Over the past few centuries, Western countries embarked on a road to material affluence at the expense of the environment and other peoples across the globe who were subjugated, killed or left to live in poverty. And while offering more of the same and selling unfettered capitalism to the rest of the world, Washington as the now dominant imperial power is doing all it can to destroy any rivals, not least Russia and China. It alone thinks it should be the sole beneficiary in a resource-depleting race towards a barren-wasteland finish.<\/p>\n
Imagine every nation attempting to emulate US levels of material consumption. Consider that US citizens constitute 5 percent of the world\u2019s population but consume 24 percent of global energy. Now consider the consequences of a US-style model of \u2018development\u2019 rolled out across the world. It would be unsustainable for the planet to have a dozen \u2018Americas\u2019. Indeed, one alone is too much. The model of \u2018development\u2019 based on endless GDP growth being sold to the world via the neoliberal globalisation agenda is a cynical, unattainable con-trick and is leading to environmental devastation, conflict, war and poverty.<\/p>\n
Treasury bond imperialism and the petrodollar<\/strong><\/p>\n The US is able to consume at such a level because the dollar serves as the world reserve currency, which means high demand for it is guaranteed as most international trade (especially oil) is carried out using the dollar. US global hegemony depends on it maintaining the dollar\u2019s leading role.<\/p>\n The international monetary system that emerged near the end of the Second World War was based on the US being the dominant economic power (after it watched and let its rivals destroy one another and become indebted as a result of their war efforts) and the main creditor nation, with institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund eventually being created to serve its interests.<\/p>\n By the 1960s, countries like Germany, France and Japan had become industrial competitors and the Vietnam War was running up the US national deficit. Not having enough gold to support the dollar, rather than devalue the currency, Henry Kissinger\u2019s \u2018diplomacy\u2019 engineered an \u2018oil crisis\u2019 to boost the price of oil and Washington since then has been able to run up a huge balance of payments deficit by using the paper dollar as security in itself and engaging in\u00a0petro-dollar recycling<\/a>\u00a0and treasury-bond\u00a0super-imperialism<\/a>. Washington has developed a system to hitch a free ride courtesy of the rest of the world.<\/p>\n With its\u00a0control and manipulation of<\/a>\u00a0the World Bank, IMF and WTO, the US has been able to lever the trade and the financial system to its advantage by various means (for example, see\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0analysis of Saudi Arabia\u2019s oil money in relation to African debt).\u00a0Washington will not allow its global hegemony and the role of the dollar to be challenged. Given Russia\u2019s re-emergence on the global stage and China\u2019s rise, we are witnessing a sense of urgency to destabilise and undermine both countries, especially as they are now increasingly bypassing the dollar when doing business.<\/p>\n US Strategic Objectives and Agribusiness<\/strong><\/p>\n The only real alternative to avoid ecological meltdown due to the massive consumption of the planet\u2019s finite resources and ultimately what appears to be an increasingly likely\u00a0nuclear conflict<\/a>\u00a0with Russia (or China)\u00a0is to move away from militarism and resource-gabbing conflicts by reorganising economies so that nations live within their environmental means.<\/p>\n Key to this involves a major shift away from the petro-chemical industrial model of agriculture and food production, not only because it leads to\u00a0bad food<\/a>,\u00a0poor health and environmental degradation<\/a>\u00a0and is ultimately\u00a0unsustainable<\/a>\u00a0but also because this model has underpinned a US resource-grabbing, food-deficit producing foreign policy agenda for many decades.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u2039It is essential we get off the parasitical and poisonous\u00a0chemical treadmill<\/a>.<\/p>\n Professor Michel Chossudovsky illustrates the point with reference to Ethiopia:<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u201ceconomic therapy\u201d imposed under IMF-World Bank jurisdiction is in large part responsible for triggering famine and social devastation in Ethiopia and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, wreaking the peasant economy and impoverishing millions of people. With the complicity of branches of the US government, it has also opened the door for the appropriation of traditional seeds and landraces by US biotech corporations, which behind the scenes have been peddling the adoption of their own genetically modified seeds under the disguise of emergency aid and famine relief. Moreover, under WTO rules, the agri-biotech conglomerates can manipulate market forces to their advantage as well as exact royalties from farmers. The WTO provides legitimacy to the food giants to dismantle State programmes including emergency grain stocks, seed banks, extension services and agricultural credit, etc.), plunder peasant economies and trigger the outbreak of periodic famines.\u201d See\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n US agribusiness must be regarded as being part of the US financial-military-industrial complex (see\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0this<\/a>). Agriculture and agribusiness remain integral tools for US geopolitical objectives, and agribusiness is essential for colonising indigenous agriculture, whether on the back of trade deals, ‘aid’ programmes, war or indeed Washington-backed coups, as in Ukraine:<\/p>\n “… within two to three years, as the relevant provisions of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU go into effect, Monsanto’s lobbying efforts will transform the Ukrainian market into an oligopoly consisting of American corporations.” –\u00a0Oriental Review<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The \u2018green revolution\u2019 was exported\u00a0courtesy of the oil-rich Rockefeller family<\/a>, and poorer nations adopted agribusiness\u2019s petrochemical-dependent agriculture that required loans for inputs and infrastructure development. This was underpinned by the propaganda that these countries would earn dollars to prosper (and repay the loans) by adopting mono-crop, export-oriented policies. It entailed uprooting traditional agriculture and trapping nations into a globalised system of debt bondage, rigged trade relations and the hollowing out and destruction of national and local economies. GMOs, the control of seeds and further corporate-controlled inputs represent the second coming of the green revolution.<\/p>\n From\u00a0Mexico to India<\/a>, we can see how traditional food production and retail sectors are being hijacked by mainly US corporate interests and can witness the subsequent impacts on health, food security, environments and farmers\u2019 livelihoods. NAFTA set the framework for plunder in Mexico, the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture is playing a similar role in India and various bilateral trade agreements will do it elsewhere.<\/p>\n In India, Monsanto and Walmart had a\u00a0major role<\/a>\u00a0in drawing up the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture. Monsanto now funds research in public institutions and its\u00a0presence and influence<\/a>\u00a0compromises what should in fact be independent decision and policy making bodies\u00e2\u20ac\u2039.\u00a0Its has effectively been called the\u00a0modern day East India Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n Monsanto is a driving force behind what could eventually lead to the\u00a0restructuring and\u00a0subjugation<\/a>\u00a0of India by the US.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u2039As alluded to earlier, the IMF and Monsanto are also working to ensure\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s subservience<\/a>\u00a0to US geopolitical aims via the capture of land and agriculture. The capture of agriculture (and societies) by rich interests is a global phenomenon.<\/p>\n Only the completely naive would believe that big agribusiness and its backers in the US State Department have humanity\u2019s interests at heart. At the very least, their collective aim is profit. Beyond that and to facilitate it, the need to secure US global hegemony is paramount.<\/p>\n Although the globalized hijack of food and agriculture by powerful corporations results in\u00a0poverty, dependency and food insecurity<\/a>, we are deceitfully informed that we must have more of the same if we are to feed an increasing global population and eradicate poverty. We are told that the solutions for feeding a projected world population of nine billion are more technical fixes: more petrochemical-dependent agriculture, more GMOs and more unnecessary shifting of food across the planet. Such a \u2018solution\u2019\u00a0is bogus<\/a>.<\/p>\n The current economic system and model of globalisation and development serves the interests of\u00a0Western oil companies and financial institutions (including\u00a0land<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0commodity<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0speculators), global agribusiness and the major arms companies.\u00a0These interlocking, self-serving interests\u00a0\u00a0have managed to institute a globalized system of war, poverty and food insecurity\u00a0<\/strong>and have acted to\u00a0devastate economies<\/a>.<\/p>\n The solution<\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0Oakland Institute<\/a>\u00a0has just released research showing the tremendous success of agroecology across Africa. Instead of prioritising an inappropriate Gates-Monsanto corporate-led petro-chemical industrial model of agriculture, priority should be given to agroecology, as stated in numerous official reports in the last few years, not least the\u00a0IAASTD report<\/a>.<\/p>\n This would entail supporting and investing in highly productive (see\u00a0this data<\/a>\u00a0on output per country) smallholder\/peasant agriculture, which is the backbone of global food production but is being\u00a0marginalised, criminalised and squeezed onto lessand less land<\/a>.<\/p>\n People want solutions for hunger, poverty and conflict but are too often told there is no alternative to what exists. The solution ultimately lies in taking manipulated markets and rigged trade rules out of farming and investing in and supporting indigenous knowledge, agroecology, education and infrastructure, instead of inappropriately diverting funds to\u00a0underperforming sectors<\/a>. This involves rejecting big agritech\u2019s current agenda and resisting the US strategy of using agriculture as a geopolitical tool. It involves\u00a0challenging the corporate takeover<\/a>\u00a0of agriculture, supporting\u00a0food sovereignty movements<\/a>\u00a0and embracing sustainable agriculture that is locally owned and rooted in the needs of communities.<\/p>\n On a more general level, we should also embrace what environmentalist Barry Commoner advocated: substituting green energy for fossil and nuclear fuels, substituting electric motors for the internal combustion engine, substituting organic farming for the chemical variety and using more metal, glass, wood and paper \u2014 recyclables, renewables and durables \u2014 instead of petrochemical products.<\/p>\n Crucially important is moving towards a system centred on the common ownership of land and capital to serve the public good, rather than elite interests.<\/p>\n If there is to be an alternative to capitalism, endless war and poverty, this is where it is to be found. But as A.L. Morton\u2019s classic text \u2018A People\u2019s History of England<\/a>\u2019 indicates, at no point whatsoever will it be handed on a plate courtesy of the bloodsuckers that are bleeding us all dry. We will have to struggle for it.<\/p>\n
![this<\/a>). Agriculture and agribusiness remain integral tools for US geopolitical objectives, and agribusiness is essential for colonising indigenous agriculture, whether on the back of trade deals, ‘aid’ programmes, war or indeed Washington-backed coups, as in Ukraine:<\/p>\n“… within two to three years, as the relevant provisions of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU go into effect, Monsanto’s lobbying efforts will transform the Ukrainian market into an oligopoly consisting of American corporations.” –\u00a0Oriental Review<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe \u2018green revolution\u2019 was exported\u00a0courtesy of the oil-rich Rockefeller family<\/a>, and poorer nations adopted agribusiness\u2019s petrochemical-dependent agriculture that required loans for inputs and infrastructure development. This was underpinned by the propaganda that these countries would earn dollars to prosper (and repay the loans) by adopting mono-crop, export-oriented policies. It entailed uprooting traditional agriculture and trapping nations into a globalised system of debt bondage, rigged trade relations and the hollowing out and destruction of national and local economies. GMOs, the control of seeds and further corporate-controlled inputs represent the second coming of the green revolution.<\/p>\nFrom\u00a0Mexico to India<\/a>, we can see how traditional food production and retail sectors are being hijacked by mainly US corporate interests and can witness the subsequent impacts on health, food security, environments and farmers\u2019 livelihoods. NAFTA set the framework for plunder in Mexico, the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture is playing a similar role in India and various bilateral trade agreements will do it elsewhere.<\/p>\nIn India, Monsanto and Walmart had a\u00a0major role<\/a>\u00a0in drawing up the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture. Monsanto now funds research in public institutions and its\u00a0presence and influence<\/a>\u00a0compromises what should in fact be independent decision and policy making bodies\u00e2\u20ac\u2039.\u00a0Its has effectively been called the\u00a0modern day East India Company<\/a>.<\/p>\nMonsanto is a driving force behind what could eventually lead to the\u00a0restructuring and\u00a0subjugation<\/a>\u00a0of India by the US.<\/p>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u2039As alluded to earlier, the IMF and Monsanto are also working to ensure\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s subservience<\/a>\u00a0to US geopolitical aims via the capture of land and agriculture. The capture of agriculture (and societies) by rich interests is a global phenomenon.<\/p>\nOnly the completely naive would believe that big agribusiness and its backers in the US State Department have humanity\u2019s interests at heart. At the very least, their collective aim is profit. Beyond that and to facilitate it, the need to secure US global hegemony is paramount.<\/p>\nAlthough the globalized hijack of food and agriculture by powerful corporations results in\u00a0poverty, dependency and food insecurity<\/a>, we are deceitfully informed that we must have more of the same if we are to feed an increasing global population and eradicate poverty. We are told that the solutions for feeding a projected world population of nine billion are more technical fixes: more petrochemical-dependent agriculture, more GMOs and more unnecessary shifting of food across the planet. Such a \u2018solution\u2019\u00a0is bogus<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe current economic system and model of globalisation and development serves the interests of\u00a0Western oil companies and financial institutions (including\u00a0land<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0commodity<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0speculators), global agribusiness and the major arms companies.\u00a0These interlocking, self-serving interests\u00a0\u00a0have managed to institute a globalized system of war, poverty and food insecurity\u00a0<\/strong>and have acted to\u00a0devastate economies<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe solution<\/strong><\/p>\nThe\u00a0Oakland Institute<\/a>\u00a0has just released research showing the tremendous success of agroecology across Africa. Instead of prioritising an inappropriate Gates-Monsanto corporate-led petro-chemical industrial model of agriculture, priority should be given to agroecology, as stated in numerous official reports in the last few years, not least the\u00a0IAASTD report<\/a>.<\/p>\nThis would entail supporting and investing in highly productive (see\u00a0this data<\/a>\u00a0on output per country) smallholder\/peasant agriculture, which is the backbone of global food production but is being\u00a0marginalised, criminalised and squeezed onto lessand less land<\/a>.<\/p>\nPeople want solutions for hunger, poverty and conflict but are too often told there is no alternative to what exists. The solution ultimately lies in taking manipulated markets and rigged trade rules out of farming and investing in and supporting indigenous knowledge, agroecology, education and infrastructure, instead of inappropriately diverting funds to\u00a0underperforming sectors<\/a>. This involves rejecting big agritech\u2019s current agenda and resisting the US strategy of using agriculture as a geopolitical tool. It involves\u00a0challenging the corporate takeover<\/a>\u00a0of agriculture, supporting\u00a0food sovereignty movements<\/a>\u00a0and embracing sustainable agriculture that is locally owned and rooted in the needs of communities.<\/p>\nOn a more general level, we should also embrace what environmentalist Barry Commoner advocated: substituting green energy for fossil and nuclear fuels, substituting electric motors for the internal combustion engine, substituting organic farming for the chemical variety and using more metal, glass, wood and paper \u2014 recyclables, renewables and durables \u2014 instead of petrochemical products.<\/p>\nCrucially important is moving towards a system centred on the common ownership of land and capital to serve the public good, rather than elite interests.<\/p>\nIf there is to be an alternative to capitalism, endless war and poverty, this is where it is to be found. But as A.L. Morton\u2019s classic text \u2018A People\u2019s History of England<\/a>\u2019 indicates, at no point whatsoever will it be handed on a plate courtesy of the bloodsuckers that are bleeding us all dry. We will have to struggle for it.<\/p>\nColin Todhunter is an independent writer: His website is here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past few centuries, Western countries embarked on a road to material affluence at the expense of the environment and other peoples across the globe who were subjugated, killed or left to live in poverty. And while offering more of the same and selling unfettered capitalism to the rest of the world, Washington as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1214,"featured_media":143966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-203265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/media.mercola.com\/ImageServer\/public\/2012\/january\/study1-big.jpg\"){kind=link}