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Toxic Contagion – Funds, Food and Pharma

Colin Todhunter

Image source

In 2014, the organisation GRAIN revealed that small farms produce most of the world’s food in its report Hungry for land: small farmers feed the world with less than a quarter of all farmland.

The report Small-scale Farmers and Peasants Still Feed the World (ETC Group, 2022) confirmed this.

Small farmers produce up to 80% of the food in the non-industrialised countries. However, they are currently squeezed onto less than a quarter of the world’s farmland. The period 1974-2014 saw 140 million hectares – more than all the farmland in China – being taken over for soybean, oil palm, rapeseed and sugar cane plantations.

GRAIN noted that the concentration of fertile agricultural land in fewer and fewer hands is directly related to the increasing number of people going hungry every day. While industrial farms have enormous power, influence and resources, GRAIN’s data showed that small farms almost everywhere outperform big farms in terms of productivity.

In the same year, policy think tank the Oakland Institute released a report stating that the first years of the 21 century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale. An estimated 500 million acres, an area eight times the size of Britain, were reported bought or leased across the developing world between 2000 and 2011, often at the expense of local food security and land rights.

Institutional investors, including hedge funds, private equity, pension funds and university endowments, were eager to capitalise on global farmland as a new and highly desirable asset class.

This trend was not confined to buying up agricultural land in low-income countries. Oakland Institute’s Anuradha Mittal argued that there was a new rush for US farmland. One industry leader estimated that $10 billion in institutional capital was looking for access to this land in the US.

Although investors believed that there is roughly $1.8 trillion worth of farmland across the US, of this between $300 billion and $500 billion (2014 figures) is considered to be of “institutional quality” – a combination of factors relating to size, water access, soil quality and location that determine the investment appeal of a property.

In 2014, Mittal said that if action is not taken, then a perfect storm of global and national trends could converge to permanently shift farm ownership from family businesses to institutional investors and other consolidated corporate operations.

Why this matters

Peasant/smallholder agriculture prioritises food production for local and national markets as well as for farmers’ own families, whereas corporations take over fertile land and prioritise commodities or export crops for profit and markets far away that tend to cater for the needs of more affluent sections of the global population.

In 2013, a UN report stated that farming in rich and poor nations alike should shift from monocultures towards greater varieties of crops, reduced use of fertilisers and other inputs, increased support for small-scale farmers and more locally focused production and consumption of food. The report stated that monoculture and industrial farming methods were not providing sufficient affordable food where it is needed.

In September 2020, however, GRAIN showed an acceleration of the trend that it had warned of six years earlier: institutional investments via private equity funds being used to lease or buy up farms on the cheap and aggregate them into industrial-scale concerns. One of the firms spearheading this is the investment asset management firm BlackRock, which exists to put its funds to work to make money for its clients.

BlackRock holds shares in a number of the world’s largest food companies, including Nestlé, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Walmart, Danone and Kraft Heinz and also has significant shares in most of the top publicly traded food and agriculture firms: those which focus on providing inputs (seeds, chemicals, fertilisers) and farm equipment as well as agricultural trading companies, such as Deere, Bunge, ADM and Tyson (based on BlackRock’s own data from 2018).

Together, the world’s top five asset managers – BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity and Capital Group – own around 10–30% of the shares of the top firms in the agrifood sector.

The article Who is Driving the Destructive Industrial Agriculture Model? (2022) by Frederic Mousseau of the Oakland Institute showed that BlackRock and Vanguard are by far the biggest shareholders in eight of the largest pesticides and fertiliser companies: Yara, CF Industries Holdings K+S Aktiengesellschaft, Nutrien, The Mosaic Company, Corteva and Bayer.

These companies’ profits were projected to double, from US$19 billion in 2021 to $38 billion in 2022, and will continue to grow as long as the industrial agriculture production model on which they rely keeps expanding. Other major shareholders include investment firms, banks and pension funds from Europe and North America.

Through their capital injections, BlackRock et al fuel and make huge profits from a globalised food system that has been responsible for eradicating indigenous systems of production, expropriating seeds, land and knowledge, impoverishing, displacing or proletarianizing farmers and destroying rural communities and cultures. This has resulted in poor-quality food and illness, human rights abuses and ecological destruction.

Systemic compulsion

Post-1945, the Rockefeller Chase Manhattan bank with the World Bank helped roll out what has become the prevailing modern-day agrifood system under the guise of a supposedly ‘miraculous’ corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive Green Revolution (its much-heralded but seldom challenged ‘miracles’ of increased food production are nothing of the sort; for instance, see the What the Green Revolution Did for India and New Histories of the Green Revolution).

Ever since, the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO have helped consolidate an export-oriented industrial agriculture based on Green Revolution thinking and practices. A model that uses loan conditionalities to compel nations to ‘structurally adjust’ their economies and sacrifice food self-sufficiency.

Countries are placed on commodity crop production treadmills to earn foreign currency (US dollars) to buy oil and food on the global market (benefitting global commodity traders like Cargill, which helped write the WTO trade regime – the Agreement on Agriculture), entrenching the need to increase cash crop cultivation for exports.

Today, investment financing is helping to drive and further embed this system of corporate dependency worldwide. BlackRock is ideally positioned to create the political and legislative framework to maintain this system and increase the returns from its investments in the agrifood sector.

The firm has around $10 trillion in assets under its management and has, according to William Engdahl, positioned itself to effectively control the US Federal Reserve, many Wall Street mega-banks and the Biden administration: a number of former top people at BlackRock are in key government positions, shaping economic policy.

So, it is no surprise that we are seeing an intensification of the lop-sided battle being waged against local markets, local communities and indigenous systems of production for the benefit of global private equity and big agribusiness.

For example, while ordinary Ukrainians are currently defending their land, financial institutions are supporting the consolidation of farmland by rich individuals and Western financial interests. It is similar in India (see the article The Kisans Are Right: Their Land Is at Stake) where a land market is being prepared and global investors are no doubt poised to swoop.

In both countries, debt and loan conditionalities on the back of economic crises are helping to push such policies through. For instance, there has been a 30+ year plan to restructure India’s economy and agriculture. This stems from the country’s 1991 foreign exchange crisis, which was used to impose IMF-World Bank debt-related ‘structural adjustment’ conditionalities. The Mumbai-based Research Unit for Political Economy locates agricultural ‘reforms’ within a broader process of Western imperialism’s increasing capture of the Indian economy.

Yet ‘imperialism’ is a dirty word never to be used in ‘polite’ circles. Such a notion is to be brushed aside as ideological by the corporations that benefit from it. Instead, what we constantly hear from these conglomerates is that countries are choosing to embrace their entry and proprietary inputs into the domestic market as well as ‘neoliberal reforms’ because these are essential if we are to feed a growing global population. The reality is that these firms and their investors are attempting to deliver a knockout blow to smallholder farmers and local enterprises in places like India.

But the claim that these corporations, their inputs and their model of agriculture is vital for ensuring global food security is a proven falsehood. However, in an age of censorship and doublespeak, truth has become the lie and the lie is truth. Dispossession is growth, dependency is market integration, population displacement is land mobility, serving the needs of agrifood corporations is modern agriculture and the availability of adulterated, toxic food as part of a monoculture diet is feeding the world.

And when a ‘pandemic’ was announced and those who appeared to be dying in greater numbers were the elderly and people with obesity, diabetes and cardio-vascular disease, few were willing to point the finger at the food system and its powerful corporations,   practices and products that are responsible for the increasing prevalence of these conditions (see campaigner Rosemary Mason’s numerous papers documenting this on Academia.edu). Because this is the real public health crisis that has been building for decades.

But who cares? BlackRock, Vanguard and other institutional investors? Highly debatable because if we turn to the pharmaceuticals industry, we see similar patterns of ownership involving the same players.

A December 2020 paper on ownership of the major pharmaceuticals companies, by researchers Albert Banal-Estanol, Melissa Newham and Jo Seldeslachts, found the following (reported on the website of TRT World, a Turkish news media outlet):

Public companies are increasingly owned by a handful of large institutional investors, so we expected to see many ownership links between companies — what was more surprising was the magnitude of common ownership… We frequently find that more than 50 per cent of a company is owned by ‘common’ shareholders who also own stakes in rival pharma companies.”

The three largest shareholders of Pfizer, J&J and Merck are Vanguard, SSGA and BlackRock.

In 2019, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations reported that payouts to shareholders had increased by almost 400 per cent — from $30 billion in 2000 to $146 billion in 2018. Shareholders made $1.54 trillion in profits over that 18-year period.

So, for institutional investors, the link between poor food and bad health is good for profit. While investing in the food system rakes in enormous returns, you can perhaps double your gains if you invest in pharma too.

These findings predate the 2021 documentary Monopoly: An Overview of the Great Reset, which also shows that the stock of the world’s largest corporations are owned by the same institutional investors. ‘Competing’ brands, like Coke and Pepsi, are not really competitors, since their stock is owned by the same investment companies, investment funds, insurance companies and banks.

Smaller investors are owned by larger investors. Those are owned by even bigger investors. The visible top of this pyramid shows only Vanguard and Black Rock.

A 2017 Bloomberg report states that both these companies in the year 2028 together will have investments amounting to $20 trillion.

While individual corporations – like Pfizer and Monsanto/Bayer, for instance – should be (and at times have been) held to account for some of their many wrongdoings, their actions are symptomatic of a system that increasingly leads back to the boardrooms of the likes of BlackRock and Vanguard.

Prof Fabio Vighi of Cardiff University says:

Today, capitalist power can be summed up with the names of the three biggest investment funds in the world: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Global Advisor. These giants, sitting at the centre of a huge galaxy of financial entities, manage a mass of value close to half the global GDP, and are major shareholders in around 90% of listed companies.”

These firms help shape and fuel the dynamics of the economic system and the globalised food regime, ably assisted by the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and other supranational institutions. A system that leverages debt, uses coercion and employs militarism to secure continued expansion.

Colin Todhunter specialises in development, food and agriculture and is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization in Montreal. You can read his “mini e-book”, Food, Dependency and Dispossession: Cultivating Resistance, here.

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Sunface Jack
Sunface Jack
May 30, 2023 11:46 AM

The driver of this is the OECD. They want to commodify seed and if you don’t use the certified seed you wont be able to export your produce.

Joe Van Steenbergen
Joe Van Steenbergen
May 24, 2023 4:20 PM

Just try to stop these people.

CK_
CK_
May 24, 2023 2:34 AM

Steve Kirsch has an excellent article that says vaccines are the primary cause of autism and he also says the autism researchers all know this too but they’re afraid to speak out because they’ll be cancelled.
https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/vaccines-cause-autism

I realized this myself several years ago. At first I thought the justification for this was the “greater good” or Big Pharma greed. I had to become a “conspiracy theorist” to realize the real reason is simply evil intent:

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_illuminati_21.htm

When they give birth we will inject poisons into the blood of their children and convince them its for their help. We will start early on, when their minds are young, we will target their children with what children love most, sweet things. When their teeth decay we will fill them with metals that will kill their mind and steal their future. When their ability to learn has been affected, we will create medicine that will make them sicker and cause other diseases for which we will create yet more medicine. We will render them docile and weak before us by our power. They will grow depressed, slow and obese, and when they come to us for help, we will give them more poison.”

Penelope
Penelope
May 24, 2023 4:25 AM
Reply to  CK_

CK, it certainly appears that vaccines can cause autism, perhaps especially the MMJR. (measles, mumps & rubella). It’s especially dangerous if given before a certain age– I can’t remember if it’s before 3 or before 5. And it’s especially dangerous to little Black boys.

There’s evidence linking glyphosate to autism too. Stephanie Seneff has written on it. Also you can search “pubmed glyphosate & autism.”

mgeo
mgeo
May 24, 2023 7:56 AM
Reply to  CK_

The global scientific mantra is that a specific harm from a treatment is rare if it affects 1/1,000 to 1/10,000 subjects, regardless of severity. This means that 0.1% of any group are just so many lab rats for the greater glory of capitalism. Why have the many loudmouths including ethicists and politicians not questioned this outrage?

George Mc
George Mc
May 23, 2023 12:48 PM

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/thor-actor-ray-stevenson-dies-at-age-58-after-contracting-mystery-illness/DJAH43UORBDCHMV6CVYVPICKPA/

Thor actor Ray Stevenson dies at age 58 after contracting mystery illness

So many mysteries, so little time.

Erik Nielsen
Erik Nielsen
May 23, 2023 5:04 PM
Reply to  George Mc

New Syrian passports were found close to his body. Indicating he was not alone when he died.

Ozzie Explorer
Ozzie Explorer
May 23, 2023 8:53 AM

Everyone should get out into God’s own wilderness and make it your own while you can. Spend a night camping under the stars and all this manmade bullshit looks like so much kitty litter.

Ozzie Explorer
Ozzie Explorer
May 23, 2023 10:55 AM
Reply to  Ozzie Explorer

Two bloody thumbs downs for saying let’s go camping. Jesus, you miserable bastards.

Howard
Howard
May 23, 2023 4:14 PM
Reply to  Ozzie Explorer

Those with a strong Libertarian leaning tend to see manmade things as superior to nature made things. Recommending camping is fighting words to that mentality.

Erik Nielsen
Erik Nielsen
May 23, 2023 5:12 PM
Reply to  Ozzie Explorer

They are agents. I have one down vote on each comment I make here and I know its Mr. Smith.

mgeo
mgeo
May 24, 2023 7:58 AM
Reply to  Ozzie Explorer

Seem like the camping did not calm you down long enough.

Erik Nielsen
Erik Nielsen
May 23, 2023 5:07 PM
Reply to  Ozzie Explorer

So you found the key too. God’s wonderful creation which we are part of.

moneycircus
moneycircus
May 23, 2023 7:57 AM

Ukraine is a major target for these big investors… and their activities are a key element behind the coup and war.

According to Dr. Natalia Mamonova, Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Big Ag did successfully put much land back into production, and reduce rural poverty in Ukraine in the early 2000s.

Hyper financialisation as a result of decades of low, or zero, interest rates is what has empowered hedge funds and asset managers to lauch their phenomenal land grab.

Oakland Institute has some great research – including how the World Bank and IMF are the trojan horse of Western financial interests.

PM Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to turn down a $17 billion loan from the IMF in 2013 was arguably one reason for his ouster. The IMF demanded a hike in fuel costs (as opposed to Russian subsidy) austerity which would have accelerated economic decline, leading to a firesale of Ukraine’s public assets (including land).

Looks like the war is going to produce that firesale anyway.
https://moneycircus.substack.com/p/eurasia-note-77-ukraine-the-war-everyone

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
May 23, 2023 2:24 PM
Reply to  moneycircus

Hello moneycircus: Your mention regarding the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych is right on. The IMF has destroyed many such leaders and the countries they once led. As long as people have food on the table, they don’t give a damn about the political cost…

Penelope
Penelope
May 23, 2023 4:53 AM

Informative video interview on the politics of regenerative farming, etc.
Quite interesting.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/3p9Gf5otjdw2/

Stop The Prison Mentality
Stop The Prison Mentality
May 23, 2023 4:18 AM

Another awesome job Colin.

On a personal note, I’m currently living in the, largely, Zapatista controlled state of Chiapas, Mexico.

The fresh food here is absolutely amazing.

I imagine it would take a brutal and bloody war to take the land away from the farmers here and turn it into some corporate hell hole. I am seriously thinking this is the place to be, stunning.

mgeo
mgeo
May 23, 2023 7:43 AM

When the masses run out of food, the billionares and their masters will definitely feel the heat in their yatchs and bunkers.

D.G
D.G
May 24, 2023 12:21 PM

Hey bro, you have nice sense of bravery and resistence soul I appreciated you and I really respect you. But probably they’ll not impose their economy or production system with guns. Their aim is “cultural”, they can change culture into a capitalistic one via smart phones(technologies), universites(instutions), coffee shops like starbucks (preferences). This transformation is not like the what happened in the 19th century, of course it can be another choice but in this era because of changed conditions this cannnot possible every time. So, they have enough patiance and enough sneaky techniques that able to transform slowly.

les online
les online
May 23, 2023 2:25 AM

A few years ago it was reported that Australian superannuation funds were being advised to invest in agricultural assets…The promise was “at least seven very profitable years”…i wondered what happened to the “assets” after the seven years, after most of the wealth had been sucked out of the farms etc…
There’s fortunes to be made from ill-health: ‘an area bigger than all the farmland in China is being taken over for soybean, oil palm, rapeseed, and sugar cane plantations.’…”Foods”
containing such ingredients are ill-health promoting, especially extremely processed “foods”…Ill-health is good for business.

Veri Tas
Veri Tas
May 22, 2023 9:24 PM

The worrying thing is that if, as I wish, humanity wins and the evil controllers have to crawl back into their holes, the organic farming expertise, the natural healing expertise, the wholesome family values, the beautiful art-making talents, the wise philosopher philosophising will have vanished down the memory hole. In my mind I see a devastation from which it may take thousands of years for the earth with all its natural living forms to recover and flourish again.

Joe
Joe
May 23, 2023 7:18 AM
Reply to  Veri Tas

You are absolutely right. We are fast approaching the point (15-20?) years where it could well be that life is permanently extinguished on this planet. Regardless of that, I think we are well past the point where massive external assistance (ie liberation of concentration camps but on a global scale) is necessary. If only I knew why that was not occurring…or perhaps it is…

NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 7:39 AM
Reply to  Joe

“it could well be that life is permanently extinguished on this planet.”

As the Weather Man said to the Lady who asked him whether atomic bombs were affecting the weather:

“It’s not so delicately poised”.

Life on planet Earth is not so delicately poised as the hairless apes imagine with their oversized fevered brains.

NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 7:32 AM
Reply to  Veri Tas

That is a very real danger. History is full of finding, forgetting and having to find again. Ronnie will come to the rescue? (See Penelope’s post at 4.53am)

Fers: “They’ve forgotten” — Chekhov, the Cherry Orchard.

correspondencecommitttee
correspondencecommitttee
May 22, 2023 8:28 PM
NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 7:56 AM

From your Link:

  • The Health Industrial Complex : known for its catchy advertising jingle – I’m gonna squirt that juice right into your arm (to the tune of I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair)
  • The Climate Industrial Complex : jingle Daisy Bell — lyric You’ll look sweet, upon the seat, of a bicycle made for two. Because a bike (probably made from bamboo) is all you’ll be allowed.
  • The Gender Industrial Complex : theme tune — Shania Twain’s Man, I Feel Like a Woman
  • The Woke Industrial Complex : (because facts don’t really matter), thought Unchained Melody was really called Unhinged Melody
  • The Trans-Human Industrial Complex : Highbrow and intellectual, this complex uses the song Turn of the Century by Yes with adapted lyrics oh let Klaus so transform me
  • The Depopulation Industrial Complex : to get rid of all of the “useless eaters” chooses the song from Les Misérables; Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
  • The Military Industrial Complex : recently changed their theme to the Ukrainian national anthem — in honour of all of those tax dollars that are finding their way into their coffers
  • The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex : closed meetings begin with the ritual examination of their bank balances whilst singing The Verve’s song The Drugs don’t Work (They Just Make you Worse)
Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
May 22, 2023 5:17 PM

Well stated Colin Todhunter. But you forgot to suggest the elimination of all corporate charter, syndication, franchise, and civil accommodation.

Hello? It’s the CORPORATE SYSTEM. Ya know? The system that extorts human freedoms, and replaces them with feudal enslavement.

eman
eman
May 22, 2023 7:10 PM

If only we could force into public debate concerning the benefits to humanity if forcing everyone in business to do business in their real names, and personally, not doing buiness in fictitious names (corporations, partnerships or trusts or some entity) the we could vote against anything the Oligarch or his corporations would otherwise control.

Things like syndication and franchise contracts, joint government-private business arrangements, government services privatized into oligarch owned corporations all transform cover-the-cost-revenue into private-for-profit earned as a result of a government monopoly power being gifted to private parties[this process is called privatization]. If we can force government to outlaw these things, then government can once again be made to serve [twat]” governed (that’s you and I).

Unless we do these things, AI and technology will make slaves of us all.

NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 8:06 AM
Reply to  eman

Good thinking. Give the government back to the people.

Oh! for another Attlee, another FDR! Tax the rich out of existence!

At the very least, do what the Chinese govt did to Jack Ma of Ali Baba. Cut them down to size with a hefty fine and a warning:

“You to own a lot but you don’t own the government”.

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
May 23, 2023 2:14 PM
Reply to  eman

Hello eman: Thanks for that. You seem to be one of few who understand the “situation”. The elimination of corporate welfare and executive shelters would change the feudal landscape forever. That’s why the concept is rejected by the majority. They seem to be enjoying their mutual corruption and enslavement…

Erik Nielsen
Erik Nielsen
May 22, 2023 3:40 PM

Halt voran. If you compare life 50 years ago with today, hasnt life improved considerably?

Work is no more heavy, health is better, many many more travel and see other countries and cultures, less criminality, China has been lifted into the middle class, on global basis less millions go hungry to bed, we changed from macho men to sissies, feminine women to M-1 Fighters, etc, etc.

Not saying there is still many many more problems for liberals to cry about, which we all can see in their liberal statistics, in their liberal reports, in the liberal microscope, in all the on Television described problems they have with their many shifting partners, and how our vulnerable nature is jeopardized and need to be protected by liberals who care.

Care for the nature, care for the animals, care for the minorities, against the axis of evil, white ultra-radical conservative hetero men and Christianity. .

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
May 22, 2023 5:08 PM
Reply to  Erik Nielsen

China needs a suprize visit by a large high-speed meteor. What a fucking pig-pen.

Sam - Admin2
Admin
Sam - Admin2
May 22, 2023 5:56 PM

Is it so hard to relate to the WEF’s mindset if this is yours? ‘Stick the pig proles with poison jabs, do the world a favour’.

Needless to say, I think I know which Hogwarts house you’d be in. 🙄

les online
les online
May 23, 2023 2:35 AM
Reply to  Erik Nielsen

“Health is better” ? Count the number of chemist shops in a Sydney NSW suburb, eg Randwick junction. Ckeck out the “health / medicine” shelves in any supermarket…
Doctor’s can only spare you a ten minute consultation, they are so busy…
Count the big pharma adverts during evening prime time TV…(Big pharma pays
for your free evenings’ entertainment.)
These surely suggest a nation of hypochondriacs !!
And hypochrondia is not a healthy state…

NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 8:14 AM
Reply to  les online

To explain why India was falling behind China in social progress Indians used to say, The middle class have hijacked the revolution.

Likewise Westerners can say, The hypochondriacs have hijacked the health service.

Erik Nielsen
Erik Nielsen
May 23, 2023 5:43 PM
Reply to  NickM

But but but, so you all agree we are too many idiots who are in our way? Not us off course but the guy next door.

The middle class are in the way for the right solution, the slant eyed should disappear, all the hypochondriacs are residues of Big Pharma, not worth a tax dime.

So all we did in the last 50 years for our fellow men were in vain yes? Only garbage came back. Waste of money and energy.

My revenge for your 20 minus thumbs is this: I LOVE $2 Cheese Burgers.

NickM
NickM
May 22, 2023 3:36 PM

“The period 1974-2014 saw 140 million hectares – more than all the farmland in China – being taken over for soybean, oil palm, rapeseed and sugar cane plantations.”

Dr.Eric Berg on Youtube for a diabribes against the bad effects of 3 mass produced poisons: soybean oil, rapeseed oil and sugar. No wonder the world is sick.

And Colin goes further along this tack:

“…those who appeared to be dying in greater numbers were the … people with obesity, diabetes and cardio-vascular disease, few were willing to point the finger at the food system and its powerful corporations, practices and products that are responsible for the increasing prevalence of these conditions (see campaigner Rosemary Mason’s numerous papers documenting this on Academia.edu). Because this is the real public health crisis that has been building for decades.”

Ending up with his finger pointing to the villains at the top of the Big Farmer and Big Pharma pyramid: Black Rock, owned by a small but “mighty handful” of Oligarchs who make Bill Gates look like a poor relation.

Gonzogone
Gonzogone
May 22, 2023 3:32 PM

I stopped reading at “feed the world”.

What a noxious, odious, shit-eating globalist statement!

Howard
Howard
May 22, 2023 3:54 PM
Reply to  Gonzogone

Are you being facetious, or just opaque? “Feed the world” is not a “globalist statement.” It’s merely a general statement meant to encompass everyone.

The very fact that the article stresses small farmers as the best, if not only, way to feed people indicates that the author is not hawking a globalist agenda.

Let's be Frank Joshua
Let's be Frank Joshua
May 22, 2023 6:09 PM
Reply to  Gonzogone

You stopped reading and then get abusive. Your bias and prejudgement prevent you from actually wanting to understand what the author is saying, what those two reports quoted at the start actually say about the role of small farms and from actually learning about the food system and the role of smallholder/peasant farming in it. Understand and learn. It’s much better than making unfounded assumptions.

dom irritant
dom irritant
May 23, 2023 7:11 AM
Reply to  Gonzogone

ai troll bait

Freecus
Freecus
May 22, 2023 2:28 PM

Private Central Banks, by design, slowly take-over control of absolutely everything.
They have only one product and that is the issuance of debt, owed back to them with interest. Those closest to the fresh currency benefit greatly with exponential results over time.
They are currently retaining, and sweeping, all their assets off one out-dated Monopoly game-board and into the new digital-version where all assets will be tokenized and controlled by smart-contracts on blockchain.
CBDC is bad, but acts as a distraction away from the ultimate control-grid where everything is re-presented as tokens on interoperable blockchains, with access controlled by a range of credits.

The Coming Revolution
The Coming Revolution
May 22, 2023 3:57 PM
Reply to  Freecus

How do you define empiricism that doesn’t want to look into primary causes? Formal logic that doesn’t concern itself with historical content? Agustín Carstens give us a sample of that methodological errancy:

“Recent banking failures have reminded us of the value of these safeguards. Make no mistake: the primary responsibility for events like the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic in the United States or the takeover of Credit Suisse lies with the managers of the institutions involved. But these events also underline the need for an effective supervisory regime and mechanisms for timely intervention to prevent the failure of individual institutions from destabilising the whole system.”

The subject of that speech in Brazil was trust in Central Banks; looks like it’s lacking lately. These guys will stick to the system and drag us with it and won’t question it to the very last.

NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 8:27 AM

“Recent banking failures have reminded us of the value of these safeguards.”

Your mention of Safeguards reminds me of one of the major crimes of Lord and Lady McLinton: repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. Removing bank-regulations was less bloody then Clinton’s usual activities (rape of Serbia, infanticide in Iraq) nevertheless it was a major crime, and your post does well to remind us how far its ramifications have spread.

NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 3:41 PM
Reply to  NickM

PS the Clinton body trail is growing longer:

“Another former Clinton ally mysteriously dies”

https://youtu.be/9MCvu0hrIpg

el Gallinazo
el Gallinazo
May 23, 2023 4:24 PM
Reply to  Freecus

Yes, but as a corollary to this, in a debt based money system, all money is created by issuing debt. However, the interest money charged on the debt is not created. Thus some people or institutions holding debt must continuously borrow from the future to avoid default and the forfeiture of their collateral which was often their bodies. This creates further debt. This forces the increase in debt creation exponentially, the rate of which time wise is correlated with the rate of interest. This was avoided in BC times in the middle east by having a debt jubilee every 50 years or so where the debt is reset to zero. Another way to avoid this outcome is to outlaw usury which originally was defined as any rate of interest on debt. Only interest free loans were permitted. Commerce was financed strictly by the investment of equity in an enterprise. This was the law in the early days of Islam and Christianity, but obviously is not so any longer. Paraphrasing Einstein, the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest, an exponential function. This is often illustrated by an example of how long it takes to fill up a sports stadium with water if it starts with one drop, and then the number of drops is doubled every second. I forgot the exact numbers, but the time is grossly underestimated by nearly everyone asked, and the status of the stadium goes from less than half full to full in the last few seconds. The current financial system is in those last few seconds which is why our Overlords need a Great Reset. One need not be an Einstein to understand this.

Sam I am
Sam I am
May 22, 2023 2:14 PM

For example, while ordinary Ukrainians are currently defending their land, financial institutions are supporting the consolidation of farmland by rich individuals and Western financial interests.

‘Western financial interests’ – Cargill and Blackrock to name two.
“rich individuals” – oligarchs

I do wonder how this figures into Putin’s calculations and motivations.
When he has secured the Donbas the real $winners$ are possibly
going to be a new different set of oligarchs and mafia. That is, the oligarch that funded
Zelensky’s presidential bid and also funded the right-wing and Nazi militias attacking
the Donbas, has/had huge holdings in the Donbas. This oligarch will lose a
fortune. But after winning will the people of Donbas see anyone better
controlling the wealth of the Donbas? Just new faces?

Allie GoPro
Allie GoPro
May 23, 2023 6:58 AM
Reply to  Sam I am

Or the same faces in different masks?

Johnny
Johnny
May 22, 2023 2:02 PM

E F Schumacher was on to it more than fifty years ago:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful

Howard
Howard
May 22, 2023 1:19 PM

And yet…we continue to pooh-pooh the notion that money is the root of all evil. Money is destroying the world and all its living beings.

Yes: money is a medium of exchange. The “exchange” of death for life.

Christine Thompson
Christine Thompson
May 22, 2023 2:25 PM
Reply to  Howard

A few hours ago, I sent you a reply to your post of yesterday (re. the nature of reality…) on Off-G’s article (posted on 20th May), ‘A closed system’. You may (or may not…) want to read my response!

Howard
Howard
May 22, 2023 3:49 PM

Thanks for alerting me – I probably wouldn’t have seen your comment otherwise. I wrote a reply to that comment on that thread.

Christine Thompson
Christine Thompson
May 22, 2023 6:01 PM
Reply to  Howard

I’ve just replied to your post on that other thread.

Joe Van Steenbergen
Joe Van Steenbergen
May 24, 2023 4:23 PM
Reply to  Howard

It’s not money that is at the root of evil; it’s the love of money that causes men to destroy each other.

der einzige
der einzige
May 22, 2023 12:15 PM

Oddly enough, not a single Russian company in this article? But you know: they are in this together!

Sam - Admin2
Admin
Sam - Admin2
May 22, 2023 1:03 PM
Reply to  der einzige

Many argue Russia are not anti globalist, which isn’t the same thing you’re saying here.

der einzige
der einzige
May 22, 2023 4:04 PM
Reply to  Sam - Admin2

“No matter how much the West and the supranational elite strive to preserve the existing order, a new era and a new stage in world history are coming. Only genuinely sovereign states are in a position to ensure a high growth dynamic and become a role model for others in terms of standards of living and quality of life, the protection of traditional values and high humanistic ideals, and development models where an individual is not a means, but the ultimate goal.” – Vladimir Putin

Sam - Admin2
Admin
Sam - Admin2
May 22, 2023 5:42 PM
Reply to  der einzige

Don’t politicians often say one thing and do quite another?

wardropper
wardropper
May 22, 2023 11:39 PM
Reply to  Sam - Admin2

Without exception.

der einzige
der einzige
May 23, 2023 9:03 AM
Reply to  Sam - Admin2

Russia and China will not give up their sovereign interests to protect a failing system.

Allie GoPro
Allie GoPro
May 23, 2023 7:03 AM
Reply to  der einzige

HOPIUM! Gotta love it. My roommate is a Putin fan, he literally thinks he’s gonna save the world. When I tell him about Sputnik V and all that crap he doesn’t believe me, he actually says “Putin wouldn’t kill his own people”. Nutjob in his own way.

der einzige
der einzige
May 23, 2023 8:32 AM
Reply to  Allie GoPro

Tell me about Sputnik V and how many people did it kill? Then tell me about Pfizer, Moderna and Astra and how many people did it kill?

der einzige
der einzige
May 23, 2023 8:51 AM
Reply to  Allie GoPro

then tell me what percentage of people were vaccinated in the east and what percentage in the west of Europe? You will have the answer where more brainwashed morons live. Where people use more system HOPIUM?

Tom Larsen
Tom Larsen
May 22, 2023 2:01 PM
Reply to  der einzige

That’s a good point. But when the USSR collapsed and the US-led Rape of Russia began, who were the main beneficiaries? Newly created Russian oligarchs and mafia. We are led to believe that these people would be ideologically opposed to Western oligarchs and their mafia, the CIA?

der einzige
der einzige
May 22, 2023 5:03 PM
Reply to  Tom Larsen

The main beneficiary spent several years in a Russian prison and now lives in Switzerland and the rest of the beneficiaries are in London. Some have died. (in London)

Tom Larsen
Tom Larsen
May 22, 2023 5:56 PM
Reply to  der einzige

I don’t the reality of the situation fits nicely into either box: they-are-all-in-this-together or Russia-is-defending-humanity-from-the-globalists.

der einzige
der einzige
May 22, 2023 7:05 PM
Reply to  Tom Larsen

Russia is defending humanity from NATOnazis – I guess that’s enough

May Hem
May Hem
May 22, 2023 10:37 PM
Reply to  der einzige

N A T O North Atlantic Terrorist Organisation

Placental Mammal
Placental Mammal
May 23, 2023 4:22 AM
Reply to  May Hem

The bulk of the readership of the forum is pro NATO.

Ozzie Explorer
Ozzie Explorer
May 23, 2023 10:38 AM

That’s the great function of the fake binary – it turns intelligent people into human on/off switches, blinded to nuance or free thought.

If you don’t side with Team A, then you must be siding with Team B. You have to pick a side even if the only difference between them seems to be the color of their jerseys. And if you refuse to pick a team someone will pick one for you and insist you are in it.”

I think Catte is talking about you mate.

der einzige
der einzige
May 23, 2023 12:56 PM
Reply to  Ozzie Explorer

No one is forcing you to choose a side, the problem is that you chose the side of NAZI NATO, since you can’t even see the difference between the sides and the crimes they commit. Since 9/11 NAZI NATO has killed nearly 5 million people – how does this relate to the other side?

NickM
NickM
May 23, 2023 8:36 AM
Reply to  Tom Larsen

Agreed.

Putin is not “in it together” with that globalist Anglo-Zio-Capitalism that is ruining the Western world.

On the other hand, Putin is not “defending humanity”: he is defending his own country from the globalists. Perhaps we should ask our own Head of Government to do the same?