News Articles
| LIBERIA: Land deals with foreign firms 'could sow seeds of conflict' by Tamasin Ford, The Guardian (UK) March 2nd, 2012 Land deals with foreign firms in Liberia 'could sow seeds of conflict'says a new report from the Centre for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at Columbia University in New York. The report covers Golden Veroleum, Sime Darby, ArcelorMittal and Putu Iron Ore Mining Corporation. |
| EUROPE: Europe’s Vast Farm Subsidies Face Challenges by STEPHEN CASTLE and DOREEN CARVAJAL, New York Times December 29th, 2009 The last time the European Union decided the future of its 50 billion euro agricultural aid program, in 2005, the deal was cut behind closed doors in a luxury suite at the five-star Conrad Brussels hotel. Now, 2013 is closer at hand and a new round of maneuvering has begun to reshape the richest system of agricultural handouts in the world. |
| AP report: Monsanto seed business role revealed
by CHRISTOPHER LEONARD (AP), Associated Press December 14th, 2009 Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found. |
| US: Monsanto's dominance draws antitrust inquiry by Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post November 29th, 2009 For plants designed in a lab a little more than a decade ago, they've come a long way: Today, the vast majority of the nation's two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents. Now Monsanto -- like IBM and Google -- has drawn scrutiny from U.S. antitrust investigators. |
| SOUTHEAST ASIA: Sizing up palm oil by David Grant, Christian Science Monitor November 2nd, 2009 While it doesn’t sound (and need not be) nefarious, activist groups worldwide like the Rainforest Action Network argue that the production of palm oil is currently harming rain forests in Southeast Asia, orangutans, and the environment. |
| BRAZIL: Giants in Cattle Industry Agree to Help Fight Deforestation by Alexei Barrionuevo, New York Times October 7th, 2009 Environmental groups hailed a decision this week by four of the world’s largest meat producers to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest. Brazil has the world’s largest cattle herd and is the world’s largest beef exporter. It is also the fourth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. |
| US: E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection by Michael Moss, New York Times October 3rd, 2009 Tracing the chain of production of an E. Coli-contaminated hamburger made by Cargill, through interviews and government and corporate records obtained by The New York Times, shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble. Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe. |
| US: Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering by Charles Duhigg, New York Times September 12th, 2009 Violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found. Polluters include small companies, like gas stations, dry cleaners, and shopping malls. They also include large operations, like chemical factories, power plants, sewage treatment centers and one of the biggest zinc smelters, the Horsehead Corporation of Pennsylvania. |
| US: Food Problems Elude Private Inspectors by Michael Moss and Andrew Martin, New York Times March 5th, 2009 When food industry giants like Kellogg want to ensure that American consumers are being protected from contaminated products, they rely on private inspectors. With government inspectors overwhelmed by the task of guarding the nation’s food supply, the job of monitoring food plants has in large part fallen to an army of private auditors, and problems are rife. |
| EUROPE: Europe to Allow Two Bans on Genetically Altered Crops by James Kanter, New York Times March 2nd, 2009 European Union governments delivered a blow Monday to the biotechnology industry, allowing Austria and Hungary to maintain national bans on growing genetically modified crops from Monsanto. The market for genetically engineered crops is worth several billion dollars worldwide. |
| US: Plant Shipped Tainted Products, F.D.A. Says by Reuters, New York Times January 27th, 2009 Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Georgia, identified as the source of an outbreak of salmonella, shipped out products that managers knew might have been tainted, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said on Tuesday. |
| CHINA: Chinese Dairies Agree to Pay $160 Million to Tainted-Milk Victims by David Barboza , New York Times December 30th, 2008 The China Dairy Industry Association, blamed for selling contaminated milk that killed six children and sickened nearly 300,000 others earlier this year, has agreed to pay $160 million in compensation to the victims and their families. |
| CHINA: Hong Kong Finds Tainted Chinese Fish Feed
by DAVID BARBOZA, The New York Times November 12th, 2008 The Hong Kong government finding, reported late Tuesday, is the latest indication that melamine, a chemical used to make plastic and fertilizer, has seeped into large parts of China’s food and feed industry, posing potential health hazards to consumers. |
| IVORY COAST: Ivory Coast workers can't sue firms in U.S. by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle September 25th, 2008 Ivory Coast plantation workers who claim they were sterilized by a U.S.-made pesticide can't sue the manufacturers and distributors of the chemical in the United States because they can't show the companies intended to harm them, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. |
| CHINA: China Food-Safety Chief Resigns in Dairy Scandal by Loretta Chao and Jason Leow, Wall Street Journal September 23rd, 2008 China's top food-safety official resigned as a dairy contamination scandal brought more international recalls of Chinese products and heightened fears among dairy farmers that their livelihoods were in danger. Nestlé SA was among those manufacturers involved in the recall. |
| INDIA: India Grapples With How to Convert Its Farmland Into Factories by Somini Sengupta, New York Times September 17th, 2008 On the eve of opening a new auto factory in West Bengal, arranged via secret contract with the government, Indian industrial giant Tata is facing massive protests by local farmers determined not to be pushed off their land. |
| US: Collusion Inquiry Targets Ice Companies
by JOHN R. WILKE, The Wall Street Journal August 7th, 2008 Federal prosecutors are investigating an alleged criminal price-fixing conspiracy in the $1.8 billion market for packaged ice, with the help of a former industry executive who told authorities the collusion was nationwide and forced up prices for consumers and businesses. |
| US: OSHA Seeks $8.7 Million Fine Against Sugar Company
by SHAILA DEWAN, The New York Times July 26th, 2008 Imperial Sugar, the owner of a refinery near Savannah where 13 workers died in a sugar dust explosion in February, knew of safety hazards at the plant as early as 2002 but did nothing, and should pay more than $8.7 million for safety violations, the head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Friday. |
| UK: Are we falling out of love with Tesco? by David Smith and Zoe Wood, The Observer, The Guardian June 29th, 2008 As the biggest beast in the jungle, Tesco has been accused of monopolisation, exploitation and bullying anyone who dares to stand in its way. It has become a lightning rod for every critic of corporate power, homogenised high streets and the malign influence of multinationals in the developing world. |
| US: Bush administration files nuclear dump application by H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press June 3rd, 2008 Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday he's confident the government's license application to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada will "stand up to any challenge anywhere." |