Environment

At current rates, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.

What might growing interest in agroecology mean for those committed to more ecological agriculture in the U.S.? After all, the discussion of agroecology at the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization and in many contexts has been directed toward the developing world and its “peasants,” not American farmers and activists.

Soil pollution is posing a serious threat to our environment, to our sources of food and ultimately to our health. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warns that there is still a lack of awareness about the scale and severity of this threat. Global production of municipal solid waste was around 1.3 billion tons per year in 2012 and it is expected to rise to 2.2 billion tons annually by 2025.

Thousands of logs loaded into makeshift boats at the port of Inongo at Lake Mai-Ndombe stand ready to be transported to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We witness this kind of spectacle every day, whereby tons and tons of logs and timber find their way to the capital either via the Congo River or by road, where they will eventually be shipped overseas, or just sold to the black market,” said environment activist Prosper Ngobila.

Indigenous nations have accused the Canyon Mine mining company of desecrating land, medicine, and water surrounding Red Butte in Arizona, just six miles from the Grand Canyon and from land held sacred by the Havasupai Tribe. In response, a four day Havasupai Prayer Gathering invited other native nations to come together beneath Red Butte for ancestral ceremonies, inter-tribal gatherings, entertainment, direct action training, and speakers. Participants spoke of past and current illegal land grabs, religious and cultural oppression, spiritual guidance, and stories of resistance.

Indigenous communities in Latin America, who have suffered the plunder of their natural resources since colonial times, are reliving that phenomenon again as mega infrastructure are jeopardizing their very survival.