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  • From: el santoyo <l.santoyodesigns@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Peasant Sovereignty?
  • Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 08:32:45 -0700

This is great - Thanks, LL

L

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Larry Santoyo, Program Director
​The ​
Permaculture Academy <http://permacultureacademy.com/>
(310) 383-5495
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On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 7:14 AM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/
> > Peasant Sovereignty?
> > <http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/>
> > March 18, 2015
> >
> > By Evaggelos Vallianatos
> >
>
> I have brought my friend of 55 years, Mike Elvin, into this discussion of
> peasant sovereignty
> by way of private email between us. His last three replies were so
> outstanding that I asked if
> I could crosspost them to this list. He agreed with the following comment:
> "Full attribution will be fine, as this subject is very important to me.
> Attribute to Michael Elvin."
>
> Post one:
> =======
>
> The displacement of tenants, active national policy in Europe since the
> late 1400s when in England they began to be replaced by sheep operations,
> has spread worldwide and has never been more active and purposeful than it
> is today. At the core is the legal fact of a lack of legitimate land
> ownership. Land tilled by freeholders, including the underlying mineral
> rights, is throughout the undeveloped world subject to the state's absolute
> claim of ownership. So the state feels free to award land inhabited by the
> same families for centuries, but unprotected by deeds, to the highest
> bidder.
>
> Major purchasers include China, firms in the US and UK, the Gulf sheikdoms
> and major ag interests such as ADM and Monsanto. Quoting the first
> reference, "In the last decade, more than 495 million acres of land were
> sold or leased in transnational deals, according to a report published by a
> coalition of research centers and civil society groups."
>
> Read more: These 14 Countries Are Buying Incredible Amounts Of Foreign Land
> In Deals You Never Hear About
> <
> http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs
> >
>
>
> [image: image]
> <
> http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> These 14 Countries Are Buying Incredible Amounts Of Fore...
> <
> http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs
> >
> Millions of acres of arable land bought in Asia and Africa.
> View on www.businessinsider...
> <
> http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs
> >
> Preview by Yahoo
>
>
> Article links to the Land Matrix Project Report (pdf).
>
> Further references:
>
> 1) "Almost 5% of Africa's agricultural land has been bought or leased by
> investors since 2000, according to an international coalition of
> researchers and NGOs that has released the world's largest public database
> of international land deals <http://www.landportal.info/landmatrix>. The
> database, launched on Thursday, lifts the lid on a decade of secretive
> deals struck by governments, investors and speculators seeking large tracts
> of fertile land in developing countries around the world.
> "The past five years have seen a flood of reports of investors snapping up
> land at rock-bottom prices in some of the world's poorest countries. But,
> despite growing concern
> <
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/28/africa-land-grabs-food-security
> >
> about
> the local impacts of so-called "land grabs", the lack of reliable data has
> made it difficult to pin down the real extent and nature of the global rush
> for land."
>
> New international land deals database reveals rush to buy up Africa
> <
> http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa
> >
>
>
> [image: image]
> <
> http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> New international land deals database reveals rush to bu...
> <
> http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa
> >
> World's largest public database lifts lid on the extent and secretive
> nature of the global demand for land
> View on www.theguardian.com
> <
> http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa
> >
> Preview by Yahoo
>
>
> This report goes on to say "Governments eager for foreign investment have
> often gone to great lengths to advertise vast tracts of available "vacant"
> land in their countries. But the report says almost half of the
> agricultural deals studied showed the areas concerned were already being
> farmed before investors moved in. Competition between powerful foreign
> investors and local farming communities seems "inevitable", it said."
>
> With links to other stories.
>
> 2) Agricultural land investment in Ukraine | Agricultural land lease |
> Farming | Invest in Ukraine
> <
> http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/
> >
>
>
> [image: image]
> <
> http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> Agricultural land investment in Ukraine | Agricultural l...
> <
> http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/
> >
> Agricultural land investment in Ukraine from 800 USD. Leasing agricultural
> land for farming. Why invest in land? Cost of agricultural land in Ukraine.
> View on www.investukraine.net
> <
> http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/
> >
> Preview by Yahoo
>
>
> 3)
>
> https://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/land-ownership-and-hunger.html
>
> Many links.
>
> 4) From the IMF website: "The sharp increase in international food prices
> during 2007–08 triggered a spate of cross-border land acquisitions by
> sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, agricultural producers, and
> other key players in the food and agribusiness industry—fueled by mistrust
> in international food markets, concern about political stability, and
> speculation on future demand for food."
>
> Finance and Development
> <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>
>
>
> [image: image]
> <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>
>
>
>
>
>
> Finance and Development
> <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>
> Finance & Development, March 2012, Vol. 49, No. 1 Rabah Arezki, Klaus
> Deininger, and Harris Selod PDF version IMF podcast: Moving beyond
> agriculture
> View on www.imf.org
> <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>
> Preview by Yahoo
>
>
> "Agriculture is characterized by long periods between investment and
> production with low margins and is complicated by the vagaries of weather
> and microclimatic conditions. Small farmers all over the world have had to
> live with those challenges, but in many developing countries their ability
> to do so is hampered by low public spending on technology and
> infrastructure and by inadequate institutions. Therefore, some commentators
> welcome these transnational purchases as an opportunity to overcome decades
> of underinvestment in developing countries’ agricultural sectors, to create
> jobs, and to bring new technology to the local agricultural sector. Others,
> though, denounce the transnational investments as a “land grab,” neglecting
> local rights, extracting short-term profits at the cost of long-term
> environmental sustainability, neglecting social standards, and fostering
> corruption on a large scale. In Madagascar the government fell in 2009
> after news reports that it intended to transfer 1.3 million hectares to a
> South Korean company for free. Our research clarifies the factors
> underlying large transnational land acquisitions. This is a critical first
> step in the assessment of potential long-term effects of those investments
> and in identifying how governments can respond, through policy and
> regulation, to use land acquisitions in a way that promotes long-term
> economic development and reduces poverty."
>
> 5) U.S., U.K, and China Lead Foreign Land Investments In Agriculture and
> Finance - Circle of Blue WaterNews
> <
> http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/
> >
>
>
> [image: image]
> <
> http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> U.S., U.K, and China Lead Foreign Land Investments In Ag...
> <
> http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/
> >
> GRAIN’s online database is the foundation for much of what the world knows
> about foreign investments in land. Though the majority of “land grabs” are
> for agribusine...
> View on www.circleofblue.org
> <
> http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/
> >
> Preview by Yahoo
>
>
> 6) Rich Countries Are Buying Up Poor Countries’ Land
> <
> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html
> >
>
>
> [image: image]
> <
> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> Rich Countries Are Buying Up Poor Countries’ Land
> <
> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html
> >
> Chhek Sambo works a little farm on the fertile plains stemming from a
> sacred Cambodian mountain known as Phnom Kulen. For 17 years this tropical
> plot has given...
> View on www.slate.com
> <
> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html
> >
> Preview by Yahoo
>
>
>
>
> Post Two:
> =======
>
> On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/
> > Peasant Sovereignty?
> > <http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/>
> > March 18, 2015
> >
> > By Evaggelos Vallianatos
> >
>
> Evaggelos Vallianatos, eh? His reading of history is impeccable. It looks
> like they have better schools in Europe than we do. People educated in the
> US don't learn their history-- they just repeat and repeat it.
>
> The core of the problems we're struggling with today have to do with class
> differentiation, a process that has been going on for the last 6,000 years
> or so. It's not enough for enlightenment to spread, so that everyone is
> able to make an independent living without having to take from his
> neighbor-- that would have been the permaculture way. No-- we as a species
> have many members driven to become stronger than our neighbor, or wilier,
> or better at some game, so they can enslave that neighbor and take for
> themselves the fruits of his labors. That is, historically, we have always
> been ruled by the most successful and ruthless thieves. And those people--
> with their cronies-- make up the ruling classes.
>
> They are not necessarily the strongest-- they are more likely only the
> smartest. For muscle, they prefer to hire the less intelligent brutes and
> mold them into armies ready to obey their command. It's armies working at
> the direction of imperialists-- plus those newer armies working under the
> inspiration of religious zealots-- who are causing all the damage today.
> Why are there so very few who create the laws that funnel all the wealth to
> the powerful, and so many who are afraid to break those laws? Because there
> are armies, and police.
>
> It's like I've said before. Without authoritarian followers, authoritarian
> leaders would just be guys on soap boxes.
>
> Post Three:
> ========
>
> [Some of this describes treatment of Jews in Russia during the Soviet
> regime and is based on his extensive reading of history and not to be taken
> as racist. He and I became acquainted around 1960 and became part and
> parcel of the international cultural renaissance known as the Sixties, not
> to be confused with the Beatnik and Hippy Movements. This era was in part
> characterized as uncompromisingly liberal,
> in the traditional sense, fairness, justice, equality, open mindedness,
> creative innovation, cultural, religious, lifestyle and racial diversity
> and pure common sense. - LL]
>
> Lenin and Stalin both hated the peasants, considering them to be backward
> and counter-revolutionary. So when the revolution succeeded, the Party
> didn't represent the fortunes of the urban proletarians and peasants
> against the interests of the rich. They stole from the peasants to enrich
> the urban proles. Instead of paying for food supplies they requisitioned
> them at gunpoint, leaving peasant families without even seed corn.
>
> The peasant was deliberately crushed and then starved. They realized that
> soviet-led communes would never have the support of the people without
> starving and abusing them within an inch of their lives. So the traditional
> peasant-organized communes were destroyed according to plan.
>
> This was at the heart of how Ukrainians feel about Russians. Not to mention
> the fact that most of the Communist organizers who actually performed the
> dirty work at the village level happened to come from an underclass of
> urban Jews-- little nobodies suddenly given immense, state-backed power to
> ruin the lives of others. One thing the Communists had learned from the old
> nobility... let Jews do your dirty work. If things go wrong they'll get the
> blame for it.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Lawrence F. London
> lfljvenaura@gmail.com
> https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/ <http://www.avantgeared.com>
> https://plus.google.com/+Avantgeared
> Ello: https://ello.co/ecoponderosa <https://ello.co/ecoponderosa>
> Twitter: @ecoponderosa <https://twitter.com/ecoponderosa>
> Reddit: ecoponderosa
> Cellphone: lfljcell@gmail.com
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