April 10, 2013
humanrightswatch: Thailand: Defamation Charges Chill Labor Rights Inquiries Criminal defamation charges against Andy Hall, a prominent labor activist, violate his right to free speech and will have a chilling effect on investigations of alleged rights abuses by companies in Thailand.  The charges stem from a defamation complaint filed on February 14 by the Natural Fruit Company Limited for an investigative report about serious labor rights violations at the company’s factory.  If convicted, Hall faces up to two years in prison and civil damages of 300 million baht (US$10 million). Hall’s report, “Cheap has a high price: Responsibility problems relating to international private label products and food production in Thailand,” alleged that Natural Fruit Company Limited had committed serious labor rights abuses, including poor working conditions, unlawfully low wages, confiscation of workers’ official documents, use of child labor, and excessive overtime. This is what globalization looks like…

humanrightswatch:

Thailand: Defamation Charges Chill Labor Rights Inquiries

Criminal defamation charges against Andy Hall, a prominent labor activist, violate his right to free speech and will have a chilling effect on investigations of alleged rights abuses by companies in Thailand. 

The charges stem from a defamation complaint filed on February 14 by the Natural Fruit Company Limited for an investigative report about serious labor rights violations at the company’s factory.  If convicted, Hall faces up to two years in prison and civil damages of 300 million baht (US$10 million).

Hall’s report, “Cheap has a high price: Responsibility problems relating to international private label products and food production in Thailand,” alleged that Natural Fruit Company Limited had committed serious labor rights abuses, including poor working conditions, unlawfully low wages, confiscation of workers’ official documents, use of child labor, and excessive overtime.

This is what globalization looks like…

7:44pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyiOb3VQ
(Notes: 14)
  
Filed under: labor activist activism National Fruit Company factory human rights food production capitalism prison child labor Thailand 
April 3, 2013

utnereader:

The Monsanto Protection Act? A Debate on Controversial New Measure Over Genetically Modified Crops

The Monsanto Protection Act has galvanized the U.S. food justice movement, which is now preparing for its next fight when the provision expires in six months. Democracy Now lets two guests hash it out: Gregory Jaffe, director of the Biotechnology Project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch and author of the book, Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America.

10:16am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyhonbZK
(Notes: 54)
  
Filed under: Monsanto GMO genetically modified Democracy Now food capitalism big-ag science 
March 27, 2013

From Mother Jones: “Not Just the Bees: Bayer’s Pesticide May Harm Birds, Too”

…bees aren’t the only iconic springtime creature threatened by the ubiquitous pesticide, whose biggest makers are the European giants Bayer and Syngenta. It turns out that birds are too, according to an alarming analysis co-authored by Pierre Mineau, a retired senior research scientist at Environment Canada (Canada’s EPA), published by the American Bird Conservancy. And not just birds themselves, but also the water-borne insect species that serve as a major food source for birds, fish, and amphibians.

More here.

11:35am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyhF7-6k
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: bees big-ag Bayer Syngenta farming pesticide research scientist birds birds and bees chemical environment insects water health food 
July 19, 2012

It’s hard to imagine the president of the International Olympic Committee on the “naughty step,” forced to stay there until he had repented for his behavior. But that’s more or less what has happened. Jacques Rogge had to “clarify” (in other words, backtrack on) his newsworthy comment that there was a “question mark” over the suitability of McDonald’s and Coca-Cola as Olympic sponsors. Apparently he had actually first flagged his concerns four years ago, but the lure of sponsors’ cash far outweighed any considerations about growing obesity levels … and apparently still does.

More here.

11:15am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyPgVMS2
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: McDonald's Coca-Cola food obesity Olympics money cash sponsor Jacques Rogge London health diet 
July 5, 2012

This is extremely concerning. If you don’t know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership take a few moments to read about it. I find the trend by governments of ceding responsibility to act in representation of citizens interests to corporate and business concerns worrying, to say the least. 

If passed the TPP would give corporate and business interests the ability to severely inhibit the ability of governments to regulating or have an effective degree of oversight into their activities. By positioning business above the power of government to act in pursuit of citizens interests this agreement parrots the standard neoliberal line: the best interest of the citizen is one and the same as that of business—examples of the fallacy of this argument are too apparent to bother mentioning here (government should be run as a business if perhaps the most evident and seen throughout the austerity agenda, proponents of this view generally forget to mention that the business model is not a mirror of the democratic model—its leaders are not elected).

It seems clear to me this is of great concern, not only to us but to our children and the world we leave them.

But enough of me blathering on, if this has already caught your interest enough said; if what I have said hasn’t caused an eyebrow  or two to raise it’s unlikely any more from me will.

Some links:

11:16am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyOl4xJI
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: Trans-Pacific Partnership TPP trade intellectual property IP government Yes Men Michael Geist corporate business neoliberal civil society protest Obama food farmers Canada United States 
May 16, 2012

“What I’ve seen in Canada is a system that presents barriers for the poor to access nutritious diets and that tolerates increased inequalities between rich and poor, and aboriginal non-aboriginal peoples,” Olivier De Schutter, the UN right-to-food envoy, said Wednesday.

…

“This is a country that is rich but that fails to adapt the levels of social assistance benefits and its minimum wage to the rising costs of basic necessities, including food and housing,” De Schutter said. Last year, he said, close to 900,000 Canadians were accessing food banks each month.

12:12pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyLa_VO4
Filed under: Canada United Nations report food insecurity food poverty inequality right-to-food food banks 
September 1, 2011

From NPR, “Mark Bittman Explains How To Cook Everything”

 On restricting himself to vegetarian recipes for his cookbook How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian

“I thought immediately of this Japanese woman I met a couple years ago who was a brilliant chef who only did super vegan — you know, really, really limited stuff. And I asked her why, because she ate meat and she obviously enjoyed it. … And she said, ‘Well, you know, you limit things so that you can explore the universe of them more thoroughly.’ …

“I think that I’m not interested in proselytizing for people to be vegetarians, but I am interested in proselytizing for people to eat fewer animal products. We raise animals now in what can only be called an industrial fashion. And I think the more people know about that, the more turned off they’re going to be by that.”

3:37pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRby90gaXp
(Notes: 39)
  
Filed under: agriculture animal cooking eating ethical explore food industrial meat universe vegan vegitarian Mark Bittman NPR