By Kanya D'Almeida
WASHINGTON, Feb 2, 2012 (IPS) - While Indian retailers are losing sleep over the possible entrance of multinationals like Walmart into the dense South Asian consumer market, very little thought has been given to the Indian small farmer, who stands to lose even more at the hands of the world's biggest commercial food retailer.
The commercial food market topped seven trillion dollars at the end of 2009, overtaking even the mammoth energy sector, according to a new report by the ETC prepared ahead of the June 2012 Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.
The top 10 retail food firms raked in combined annual sales worth 753 billion dollars, 25 percent of which went to the world's largest corporation: Walmart.
In 2009, 51 percent of Walmart's total revenue came directly from its food sales, making it the U.S.'s largest grocer.
However, with consumer markets in the U.S. and Western Europe shriveling fast, Walmart has been forced to look elsewhere for customers.
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For Immediate Release: February 2 to 10, 2012
Poetry Rocks / PEERS Book Launch February 10 in Victoria
Come hear a group of poets from Peers Victoria and Cool Aid’s Rock Bay Landing shelter; who write a unique visceral poetry from the banks of the mainstream.
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NICARAGUA-HONDURAS Re-Greening the Border
MANAGUA, Jan 31 (Tierramérica), 2012 (IPS) - Ignacia Matute looks back nostalgically on the days when the hills around her home in northwestern Nicaragua were blanketed in green, and she woke every morning to the sounds of birds singing in the treetops and the rushing waters of the nearly Coco River.
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Mac Slavo
January 30th, 2012
January 30th, 2012
While President Obama’s supporters hailed his withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq as the end of the war in the middle east, behind the scenes the Pentagon has been quietly massing troops and armaments on two islands located just south of the Strait of Hormuz, and within easy striking distance of Iran.
New formulas make colonies more prone to disease, research finds.
Jonathan Owen reports Jannuary 2012 http://www.pestdetective.com/">www.pestdetective.com
Compelling new evidence from the US government's top bee expert that modern pesticides may be a major cause of collapsing bee populations led to calls yesterday for the chemicals to be banned]]>
Corporations Have No Use for Borders
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/corporations_have_no_use_for_borders_20120130/
Posted on Jan 30, 2012 By Chris Hedges
What happened to Canada? It used to be the country we would flee to if life in the United States became unpalatable. No nuclear weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A good record on the environment.
]]>By Antonio Martins
PORTO ALEGRE, Jan 27, 2012 (IPS) - For five centuries, Europe has taken it upon itself to enlighten the world, teaching it ways to address and overcome crises, from ideas and wars to missionary work and genocides.
But it forgot it only held a part of the world's knowledge and now it is on the verge of the abyss, and it is time for a different approach.
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Joan Russow Global Compliance Research Project
There is a principle that certain actions or activities could violate peremptory norms and thus be deemed null and void.
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Sea Shepherd Chases the Japanese Whalers
- Sea Shepherd ship seeks sanctuary from whalersSydney Morning Herald - 4 days agoJapanese whalers try to deter members of the Sea Shepherd organisation who are ... continuing a chase that enables the whalers to warn the key factory ship, ...
Miracle Tree is Like a Supermarket
By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, Jan 25, 2012 (IPS) - When a food crisis hits the continent, African countries tend to look to the international donor community to mobilise aid. But a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree with extremely nutritious leaves could help poor, arid nations to fight food insecurity and malnutrition on their own.
A 15-hectare plantation of the "miracle tree" with the botanical name Moringa oleifera has already started to make a positive change in the rural village of Tooseng, which is located in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, Limpopo.
Moringa leaves are dubbed a "super food" because scientists found that they contain the calcium equivalent of four glasses of milk, the vitamin C content of seven oranges, the potassium of three bananas, three times the amount of iron found in spinach, four times the amount of vitamin A found in a carrot and twice the amount of protein in milk. It is like a supermarket on a tree.
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