“It certainly seems like an issue that could be ripe for litigation because it’s right on its face discriminating against people for sexual orientation or #transgender status.”
More than half of Gaza’s agricultural land, crucial for feeding the war-ravaged territory’s hungry population, has been degraded by conflict, satellite images analysed by the UN show.
“This deterioration is attributed to conflict-related activities, including razing, heavy vehicle movement, bombing, and shelling,” #UNOSAT said, adding that the decline marked a 30 percent increase in damaged agricultural land since it published its last analysis in April.
"#Agriculture is the biggest offender, accounting for nearly three-quarters of human-related, #NitrousOxide in the 10 years to 2020, the report said.
Other culprits were fossil fuels, waste and wastewater, and biomass burning.
In the four decades to 2020, agricultural emissions of the gas surged 67 per cent, it found, with most of the blame placed on nitrogen-based #fertilisers and animal waste."
THREAD: This might sound crazy, but in Ursula von der Leyen's official schedule, which you can view online, there wasn’t a single meeting with environmental activists listed at any time in the past year. What we did find, in the past 4 months alone, were 3 separate meetings with farming groups.
Assyrian conquest and ruralization: unveiling territorial dynamics in the provinces of Magiddû and Samerina
“This study has illustrated that the Assyrian territorial strategy implemented in the provinces of Magiddû and Samerina, established upon the remnants of the Kingdom of Israel, manifested as clusters of sites, termed ‘islands of control’. These ‘islands’ comprised a rural landscape overseen by the principal cities of Tel Dan, Megiddo and Samaria. This territorial approach mirrors a broader modus operandi adopted by the Assyrians across their empire to manage agricultural production.”
Squitieri, A. (2024) ‘Assyrian conquest and ruralization: unveiling territorial dynamics in the provinces of Magiddû and Samerina’, Levant, pp. 1–20. doi: https://www.doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2024.2351677.
In 2023, we broke the story of #Texas Department of #Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller's transphobic dress code. One year later, employees are still suffering under this policy.
Analysis from the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has found that 33.13 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land was damaged as of February 2024.
The decline in the health and density of the crops was caused by razing, heavy vehicle activity, bombing, shelling and conflict more generally, UNOSAT said.
Excerpt:
"There was even a moment, not too long ago, when things might have changed.
In 2019, the newspaper The Hindu BusinessLine reported on an unusually high number of hysterectomies among female sugar-cane cutters in Maharashtra. In response, a state lawmaker, along with a team of researchers, launched an investigation. They surveyed thousands of women.
Their report that year described horrible working conditions and directly linked the high hysterectomy rate to the sugar industry. Unable to take time off during pregnancy or for doctor visits, women have no choice but to seek the surgery, the report concluded.
By happenstance, Coca-Cola issued its own report that year. After unrelated accusations out of Brazil and Cambodia about land-grabbing, Coca-Cola had hired a firm to audit its supply chain in several countries.
The auditors, from a group called Arche Advisors, visited 123 farms in Maharashtra and a neighboring state with a small sugar industry.
They found children at about half of them. Many had simply migrated with their families, but Arche’s report found children cutting, carrying and bundling sugar cane at 12 farms.
Nearly every laborer interviewed by reporters said children commonly worked in the sugar fields. The youngest ones do chores. Older ones perform all the work of cane cutters. A Times photographer saw children working in the fields.
The 2019 report includes an interview with a 10-year-old girl who “loves to go to school,” but instead works alongside her parents.
“She picks the cut cane and stacks it into a bundle, which her parents then load onto the truck,” the report says.
Arche noted that Coca-Cola suppliers did not provide toilets or shelter. And it cited “flags in the area of forced labor.” Only a few of the mills it surveyed had policies on bonded or child labor, and those applied only to the mills, not the farms.
The government report called on factories to provide water, toilets, basic sanitation and the minimum wage.
Few if any changes have been carried out.
Major buyers like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola say they hold their suppliers to exacting standards for labor rights. But that promise is only as good as their willingness to monitor thousands of farms at the base of their supply chains.
That rarely happens. An executive at NSL Sugars, a Coca-Cola and PepsiCo franchisee supplier that has mills around the country, said that soda-company representatives could be scrupulous in asking about sugar quality, production efficiency and environmental issues. Labor issues in the fields, he said, would almost never come up.
Soda-company inspectors seldom if ever visit the farms from which NSL sources its sugar cane, the executive said. The PepsiCo franchisee, Varun Beverages, did not respond to calls for comment.
Mill owners, too, rarely visit the fields. Executives at Dalmia and NSL Sugars say they keep virtually no records on their laborers.
“No one from the Dalmia factory has ever visited us in the tents or the fields,” said Anita Bhaisahab Waghmare, a laborer in her 40s who has worked at farms supplying Dalmia all her life and said she had a hysterectomy that she now regretted.
Ed Potter, the former head of global workplace rights at Coca-Cola, said the company had conducted many human rights audits during his tenure. But with so many suppliers, oversight can seem random.
“Imagine your hands going through some sand,” he said. “What you deal with is what sticks to your fingers. Most sand doesn’t stick to your fingers. But sometimes you get lucky.”
Sanjay Khatal, the managing director of a major lobbying group for sugar mills, said that mill owners could not provide any worker benefits without being seen as direct employers. That would raise costs and jeopardize the whole system.
“It is the very existence of the industry which can come into question,” he said."
Excerpt:
"There was even a moment, not too long ago, when things might have changed.
In 2019, the newspaper The Hindu BusinessLine reported on an unusually high number of hysterectomies among female sugar-cane cutters in Maharashtra. In response, a state lawmaker, along with a team of researchers, launched an investigation. They surveyed thousands of women.
Their report that year described horrible working conditions and directly linked the high hysterectomy rate to the sugar industry. Unable to take time off during pregnancy or for doctor visits, women have no choice but to seek the surgery, the report concluded.
By happenstance, Coca-Cola issued its own report that year. After unrelated accusations out of Brazil and Cambodia about land-grabbing, Coca-Cola had hired a firm to audit its supply chain in several countries.
The auditors, from a group called Arche Advisors, visited 123 farms in Maharashtra and a neighboring state with a small sugar industry.
They found children at about half of them. Many had simply migrated with their families, but Arche’s report found children cutting, carrying and bundling sugar cane at 12 farms.
Nearly every laborer interviewed by reporters said children commonly worked in the sugar fields. The youngest ones do chores. Older ones perform all the work of cane cutters. A Times photographer saw children working in the fields.
The 2019 report includes an interview with a 10-year-old girl who “loves to go to school,” but instead works alongside her parents.
“She picks the cut cane and stacks it into a bundle, which her parents then load onto the truck,” the report says.
Arche noted that Coca-Cola suppliers did not provide toilets or shelter. And it cited “flags in the area of forced labor.” Only a few of the mills it surveyed had policies on bonded or child labor, and those applied only to the mills, not the farms.
The government report called on factories to provide water, toilets, basic sanitation and the minimum wage.
Few if any changes have been carried out.
Major buyers like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola say they hold their suppliers to exacting standards for labor rights. But that promise is only as good as their willingness to monitor thousands of farms at the base of their supply chains.
That rarely happens. An executive at NSL Sugars, a Coca-Cola and PepsiCo franchisee supplier that has mills around the country, said that soda-company representatives could be scrupulous in asking about sugar quality, production efficiency and environmental issues. Labor issues in the fields, he said, would almost never come up.
Soda-company inspectors seldom if ever visit the farms from which NSL sources its sugar cane, the executive said. The PepsiCo franchisee, Varun Beverages, did not respond to calls for comment.
Mill owners, too, rarely visit the fields. Executives at Dalmia and NSL Sugars say they keep virtually no records on their laborers.
“No one from the Dalmia factory has ever visited us in the tents or the fields,” said Anita Bhaisahab Waghmare, a laborer in her 40s who has worked at farms supplying Dalmia all her life and said she had a hysterectomy that she now regretted.
Ed Potter, the former head of global workplace rights at Coca-Cola, said the company had conducted many human rights audits during his tenure. But with so many suppliers, oversight can seem random.
“Imagine your hands going through some sand,” he said. “What you deal with is what sticks to your fingers. Most sand doesn’t stick to your fingers. But sometimes you get lucky.”
Sanjay Khatal, the managing director of a major lobbying group for sugar mills, said that mill owners could not provide any worker benefits without being seen as direct employers. That would raise costs and jeopardize the whole system.
“It is the very existence of the industry which can come into question,” he said."
At the time of World War I, there were around 950,000 Black farmers who owned about 20 million acres of land. Today, there are fewer than 50,000 Black farmers, and just 25% of that land is in Black hands. Artist, activist and farmer Dail Chambers spoke to Capital B.'s Adam Mahoney about how she is working to regain a relationship with the land and help Black folk thrive.
"Both sugar trade and spice trade were economic foundations of early European geographic expansion and colonial capitalism. Frankish settlement in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Syria-Palestine may be seen as, arguably, the earliest example of colonial capitalism, preceding early sixteenth-century Portuguese conquests of spice-trading coastal outposts of India, south-east Asia and the Arabian peninsula."
The effects of global heating are already being felt, and communities must take steps to prepare for the inevitable challenges ahead. This includes implementing resilient infrastructure, developing early warning systems for extreme weather events, and promoting sustainable #agriculture
practices.
#StormHenk the first named storm of 2024, brought heavy rainfall and strong winds to large parts of the UK.
"For the first time there will be a dedicated food day, and #food, #agriculture and #water will be the focus of at least 22 major events during the fortnight of #COP28 talks in Dubai.
For the first time, too, the FAO will outline how food systems must change for the world to stay within the globally agreed goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels."
"The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the storm, which made landfall in Taylor County at Category 3 strength before crossing other areas of rural North Florida, had its biggest impact on such things as #cattle and #poultry operations, followed by #FieldCrops."