fbpx

agriculture

‘Social dumping,’ toxic spray and other hazards of the banana plantation

By Mark A. Bonta / November 12, 2018 / Comments Off on ‘Social dumping,’ toxic spray and other hazards of the banana plantation

Ecuador’s banana workers are little more than slaves, exploited in numerous ways and poisoned to death by the very air they breathe, says activist Jorge Acosta. He ought to know — he was once one of the poisoners. Acosta, at one time a spray-plane pilot, stepped out the cockpit and into the role of passionate […]

> Read More

El Salvador’s disappearing farmers

By Mark A. Bonta / November 10, 2018 / Comments Off on El Salvador’s disappearing farmers

It’s not that the work is too hard or the city is more glamorous. The problem is that the money just isn’t there. El Salvador’s rural youth don’t want to be stuck in the subsistence agriculture trap, growing the same foods as numerous generations before them, earning just enough cash to live on — but […]

> Read More

Battling oil-palm devastation — from space

By Mark A. Bonta / September 25, 2018 / Comments Off on Battling oil-palm devastation — from space

Oil palm plantations can destroy rain forests and the communities that depend on them, but they are widespread in Colombia, the fourth-largest exporter of palm oil in the world. Now a new project of the UK Space Agency aims to use high tech gadgetry to make palm oil cultivation in Colombia more sustainable, more scientific, […]

> Read More

Illegal oil-palm harvests in Peru: Video

By Mark A. Bonta / September 25, 2018 / Comments Off on Illegal oil-palm harvests in Peru: Video

In the Amazonian region of Ucayali in east-central Peru, oil palm factories are apparently buying their raw material from illegal plantations carved out of rain forest, despite company protestations to the contrary. Journalists followed and videotaped trucks they say were loaded with oil palm from illegal plantations. The series of eight Youtube clips also includes […]

> Read More