Documentos en la categoría "English section"

Global Warming, Environmental Footprints and Traceability Processes

Fecha Publicado el 20 de Noviembre 2007 |

According to recent studies released about environmental footprints and climate change, one in six people may eventually suffer from water shortage, up to 100 million may become refugees due to rising water levels, and between 10-100 million may flee their homes due to severe draughts.

We are led to believe that by 2050 mankind will need two "Planet Earths" to overcome its environmental footprint in order to feed itself. With these changes it is predicted that only 600 of the approximately 6000 indigenous languages spoken today will be alive in 50 years. Their loss will also lead to the loss of knowledge that inherently lives in the cultures quieted forever. Today there are still 127 distinct languages spoken in Brazil. Were they to disappear, so would the knowledge of potential medicinal uses of the many varieties of the great Cerrado Biome currently being plowed under to make way for monocultures such as soy bean, corn, cotton and coffee.

Swiss market leader Migros joins UTZ CERTIFIED

Fecha Publicado el 25 de Junio 2007 |

Switzerland, 25 June 2007 - The nr. 1 Swiss retailer Migros announced its cooperation with the world wide certification scheme UTZ CERTIFIED. The largest coffee supplier in Switzerland has a total production of over 11,000 MT annually and will be the first company in Switzerland to offer products with the UTZ CERTIFIED logo from September 2007 onwards.

Karin Heierli, Category Manager Migros for Coffee "The UTZ certification enables us to assure our customers that a range of coffee products was grown by professionals who not only take care of their coffee to ensure quality, but also take care of the people and environment involved." The EurepGAP benchmarked UTZ CERTIFIED works with independent auditing by ISO 65 accredited certifiers and offers a unique traceability system. "UTZ assures a high level of assurance, so our customers can keep on enjoying their Migros coffee, and trust that we take care of the process."

Returning to the roots of the organic ideal: Local markets and participatory certification in Mexico

Fecha Publicado el 4 de Abril 2007 |

The amount of organic production in Mexico has been increasing rapidly over the past several years, and today over 80 000 producers farm organically on over 300 000 hectares of land. The vast majority of this production is focused on monocrop farming of export goods "“ particularly coffee, but also cacao, coconut, and other fruits and vegetables. This situation raises questions regarding the degree to which organics is truly providing an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable alternative for Mexican producers and consumers. However, over the past three years a network of local organic markets has begun to emerge across the country.

These markets are an important means of ensuring that organic foods are not just available as a luxury product in the North, but also to consumers in the South. One of the many challenges confronting these new markets is that economic and bureaucratic barriers make it difficult for the small scale producers involved to obtain organic certification. The notion of participatory certification offers a means to address this problem, as it relies on a combination of community based inspections, transparency, and trust between producer and consumer to maintain the integrity of the organic label. While this system may be problematic for export oriented production, it is a useful way of helping promote and support local networks of organic production and consumption. Although still in its early phases, the Mexican experience with local organic markets and participatory certification offers an important alternative to the industrialized, export-oriented, "˜mainstream’ organic sector.

Is Venezuela Heading Towards Prout?

Fecha Publicado el 3 de Diciembre 2006 |

Today there are countless movements and struggles which are fighting for the creation of a more just, sustainable, and human society, guaranteeing safety and individual freedom. Of all these, many progressive people around the world see the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela as the one with the greatest possibility to transform social reality.

Prout (Progressive Utilization Theory) is a socio-economic theory with a holistic purpose which seeks to replace capitalism with the three-tier model. The three-tier model is one in which cooperatives are the main economic enterprise in the society, with large-scale key resources being run by local government enterprises and small-scale business matters being privately owned. However, cooperatives would be with pre-dominant type of enterprise and the more cooperatives the better. There may also be scope for aspects of key industries, as well as small business, to become cooperatized as well.

Mexico as supplier of organic products in the global market

Fecha Publicado el 23 de Julio 2006 |

The role of Mexico as a supplier of organic products in the global market is limited to three categories : tropical products such as coffee, cacao, mango, bananas, vanilla, etc., which are not cultivated in developed countries, winter vegetables, due to climatic conditions where countries with temperate climes are deficient in the production of said, and labour intensive crops such as sesame seed. As a result, the production of organics in Mexico complements that which is not produced in developed countries. However, exportation is directed toward countries which have the most developed markets, have superficially experimented in search of growth and organic production rates for sustainability- at least with produce-able products such as grains, summer vegetables, livestock, processors.

A serious treat for Mexico is the exponential growth of organic production from Mediterranean countries in Europe, especially Spain ( with a 59% annual growth rate), and Italy (48%), who have become provides of organics to Northern European countries, notably vegetables such as citrus, olive oil, wine, cheese and dried fruit. A prominent example is Italy, which exports 43% of its organic production to other European countries and in smaller proportions to the United States and Japan. [1] The participation of these countries in the exportation of organics could limit Mexico's international production potential in the market place with regards to vegetables and citrus.

Global Organic Production

Fecha Publicado el 23 de Julio 2006 |

The dynamic and lucrative Organic food industry has stimulated much controversy between conventional and organic agriculture. Even though the debate has existed since the nineteen-twenties, the nineteen-seventies ushered in the standards for its production, but it wasn't until the nineteen-nineties that organics' took off. In the last ten years of the last century more than 80% of the organic industry integrate itself into this system. This slow take-off is due to strong political and economical support from the conventional agriculture sector, the negative underestimated consequences in the intensive use of chemicals in agriculture and in general, the limited options of conventional agriculture.

In 2001 there were 16 million organic hectares registered in the world.[1] The two countries with the most coverage were Australia and Argentina, with 7.6 and 3 million hectares, respectively. But in these cases the coverage consisted of extensive pasture which in terms of biological mass production does not compare with that of cultivated farm areas.

Organic certification in Mexico: some perspectives

Fecha Publicado el 23 de Julio 2006 |

This article expresses the opinion of a diverse group of participants directly related to the topic ofproduction, certification and the commercialization of organic products in Mexico. Said opinions were expressed in the chronicle Red Morelos, by Areli Carreón.

Ecological Market "Ocelotl"

For us the Ecological Market "Ocelotl" of Xalapa, Veracruz which was started by Indigenous World A.C. and is backed by the University of Veracruz andthe municipality of Teocelo; official certification is something that we do not lose sleep over. Yes it interests us very much, we have profound convictions toward the health of the environment, natural food, the relationship between the two, no exportation, conscience consuming and bioregionalism, as a defense against political economic globalization.That's why we promote certification among our neighbours, appointed by our own technical board, which integrates a team of sentient professionalfarmers that identify with the possibilities of organic management and sustainability. Since our project is not centered in exportation but in recouping traditional values rooted in the earth, we think that all the discussion and actions around the importance of certification raises from international control whose purpose is foreign to our philosophy and reality.

Certificación de productos orgánicos en México

Transnational Social Movements, Solidarity Values and the Grassroots: The Fair Trade Movement, Mexican Coffee Producers and a European NGO Coalition

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

This paper explores the points of convergence and digression of the Trade Justice Movement and the Fair Trade Market in Northern countries and the Mexican peasant project, through the framework of transnational social movements. It concerns the way solidarity relations between northern social movements and southern social movements are carried out, the extent they can be conceptualised as social movements, and the level of engagement between north and south movements that share claims. Also, it will analyse the role of values as a strategy, and as an end in itself, framing the broad struggle between opposing actors. It is concluded that, actually both the Fair Trade market and the Trade Justice Movement address one of the longstanding claims of the Latin American peasant movements namely better conditions of access to the market. However there are not visible channels of communication and strong links between northern and southern social movements. It is suggested that a stronger mutual involvement could enhance more effective channels of communication that gives coherence and effectiveness to the movements struggle for equality, rather than repeating within SM’s the political economy’s North-South schema of domination.

Transnational Social Movements, Solidarity Values and the Grassroots: Introduction

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

This paper explores the points of convergence and digression of the Trade Justice Movement and the Fair Trade Market in Northern countries and the Mexican peasant project, through the framework of transnational social movements. It concerns the way solidarity relations between northern social movements and southern social movements are carried out, the extent they can be conceptualised as social movements, and the level of engagement between north and south movements that share claims. Also, it will analyse the role of values as a strategy, and as an end in itself, framing the broad struggle between opposing actors. It is concluded that, actually both the Fair Trade market and the Trade Justice Movement address one of the longstanding claims of the Latin American peasant movements namely better conditions of access to the market. However there are not visible channels of communication and strong links between northern and southern social movements. It is suggested that a stronger mutual involvement could enhance more effective channels of communication that gives coherence and effectiveness to the movements struggle for equality, rather than repeating within SM’s the political economy’s North-South schema of domination.

Transnational Solidarity Movements and the Intangible Strategies

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

The two main theories concerning Transnational Social Movements are the Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT) and to a less extent the New Social Movements (NSM’s) Theory. It seems that both the RM and NSMs theories appear to have been made to suit specific types of social mobilisation. NSMs theory, which attempts to supersede class based analysis, has been pictured as focusing on urban actors, on production and signification, on meanings and practices, and on cultural struggles over environmentalism, peace, women’s rights, gay liberation, minority rights, students, youth movements; in short on multiple identities and on the ‘why’ (Escobar and Alvarez, 1992: 2; Alvarez, Dagnino and Escobar, 1998: 4, Edelman, 1999a: 17). Resource mobilization Theory (RMT), on the other hand, has been considered a ‘strategy-oriented’ paradigm, concerned with the ‘how’. In Edelman’s terms, Resource Mobilization Theory has focused on

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