually control our food supply. Please tell me why the public should simply accede this food production to these controllers, and relegate ourselves to food production in rooftop gardens and the like? We should not let this happen, we should stop them from shutting down from taking all of the agricultural resources and then creating false scarcities. This is a moral issue, and we should be combating it head-on instead of running from it.
Bert:
I agree with your take on localization as it is being proposed by many groups.
That said, we have to move on both fronts. Power comes from bottom up and top down. And economic power is in your backyard, in your infrastructure and your global satellite systems, etc.
So we have to move on all fronts. Question is how. Essential that we each do what we can incrementally.
Meantime, you bet I am developing my own food supply. Given the national debt and the current state of the legal system, I am completely clear the extent to which it is not “mine.”
I am also do what I can to not invest, purchase from or support those 5 businesses or to affirm their leadership.
What would you tell the average citizen that they can do?
Catherine
Maybe keep it disorganized. If you organize anything your doing their work for them, they’ll take it over. They don’t tax you for working on your own house or working in your garden yet..do it yourself. But honestly there comes a point in a game of chess where you just can’t win unless the other player makes a really bad mistake. Find a place at the edge of the board and wait for a big mistake? They’d lose all their advantage of pitting one side against another if they had a one world order. Especially if they had one person as the world leader. Bible prophesy says that will be Satan himself and Christ will put him in the pit.
We’re allowing ourselves to be pushed into a very tight box with almost no discussion around the future that we are allowing to be created for us. Do we really want this image of our future reality for our grandchildren?…
http://www.radoxist.com/download/my_works/stills/worth_enough_2500.jpg
At some point we must resist, and the longer we wait the weaker and more controlled we become. And the more we let the GAIA-bots promote this “humanity is the enemy” meme created by the Club of Rome, the harder it will be to resist a humanity-crushing path. I think God would tell us not to allow these horrid untruths into humanity’s consciousness, and to fight against it and all of its manifestations with all of humanity’s heart and soul.
Yup, and here’s the trap already being setup, being introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D–CA) and John Dingell (D–MI). Wonder why the NYT doesn’t mention this pending legislation when it is also extolling the virtues of local farming?
“New Bill (HR2749) Gives FDA Unheard-of Power over Small Farmers, Food and Supplement Producers”
http://aahf.nonprofitsoapbox.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=825&Itemid=
We’re being put into a box!
Bert.
How do we resist? Give something concrete. Do you agree with this statement? – ‘The logic of local and self-sufficient economies and food systems makes sense on levels which COULD benefit communities.’ Now identify the areas where it can be taken over – and give a concrete example of how to resist against this. Do any of the Solari ideas make any sense – on a resistance level?
Benj.
Good point. These are the things that we have to be vigilant against. Many people are not willing to keep it on that level – but that is what it takes to stay free.