Agroecology provides a robust set of farmer-friendly, innovative, climate-resilient solutions to the ecological, environmental, social and economic pressures facing agriculture today.
In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama signaled his renewed commitment to push free trade agreements through Congress. But civil society organizations across the world are speaking out louder than ever in firm opposition to the secretive negotiations of the two global trade agreements now on the table: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Unraveling Corporate Spin
Industry spin is going into high gear. But at PAN, we’re keeping public conversation — and the facts — on point.
On June 5, 2014, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific, partnering with PAN North America, launched a global campaign to phase out 20 highly hazardous pesticides particularly dangerous to children.
The Terrible Twenty are linked to cancers, brain damage, birth defects and asthma, among others. The campaign will target policy makers in strategic Asian countries and North America with a call for a permanent moratorium on use of the Terrible Twenty and support for introducing agroecological farming.
Finally, there’s movement to strengthen U.S. rules — notoriously weak and difficult to enforce — that protect farmworkers and their families. Meanwhile, farmworkers, growers, retailers and allies are launching a ground-breaking initiative modeling how to work together to grow food safely, fairly and profitably.
Let’s have a public debate about the Trans Pacific Partnership. If you’re like me, you’ve known for a while that the U.S. is negotiating a new pact called the Trans Pacific Partnership, the TPP, but you haven’t taken the time to figure out exactly why it matters. I don’t blame us — the corporations and governments negotiating the deal don’t want our opinions slowing down their shiny new “free trade” vehicle. Ditto for a companion treaty with Europe, the Trans Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) also to be completed in 2014.
Five of the world’s six largest GE seed and pesticide corporations—BASF, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta—are using prime farmland on the Hawai’ian islands to test new GE crops. Their experimental plots are displacing smaller farmers and driving up the use of health harming pesticides.
