Agriculture

The European edition of this atlas combines elements from various already published national editions, giving both an overview of Europe as a whole as well as insights into the agricultural structures in various EU member states. This atlas aims to strengthen civil society and social movements throughout the continent, thereby advancing the ecological and social transformation in our agricultural and food systems.

Industrial agriculture is responsible for both colossal environmental and climate damage as well as global injustice. It is high time for a socially and politically oriented regulation of the agrifood industry. We hope that this atlas will stimulate a broad-based social debate on this vital topic.

While it is broadly recognised that hunger is a function of entitlements and not of food availability as such, there is still a vacuum in research and development education with regard to introducing a human rights and governance lens to teaching. This paper showes how this can be done.

Many of the world's largest agro-industrial corporations are pushing forward the poorly-defined idea of "Climate-Smart Agriculture"(CSA) to re-market industrial agriculture as 'climate-ready'. This report uncovers how some advocates of CSA are embracing the extreme genetic engineering tools of synthetic biology ("Syn Bio") to develop a set of false solutions to the climate crisis.

What are the current developments in Foreign Direct Investment by EU countries in the agricultural sectors of Sub-Saharan Africa and India? This study gives detailed background information.

After more than fifty years of socialist regime, Myanmar opened up their land market with the modifications to their Land Laws and Foreign Investment Law in 2011. Since then, large land concessions have increased dramatically.

Through misuse, we lose 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil every year. For the International Year of Soils in 2015, this Atlas shows, why the soil should concern us all. Jointly published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies.

Although the world's population has reached seven billion people, there is sufficient food in the world to feed the global population. Still about 1 billion are undernourished. How can we feed the world? And what role do environmental issues in agriculture play?

The 2007–2008 world food price crisis caused political and economical instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. This was only the latest example for a functioning food system being an indispensable pillar of a stable economy and a society capable of reproducing itself. A new study outlines steps how the intergovernmental Committee on World Food Security could be expanded towards a politically relevant international steering committee.