Food

India’s unjust land grabbing from poor famers

Dr Vandana Shiva The biggest companies buying the land were Korean Steel giant Posco Steel, French nuclear energy company, AREVA, and Indian land developer, Jaypee Infratech Ltd. TEAR Fund executive Steve Tollestrup said fertile land was being taken from poor tribal farmers across several regions of India, including rural areas where TEAR Fund partners were working, to ‘satisfy the corporate greed of big business’. “Using a mixture of the historical colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894, and the deregulation of investments and commerce, the Indian Government is forcibly buying the land at a fraction of the cost that it is being on-sold to developers. “In some cases, land has been forcibly taken from farmers against their will, according to physicist, philosopher and activist, Dr Vandana Shiva. An example of some of the enforced deals is in Jagatsinghpur, Orissa, where 20 battalions have been deployed to assist in the Òanti-constitutional land acquisition”. In this district the land was being bought from peasant farmers for Rs 300 (NZ $8) per square metre by the government – using the Land Acquisition Act – and sold by developers at Rs 600,000 (NZ $ 16,450) per square metre – a 200,000 per cent increase. Last month four protesters died and many were injured in clashes with police over the land acquisition issue. The biggest companies buying the land were Korean Steel giant Posco Steel, French nuclear energy company, AREVA, and Indian land developer, Jaypee Infratech Ltd. Mr Tollestrup said, “The Land Acquisition Act was used by colonial powers against Indians, now it is the Indian Government that is using it against its own people to allow foreign business to ‘re-colonise’ large tracts of India,” Mr Tollestrup said. “This unjust land dispossession will only compound the poverty and misery being faced by rural people in India, […]

Vegetable Tour Guide

By Elizabeth Alington It’s full-on for Andrew Seager most of the year. From dawn to dusk last Spring, he was busy preparing raised beds, spreading compost, goading the tractor into doing the hard-yard and sowing beans, carrots, radish, basil, and zucchini. Somewhere along the way he managed to transplant Autumn’s fare of kohlrabi, broccoli and cauliflower seedlings. If that’s not a week’s-worth of work, on Saturdays he’s manning a stall at the Black Barn FarmersÕ Market in Havelock North, selling the vegetables of his labour. Andrew operates his market garden from a modest, one-hectare property that lies 20 kilometres south of Hastings near Te Hauke. He’s been there now for 16 years, although to begin with, it took a long time to find the right patch on which to put down his roots. As a schoolboy, growing up near London, and fascinated by the idea of the Antipodes, Andrew longed to go to New Zealand to explore the mountains of the Southern Alps. By his early teens he was saving his pennies; earning pocket money tidying up “old ladies’ gardens”. At 19 and attracted by the idea of community, he left the UK and headed down-under where he chanced upon biodynamics as a method of sustainable food production. But it was to be some time before biodynamics would become part of his life. First, he had to return to the UK via Asia and Mt.Everest base camp. For the next few years, Andrew explored the world. Like most biodynamic farmers, he was inclined to think “outside the square” – these farmers are not the ones responsible for messing up your favourite fishing river. While working on biodynamic farms and gardens in England and Germany, he was able to attend lectures in economics and […]

Slow Food

“Slow Food has contributed to the growing awareness of health concerns in Europe” The Slow Food movement was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy to combat fast food. It claims to preserve the cultural cuisine and the associated food plants and seeds, domestic animals, and farming within an ecoregion. It was the first established part of the broader Slow movement. The movement has since expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 132 countries. Slow Food began in Italy with the foundation of its forerunner organisation, Arcigola, in 1986 to resist the opening of a McDonald’s near the Spanish Steps in Rome The Slow Food organisation spawned by the movement has expanded to include over 100,000 members with chapters in over 132 countries. All totaled, 800 local convivia chapters exist. 360 convivia in Italy Ñ to which the name condotta (singular) / condotte (plural) applies Ñ are composed of 35,000 members, along with 450 other regional chapters around the world. The organisational structure is decentralised: each convivium has a leader who is responsible for promoting local artisans, local farmers, and local flavors through regional events such as Taste Workshops, wine tastings, and farmers’ markets. Offices have been opened in Switzerland (1995), Germany (1998), New York City (2000), France (2003), Japan (2005), and most recently in the United Kingdom and Chile. The head offices are located in Bra, near the famous city of Turin, northern Italy. Numerous publications are put out by the organisation, in several languages. In the US, the Snail is the quarterly of choice, while Slow Food puts out literature in several other European nations. Recent efforts at publicity include the world’s largest food and wine fair, the Salone del Gusto in Turin , a biennial cheese fair in Bra called Cheese, the Genoan fish festival called SlowFish, and […]

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