The problem is merely
ten thousand years old. Perhaps it is
timely to actually deal with it. What is
true is that society in general needs to alienate specific lands from their
current usage protocol to another such protocol, regardless of the wishes of
those locally affected. Unfortunately
control of this process has generally been handed over to those elected or
appointed to manage money and power. That
merely insures ample friction.
Yet society needs that
steel mill. Just as surely society needs
each and every farmer needs enough land to operate a proper farm as well as
sufficient capital to actually do so in a productive manner.
This is one reason that
I thought out the Rule of Twelve and linked it directly to land husbandry. Such a system allows local concerns to link
upward to adjacent groupings and establish both solution options and a
consensus among community leadership able to implement decisions. With such a structure, land can be identified
and affected leaders notified and brought on side.
This presents the
proponent with a deliverable and no hassle.
Land to the Tillers:
Responses to Land Grabs
Tuesday,
30 July 2013 11:48By Beverly Bell and Tory Field,
Other Worlds |
The
outcome of last Sunday’s elections in Cambodia, in which Prime Minister Hun Sen
hoped to extend his 28-year rule, is in dispute. Even if he continues in
office, Hun Sen’s tight grip on civil society is threatened, in part, by public
anger against land grabs. In the past decade, his government has handed 73% of Cambodia’s arable
land, most of it belonging to small farmers, over to businesses.
On
July 24, the Colombian Ambassador to the US, Carlos Urrutia, was forced to
resign after the exposé
of a shady deal in which he helped sell land to the agribusiness giant
Cargill and others. The holdings in questions were covered by a 1994 law
protecting land reform and small farmers.
One
week prior, on July 19, the nation of Georgia banned the sale of
land to foreigners.
Behind
these stories, and many more that don’t get brought to our attention, are land
reform movements, organizations of indigenous peoples, small farmers, and other
citizens. They are responding to the increased sacking of land and other
natural resources throughout the global South, and resultant spikes in
landlessness and poverty.
National
and transnational corporations, sometimes with collusion from the government of
the country in question, are snapping up agricultural land to grow
industrial-scale commodity crops. Investment firms (private equity, hedge, and
pension funds) are in a buying
frenzy, too, speculating that they will be able to turn a profit for their
investors. An estimated 120 to 200 million acres of land have been sold
in international
investment deals in recent years, approximately two-thirds of them in
Africa. Land is also being taken for biofuel plantations, mining, oil drilling,
and other energy projects.
The
deals may flat-out illegal, or farmers may be forced to sell due to their dire
economic circumstances. Peasant farmers and indigenous peoples are especially
vulnerable, as they often lack paper deeds to land they have inhabited for
centuries.
Small-
and medium-sized farmers are at risk in the global North, too, sometimes forced
to sell out because of financial instability. City-dwellers around the world
face a parallel situation through foreclosures and corporate development of
urban land and public housing.
Some
farmers around the world have been driven to despair over their loss of land,
overwhelming debt, and inability to continue farming. It is estimated that in
India alone, as many as 270,000 farmers have
committed suicide since 1995. This averages about 40 farmers committing suicide
daily, and the pace has only been accelerating.
There
are other responses to the crisis in both the global South and North. Movements
are fighting back to claim land, power, and rights. As just a few indicators:
This
month, Posco, one of the worlds’s biggest steel companies, was forced to give
up on its plans to build a steel mill in the state of Karnataka,
India. Posco abandoned the $5.3 billion project after years of protest by
villagers against its land acquisitions.’
In
2011, major demonstrations in the Indian state of Orissa stalled Posco’s
seizure of community land for construction of another steel plant. The project
is still in limbo.
“Land
to the Tillers!” was the cry of Via
Campesina, the global movement of small farmers and landless peoples, on
this year’s International Day of Peasant Struggle, April 17. From Canada to
Nepal, from Brazil to Switzerland, farmers
used the day to march and protest against land grabs.
In
March, in southern Guangdong province, China, protesters clashed with police
and security forces once again while opposing some 86 acres of rice paddies
being grabbed for use by a cable manufacturing firm. China is enacting a
plan to move 250 million rural residents into urban centers over the
next 12 years, paving over massive amounts of farmland in the process.
In
November 2011, more than 250 representatives of farmers’ organizations and
allies gathered in Mali for the first international farmers’
conference on land grabs. Participants shared experiences, built
alliances, and discussed solutions.
More
than 500 organizations worldwide have signed onto the Dakar Appeal Against Land
Grabbing, which calls upon governments to immediately cease land grabs and
return stolen land to communities.
In
the US, organizations such as GRAIN and
the National
Family Farm Coalition are painstakingly tracing the flows of funding
globally and documenting
land grabs backed by investment companies. They are spreading the word
that people may be investing their retirement savings in firms that finance
land grabs, like TIAA-CREF, and encouraging the public to invest their savings
elsewhere.
As
in other parts of the global North, an urban land reform movement in the US is
fighting corporate intrusion on urban land and housing. The Right to the City Alliance and Take Back the Land, for example,
bring together grassroots
and policy groups across the US to prevent foreclosures and evictions,
gentrification, and homelessness. In Oakland and elsewhere, Occupy activists
ally with threatened homeowners and have halted a number of foreclosures. These
and other urban groups are lobbying for policies that promote affordable
housing, and calling on banks to turn over vacant foreclosed homes to community
land trusts in order to prioritize local communities’ housing needs.
To
get involved in protecting farmland and homes:
Participate
in local and global campaigns against land grabs. Learn more at Farm Land Grabor Land Research Action Network. Those sites
also list upcoming actions to safeguard lands.
Divest
your savings or retirement accounts from companies backing land grabs, and ask
your employer to offer a pension fund option run by an ethical company. Learn
which pension funds are unacceptable via the websites of GRAIN, National
Family Farm Coalition, and Farm
Land Grab.
Be
vigilant about "development" happening in your community. If you
become aware of a recent or a prospective purchase of farmland by an outside
investor, document it online through NFFC's Farmland Monitor, or
contact NFFC (information and instructions here).
Fight
bank foreclosures on family homes and farms in the US. Visit the websites
of Take Back the Land, Homes for All, Right to the City Alliance, and
their member
groups all over the country. See if your city has an Occupy our Homes group.
Join
the US call for a moratorium on foreclosures and home evictions. Visit
the National Fair Housing
Alliance website.
You
can find action items, resources, and a popular education curriculum on
the Harvesting Justice website.
Harvesting Justice was created for the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, check out
their work here.
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