Wednesday, 4 December 2013   Winnipeg Free Press   Surplus grain
stored on  Manitoba field. PLT stock photo.   PLT said...  No
one would begrudge our farmers a bumper crop. Yet this surplus
is a stark reminder of our industrial system of agriculture
which relies heavily on export markets and inputs of expensive
and polluting fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers.  In her
book, "Consumed. Food for a Finite Planet," Canadian author
Sarah Elton chronicles the history of small farmers in
developing countries being forced off the land and into urban
slums by floods of cheap, imported food coming from overseas.
The push to "modernize" the developing world has actually seen
tens of thousands of poor farmers in India commit suicide. In
their efforts to adapt to these new methods, they've incurred
heavy debts, trying to pay for the expensive inputs needed for
patented seeds and GMO crops. Tragically, many took their own
lives by drinking the very pesticides which, instead of making
their lives better, drove them to d