Jeremy Scahill reports in "The Nation" that Mosanto has hired XE to infiltrate groups thaT are opposed to GMO's and to provide intel on world wide movements to limit the reach of Agri-business.

They gird themselves for battle! Watch for activists the world over to be "assassinated" by what will be called "Muslim Terrorists".

http://www.thenation.com/article/154739/blackwaters-black-ops?page=0,1

It's ironic that the farmer in the picture that accompanies this article is holding up casava - a crop developed for the slave trade which makes you feel full but has no nutritional value (except the iron rich leaves which many do not eat).

In the 1970s, the US and the EEC destroyed small holding agriculture through the provision of food aid. Local farmers cannot compete with free or subsidized food.

In the 1980s, food aid was monetized for "development". In these programs, food was "given" to a country which sold it to raise money for development projects.

Very little money made it out of capital cities where it was consumed by the national elite. Small farmers received no benefit and could not compete with their own government who obviously wanted the highest possible price without any competition from the local sector.

Farmers got nothing, urbanites paid too much, and the new elite got their Mercedes.

No new programs could compete with this system. Why help the farmers with land reform, access to credit, education, health, infrastructure ... when it jeopardized the WaBenzi

And if De Shitter is so concerned, he should start with a wide range of reforms in the UN - which has been spreading underdevelopment throughout the world.

They also encouraged food aid and monetized agriculure and became one of the largest employers of unqualified children of the WaBenzi elite.

The UN is a system. The UN locks in nations. Nations are unable to escape the system (to the delight of the elite) It is little different than the World Bank and the IMF.

Bill Gates has championed UNICEF and provided millions. In reality, he has escaped millions of dollars in taxes with his charitable gifts - you have paid for his tax breaks and you have supported underdevelopment in far-too-many countries

So when your neighbor comes trick-or-treating for UNICEF, tell them you have already given.

Maybe one day we will connect our overflowing grocery carts to distended bellies of children around the world. I wonder how much coupon shopping there is in southern Africa.

Yes, there is a method whereby farmers can win...it's called "square foot gardening". 70% less water is needed to grow vegetables. No earth is required. Peat moss, vermiculite, and compost are all that is needed. I tried it last year and it works! And only 6 inches of this mixture (or 15 centimeters) are required to grow just about anything. I have seen people in Yemen and Costa Rica using this method and it works! Just save your seeds which are non-hybrid so that Monsanto can't starve you out. Hybrids don't reproduce, you know.

Low-technology, sustainable techniques would make Mother Nature happier. All these high-tech agra chemicals are like doping athletes - there is a one time burst and then disaster. Funny thing is that the old indigenous farmers have most of the best methods. Some methods may need to move with the climate changes but that's all. Just the water wasted growing fuel crops would feed all mankind.

Ocean,

I agree. I could not believe that I had corn 9 feet tall in such a small amount of my mixture. I had a neighbor growing his "corgettes" (squash-zucchini) in normal soil and my plants were gigantic compared to his. He gave up the "ghost" and didn't come back to look after his vegetables for months. It's a miracle, really.

"Agriculture is already directly responsible for 14 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions -- and up to one third if we include the carbon dioxide produced by deforestation for the expansion of cultivation or pastures.

pastures for what?

Food use processing and toxicity

Cassava root, peeled.Cassava roots and leaves should not be consumed raw because they contain two cyanogenic glucosides, linamarin and lotaustralin. These are decomposed by linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in cassava, liberating hydrogen cyanide (HCN).[20] Cassava varieties are often categorized as either sweet or bitter, signifying the absence or presence of toxic levels of cyanogenic glucosides. The so-called sweet (actually not bitter) cultivars can produce as little as 20 milligrams of cyanide (CN) per kilogram of fresh roots, whereas bitter ones may produce more than 50 times as much (1 g/kg). Cassavas grown during drought are especially high in these toxins.[21][22] A dose 40 mg of pure cassava cyanogenic glucoside is sufficient to kill a cow. It can also cause severe calcific pancreatitis in humans, leading to chronic pancreatitis.

Cassava breadSocieties that traditionally eat cassava generally understand that some processing (soaking, cooking, fermentation, etc.) is necessary to avoid getting sick.[citation needed]

"Chronic, low-level cyanide exposure is associated with the development of goiter and with tropical ataxic neuropathy, a nerve-damaging disorder that renders a person unsteady and uncoordinated. Severe cyanide poisoning, particularly during famines, is associated with outbreaks of a debilitating, irreversible paralytic disorder called Konzo and, in some cases, death. The incidence of Konzo and tropical ataxic neuropathy can be as high as 3 percent in some areas."[23]

For some smaller-rooted sweet varieties, cooking is sufficient to eliminate all toxicity. The cyanide is carried away in the processing water and the amounts produced in domestic consumption are too small to have environmental impact.[20] The larger-rooted bitter varieties used for production of flour or starch must be processed to remove the cyanogenic glucosides. and then ground into flour, which is then soaked in water, squeezed dry several times, and toasted. The starch grains that float to the surface during the soaking process are also used in cooking.[24] The flour is used throughout South America and the Caribbean. Industrial production of cassava flour, even at the cottage level, may generate enough cyanide and cyanogenic glycosides in the effluents to have a severe environmental impact.[20]

A safe processing method used by the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the Americas is to mix the cassava flour with water into a thick paste and then let it stand in the shade for five hours in a thin layer spread over a basket. In that time about 5/6 of the cyanogenic glycosides are broken down by the linamarase; the resulting hydrogen cyanide escapes to the atmosphere, making the flour safe for consumption the same evening.[25]

The traditional method used in West Africa is to peel the roots and put them into water for 3 days to ferment. The roots then are dried or cooked. In Nigeria and several other west African countries, including Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso, they are usually grated and lightly fried in palm oil to preserve them. The result is a foodstuff called gari. Fermentation is also used in other places such as Indonesia (see Tapai). The fermentation process also reduces the level of antinutrients, making the cassava a more nutritious food.[26]

The reliance on cassava as a food source and the resulting exposure to the goitrogenic effects of thiocyanate has been responsible for the endemic goiters seen in the Akoko area of southwestern Nigeria.[27]

People dependant on cassava risk cyanide poisoning and malnutrition diseases such as endemic goiter.

Nosurrender,

I dump all of our leftovers, paper, leaves, grass cuttings from when I mow the grass, the skins of onions, potatoes, etc., into our compost (no meat products). Last year, the compost that I spread around our apple tree yielded almost as many tomatoes and white squash (which came up without my planting them) as the ones I planted. The seeds came up from the compost! I won a prize in France for our Department, but I really don't think they knew what I was doing. They just liked the results. I don't know where you are or how expensive "vermiculite" is, but here in France, it's not so expensive, and once you add it to the compost and peat moss, you don't have to add it again. Just keep composting!

Some semi-socialist governments (such as Sandinista Nicaragua)have had a policy of subsidizing the production of food directly. They buy food from the farmers at an above market price, which encourages production. The government then sells the food to its people, at a lower price if the government can afford it. This gets around the dilemma of foreign food aid competing with, and destroying, local food production. Of course, this would be illegal in the capitalist economic system, as enforced by the World Trade Organization.

Some semi-socialist governments (such as Sandinista Nicaragua)have had a policy of subsidizing the production of food directly. They buy food from the farmers at an above market price, which encourages production. The government then sells the food to its people, at a lower price if the government can afford it. This gets around the dilemma of foreign food aid competing with, and destroying, local food production. Of course, this would be illegal in the capitalist economic system, as enforced by the World Trade Organization.

Here on Maine's North Coast, in the not-wealthy, not-Bar- Harbor, poorling region, our little group is working to get some funding - - not easy since powers that be don't like non-profitable ventures - - to build small, raised-bed gardens in people's yards.

http://www.cleanearth.net

The idea is to build raised beds 2 feet high, 4 feet wide, 8 feet (or any figure people want) long. We'll supply the compost or good earth, some starter seeds and instructions.

Then they'll be able to call us about any questions they have. This is the same idea as "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime."

Home gardens, also known as kitchen gardens, really are the answer, especially in rural areas, which we are. Our plan can be seen (along with other food-growing ideas) at http://www.cleanearth.net

The lure of raised beds is that they can be worked standing up, no more crawling around on the ground. Raised beds also warm up quicker in spring, don't hold standing water, and never have to be tilled, meaning no machines are needed.

The only tool needed is a hand claw to ruffle up the soil before planting (get weeds out) and to work in more compost next spring.

Home-made compost - kitchen food waste, leaves, grass clippings, can be just dumped in a pile and left to rot down into earth.

This past spring I had some leftover potatoes that were sprouting (they're organic, of course) so I just dumped them in a large pile of the neighbor's grass clippings (I don't mow - too much pollution comes from mowers)just to see what they would do.

After totally ignoring them all season, I pulled them up yesterday and, to my amazement, I now have a winter's worth of potatoes - the yield was incredible.

So many good things we could and should be doing in this world, if people obsessed with personal monetary wealth were not in charge.

So, yes, kitchen gardens in raised beds grown in home-made compost can make us and most of the world food secure.

Joe said: Rules that prohibit small scale food production need to be re-examined everywhere.
I agree totally. The way to fight mass food production and control is to make your own food first and then make it for your friends and neighbors. Getting into animals on a small scale is tricky, they like space too. Then the problem of what to feed them and what to do with the waste. In some instances certain animals might help - however to get a good healthy protein you might try to make your own tempeh first and then......
See:http://makethebesttempeh.org

Re growing food in cities. This will become critical as food becomes even more expensive and eventually (already in some parts of the world) in short supply.

City people really have to "garden up" because when times get even more difficult - and we know this is coming soon - city people may think they can drift out to the countryside and gather food.

They will not be met with open arms, I can tell you, as an organic farmer who used to live in cities. Rural America is aware this might happen, and is prepared to defend their food supplies.

So, what can city people do? Pretty simple, really.
Rooftops are a great place to grow raised-bed gardens. The point of 2 foot high raised beds is to eliminate stoop labor and give plants more growing room for their roots.

City parks could support many such gardens, as well as community gardens where each person has a 10' or 20' square to grow food for themselves.

Any South-facing window can grow spinach or other greens - I've grown tomato plants which fruited beautifully in a large South-facing window.

Balconies, decks, and, most especially, lawns, which are useless monocultures, can be turned into food-producing areas.

Yes, we all like to share when we have enough, but people will not let their own children starve so others can eat their food, believe me.

Thus, for all our sakes, city and surburban people need to get growing........it's probably the single most important thing you can do for yourself and family, ensuring their food supply.

This is the greatest subject of a blog that I ever saw. I did not disagree vehemently with anyone! First ever in my life. Maybe I have found my forte.

When I planted my corn last year in 6 inches of the mixture that Bartholomew talks about, I put the plastic bags which contained the vermiculite and peat moss underneath. We had rain only two times in Summer last year. My corn yielded more last year than this year per plant. The water had no way of escaping, maybe. (The growing of corn requires lots of water.)

If anyone reading these blogs knows of a way that I can grown okra in the South of France, I would be very appreciative of his expertise. I just cannot do it!