[Fts-research] Bremen Weekend

[Noortje]

Hello Research Group,

Unfortunately nobody (except me) from the Berlin meeting made it to the Bremen meet-up, so the research group was off to a bit of a rough start, but nevertheless we got some things done. We worked  on the Lexicon and are trying to compile a booklet/file with general information on fertilizers, alternatives, and Yara/corporate power and so on - basically what we discussed in Berlin. We encountered a bit of a hiccup when our computer was stolen and we lost quite some work.. Anyway, Softy compiled a very nice presentation which is on the cloud (I believe in Mobi materials) which he would like input on. It could be a 200-slide presentation to REALLY educate yourself, so in-depth research can be good input here. I will be working on another Mobi presentation this coming week (a short presentation on FtS to mobilize people), work to translate some texts, and get back to the lexicon afterwards. If anyone feels comfortable/motivated to work on the general information booklet or has done some research that could be added there, please add onto the text we started. It is in the FtS cloud, called General info on Yara. It is very rough so all input/changes are welcome. Info specifically related to fertilizer/soil/biodiversity will follow, our new research group member has been working on that.
More information on when and where our next meeting will be will be sent out through the FtS mailing list, but I just wanted to give a small update about research. Hope you are all doing well and hope to hear from you!

Cheeers,
Noortje



Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Wednesday, April 10, 2019 3:52 PM, Annie <annie at aseed.net> wrote:

> Hello research group!
>
> I hope you are all good and enjoying the beginnings of Spring. I will
> not be attending the weekend in Bremen, I have to work on the farm as it
> is super busy right now with getting things into the ground!
>
> I'm not sure how other people's research is going for the Free the Soil,
> I know from my side that I have been very busy and have not necessarily
> done as much as I would have liked. Softy, from the camp infrastructure
> group, emailed asking for information about alternatives and the current
> situation regarding Yara. It would be good to use this weekend to
> provide other working groups with information they need if we have it
> already.
>
> Some suggestions for how to use the working group time during the coming
> weekend. I don't think it is necessary to discuss again what topics we
> should be working on etc as we already have these in mind, rather
> perhaps its a good idea for people to bring their laptops and work
> together on the topics they assigned themselves to at the last meeting
> and see if we could get something written up by the end of the weekend?
> We could add readings to the website? Work on the Q and A together as we
> ran out of time for this in the last meeting, could be interesting to do
> this together in a group and research some answers during the weekend?
> We can also add to the Lexicon. If anyone has written up anything would
> be great if they could bring it with them to share.
>
> I found some interesting readings this week which I will attach in this
> mail. How is it going with people using the cloud? For me sometimes it
> locks me out for a week or so, but then I can get back in again. Does
> this happen with other people, maybe something to bring up over the
> weekend?
>
> Another thing to be discussed maybe is how do people feel about the use
> of this email list?
>
> https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/green-new-deal-agriculture-farm-workers?fbclid=IwAR2lcgwyuw2YuG6PHie_XIZU2N7sp4Upf2dLMqZ-yTMIDaxp5fdHx0rWcOE
> Very long article but some interesting points:
>
> "To pay workers well, to grow a polyculture of crops that can help
> sequester carbon and battle the sixth extinction, to farm without
> chemicals that poison workers, air, and water — all are militated
> against by the arrangements of payments that currently prevail. It’s
> rarely profitable to farm agroecologically when the rules of the game
> reward ecological devastation, worker exploitation, and monoculture.
>
> Corroborating evidence that the food industry is premised on destruction
> comes from an unlikely source. A 2012 report by KPMG singled out the
> food industry as the most environmentally damaging of any sector, with
> conservatively calculated externalities equaling 224 percent of the food
> industry’s revenues. This is the kind of result that ought to give
> defenders of the current food system pause. If this data is correct —
> and at a conference of donors in 2015 a senior Nestlé executive
> suggested that these ratios accurately reflected the findings of an
> internal audit at his corporation — then there’s only one conclusion:
> there’s no such thing as a sustainable food industry. Either the
> industry is profitable by dint of its externalities, or it stops making
> food and money".
>
> I also attached the latest document regarding "Organic Farming in the
> EU"
> and also a word document with some links to articles surrounding the
> Yara's corrupt history.
>
> Ok, think that's all for now. I hope you all have a really great weekend
> in Bremen. Look forward to the next time we see each other!
> Cheers,
> Annie_______________________________________________
> Fts-research mailing list
> Fts-research at lists.tuxic.nl
> https://lists.tuxic.nl/mailman/listinfo/fts-research