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News and Updates: Topics

  • Agribusiness (92)
    • Agritoxins (30)
    • Biofuels (8)
    • Food Sovereignty and Sustainability (43)
    • General (13)
    • GMOs (14)
    • Monoculture (18)
    • Neoliberalism (36)
    • Seed Control (4)
  • Agrarian Reform (112)
  • Brazilian Politics Society and Economy (32)
  • Oppression of MST and Social Movements (43)
  • Florestan Fernandes National School (3)
  • MST and Working Class Unity (25)
  • MST Campaigns (10)
  • MST News and Events (9)
  • MST Urgent Actions (28)
  • MST Informas (106)
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<p />Nick Olle/The Global Mail</a></p>
<p>

Occupy Brazil: The Landless Dig In

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News and Updates: Agribusiness

The Dilemma of Agrarian Reform in Brazil's Agribusiness

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Brazilian Government | General | Monoculture | Neoliberalism | Agrarian Reform

BrJoao Pedri Stedukeazilian society faces, in the rural milieu, distinct problems needing different solutions. We have serious problems and emergencies that require urgent action. There are about 150,000 families of landless laborers living under black tarps, camping, fighting for the rights that are in the Constitution to have land to work. For this problem, the...

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Sign the Petition Against the Appointment of Katia Abreu to the Cabinet of [President] Dilma [Rousseff]

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability | General | Agrarian Reform | Brazilian Politics Society and Economy

The Brazil Rainforest Movement launched an internet petition against the appointment of Senator Katia Abreu (PSD - TO) for the Katie Abreuagriculture ministry of President Dilma Rousseff.

"The appointment of Katia Abreu would represent another step toward the interests of landowners and multinational agribusiness. If this action is confirmed it would be construed by us...

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Occupy Brazil: The Landless Dig In (And Ditch The Pesticides)

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability | General | GMOs

By  Nick OlleSeptember 20, 2012

In Brazil, less than two per cent of the population owns more than half of the nation’s territory. Over almost...

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Brazilian court halts Belo Monte hydro-electric dam project

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government | General | Neoliberalism | Agrarian Reform

A federal court in Brazil has ordered the immediate suspension of work on the huge Belo Monte hydro-electric dam in the The dam project has angered the Indigenous communitiesAmazon.

The court says local indigenous people have not been properly consulted. Officials point...

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"Agrarian Reform has stopped completely," said MST Leader

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Brazilian Government | General | MST Occupations and Demonstrations | GMOs | Monoculture | Neoliberalism | Agrarian Reform

By Jose Coutinho Junior

The Minister of Agrarian Development (MDA), Pepe Vargas, in an interview with Carta Maior declared the decrease in the coming years of the number of families settled pursuant to agrarian reform.
 
The minister also claims that the number of families living in the encampments has decreased. For Alexandre Conceição, from the National Coordination of the MST, the statements mask the reality of the Brazilian countryside.

Check out the...

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Agri-Business, Pesticides and "Agri-Cancer"

Agribusiness | Agritoxins

latifundio mataMay 31, 2012 by Brasil do Fato

The three words above are not mere propaganda. Over the past ten years Brazilian agribusiness has taken over as the form of production in agriculture. It is a model of agricultural production, now subordinated to the interests of finance capital and transnational...

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FINAL DECLARATION OF THE PEOPLES’ SUMMIT AT RIO+20

Agribusiness | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability | Plans and Theories | Neoliberalism | Worldwide Peasant Struggles | Agrarian Reform | MST Informas

cupulaFINAL DECLARATION OF THE PEOPLES’ SUMMIT AT RIO+20 FOR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN DEFENSE OF THE COMMONS, AGAINST THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE

Social and popular movements, unions, peoples and organizations of civil society from all over the world who were present at the Peoples Summit...

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Dilma – Veto All of It! In Defense of the Forest Code

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government | Agrarian Reform

codeby Luiz Zarref

Leader of La Via Campesina Brasil

The bill that amends the Brazilian Forest Code, voted on this week in the Chamber of Deputies, represents the maximum agenda of the ruralists. The caucus that supports agribusiness and defends those who commit environmental crimes showed their unity and succeeded in approving language so...

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In Dilma Visit, Protesters Recall Martyrs of the Amazon

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government | Neoliberalism | Agrarian Reform | MST and Working Class Unity

By Felipe Milanez in WashingtonApril 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassy

The Embassy of Brazil in Washington, a modernist building that contrasts with the classical properties of the beautiful Embassy Row, the sector of embassies of the U.S. capital, hosted on Monday April 9th a march that brought together about one...

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Vale Voted "Worst Company in the World"

Agribusiness | General | Neoliberalism

The votes are in! Vale, the Brazilian mining company, has been voted the worst company in the world.  Vale received 25,042 votes edging out Tepco, Japan’s large energy company which blatantly disregarded structural safety of its nuclear plants resulting in the post-tsunami disaster.

...

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Statement by Joao Pedro Stedile in meeting with President Dilma

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Brazilian Government | Agrarian Reform

jpsTranscription of the talk by João Pedro Stedile, of the MST, in the meeting between Dilma and representatives of civil society held on January 26 2012 during the Thematic Social Forum in Porto Alegre.

 “In the name of the rural social movements, I...

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General Director of FAO visits the MST agrarian reform store in Porto Alegre

Agribusiness | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability | Agrarian Reform

FAO directorWhile visiting the MST Agrarian Reform  Store in the public market of Porto Allegre (RS), Jose Graziano da Silva, General Director of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) saw the successful products derived from settlements for agrarian reform and family farming.

 Amid the more than 250 products sold by the...

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Major Changes in the Countryside Opens the Perspective of the MST to Reposition Itself in the Struggle

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | GMOs | Monoculture | Plans and Theories | Neoliberalism | Agrarian Reform | Brazilian Politics Society and Economy

By Luiz Felipe AlbuquerqueMST March

Agriculture has undergone a major transformation in Brazil over the past 10 years, with the advancement of the agribusiness model. This model is based on: the production of monocultures on large estates; in an alliance of capitalist farmers, transnational corporations and financial capital; a mechanization that promotes expelling...

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MST Informa #191: Summary of the past year and perspectives for 2012

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Brazilian Government | General | MST Occupations and Demonstrations | MST Victories | Plans and Theories | Agrarian Reform | MST Campaigns | MST Informas

flag

The year is ending and again we have the feeling of accomplishment for all the struggles, activities, and alliances that we’ve built and engaged in with all the various sectors of the working class. In another difficult year we had to carry out great struggles against agribusiness that continues its offensive against our lands,...

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CTNBio approves release of transgenic soya; entities protest

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | GMOs | Seed Control

With 15 votes, five requests for diligence and two abstentions, the National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) approved on the Fejaomorning of Thursday (September 15, 2011), the commercial release of transgenic soya, developed by researchers at Embrapa [Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation].

The request for release of the variety, resistant to...

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If Bayer itself is not good: it’s the chemical warfare agents, pesticides and heroin

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Neoliberalism

bayer poisonEverywhere in the world large multinationals determine the political game. One of the biggest global players is Bayer AG, present in all countries. The former subsidiaries of IG Farben (BASF, Bayer and Hoechst) dominate the European chemical industry and have an annual volume of 90 billion euros. No government or political institution, can escape the influence of this...

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The Debts and Doubts for Family Farming

Agribusiness | Neoliberalism | Brazilian Politics Society and Economy

beans by Gerson Teixeira

Groups representing rural workers are negotiating measures with the government which would ease rural-credit debts owed by settled and family farmers.

These negotiations have been in ongoing since 2003, when the debts belonging to these groups began to be covered by official renegotiation instruments. These...

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Degradation of Legal Amazônia increases 35%, says the Imazon Institute

Agribusiness | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability | Monoculture

deforestationIn Amazonia, 299 square kilometers of forest were degraded in March of this year, an increase of 35% compared to the same period of 2010, when the area affected was 220 square kilometers. This data from the Deforestation Alert System (Sistema de Alerta de Desmatamento or SAD) was included in the last report from the...

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Sales of pesticides increase in Brazil

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability | Monoculture

 sprayingBy Vivian Fernandes

The global market for pesticide sales could have a new leader within the year. At the current moment the Brazilian economy – with a rise in commodity prices and the valuation of the real against the dollar – should put Brazil in first place for collection of tax revenues on sales of...

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In Defense of the Forest Code

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government | Agrarian Reform | Brazilian Politics Society and Economy

codigoThe report amending the Forest Code, presented by congressman Aldo Rebelo (Communist Party of Brazil [PCdoB]) and approved by the House of Representatives Special Commission benefits the large landholders of Agribusiness.

 Even more worrisome for Agrarian Reform is the amnesty granted to all rural...

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“It’s impossible to fight poverty without Agrarian Reform”

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government | Agrarian Reform | Brazilian Politics Society and Economy

agroindustryBy Rafael Soriano

President Dilma Rouseff came to Alagoas to launch the program “Water for everyone” and an agroindustry producing manioc flour.  The day took a political tone when the social movements linked to the fight for the land – the MST, the Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da...

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"The grasslands is the area targeted for the advance of monoculture", states Dom Tomás

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government | GMOs | Monoculture | Seed Control | Agrarian Reform | Oppression of MST and Social Movements

tomasAt 88 years of age, the bishop emeritus of Goiás, Dom Tomas Balduíno, lives in the Dominican Monastery of  St. Jude Thaddeus in Goiânia, but travels throughout the world at the invitation of groups who ask him to speak about the latifúndio, monoculture, and water....

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Blood in the Amazon: Brazilian Activists Murdered as Deforestation Increases: More on the Murders of Activists

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Oppression of MST and Social Movements

By Benjamin Dangl

Early in the morning on May 24, in the northern Brazilian Amazon, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva got onto a motorcycle near the nature reserve they had worked on for over two decades. As the couple rode past the jungle they dedicated their lives to protecting, gunmen hiding near a bridge opened fire, killing them both.

Brazilian law enforcement officials said that the killing appeared to be the work of hired gunmen...

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Protestors close Vale railway to demand the killers of rural activists be imprisoned

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Oppression of MST and Social Movements

a floresta choraBy João Márcio (Marabá, Pará)

 After an overnight vigil, peasant movements, students, teachers from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) and settled families of the MST sealed off the Carajás railway bridge this Thursday. The bridge stands over the River Tocantins...

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Agroextractivist leader executed in Pará

Agribusiness | Agritoxins | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability | Brazilian Politics Society and Economy

jose claudio and maria do espiritu santoAgroextractivist José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo were...

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Chamber of Deputies approves devastation of the Forest Code under the orders of agribusiness

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government

The Chamber of Deputies decided today that Brazil should not be the country of the future. By 410 votes to only 63, federal deputies approved changes to the Brazilian Forest Code that are set to compromise the country's biodiversity as well as the sustainability of Brazilian agriculture. “Brazil woke up this morning with news of the murder of one of the Amazon Rainforest's strongest advocates,” announced Paulo Adario, director...

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Movements and NGOs march against the new Forest Code

Agribusiness | Brazilian Government

marchWith the vote on reform of Brazil's Forest Code set for this Tuesday (24), fifteen hundred activists from civil society organizations marched this morning on the Ministries Esplanade in Brasília. “We are opposed to changes that will affect familial and peasant farming. The report drawn up by Aldo [Aldo...

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Agribusiness Contaminated the Pardo River with Pesticides, in the Interior of São Paulo State

Agribusiness | Agritoxins

The contamination of the Pardo River, in the interior of SP, agricultural pesticides can cripple their drinking water due to the costs of pardo riverconstructing a water treatment plant that would eliminate these substances.

The statement is from professor of chemistry Cristina Pereira Rosa Paschoalato of Unaerp (University of Ribeirao Preto...

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Agribusiness uses the food crisis to pass new Forest Code

Agribusiness | Food Sovereignty and Sustainability

k. abreuBy Valéria Nader
From this point forward, the agribusiness 'shock troops' can now count on the support of one of the most powerful speakers with the widest visibility and circulation in the country, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.

Kátia Abreu, Senator of the...

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Pesticides, the poison of agribusiness, pollute food and the environment

Agribusiness | MST Informas

agribusinessThe coming together of financial capital and the large farming estates has brought about what is called ‘modern’ agribusiness. The logic of land exploitation – large expanses; monocropping; the growing of grains just for export; mechanization and low salaries – needs yet another poisonous ingredient: more than a billion...

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