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Inequality is not just a problem of poverty and the poor; it is as
much a problem of wealth and the wealthy. The provision of public
services is one area which is increasingly being reconfigured to
extract wealth upward to the 1%, notably through so-called Public
Private Partnerships (PPPs). The push for PPPs is not about
building infrastructure for the benefit of society but about
constructing new subsidies that benefit the already wealthy. In
other words, it is less about financing development than developing
finance. Understanding and exposing these processes is essential if
inequality is to be challenged. But equally important is the need
for critical reflection on how the wealthy are getting away with
it. What does the wealth gap suggest about the need for new forms
of organising by those who would resist elite power? -- .
In the last forty years, agriculture in the industrialised
countries has undergone a revolution. That has dramatically
increased yields, but it has also led to extensive rural
depopulation; widespread degradation of the environment;
contamination of food with agrochemicals and bacteria; more routine
maltreatment of farm animals; and the undermining of Third World
economies and livelihoods through unfair trading systems.
Confronted by mounting evidence of environmental harm and social
impacts, mainstream agronomistis and policy-makers have debatedly
recognized the need for change. 'Sustainable agricultutre' has
become the buzz phrase. But that can mean different things to
different people. We have to ask: sustainable agriculture for whom?
Whose interests are benefiting? And whose are suffering? At issue
is the question of power - of who controls the land and what it
produces. Most of the changes currently under discussion will
actually strengthen the status quo and the underlying causes of the
damage. The result will be greater intensification of farming,
environmental destruction and inequality. There are no simple
off-the-shelf alternatives to industrial agriculture. There are,
however, groups throughout the world, who have contributed to this
report and who are working together on a new approach. An
agriculture that, in Wendell Berry's words, 'depletes neither soil
nor people'. Originally published in 1992
In the last forty years, agriculture in the industrialised
countries has undergone a revolution. That has dramatically
increased yields, but it has also led to extensive rural
depopulation; widespread degradation of the environment;
contamination of food with agrochemicals and bacteria; more routine
maltreatment of farm animals; and the undermining of Third World
economies and livelihoods through unfair trading systems.
Confronted by mounting evidence of environmental harm and social
impacts, mainstream agronomistis and policy-makers have debatedly
recognized the need for change. 'Sustainable agricultutre' has
become the buzz phrase. But that can mean different things to
different people. We have to ask: sustainable agriculture for whom?
Whose interests are benefiting? And whose are suffering? At issue
is the question of power - of who controls the land and what it
produces. Most of the changes currently under discussion will
actually strengthen the status quo and the underlying causes of the
damage. The result will be greater intensification of farming,
environmental destruction and inequality. There are no simple
off-the-shelf alternatives to industrial agriculture. There are,
however, groups throughout the world, who have contributed to this
report and who are working together on a new approach. An
agriculture that, in Wendell Berry's words, 'depletes neither soil
nor people'. Originally published in 1992
Inequality is not just a problem of poverty and the poor; it is as
much a problem of wealth and the wealthy. The provision of public
services is one area which is increasingly being reconfigured to
extract wealth upward to the 1%, notably through so-called Public
Private Partnerships (PPPs). The push for PPPs is not about
building infrastructure for the benefit of society but about
constructing new subsidies that benefit the already wealthy. In
other words, it is less about financing development than developing
finance. Understanding and exposing these processes is essential if
inequality is to be challenged. But equally important is the need
for critical reflection on how the wealthy are getting away with
it. What does the wealth gap suggest about the need for new forms
of organising by those who would resist elite power? -- .
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