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Deconstructing Dinner: Agri-Business Exposed I (Cargill Part I) (audio)
Jon Steinman, CJLY via Global Public Media
The Agri-Business Exposed Series on Deconstructing Dinner will explore the major agricultural companies whose names are rarely heard by the eating public. Part I and II of the series will take a look at agricultural giant Cargill.
It is fitting to launch this series by exploring the most influential and powerful agri-business in the world; Cargill. As one of the largest private companies in the world, Cargill’s $75.2 billion in sales employs 149,000 people in 63 countries. But the Minnesota-based company utilizes a strategy that situates much of their presence behind the scenes, and upon addressing the scope of this company’s influence, their operations and products make their sales figures and employment statistics close to meaningless. Cargill sets the stage for agriculture and food around the world, and a better understanding of this company, is a better understanding of our dinners.
Guests for Part I of the 2-part Cargill Exposé:
Brewster Kneen, Author/Publisher, The Ram’s Horn (Ottawa, ON) – Brewster was born in Ohio and studied economics and theology in the U.S. and the U.K. before moving to Toronto in 1965. There he produced public affairs programs for CBC Radio, and worked as a consultant to the churches on issues of social and economic justice. In 1971, with his wife Cathleen and their children Jamie and Rebecca, he moved to Nova Scotia, where they farmed until 1986, starting with a cow-calf operation and then developing a large commercial sheep farm. When he stopped farming, he developed a devoted interest to learn more about Cargill than perhaps anyone has ever attempted. The second edition of his book “Invisible Giant” (2002), provides the most current and comprehensive source for any eater interested in learning more about the origins of our food.
John Sauven, Campaign Director, Greenpeace (London, UK) – Greenpeace has been very active in exposing the operations of Cargill in Brazil’s Amazon. Their 2006 report titled “Eating Up The Amazon”, illustrated the soya crisis through an analysis of both Cargill and the European operations of McDonald’s. The report documents the path taken by soya from illegally cleared farms, to Cargill and its customers. With the hope of raising awareness about the company’s activities abroad, Greenpeace has staged a number of protests that have succesfully disrupted Cargill’s operation
(8 Feb 2007)
Vandana Shiva’s Closing Address to the Soil Association Conference.
Rob Hopkins (introduction), Transition Culture
Dr Vandana Shiva is one of the most inspirational and powerful speakers you will ever hear. Her closing lecture to the Soil Association conference (you can hear the podcast here) was electrifying, passionate and sobering. Entitled ‘Taking the Oil Out of Agriculture’ she argued that sustainable agriculture and “working for a living, working with the land, working with the soil, could actually be the most evolved status of being human, not something that should disappear in history and will be put into a dustbin. That’s our common future, everywhere”. We are hoping to be able to include a talk by Vandana in the next Transition Town Totnes programme. Until then, read and enjoy.
Dr. Vandana Shiva: Thank you to all of you for giving me this opportunity to share my work and thoughts with you about how to get oil out of our food. I don’t think it ever had any place in our food. Something went very wrong with industrialised agriculture to introduce oil in an activity which could be done better without it. That’s what the organic movement is about. Fossil fuels entered with the chemicals. They entered with mechanization, and now, increasingly with industrialised farming joining with globalised agriculture, we are eating oil. We have stopped eating food. And on the one hand, the challenge here in the North is how to stop eating oil and how to start eating food again. And the challenge for us in the South is how to keep eating food and make sure everyone has a bit more.
There is increasingly reference to the Carbon Economy and I kind of shudder when carbon is addressed because carbon is what we eat also. I’d rather talk and differentiate between the fossil fuel existence of carbon and the renewable existence of carbon in embodied sunshine transformed into all the edible matter we have.
(13 Feb 2007)
‘Leading the Way to New Food System,’ PASA Blasts Corporate Farming
Chris Torres
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Leaders of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) last week used strong words to reinforce their stance against corporate farming while continuing a decade-and-a-half-long tradition aimed at educating people on practical and innovative aspects of farming, marketing and enhancing the food system.
More than 1,700 people attended the 16th Annual PASA Conference here Feb. 1-3. The event, held every year at the Penn Stater Conference Center, is the largest statewide ag conference in Pennsylvania and perhaps east of the Mississippi River, according to PASA Executive Director Brian Snyder.
This year’s conference featured some hard-hitting speakers, informative and quirky workshops and a provocative film that was described as “challenging the status quo.” ..
(9 Feb 2007)
The article seems to have been removed from the website. -BA
