Amongst the lies, chicanery and subterfuge that currently passes for politics in the UK right now, most people may have missed a key part of Boris Johnson’s first speech to parliament since becoming Prime Minister. In that speech he urged “let’s start now to liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti-genetic modification rules, and let’s develop the blight-resistant crops that will feed the world.” Johnson was obliquely presaging a […]
I want to tell you a story. It is the story of how we became so disconnected from the food we eat, and it is a story which began a great many years ago. Once upon a time we all shared the land and the fruits it produced. We were hunter-gatherers back then, and we worked cooperatively to hunt, collect and share the food we ate. The concept of land […]
A myth that is regularly peddled by GMO (genetically modified organisms) apologists is that a “more efficient” food system is now required to feed the world’s growing population. What is actually required is a halt to the practice of land-grabbing by big agribusinesses (often with governmental collusion) which is continually squeezing small-scale farmers off arable land and replacing food crops destined for local markets with commercial crops destined for export. […]
Over the centuries aggressive nations have used their military might to subdue, colonise and plunder other nations for prized resources. At one time such plunder would have consisted of “precious” minerals like gold, silver, copper and diamonds. Subsequently, with the advent of industrialisation, the exploiting nations turned their attention to the plundering of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Now, rather than precious metals and fossil fuels, it is […]
Last week was rather a good week for the “Save Farm Terrace” campaign. The campaign was set up to try to save an historic allotment site in Watford from the predatory clutches of the local borough council and housing developers. On Thursday, a judicial review – which had followed a High Court ruling last year – again overturned a decision by the UK government’s Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to allow […]
The French philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon once famously declared, “all property is theft”. In the case of land ownership in the UK there is a substantial amount of truth in that proclamation. The concept of private land ownership in the UK can be traced back to the 13th century when King Henry III legalised the appropriation by the nobility of open fields, pastureland and other areas that previously had been deemed […]