Agriculture

Climate crisis, food production and the rising risk of pandemics

Climate change, government policies and agribusiness farming are affecting the environment in which animals, including humans, live. But could they also be impacting on the spread of diseases?

Are belching cows really driving climate change?

The debate on agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gases has been perverted to deflect blame onto farmers and avoid talking about real solutions.

Film exposes slavery in South East Asian fishing industry

This Australian-made film dramatises the experience of a 14-year-old Cambodian boy who is tricked into boarding a fishing vessel, where he is enslaved.

Venezuelan food houses: a last trench against the US blockade

Food Houses, Casas de Alimentación, are one of the trenches combating the impact of the US economic war on Venezuela, writes Marco Teruggi.

On guardianship of the biosphere

Eating meat is increasingly condemned as an unethical choice that murders sentient beings. But we need to understand that more animals die in plant food production than in abattoirs, writes Elena Garcia.

Vegan Rising: 'Our target is the system, not farmers'

The nationwide civil disobedience actions by animal rights activists on April 8 caused a media furore. Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly’s Mary Merkenich spoke to Vegan Rising campaign director Kristin Leigh, who helped organised the action in Melbourne, about their protest tactics and aims.

Ecological agriculture needs to be made a priority

Alan Broughton takes a look at why the majority of farmers are still holding on to chemical methods and what can be done to increase the ecological uptake.

New maps of land destruction show why people flee Central America

A new map developed at the University of Cincinnati illustrates one motivating force behind migrant caravans leaving Guatemala and Honduras to reach the United States.

UC geography professor Tomasz Stepinski has turned high-resolution satellite images from the European Space Agency into one of the most detailed looks so far at how people are reshaping the planet.

Stepinski said: “Right now there are caravans of people walking to the United States. Many of them are coming from Guatemala.â€

Wave of red as West Bengal farmers march for rights

Organised under the banners of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) of the Communist Party of India (Marxist),  from Singur towards Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal, on November 27.

The march culminated in front of Governor Raj Bhavan’s house the next day to demand cultivable lands be returned to the farmers.

Capitalism’s abuse of animals degrades us all

Humans experience the brutality of capitalism in wars, harsh working conditions and widespread poverty caused by a class-based society. Every minute a child dies a preventable death.

Capitalism has also been waging a war on animals.

Brazilian social leader: 'We defeated the military dictatorship, we'll defeat Bolsonaro'

Shockwaves were sent around the world when fascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro won 55% in the second round in Brazil’s presidential elections on October 28, defeating Fernando Haddad of the Workers’ Party (PT).

Farmers: ‘Don’t pray for rain, take action on climate change’

We don’t need to pray for rain, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison has suggested, we need to take serious climate action now, was the blunt message farmers delivered to federal parliament on September 10. 

The farmers said the drought gripping NSW and Queensland had to be a wake-up call for politicians to take climate change seriously.

They also raised concerns that the Coalition government is attempting to stymie the development of wind power, which provides income for farmers and rural communities when agricultural income falls.