I’m blogging from the Real Farming Conference in Oxford, in Oxford Town Hall. This is the seventh annual conference, set up as a counter to the corporate farming conference running at the university in Oxford. I wasn’t expecting such a huge affair – 850 attendees, with some fantastic sessions. Read more

A new report from the US Department of Agriculture assesses the potential effects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on farmers. It’s pretty difficult to decipher, but our position is that we don’t want an increase in Transatlantic trade when it comes to agriculture. Read more

This was a very challenging and thought-provoking read. Mark lived without money for three years, and wrote the Moneyless Manifesto, published in 2012. This is his latest book about the corporate ‘Machine’ and appropriate responses to it. Read more

Promoters of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) claim it’s good for all business, but is this really true?  The European Commission (EC) and the USA say it will especially help SME businesses (small and medium-sized enterprises), not just multinationals. Read more

Have we all suffered equally since the crash of 2008? Have we all shared in the austerity? Well, no – the gap between the rich and the poor is widening in the UK, the US and in fact, in the OECD. In the US, Robert Reich reports that 95% of economic gains since 2009 have… Continue reading How has the 2008 financial crash affected the wealth of the rich and the poor, and what can we do about it? Read more

A report by the National Retail Planning Forum (partly financed by supermarkets) found that in a catchment of 15km around 93 new superstores, around 10,000 new retail jobs were created and 35,000 destroyed – a net loss of 25,000 retail jobs (full-time equivalent). Read more

People of Britain, are you proud that your capital city is geared towards attracting billionaires (that’s a quote by Boris Johnson by the way)? Read more

ISDS is a legal instrument within international trade treaties that allows corporations to sue elected governments if they introduce legislation that can be shown to be detrimental to the profits of corporations active in their country. Read more

Making use of biological resources, or renewable resources and services as David Holmgren characterises them, is an important principle of Permaculture Design. ‘Renewable services (or passive functions) are those we gain from plants, animals and living soil and water without them being consumed.’ Read more

Someone said to me the other day that he associated ‘low-impact’ with lifestyle but not with politics or economics. Someone else asked why we blogged about TTIP, economic growth or system change when we were ‘just’ an environmental organisation. Read more

Genius campaign by a group called Brandalism. They managed to get around 600 spoof but corporate-looking adverts all over Paris in time for the climate talks. The fake ads were the work of 82 artists from 19 countries, and they parody the companies involved in sponsoring the climate talks. Read more

It’s called Investor-state Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and it’s a mechanism whereby corporations can sue governments that introduce legislation that they claim reduce their potential to make profit – for example, requiring plain packaging for cigarettes (Australia and Uruguay sued) Read more

The planned strike is off, but we all know that the assault on the NHS will continue. The corporate incursions into the NHS that Hunt and his ilk are encouraging are because of neoliberal ideology, not a desire to provide the best healthcare. Can there be anyone on the left or right who doesn’t appreciate this,… Continue reading Why does Jeremy Hunt want to give junior doctors more work for less money, and can we stop the corporate takeover of the NHS? Read more

The Deregulation Bill, proposed by Tory privatiser Oliver Letwin, slipped into law at the end of the last Parliament. It can change all other law, according to criteria of ‘growth’ i.e. business interests. It fits perfectly with the EU’s deregulatory agenda, and that of TTIP and the other new ‘trade’ agreements, which have largely come… Continue reading How TTIP fits perfectly with the Deregulation Act, which can overrule all other laws if they affect growth or corporate interests Read more

A conference on the benefits of small-scale commercial dairy farms of up to 40 cows or the equivalent of sheep or goats. How to establish them and how to promote the concept. For practising and prospective dairy farmers and others with a professional interest in the future of the British dairy industry. Read more

Have you seen any of the TV programmes about food waste, hosted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall? He’s trying to highlight the amount of food that gets wasted in the UK – which is truly phenomenal, and a ridiculous waste of land, money, energy and time. Read more

There’s something seriously wrong with the way most of our food is produced and sold. The corporate sector is gaining control of more and more of global food production, shifting the focus from nutrition, flavour and nature towards profit and profit only. Read more

The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (deal similar to TTIP, but for Pacific Rim countries) has been agreed. However, there are some US politicians who are already calling for it to be re-negotiated, because big pharmaceutical corporations don’t think they get enough. Read more

Here is a quiz developed by the wonderful Transnational Institute to test your knowledge of TTIP. Read more

Paul Mason has a book out called Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future, and below is a video of a recent public debate at St. Paul’s Cathedral, featuring Mason talking about his book with Ann Pettifor and Phillip Blond. Read more