www.madge.org.au/ Food Inc, Jamie Oliver and urban farms.

The whole underbelly of industrial food was revealed in the film Food Inc which has been showing at the Melbourne Film Festival. It covers farmers who are virtual serfs to agribusiness which dictates how they run their farms. It shows the inside of slaughterhouses and the horrific conditions for the workers and for the animals killed there.

It reports on children dying of food poisoning and families trapped by the unaffordability of fruit and vegetables and their reliance on cheap junk food. The epidemic of diabetes is brought home in a scene where school children raise their hand if they have a diabetic in the family. Nearly all of them raise their hand and most of them have 2 or 3 sufferers in their families.

It shows how a seed cleaner, Moe Parr, was sued by Monsanto. He merely cleaned the seed for farmers to replant but Monsanto said he was encouraging farmers to break the GM patent. His bank records were seized and his friend of 50 years could only be seen in silhouette with him in the film.

The 4 horsies of the Shopocalypse Capitalism, limited resources, climate change, overpopulation of plunderers & politicians.

Fears for the world's poor countries as the rich grab land to grow food John Vidal 3rd July • UN sounds warning after 30m hectares bought up • G8 leaders to discuss 'neo-colonialism' The acquisition of farmland from the world's poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe's farmland targeted in the last six months, reports from UN officials and agriculture experts say. read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/land-grabbing-food-environment

related: "Unequal power relations in the land acquisition deals can put the livelihoods of the poor at risk. Since the state often formally owns the land, the poor run the risk of being pushed off the plot in favour of the investor, without consultation or compensation." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/africa-land-grab

ORGANISE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY Right to Farm! Right to Feed! Right to Eat! http://viacampesina.org/main_en/ Telephone +62-21-7991890