Submitted by Lucy Patterson on
Below is an extract from the Home Alliance Statement released at the opening of the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye. Download the full statement below, or visit www.handsoffmotherearth.org for more info.
Submitted by Lucy Patterson on
Machakos County, Kenya
September 2026
Kenya has positioned itself as a leading hub for digital agriculture in Africa. Its robust connectivity, vibrant technology sector, widely known as the “Silicon Savannah”, and near-universal mobile money adoption have made it a testing ground for agricultural apps, digital credit, AI-assisted crop diagnostics, and national digital farmer registries. Yet the communities expected to benefit from these technologies are rarely asked whether they work, who they serve, or what they cost.
Submitted by Lucy Patterson on
Siaya County, Kenya
September 2026
Siaya County, on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria, is a place where agriculture, forestry and fishing sustain most households, and where digital access has historically lagged far behind the national average. Yet digital agricultural tools are now arriving rapidly, through company field agents going door to door, NGO trainings, agro-dealers, neighbours, social media and app stores.
Submitted by Lucy Patterson on
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
At the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Yerevan, Armenia (19–30 October 2026), governments will make decisions that could fundamentally reshape the international governance of synthetic biology. At the centre of the negotiations is the proposed Thematic Action Plan—a framework intended to guide capacity-building, technology transfer, research, knowledge-sharing, and regulation in this rapidly expanding field.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Mpongwe District, Copperbelt Province, Zambia, 17–18 April 2026
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Chingola District, Copperbelt Province, Zambia, 15–16 April 2026
Chingola District, in the Copperbelt District in Zambia, lies at the convergence of two of the most consequential global forces of the twenty-first century: the rapid expansion of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI), and the accelerating extraction of critical minerals required to sustain that expansion. As global demand for these technologies intensifies, so does the pressure on the communities living above the ore deposits.
Submitted by Lucy Patterson on
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Picture the scene: it’s late 2026 and you’re crossing the Atlantic Ocean. You gaze down at the sea lapping gently at the sides of your ship - but instead of clear seawater, you find that you are surrounded by invasive seaweed, stretching as far as the eye can see, in all directions. You’ve ventured into a vast Sargassum giga-farm, extending from horizon to horizon, covering an area the size of a country.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Our oceans are not a testing ground for profit-driven experiments or carbon-market gambling!
A UK startup called Seafields has been experimenting with sinking seaweed in the deep ocean, outlining plans to pump deep ocean water to the surface (a form of marine geoengineering called artificial upwelling). The aim? ‘Carbon removal,’ for the purpose of generating carbon credits to be sold to the world's biggest polluters (so that they can keep on polluting).
Seafields’ false solutions debunked:
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
According to experts from ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration), the commercial food model is so vulnerable that this blockage could drive up food prices, leading to a global food crisis. Researchers are therefore issuing an urgent call to strengthen local food systems based on food sovereignty and agroecology.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
The full report and a summary version can be downloaded below.
Art: @andre_m_medina
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Agricultural Commodity Traders are complex, highly diversified global firms that operate in all phases of industrial food production and trade, from origination and storage to processing, marketing, financing and investment, and risk management.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
This article was written by Matthew Canfield, Sabrina Masinjila, Barbara Ntambirweki, and was originally published by Agroecology Now. Central to the authors' argument is the question of who ultimately stands to benefit from this so-called “fourth agricultural revolution.” They contend, first and foremost, that data justice must be grounded in the lived experiences and livelihoods of food producers.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
This report sheds light on an emergent field: Generative Biology (GenBio), the application of generative AI to redesign genomes, proteins, RNA, and metabolic pathways. GenBio is expanding at extraordinary speed, propelled by Big Tech and venture capital, with pharmaceuticals as its primary market and growing applications across agriculture, materials, and energy.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
This study maps the flow of agricultural data, from data generation on farms to storage, processing and monetisation, showing how each stage is integrated into infrastructures and contractual regimes controlled by companies. Through this flow, farmers' practices, environments and knowledge are translated into private data flows, reinforcing platform lock-in, algorithmic governance and financialisation.
Submitted by Ronnie Hall on
Find out more about ETC Group, or contact us.
