Environmental for Food Justice

EU No Patents protest. Munich. Photo credit: No Patents on Seed! Monsanto wants patent on severed broccoli heads NO PATENTS CAMPAIGN IN EU OPPOSED TO OWNERSHIP OF NON-GMO SEEDS Devon G. Peña | Shoreline, WA | March 10, 2014 The No Patents on Seeds Campaign is reporting out of Munich (12.3.2014) that there is very strong and broad opposition against the European patent EP 1597965 granted to Monsanto-owned Seminis, Inc.  Capitalist copycats seem to always want to imagine that they have invented things that exist that are actually by-products of the creativity of farmers and plant breeders. The target this time is a variation of the broccoli plant, derived from conventional breeding, and seen by the Gene Giant as an invention because “it grows in such a way as to allow mechanical harvesting.” The No Patents on Seeds organization states that, if granted, “…the patent covers the plants, the seeds, and the ‘severed broccoli head’ as an invention” and also “covers a ‘plurality of broccol...

Urban garden in the Álvaro Obregón Delegation. Credit: Excelsior. More than a fashionable ‘foodie’ trend URBAN GARDENING SEEN AS HEALTHY AND NECESSARY Devon G. Peña | Tijuana, B.C. | March 9, 2014 Note: The source for this article is an article that appeared in the March 1 issue of the Mexico City daily, Excelsior . I have translated the original from Spanish and inserted additional observations and comments . The Colhua Mexica (Aztec) twin island cities of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco were filled with urban farms, home kitchen gardens, fish-stocked ponds, and aviaries. Two large lakes south of the cities were filled with highly productive floating gardens known as chinampas . These ancient Mesoamerican city-states were basically food self-sufficient. The conquest destroyed most of these cultural ecological landscapes and built Mexico City with the rubble of demolished temples, schools, colleges, homes, and other buildings. Mexico City has never been able to reproduce this ideal condit...