The groups say carbon markets are part of a larger carbon colonialism in which war is one of the main contemporary factors deepening the climate, ecological and social crises.| grain.org
This Oct 22, Witoon Lianchamroon of BIOTHAI goes to court over defamation charges from the giant Thai company CPF. A UN human rights representative calls it a SLAPP lawsuit, designed to silence criticism over a tilapia outbreak that has devastated farmers.| grain.org
Ghana was once self-sufficient in chicken. Then imports pushed by the World Bank decimated local farms. Now 90% of its poultry needs are imported. Today, the chicken business across Africa is fast becoming industrialised, threatening local diversity.| grain.org
New dataset from GRAIN shows how free trade agreements are used to push countries to adopt laws that criminalise seed saving and undermine food sovereignty. The UAE is now pushing UPOV through FTAs with partners like Cambodia, Malaysia and Mauritius. We must stop UPOV to protect farmers rights to seeds.| grain.org | en
A few words on the passing of our dear friend and comrade Silvia Rodríguez Cervantes| grain.org | en
As supermarkets expand, traditional food systems shrink, endangering heritage diets and the benefits they offer to human health. In this edition, we highlight how local food systems should be the entry point for addressing issues like nutrition, labour conditions, and community strengthening.| grain.org | en
The seed industry is using legal strategy through intellectual property rights and restrictive marketing laws to expand their footprint and profits. Is using the same legal framework the best strategy to fight back?| grain.org | en
In an important new article, Michel Pimbert, explains why the transition to agroecology is never going to be financed without seriously taking on the structures of finance itself. To finance change, he says, we have to change finance. We couldn’t agree more.| grain.org | en
The Bezos Earth Fund—the biggest climate philanthropy—has spent only 1/4 of its $10 billion pledge halfway through its 10-year mission. With new CEO Tom Taylor (ex-Amazon AI), expect a bigger push for carbon markets in climate talks like UN COPs.| grain.org | en
GRAIN is looking to a hire an individual or a team to conduct an external evaluation of its work in early 2026.| grain.org | en
For decades, communities neighbouring the Socfin group's plantations worldwide have railed against the company's abusive practices. Now their complaints have been vindicated by a surprising source: Socfin's own paid consultants.| grain.org | en
New report by ETC Group & GRAIN reveals how extreme corporate concentration in agribusiness lets a handful of giant companies rig prices, capture governments, and erase alternatives—accelerating climate breakdown and ecological collapse.| grain.org | en
Saudi & UAE investors see the "Green Pakistan Initiative" as a strategic food security move, where they can pour billions into farmland. But with the crops destined for Gulf markets, can Pakistan feed its own people?| grain.org | en
From Argentina’s grassroots food networks to Sri Lanka’s united street vendors to Africa’s cross-border solidarity—food workers are organising for justice. Their needs must be central. Our food sovereignty depends on it. We celebrate their resistance.| grain.org | en
A word of respect for Dorothy Myers, the first chair of GRAIN's Board.| grain.org | en
Join us on May 22, 12h30 Delhi/14h Jakarta/17h Sydney, to expose how private equity, pension & wealth funds exploit communities—and how we fight back.| grain.org | en
UPOV has destroyed biodiversity and made farmers hostage of seed corporations. On 2 December 2021, to mark six decades of UPOV's seed privatisation, hundreds of civil society and farmers' groups around the world came together to oppose the corporate hijack of seed systems and demand the dismantling of UPOV. Join some 400 groups and individuals participating in the campaign.| grain.org | en
Most workers—especially those who feed us—lack retirement security. Farmers, farmworkers, fishers & food vendors often get little to nothing. But some countries offer hope. Food sovereignty must mean pensions for all!| grain.org | en
Advancing food sovereignty in the face of systemic attacks on the global food system. GRAIN with partners and allies around the world took on free trade, UPOV, carbon land grabs and industrial animal ag. Read about it in GRAIN’s 2024 Highlights report.| grain.org | en
From India to Uganda and Mexico, rural women reveal the layers of adversity they endure, as well as their resilience in challenging industrial agriculture. Here are some of their stories.| grain.org | en
Workers around the world are facing a dramatic decline in pension coverage. At the same time, pension funds are cashing in on the privatisation of land, water and public services. Join our webinar to discuss how to resist pension fund capitalism.| grain.org | en
Sudan is an important part of the UAE's growing logistics empire with the country's farmland a highly coveted asset. Amidst the brutal war, Sudanese farmers & movements fight back, demanding control over their lands. This crisis needs global attention.| grain.org | en
In 2008 Coexca set up a mega pig farm in Chile, backed by investments from Denmark, Chile & the Netherlands. Ever since, the community of San Javier has been denouncing the company's pollution & impacts on the health and farming of rural people.| grain.org | en
Food sovereignty is clearly not only about food production-- about who produces food and how food is produced. It requires access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food, and so, we cannot talk about food sovereignty without talking about food distribution-- about who distributes food and how is it distributed.| grain.org | en
Despite scandals in carbon credit markets & controversial science, corporations are pushing carbon farming to avoid cutting emissions in their supply chains. These schemes target large farms in the Global North and small farmers in the South.| grain.org | en
Following a fragile ceasefire, Israel is intensifying its violent seizure of Palestinian lands in the West Bank. Settler violence is used to block farmers from accessing their land, while calls for a "second Nakba" grow louder.| grain.org | en
As 2024 drew to a close, the International Land Coalition widely circulated a new report arguing that data supplied by its partners, combined with improved land rights, can turn today's massive land grab for carbon offset projects into a win-win situation. This is delusional and wrong.| grain.org | en
Big farming projects in North Africa’s deserts are presented as a response to food insecurity. But aquifers will be depleted and costs will be high. While small farmers are pushed out, there's no guarantee that production will be for local people.| grain.org | en
In November, grassroots organizations and community activists from 10 countries, all part of the Informal Alliance against the Expansion of Industrial Monocultures, convened at their General Assembly to reaffirm their conviction to defending ancestral lands and to continue resisting neo-colonial agendas and corporate encroachment on community territories.| grain.org | en
Industrial aquaculture’s rapid growth is often touted as vital for global food security, but this $300 billion industry—dominated by a few multinationals—relies on government backing to expand into new territories, often at great cost to local communities.| grain.org | en
The supermarketisation of food markets is not only happening in Asia. It is already well advanced in the Americas and Europe, and is now slowly spreading in Africa, from South Africa and a few countries in North Africa to the rest of the continent. Supermarkets do not just push out traditional, local markets. They have dramatic impacts on people's diets and the ways in which foods are produced.| grain.org | en
Through plant breeders’ rights, patents, and seed marketing laws, big corporations are stripping away people’s right to save, exchange and reproduce seeds. From Argentina to Zambia, peasants, indigenous people and civil society are united in resistance.| grain.org | en
National elites and foreign investors in Africa will be protected by the AfCFTA. But the same cannot be said for local communities and their rights over agricultural land. An analysis from GRAIN and Mohamed Coulibaly.| grain.org | en
In Mexico, the agribusiness strategy consists of grabbing land and water, eroding the fabric of communities, and profiting from the exploitation of labour. But there are many examples of communities struggling to maintain food sovereignty.| grain.org | en
While the media spotlight is often on climate change-induced droughts, little is being said about the corporate-driven water scarcity these projects are inflicting upon people across Africa. Driven by the goal of expanding export production of water-intensive crops, governments are auctioning Africa’s water resources to the highest bidder. The new rush for land on the continent to grow trees for carbon credits is making this worse.| grain.org | en
We must stop FTAs and bring an end to the regime they have instilled in so many countries. It's not just about how we trade and invest. We have to push social interests first. Trade and investment should support them, not the other way around. Only then might we get on the right path.| grain.org | en
Bayer and Cargill are among the many agrifood corporations benefiting from farmers data being extracted by Big tech like Microsoft. A new report reveals how farmers' data in countries like India & China has become incredibly profitable.| grain.org | en
The meat industry is in the hands of a few companies that control a market worth over US$200 billion. In Latin America, these groups threaten, displace and criminalise local communities.| grain.org | en
Billions in carbon credits, but at what cost? GRAIN dataset exposes how fossil fuel giants & "carbon cowboys" are driving land grabs in the global South, displacing communities and deepening the climate crisis.| grain.org | en
As we’ve seen in many examples highlighted in our previous bulletins, local or territorial markets are far more resilient than the corporate models. They are rooted in communities, landscapes, and cultures. IPES's latest report brings much evidence to show how these shorter food webs and markets are key in ensuring food and nutrition access, including to lower income communities.| grain.org | en
Rising production costs and chemical pesticide bans are pushing top agrochemical corporations like Bayer, BASF & Yara to the global bioinputs market. Yet, the impact might be just as harmful to the environment and farmers as the chemical alternatives.| grain.org | en
As the first free trade agreement in contemporary history turns 30, it’s a good time to ask why this particular treaty played such a watershed role in the history of the global regime of trade and investment? To what extent this FTA has been the blueprint for a new global dynamic between governments, and between governments and their societies? For movements confronting free trade across continents, delving into the intricacies of NAFTA offers valuable insights.| grain.org | en
GRAIN reaffirms its solidarity and commitment to the Palestinian people’s struggle for decolonisation, self-determination and sovereignty over land, water and other resources. We call for an immediate end to the genocide and an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. We also express our solidarity with all those organising and calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.| grain.org | en
Maize and seeds have been fundamental to the food sovereignty of Mesoamerica. Today, the free use and exchange of seeds is threatened by ‘UPOV laws’ promoted by transnational seed companies. Mesoamerican organisations are joining forces to resist and denounce the advance of these laws and regulations.| grain.org | en
Beyond tariffs and revenue loss, new FTAs in South Asia signal a broader shift. Today, trade agreements serve major investors and corporations, shaping legal frameworks in their favour, undermining the region's sovereignty in regards to food, rights and more.| grain.org | en
We call on all organizations, movements, human rights defenders, and supporters to sign this petition to urge the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority to declare Gaza a famine-stricken area and take the necessary measures to protect its inhabitants.| grain.org | en
Given the large scope of traditional markets globally, important questions arise from a recent UN initiative. What would food hygiene control measures mean for the local traders and street food vendors, given that traditional markets and street vendors are mostly informal and unstructured?| grain.org | en
Coalitions and collective action were crucial to challenging corporate power and advancing food sovereignty in 2023. Get an update on the struggles around trade, land, seeds and climate in GRAIN's annual report.| grain.org | en
How does Brazil become an agribusiness laboratory? The alliance between finance capital and large estates threatens future dispossession. Landless, homeless and waterless majorities could receive rent if they finance those they expropriate.| grain.org | en
The resilience of farmers, consumers in the Philippines against Golden Rice, Bt eggplant and other GMO crops in their countries which have been vindicated by the Supreme Court have become a testament that people’s persistence prevails in the face of corporate capture of our agriculture and food system.| grain.org
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems| grain.org
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems| grain.org
En todos los países analizados en este informe, los catastros con georreferenciación se convierten en un requisito tanto para el proceso de regularización de la tierra como para el acceso a otras políticas públicas y de crédito en el sistema financiero por el inmueble rural. Hay una inversión masiva del Banco Mundial para digitalizar la gobernanza de la tierra y de los recursos naturales sobre ella, como los 45 millones 500 mil dólares específicos para inscribir loa inmuebles rurales...| grain.org
The UAE has amassed almost one million hectares of farm operations around the world. They are connected to a tightly controlled network of ports and logistics platforms, overlapping with geopolitical and military interests. What’s at stake?| grain.org
There is no way to deal with the climate crisis without addressing how we produce and consume food. In this new poster, GRAIN breaks down the culprits and the solutions when it comes to food and the climate crisis.| grain.org
Farmers’ protests surge in 65 countries, yet global food prices are at historic highs. If farmers aren't benefiting from high food prices, who is?| grain.org
UN climate talks are increasingly being used to cut carbon deals, not emissions. This is the Davos-isation of COP. In this article, GRAIN looks at how this corporate capture played out in the area of food and agriculture, the source of one-third of global emissions.| grain.org
This year's COP28 will showcase regenerative agriculture prominently, and the term is gaining traction in policy circles, investor conferences and supermarket shelves. But it is just the latest iteration of an on-going corporate strategy to undercut support for agroecology and shore up corporate profits amid multiple crises caused by the model of industrial agriculture they depend on.| grain.org
Pension fund managers, private equity firms and other financial players are moving aggressively to snatch up lands around the world with access to water for irrigation. Their strategy is to pump as much water as they can and as fast as they can into the production of crops, like fruits and nuts, that reap high prices in export markets.| grain.org
A handful of actors form the centre of gravity of global agricultural investing by sovereign wealth funds. Find out what “sovereign wealth funds” are and how they go against people’s struggles for foodsovereignty.| grain.org
As UPOV has expanded, the global seed market has been taken over by a cartel of agrochemical companies. Today, just four of these companies control half of the US$47 billion seed market. They also control 75% of the global agrochemicals market. This is not a coincidence.| grain.org
