Globalization

Food and National Security: The Shuanghui-Smithfield Merger Revisited

Last week, the U.S. treasury approved the largest takeover by an international firm of a U.S. food company. It paved the way for China’s largest pork processor, Shuanghui, to merge with Smithfield, the U.S.’s largest pork processor.

G-20 Counter Summit in St. Petersburg

On September 3 and 4, a large-scale international Counter Summit, intended as an alternative to the September Summit of the G-20, will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is taking place at the Международный Деловой Центр, nab.reki Smolenki 2, and is organized by the Post Globalization Initiative.

Lessons on globalization from Colombia’s uprising

Last week more than 200,000 Colombians converged on Bogota for a nationwide strike to protest free trade, privatization and poverty. According to Common Dreams, the strike began as a protest by campesinos and spread to encompass teachers, miners and other sectors of society.

Workers Speak Out About the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

This video presents a message from workers across the Pacific Rim about the potential negative consequences of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade and globalization agreement among 12 countries (Australia, Brunei-Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam).

Welcome & Opening Panel - What's at Stake | Sierra Club Trans-Atlantic Trade Symposium

Welcome Debbie Sease, Sierra Club Opening Panel: What's at Stake Virginia Robnett, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (moderator) Lori Wallach, Public Citizen (TAFTA context) Natacha Cingotti, Friends of the Earth Europe (European perspectives) Celeste Drake, AFL-CIO (labor perspectives)

Environment Panel | Sierra Club Trans-Atlantic Trade Symposium

Environment Panel Carroll Muffett, Center for International Law (moderator) Ilana Solomon, Sierra Club (investor-state, energy & climate) William Waren, Friends of the Earth U.S. (downward harmonization)

Experts Discuss Implications on Environment, Labor, Consumer Rights, and Food Policy

July 8, 2013: Experts Discuss Implications on Environment, Labor, Consumer Rights, and Food Policy. Sierra Club telepresser on launch of U.S.-EU trade negotiations (TTIP). Speakers: Ilana Solomon, Sierra Club Lori Wallach, Public Citizen Celeste Drake, AFL-CIO Karen Hansen-Kuhn, IATP

Shuanghui acquires Smithfield: The view from China (part one)

The announcement last week of a bid by China’s Shuanghui International to acquire Smithfield Foods Incorporated came midway through my research trip to Beijing for IATP’s initiative on the globalization of industrial meat production. The responses to the news from back home have been all over the map, albeit fairly predictable. But what are they saying in China?

Reports of the global land rush come to Washington

“You can have food in the stores, but will people in the community be able to buy it?” This was the question posed by Buba Khan, of ActionAid in Africa, to attendees at a Congressional briefing IATP co-hosted last week with ActionAid, Oxfam America and the Heinrich Boll Foundation.