Industrial Agriculture Causing Resistant Fungi to Spread Worldwide By Webster Walker, CAGJ Member

Accelerating overuse of anti-fungals in industrial agriculture (and medicine) is evolving resistant fungi that are rapidly spreading worldwide, leading to tens of thousands of deaths yearly from untreatable fungal infections in humans, as well as an "arms race" in industrial ag escalating the paradigm of "nature as enemy." Industrial ag researchers are now looking to develop an array of anti-fungal tools (including gene editing) to support the profit-generating ownership of land and life and the reduction of soil and other ecosystem complexity in the quest for dominance and control of nature in the production of profitable commodity crops for market. Agroecological research shows that basic practices like crop rotation, cover cropping and reduced tillage greatly reduce loss of crops to fungal disease, while enhancing soil and other ecosystem complexity, without an agro-industrial arms race of dominance and control of nature. Read more here.
 

South Africa’s new seed and PVP Acts undermine farmers’ rights and entrench corporate capture, control and domination Report by African Centre for Biodiversity; Summary by AGRA Watch Intern Becca Fogel

The Plant Improvement Act (PIA) and the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act (PBR) were approved by the South African Parliament in October 2018, and were ratified this past March by President Ramaphosa, reinforcing traditions of “historically unequal seed, agricultural and food systems, and strengthens the power of large-scale commercial breeders”. The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACBio) and several farmer associations raised concerns with provincial governments before the bills were approved, but they were overridden in Parliament.

Under the new PIA, smallholder farmers’ ability to maintain and adapt their own seed is in limbo, unregulated and unrecognized. There are 96 crops regulated by PIA but ACBio is uncertain whether these provisions apply to farmers’ varieties; clarifying this issue will enable farmers to freely sell all seed in farmer-managed seed systems. Under the new PBR, breeders can claim ownership over new plant varieties, claiming IP rights for up to 30 years and restricting use until royalties are paid.
Contradicting these acts could result in a fine or imprisonment for up to 10 years, yet the constitutionality of these provisions is questionable. Researcher and advocacy officer at ACBio Linzi Lewis states that “social and economic justice needs to include a more equitable distribution of resources and opportunities through stabilising and supporting the expansion of smallholder farmers in diversified agricultural and seed production… At present, in addition to the lack of protection of the rights of smallholder farmers, they receive almost no financial, institutional or political support. Instead, agricultural support policy is oriented towards integrating a relatively thin layer of black small-scale farmers into the commercial sector, mostly through integration into large-scale commercial value chains.” Farmers’ ability to save, use, and sell seed is essential to the ongoing evolution of crop diversity, and these new Acts are undermining farmers’ rights and inhibiting this work. Read more here.

James Beard Leadership Award Honors Leaders of The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and Soul Fire Farm

CAGJ is excited to see the great work of Cornelius Blanding with The Federation of Southern Cooperatives and Leah Penniman with Soul Fire Farm honored by the James Beard Foundation who recognizes “the work of visionaries for creating a better food world”. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives is a fellow member of National Family Farm Coalition, and was recognized with the 2018 Food Sovereignty Prize. Soul Fire Farm is a fellow member of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. Cornelius Blanding has been Executive Director of Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund since 2015. The Federation is a non-profit, cooperative association involving over 20,000 low-income rural families organized into more than 75 cooperatives, credit unions, and community-based economic development groups across the rural South. It is chartered to work in 13 southern states in some of the most economically depressed communities in the Black Belt Region. Leah Penniman is Co-Executive Director and Program Manager of Soul Fire Farm, based in Grafton, NY. Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer, author, and food justice activist who co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection to land. As co-Executive Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs -including farmer training for black & brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for communities living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. The other 2019 honorees include: The Pioneer Valley Workers Center Women’s Collective; Sean Sherman, Founder & CEO, The Sioux Chef; and Anim Steel, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Real Food Generation. They will be honored at the 9th annual Leadership Awards ceremony and dinner in Chicago on Sunday, May 5, 2019. Learn more.