The Dominion - Amy Miller

Farmland Frontier

Martin Lukacs — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:47:04 +0000

New wave of agricultural land-grabs reaches Canada

MONTREAL—In an age of escalating food insecurity and financial uncertainty, large corporations, investors, and even nations states have been stalking the globe in pursuit of an age-old and certain commodity: farmland. Bought up on a large scale to secure food for cropstarved countries or to make a safe investment, farmland is becoming the lucrative prize of a new resource frontier. The sweep of agricultural land grabs has stripped small farmers in Africa, Latin America and Asia of control over vital tracts of fertile land. And quietly, these modern-day land marauders are coming to Canada—undermining family farms, compromising local food sovereignty, and harming the environment.

This past July the National Farmers Union (NFU) sounded the alarm. In a report entitled “Losing Our Grip: How a Corporate Farmland Buy-up, Rising Farm Debt, and Agribusiness Financing of Inputs Threaten Family Farms and Food Sovereignty,” the union documents how foreign ownership of farmland in Canada is no longer a theoretical fear. It’s happening.

Investor group Walton International is buying up farmland across Alberta and has now moved into Ontario, converting farmland into “development-ready property”—what critics say is a euphemism for development geared towards urban sprawl. According to its website, Walton “manages approximately 36,000 acres on behalf of over 35,000 investors worldwide.”

News has broken recently about Quebec-based Monaxxion, representing Chinese financiers, which seeks to purchase 99,000 acres of land across Canada. La Terre de chez nous, the publication of the Union des producteurs agricoles, the Quebec farm union, has reported that Monaxxion describes its clients as “high net worth investors”—one investor, according to the report, is looking to pick up $30 million in land, and another has a personal wealth of $2 billion.

And Agcapita, a Calgary-based investment fund, has scooped up between 30,000 and 60,000 acres of farmland, mostly in Saskatchewan. “I’m convinced that farmland is going to be one of the best investments of our time,” US commodities guru and advisor to Agcapita Jim Rogers told Fortune
Magazine in 2009.

Kevin Wipf from NFU’s head office in Regina believes such sentiments are cause for grave concern.

“Farmland is food land and we believe protecting the family farm and protecting local food systems is vitally important,” Wipf said. “When you have foreign investors coming to purchase land solely for the sake of investing, you are losing the sovereignty over food land, those local food systems and control over your land base. And they won’t have the same concern for the environment and sustainability that we believe a local farmer would have.”

Devlin Kuyek is a researcher with GRAIN, an organization that supports the struggle of small farmers and social movements for community-controlled food systems and agricultural biodiversity. He has analyzed the global trends bearing down on Canada.

“These land grabs are happening on a large scale,” he said.

The overall numbers are staggering. GRAIN estimates that there is $100 billion sitting in global funds for the purchase or lease of farmlands. At least fifty million hectares of farmland has already been acquired.

“In 2008 the [food] prices skyrocketed and you had many countries who are quite dependent on food imports start looking at different ways to secure food,” Kuyek said.

The Gulf States, China, Japan, South Korea and most of Western Europe in particular have since been trying to increase their access to agricultural land in poorer countries.

“You also had the people in the financial sector start looking at farmland as a secondary assets class that they could invest [in] to give them returns that they weren’t seeing otherwise,” Kuyek said.

GRAIN identified 120 investment groups specifically set up to buy up farms. These include investment funds, investments from wealthy individuals and banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

“You have a bunch of apologists trying to frame this as some sort of agricultural modernization or some way to capture or harness private sector investment in agriculture,” he says. “There are larger forces that are bearing down, and Canada is definitely being targeted. People are not aware of what’s happening. Those looking to invest in farmland have access to millions of billions of dollars that they can mobilize rapidly and instantaneously.”

According to Wipf, such developments portend the demise of viable farming.

“The ability to produce food, the ability to have a local food system, is really what makes a community viable,” he said. “When you have foreign interests controlling a large part of an important resource like farmland—which is often not viewed as a resource—you lose your autonomy.”

The NFU believes a perfect storm of factors is undermining the family farm. Farms are burdened by a crushing debt—for each dollar earned, farmers are 23 dollars in debt. Under financial strain, farmers are forced to turn to agro-corporations that are increasingly financing farmers’ seeds, chemicals, and fertilizer—and farmers then return a share of their crop to the corporation.

Farmers who are in debt and bound by contracts to corporations are easily outbid by wealthy investors
who see farmland as a hot new commodity.

“We do know there are investors looking at Canadian farmland,” Kuyek said. “There are over 20 major investment funds that are being set up across the country. Some of them have been here for years, and others are more recent. Some are trying to find loopholes in the regulations in order to be able to channel private investor money in the acquisition of farmland because of provincial restrictions.”

Canada does not currently have any federals laws to protect against foreign interests investing in farmland. Provinces are responsible for regulating farmland purchases, with regulatory frameworks varying across the country. In 2003 Saskatchewan changed its provincial laws to allow out-of-province investment in its farmland.

According to the NFU, far from protecting small farms, the Canadian government has been paving the way for a non-farmer buy-up of Canada’s food land.

Crown agency Farm Credit Canada acts as the main financier for many of the country’s biggest farmland investment companies—providing multi-million-dollar loans and helping facilitate the sale or lease of land.

Michael Hoffort is a spokesperson from the agency and spoke with The Dominion regarding the NFU report.

“I wouldn’t say we are seeing a large amount of foreign investment coming towards farmland in Canada,” Hoffort said. “Often when it is a foreign investor, it is a farmer who is looking to immigrate into Canada, buy a farm and be a member of the community.”

But Farm Credit Canada has been very friendly to the largest Canadian farmland investment company Assiniboia, offering generous grants. The company has grown rapidly over the last two years, tripling its holdings to its current 100,000 acres.

Assiniboia’s primary source of capital is the taxpayer-owned Farm Credit Canada. In 2009, the company signed a mortgage agreement package that will see it receive an additional $9 million in borrowing capacity at “very low long-term rates,” according to an Assiniboia report.

When asked what data Farm Credit Canada has collected to compare how much foreign investment has been carried out over the last few years, Hoffort couldn’t give any figures.

“We haven’t done the analysis of crunching the numbers to find out how much farmland has been purchased domestically or by foreign buyers,” he said.

Hoffort explained that Farm Credit Canada only provides loans to applicants with a Canadian backer in the package, but he did not disclose what the percentage of the holding had to be Canadian.

“We lend to farms of all sizes,” he said. “The vast majority are family managed, and they come in many shapes and sizes. Farms in general have been growing in size for years—it is just part of the economy.”

Hoffort did have words to reassure the public. “Our focus is very much on agriculture, agricultural producers and the majority of those are by and large family farms. It has been in the past that way, and I can assure you that it will be that way in the future.”

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates there are currently over a billion people on the planet who suffer from hunger. The number continues to grow.

Kuyek believes the new phenomenon of agricultural land grabs provides important lessons about the failure of the market, and the failure of the global food system.

“We must get food production back in the hands of small farmers, ensuring their livelihood and ensuring that people are fed from the food system and that it isn’t about profit,” he said.

The urgency will only grow as these problems are compounded by climate change.

“The question is not ‘what do we do with all this private sector interest in farming that has sprung up,’” he said, “but rather ‘how do we create a system of farming, how do we create a food system that actually feeds people.’”

Amy Miller is a media maker and community organizer who resides in Montreal.

Land grab

A Dark Anniversary

Tim McSorley — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:30:05 +0000

Abousfian Abdelrazik marks one year back in Canada, languishes under UN watch list

MONTREAL—“There are certain anniversaries that should never take place. The lack of action by the Harper government is unacceptable. Why is Abousfian still waiting for his name to be cleared?” asks Mary Foster, an organizer with the Abousfian Abdelrazik support committee "Project Fly Home."

On June 4, 2009, Federal Court Judge Rossel Zinn issued a stern ruling that Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon had been acting in bad faith and that the Canadian government would need to bring Abdelrazik back to Canada from Sudan. One year later, Abdelrazik continues to wait for his name to be removed from the United Nations Security Council Committee 1267 "Consolidated List," colloquially known as the Al-Qaeda and Taliban Terrorist List, or, for short, the "1267 List." Being on the list impedes Abdelrazik from functioning in the most basic of ways.

Abdelrazik recently sat down at a busy coffee shop in downtown Montreal to speak with The Dominion about what he has dubbed "living in a prison without walls."

A victorious grassroots movement brought Abdelrazik home last fall after six years of forced exile and imprisonment in Sudan. Abdelrazik tried to establish the cornerstones of a regular life—reconnect with family; find an apartment; see what work was available; and get through administrative tasks such as opening a bank account.

“It was very confusing and shameful how I was treated. Less than a week after depositing a small amount in my new account, I was contacted by Caisse Desjardins and told my account had been frozen and that they were unsure as to why but that there was nothing they could do. So no pension and no money and what I am supposed to do?” Abdelrazik asks quietly.

His legal team quickly learned that the reason behind the freeze was that he is still on the 1267 List. Beyond the complete asset freeze, Abdelrazik is also subjected to a total flight ban, and it is illegal for any employer to hire him or for him to receive social assistance, making it difficult to cover his and his children’s basic expenses. Listed individuals face vague allegations; they have no right to a hearing before they are placed on the list; and they are provided with no evidence to support the claims against them. In response, Project Fly Home launched a “Break the Silence” campaign to have him de-listed and to create a surge of popular support.

“Once again it is Lawrence Cannon and his department who have the ability to take me off the list. They refuse to tell me why I am on it, and why they have not worked to take me off of it,” Abdelrazik explains.

Break the Silence has been gaining momentum, with major unions and labour federations such as the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Canadian section of the International Machinists and most recently the Canadian Association of University Teachers publicly endorsing the initiative and agreeing to hire Abdelrazik for short term contracts. Despite large labour organizations engaging in acts of civil disobedience, Cannon continues to reject responsibility for de-listing Abdelrazik and claims it is up to Abdelrazik himself to get off the list. So far there have been no legal repercussions for unions and organizations actively working to oppose the sanctions against Abdelrazik.

While individuals can apply to be de-listed, says Foster, the process is highly politicized and nearly impossible to get through without state support. But the Canadian government could lift the sanctions itself. “Cabinet could immediately pass an Order in Council to modify or repeal the regulations which implement the 1267 regime in Canada,” Foster explains.

The Dominion received no response from Cannon or Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) by the time of print, but on May 18, Canwest Global quoted Cannon as saying: “All I can say is that in the past I tried to make sure that Mr. Abdelrazik had the support he needed to be removed from the UN list. That attempt, unfortunately, failed.”

A precedent backs Abdelrazik’s assertion that the responsibility for de-listing falls upon Cannon and the Department of Foreign Affairs. On June 3, 2002, on a recommendation from the then-Liberal Minister of Foreign Affairs, the regulations implementing the 1267 regime in Canada were modified to exempt Liban Hussein, an Ottawa citizen who was arrested November 7, 2001, at the request of the United States. The US accused him of supporting terrorism. The exemption effectively ended the sanctions against the only Canadian on the list at the time, and his name was subsequently removed from the Security Council’s 1267 List.

In the first week of June, Abdelrazik’s legal team filed to the Federal Court of Canada a challenge against the United Nations 1267 List. Comparable challenges have been filed in Switzerland and Belgium; both countries saw their federal courts strike down the 1267 regime as unconstitutional and undemocratic. “It is quite risky for countries to put people on the 1267 List because it will undoubtedly be challenged in the high courts because it is so starkly against basic due process,” says Foster.

In his judgment that forced the Canadian government to bring Abdelrazik back to Canada, Federal Court Judge Zinn wrote, "I add my name to those who view the 1267 Committee regime as a denial of basic legal remedies and as untenable under the principles of international human rights. There is nothing in the listing or de-listing procedure that recognizes the principles of natural justice or that provides for basic procedural fairness...It can hardly be said that the 1267 Committee process meets the requirement of independence and impartiality when, as appears may be the case involving Mr. Abdelrazik, the nation requesting the listing is one of the members of the body that decides whether to list or, equally as important, to de-list a person. The accuser is also the judge."

University of Ottawa Law Professor Amir Attaran has been closely following the case of Abdelrazik and cautions against putting the responsibility solely on the Canadian government. “While Canada’s almost certainly illegal error has been to follow an unjust UN system, the deeper problem lies with the UN, which created and administers the 1267 sanctions system, and which oddly believes it is consistent with human rights law. It is time to call into question the belief, too frequent and trusting on the political left, that the UN are good guys. They are not: Abdelrazik’s unjust persecution amply proves it.”

The 1267 List was established as a sanctions regime measure “to deter terrorism” by the United Nations Security Council in 1999 after the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. In 2001, after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the list was broadened to target Al Qaeda as well as the Taliban. The resolution has been widely understood to be serving a political agenda to target countries the United States deems problematic. However, it seems to have evolved to become a tool numerous states are using to stifle political dissent and internal sovereignty movements, including Russia against Chechnyans and India against members of the Khalistan movement.

When asked what he would like to see happen next, Abdelrazik smiles softly and with quiet determination states, “The government could revoke the regulations entirely. This step would send a clear signal to the United Nations Security Council that Canada will no longer participate in this unjust regime and will let me continue on with my life. Until then we will continue with the campaign.”

Amy Miller is a media maker and community organizer who resides in Montreal.

Fly home

Ten-Year-Old Blockade on Redtop Road

Moira Peters — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:29:34 +0000

"We're here on my mother's traditional territory..."

Redtop Pic.Sm.jpg

A two-person logging road blockade in Wet'suwet'en territory at Babine Lake, near Smithers, BC, aims to protect "this piece of wood," the last stand of intact forest on Wet'suwet'en traditional territory. Its transfer to the province—following 10 years of Indigenous opposition and government inaction—has put the property in the hands of Canfor, a lumber and pulp company.

Featuring Richard Sam.

Amy Mileer is a Montreal-based organizer and film-maker. She is member of the editorial collective of The Dominion. Rémy Huberdeau is a Montreal based film-maker. His film 'Au pays des esprits/Home of the Buffalo' is currently in the RCI 'Racines' contest.

A Striking Outcome

dawn — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:14:30 +0000

Sudbury ‘78 resonates today

SUDBURY, ONTARIO–Twenty-four thousand workers rallied in September 1978, in a historic strike against Inco – a strike that forever changed the community of Sudbury and has had lingering reverberations for workers in the mining industry ever since. At the time, Inco was the second-largest nickel producer in the world, and the nickel deposits in Ontario were the largest on Earth.

In the late 1970s, Inco was on its way to bankruptcy: the company had too many workers on the books, costly operations and used and outdated equipment. Many people in Sudbury, including today’s Mayor John Rodriguez, say the company was like a house that was old and hadn’t been looked after for many years. More importantly, Inco had, until that point, controlled the price of nickel. When competition from Russia began to emerge in the world nickel market, Inco was not prepared, and began to see a drop in profits.

Every three years, workers with Inco, who are organized under the United Steelworkers (USW) union, must renegotiate their contract. When the workers' contract was up in July 1978, the company decided that the best way for them to save money would be by cutting pensions, wages and benefits. These were gains the USW had worked hard to achieve over decades.

"Inco was persistent all the way through negotiations – that if the concessions weren’t made, then there would be no collective agreement. We went past the July 10 deadline and in September we went back to the bargaining table once more to get Inco to move away from these concessions. They refused and on September 15, our members voted by 58 per cent to reject the collective agreement and take strike action," says Wayne Fraiser, who served on the bargaining committee for the Steelworkers throughout the strike.

In spite of ongoing bargaining during the strike, it took nine months before any agreement was reached.

Whether or not the small wage increase and pension package that workers received in the new contract was worth the fight is debatable. Thousands of workers lost their homes and cars from their inability to make the payments with their $20-per-month strike pay, and as nickel mining was Sudbury's primary industry, the city at large suffered.

Nickel has long been considered a 'strategic' metal, necessary for the manufacturing of arms and defense equipment, as well as for making stainless steel. The Sudbury strike in 1978 significantly impacted the world market for nickel.

Since 1979 Inco has undergone a tremendous amount of restructuring. They cut 20,000 employees from their staff and now have more people receiving payments from the pension roll than pay roll.

Malcolm Léger is now a pensioner who worked with Inco on the floor and as management for over 30 years. Léger believes the strike caused long-term psychological damage for the Sudbury’s workers and the wider labour movement.

“Every time we came up to negotiations, every three year cycle, we would remember the nine-month strike. And the shut-down period that came after the strike. And then we would remember the layoffs that happened afterward. Well, how do you think that made us feel? We would ask each other, ‘Are we in for another nine-month strike?’ It was in everybody’s brains and we were scared after of ever having to do it again. Even to this day.”

In 2006 Inco was bought by Brazilian mining company CVRD, which has since become Vale/Inco. The same year Inco was removed from the FTSE4GOOD index, which is designed by the Ethical Investment Research Service. Inco’s failures to meet the human rights criteria and environmental concerns were cited as reasons for the removal. The Steelworkers Union continues to represent the workers for Vale/Inco in the region of Sudbury.

The strike and its aftermath have emphasized the need to diversify the economy. "We don't ever want to go back and be beholden to the big mining companies again," says Mayor Rodriguez. He is busy lobbying to see mining profits used to help build and support other industries, such as research in environmental science and tourism.

Although The Dominion attempted to speak with a representative of Vale/Inco on numerous occasions, the company declined comment.

Amy Miller lived in Sudbury from 1980-1997 and credits the city for developing much of her analysis. She continues to visit her family, who live there.

Sudbury Stack

Myths for Profit: Canada's Role in Industries of War and Peace

Amy Miller — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:22:02 +0000

Kosovo Crisis Continues

dru — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:18:27 +0000

Serbia and EU escalate conflict; misery of majority of Serbians and Kosovars likely to continue

Pro-European Union (EU) candidate Boris Tadic won the final round of Serbian Presidential elections on February 4. Tadic beat nationalist Serbian Radical Party candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, by a little over two per cent of the vote. His win is largely attributed to the Serbian expatriate vote.

The central election issue was the status of Kosovo. Serbia's southernmost province has been under UN tutelage and occupation since the NATO bombing campaign of 1999 forced Serbian forces out of the province. Kosovo holds historic and religious significance for Serbs. Now, for many Serbs, the province has become a symbol of US and European attempts to weaken and break apart the former Yugoslavia, and now Serbia. Less symbolic crises -- such as widespread unemployment, sub-poverty wages and restrictions on migration -- loom in the background, but have yet to share in the electoral spotlight.

European and US diplomats hailed the election results as an endorsement of their policies. "The results for me at least signalled the wish of the majority of the people in Serbia who want to continue the path towards Europe, and I'd like to say Europe is very happy with that," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters.

The day after the election, the EU announced a new force of 1,800 "police and legal officials" to be deployed to Kosovo, which has been under UN administration for the past eight years. The EU did not announce their decision before the election, arguing they did not want to "interfere" with the outcome of the vote.

With Kosovo expected to declare independence in the coming weeks, the EU's move has thrown the Serbian government into crisis. Any move to support EU efforts towards Kosovo's independence would be deeply unpopular, and would likely trigger another election or a place in a coalition government for the Radical Party.

Half the Serbian population supported the Radicals, led by Vojislav Seselj. Seselj could not stand for election; he has been imprisoned at The Hague for five years, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. He is viewed by many as a symbol of Serbian defiance against foreign imperialism. Tadic, on the other hand, represents compromise. He made it clear during his campaign that Kosovo should remain a province of Serbia but that European integration was the primary goal, and that sacrifices might have to be made.

Serbia currently faces a 50 per cent unemployment rate. The average income remains 300 Euros a month. Serbs face tough visa restrictions and the vast majority of people under the age of 30 have never left the former Yugoslavia.

Some observers say fundamental issues are being overshadowed by concern over Kosovo. Igor Todorovic, editor of Privredni Pregled, a Belgrade-based economic daily, said Serbia’s two main political parties are using the Kosovo conflict to their advantage. "By making the Kosovo issue such a constant issue, by filling the headlines everyday, it means they managed to neglect all the other problems that they actually have the authority and the power to solve."

When the news of EU plans for the Kosovo mission broke (without consultation of Serbia), Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica cancelled the meeting in which he intended to sign the integration agreement between Serbia and the European Union. Newly-elected President Tadic wanted to go along with the signing regardless of the EU decision. Many felt Tadic was bowing to international pressure and disregarding the views of people of Serbia. Before assuming his current role, Prime Minister Hassim Thaci was the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an organization funded by the smuggling of illegal arms, drugs and people, and likely on the receiving end of significant CIA backing. Analysts are nearly unanimous in predicting the fall of the new government.

It has become evident that eight years of UN occupation has done little in terms of benefiting most people living in Kosovo -- either the Albanian majority or the Serb, Roma or Egyptian minority groups. It is estimated that between three and five billion dollars in "international aid" has been pumped into Kosovo since the 1999 bombing, which resulted in over 250,000 Serbs and Romas from the region becoming refugees. An estimated 300,000 Albanians fled in the months preceding the escalation of fighting between the Serbian army and the KLA, and the resulting addition of NATO forces and bombings.

The result was Kosovo as a UN protectorate, its population unable to determine its own affairs.

Today, there is no clean drinking water throughout the province. Electricity is sporadic and can be out for 12 hours at a time. Despite these conditions, the UN maintains that "much progress has been made."

Corruption is rampant. International organizations and institutions based in Pristina often repeat the "need to address the problem," but Kosovars are skeptical. Avi Zogiani is with the Anti Corruption Organization, a grassroots group trying to keep track of aid money-fueled deals in the area. "The so-called government of Kosovo is in a constant state of readjusting ideas of development to coexist with economic and industrial interests of the outside world," says Zogiani.

"With eight years of having no influence on the political process, on decisions, the people have given up on trying to guarantee any of their rights and instead choose to suffer at the whims of the international actors and players."

Privatization of state-owned resources and services is nearly complete. The coal factory is the latest to be sold off, and the development wing of the US State Department is in charge of much of the operations of its sale. This involves regular consultation with the energy minister and handpicking the NGO that would do the "outreach" to "educate the population on the benefits" of privatization.

Over a billion dollars already has gone into this coal plant, and it still suffers from daily blackouts. The expected buyer, a US-Czech company CEZ has promised an additional $3.1 billion in investment to make it operational, if they get the deal. Zogiani believes part of the last ditch dealings could involve ensuring major players in the current UN force receive more of the privatization booty before the UN moves out and the EU settles in.

Kosovo has become a diplomatic and geopolitical flashpoint, with Russia backing Serbia's opposition to full independence. Meanwhile the US State Department and EU have taken an aggressive stance in favour of independence, using EU membership as a carrot and the country's economic woes as a stick.

Russia holds the powerful UN Security Council veto, and can to block any attempt to push through a resolution. With opposing positions set by the two sides, the future looks dismal for the people of Kosovo caught in the middle. Alexander Popadic, editor of Kontrepunkt, a widely-read independent popular web forum, magazine and grassroots media organization based in Belgrade, expressed frustration with both the Russian and American influence in the region.

"The presence of Russian Big Brother in the minds of Serbian people and the US for the Albanians has to be cut off," said Popadic.

"Such steps are necessary if we are to see some real progress and independent development of this region. Stuck within the process of so-called unfinished modernization, with the burden of wars and neoliberal reforms, Serbia and Kosovo are deeply polluted with nationalist hatred, religious fundamentalism and social insecurity."

A declaration of independence is imminent. Most EU countries and the US have already signaled they will immediately recognize Kosovo's country status. Few people in Serbia seem ready to physically fight for Kosovo again. However, many politicians have shown they are not willing to hand over the province.

The only certainty is that people in both Kosovo and Serbia will continue to live in desperate conditions with few opportunities. The international institutions which speak of peace and prosperity for the region have in fact delivered the opposite.

Czech Helicopters

Jo Negociata -- Vetëvendosje!

Signs in a Serbian Area of Kosovo

Food aid

Kosmet

Tadic Supporters