{"id":1794589,"date":"2023-01-04T08:34:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T13:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1794589"},"modified":"2023-01-04T08:35:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T13:35:07","slug":"countering-the-threat-of-global-food-homogenization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/countering-the-threat-of-global-food-homogenization\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Food Homogenization Threat: How to Counter it"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcountering-the-threat-of-global-food-homogenization%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1794589&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>The push toward globalism isn\u2019t limited to political schemes; it also includes efforts to influence agriculture and homogenize food consumption around the world. While most people are not aware of this, it has led to significant changes in the sources and varieties of the food that we eat.<\/p>\n<p>In many nations, bountiful supermarket shelves provide the illusion of abundance, while powerful global monopolies increasingly control food production, limiting farmers\u2019 control over their crops and endangering plant species.<\/p>\n<p>This directly affects the variety of food in our grocery stores\u2014and its nutritional value.<\/p>\n<h2>Food to Extinction<\/h2>\n<p>In the book 2022 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eating-Extinction-Worlds-Rarest-Foods\/dp\/0374605327?ots=1&#038;slotNum=2&#038;imprToken=20c273b6-db7e-322b-32d&#038;tag=advanceclevel-20&#038;linkCode=w50\">Eating to Extinction: The World\u2019s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them<\/a>,\u201d Dan Saladino, author, examines why our diets have become so restrictive despite the fact that food is plentiful in wealthy nations like the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Saladino, a long-time BBC food journalist, says that declining biodiversity is leading to the extinctions in some food plant species.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the past several decades, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-globalization\">globalization<\/a> has homogenized what we eat, and done so ruthlessly,\u201d He wrote. \u201cOf the roughly six thousand different plants once consumed by human beings, only nine remain major staples today. Just three of these\u2015rice, wheat, and corn\u2015now provide fifty percent of all our calories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fao.org\/home\/en\/\">FAO<\/a>), the proportion is closer to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/u8480e\/u8480e07.htm\">60 percent<\/a>. The FAO estimates that 15 crop plants provide 90 percent of the world\u2019s food energy intake.<\/p>\n<p>Saladino says that this dwindling variety is due to the strict control over food production by a few large corporations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe source of much of the world\u2019s food\u2015seeds\u2015is mostly in the control of just four corporations. Ninety-five percent of milk consumed in the United States comes from a single breed of cow [the Holstein],\u201d He wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHalf of all the world\u2019s cheese is made with bacteria or enzymes made by one company. And one in four beers drunk around the world is the product of one brewer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saladino told The Epoch Times that crop diversity is worth preserving because it\u2019s \u201cthe legacy of thousands of years of farming and food production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all need to appreciate the importance of [food] diversity\u2014for our future food security, for resilience, for health, and because it\u2019s part of what makes us human,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n<h2>Monopolies Rule the Global Food Market<\/h2>\n<p>As a result of laws passed in the 1990s to protect bioengineered crops, four corporations now control more than half of the world\u2019s seeds, according to the 2021 Deutsche Welle article<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/agriculture-seeds-seed-laws-agribusinesses-climate-change-food-security-seed-sovereignty-bayer\/a-57118595\">\u00a0\u201cWho Controls the World\u2019s Food Supply?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The four multinational corporations are Bayer, Corteva, and Monsanto. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/gas-leak-at-chinese-chemical-plant-kills-23_2727684.html?utm_source=ai&#038;utm_medium=search\">ChemChina<\/a>According to Charli Shield, they are Limagrain and, They are called &#8220;Calling them&#8221;. \u201cstaggering monopolies [that] dominate the global food supply,\u201d Shield said that the practical result was that \u201cmore and more of the world\u2019s food relies on less and less genetic diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organisation<a href=\"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2019\/01\/11\/the-sobering-details-behind-the-latest-seed-monopoly-chart\/\"> Civil Eats<\/a> In 2018, the monopoly was described differently by Philip Howard, Michigan State University&#8217;s researcher on consolidation in the seed industry. <a href=\"https:\/\/philhoward.net\/2018\/12\/31\/global-seed-industry-changes-since-2013\/\">According to Howard<\/a>, a sociologist, the \u201cBig 4\u201d Over 60 percent of seed sales worldwide is controlled by seed companies like Bayer, Corteva (a company created through the merger of Dow &#038; DuPont), ChemChina (a German chemical firm) and BASF (a German seed company).<\/p>\n<p>FAO expressed concern at this trend and asked, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/y5609e\/y5609e02.htm\">What is happening to biodiversity<\/a>?\u201d Answering questions \u201cThe extension of industrial patenting and other intellectual property systems to living organisms has led to the widespread cultivation and rearing of fewer varieties and breeds. This results in a more uniform, less diverse, but more competitive global market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FAO<a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2010\/10\/357072#:~:text=FAO%20estimates%20that%2075%20per,because%20of%20a%20changing%20climate.\"> estimated<\/a>\u00a0The World Food Security Council warned in 2010 that 75% of global crop diversity had been lost between 1900 &#038; 2000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBiodiversity makes production systems and livelihoods more resilient to shocks and stresses, including to the effects of climate change,\u201d The FAO reported in its 2019 Annual Report<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/CA3129EN\/CA3129EN.pdf\"> assessment<\/a>, The State of the World\u2019s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture.<\/p>\n<h2>Seed Patents<\/h2>\n<p>The 2022 Report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.no-patents-on-seeds.org\/en\">No Patents on Seeds<\/a>The international coalition that produced the same name has released the following statement: \u201cpatents \u2026\u00a0 granted on usages of naturally occurring genes, on seeds, on plants and [on] their harvest, represent one of the biggest threats to global food security and regional food sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The group said that even though the European Patent Office has stopped granting patents on conventionally-bred animals and plants, corporations are now using loopholes in order to patent randomly generated plant mutations.<\/p>\n<p>These patents cover genes and genetic variations \u201cblock access to biological diversity for plant breeding,\u201d According to the report.<\/p>\n<p>Patents grant monopoly rights to plants and animals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf patents are granted on conventionally bred plants and animals within its geographic scope, the patent holder can exclude other breeders from using them to bring new varieties to the market,\u201d This is the report.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, the short film series may be used. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.richappetitesfilm.com\/\">\u201cRich Appetites<\/a>,\u201d seed laws can make it illegal for small farmers to exchange seeds\u2014or even to simply save them for replanting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCorporate control of seed violates farmers\u2019 rights under international conventions and endangers people\u2019s livelihoods, increasing hunger and eroding cultural traditions,\u201d The second short film in this series is claimed by the filmmaker. \u201cSeeds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.richappetitesfilm.com\/\">Rich Appetites<\/a>,\u201d The report, which was produced jointly by AGRA Watch (AFSA) and Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa(AFSA), examines how powerful groups can control food production around world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBillionaire philanthropists [such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation] are pushing U.S.-style industrial agriculture around the globe\u2014including in Africa,\u201d The film says so.<\/p>\n<p>Industrial agriculture \u201cis the single largest cause of biodiversity loss worldwide, fails to solve hunger, and hurts small-scale farmers and the planet,\u201d According to the movies.<\/p>\n<p>While Western-led charities may be charitable, their insistence upon imposing this farming approach has done more harm that good, AGRA Watch, and AFSA state.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, industrialization is good for both farmers and the poor. The foundation\u2019s support of African farming groups, for example, comes from its commitment to \u201ctransforming smallholder agriculture into a sustainable, inclusive foundation of economic opportunity,\u201d According to its<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatesfoundation.org\/our-work\/programs\/global-growth-and-opportunity\/agricultural-development#:~:text=We%20invest%20in%20crop%20research,likely%20to%20see%20widespread%20adoption.\"> website<\/a> Discussing its agricultural development programs.<\/p>\n<p>An effort to feed the world\u2019s hungry more efficiently was what first drove the effort to modify foods for productivity and uniformity, wrote Saladino, who has traced this back to the decades following World War II. The time was a period when agriculture scientists discovered ways to produce rice, wheat. \u201con a phenomenal scale,\u201d He wrote.<\/p>\n<p>This was an admirable attempt. \u201cto save millions from starvation,\u201d It was a compromise that resulted in less food variety.<\/p>\n<p>In an email to The Epoch Times, Saladino wrote: \u201cWe can\u2019t have a one-size-fits-all approach to feeding the world based around a reductionist vision of producing more and more calories. Science is just beginning to show us the complexity of many traditional foods and farming systems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis research deserves investment alongside new technologies. We have already lost too many genetic resources, knowledge, and skills that could help feed the world in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Solutions: Davids Face Goliath<\/h2>\n<p>A return to biodiversity-preserving farming practices seems impossible as long as industrial agriculture giants monopolize food production from seed to Shelf.<\/p>\n<p>An important advocate for seed and food sovereignty for small farmers is Vandana Shiva, founder of the India-based Navdanya movement and Italy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/\">Navdanya International<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe shift from globalization driven by multinational corporations to a progressive localization of our economies has become an ecological and social imperative, essential for food sovereignty,\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/the-foundation-of-food-sovereignty\/\">recently wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Navdanya International has a problem with what it calls \u201cbiopiracy\u201d\u2014the patenting of agricultural knowledge and techniques\u2014and encourages and conducts research, <a href=\"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/NI-INTRO-Presentation-Brochure-20211.pdf\">advocacy<\/a>, and partnerships that help small farmers keep control over what they grow and how it is produced.<\/p>\n<p>Two other groups working to change agricultural practices\u2014the German nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/zukunftsstiftung-landwirtschaft.de\/\">Foundation on Future Farming<\/a> The Swiss nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biovision.ch\/\">Biovision<\/a>\u2014recently published the optimistic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalagriculture.org\/fileadmin\/files\/weltagrarbericht\/IAASTD-Buch\/PDFBuch\/BuchWebTransformationFoodSystems.pdf\">Transformation of Our Food Systems: The Making of a Paradigm Shift<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The authors discuss the growing global effort to shift farming practices away from an industrialized system. They call it &#8220;anonymous.&#8221; \u201cagroecological model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This model, according to the farmers, will allow them to feed an estimated 10 billion people in the world by the mid-21st Century while maintaining crop biodiversity and reducing dependence of harmful industrial practices.<\/p>\n<p>Saladino provided practical advice for grocery shoppers who wanted to take part in this fight against global food homogenization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTechnology has been one of the drivers of globalization and the homogenization of food, but technology can also provide us with a means to help preserve [food] diversity,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n<p>In his book, Saladino described meeting a farmer in southwestern China who\u2019s saving endangered varieties of rice by selling directly to people in Chengdu and Beijing via WeChat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough an app on our phones, it\u2019s possible for more of us to have a direct relationship with farmers and food producers,\u201d He told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>These apps include Locavore and Simply Local, Farm Fresh 24\/7 and Farmish.<\/p>\n<p>Buy locally to cook with fresh produce.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf all of us just cooked more seasonally, that would make a big difference to global food diversity,\u201d Saladino said.<\/p>\n<p>He recommended that you join local or regional networks that are dedicated to food sovereignty, biodiversity, and other issues. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazioneslowfood.com\/en\/\">Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity<\/a> And the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazioneslowfood.com\/en\/what-we-do\/the-ark-of-taste\/\">Ark of Taste<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t replicate the relationship hunter-gatherers have with nature and biodiversity, but we can increase our awareness of the food that exists around us, the farmers and food producers in our part of the world, and the crops, fruits and other foods adapted to the places we live. One simple way of doing that is to live and eat in tune with the seasons,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-susan-c-olmstead\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/SusanCOlmstead_WEB.jpg\" alt=\"Susan C. Olmstead\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>Susan C. Olmstead writes about medicine and health, food, culture, and children\u2019s literature. Her work has been featured in The Epoch Times (The Defender), Salvo Magazine (Salvo Magazine), and many other publications. She lives in northern Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The push toward globalism isn\u2019t limited to political schemes; it also includes efforts to influence agriculture and homogenize food consumption around the world. While most people are not aware of this, it has led to significant changes in the sources and varieties of the food that we eat. In many nations, bountiful supermarket shelves provide &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1794592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,4405,4397,5179,13169,3819,4104],"class_list":["post-1794589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-counter","tag-food","tag-global","tag-homogenization","tag-report","tag-threat"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1794589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1794592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1794589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1794589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1794589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}