<div dir="ltr"><div>The global political economy alters the face of the earth.</div><div><br></div><div>Since the introduction of GMO soybeans in 1996, followed by the entry of China into the World Trade Organization in 2001, land-use changes across the southern half of Latin America have been extreme. Pools of financial investors gather capital for slash-and-burn conversion of lightly forested land where cattle were formerly run. The "technological package" of modified seeds, no-till sowing, and heavy doses of RoundUp is applied to vast acreages under corporate ownership, dwarfing the size of US farms. Airplanes slosh pesticides over oceans of fresh green beans. <br></div><div><br></div><div>In 2003, a notorious advertisement of the Syngenta corporation proclaimed the "Republic of Soy," a new territory governed by agro-capital, including parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Most of the beans will be made into animal feed to meet the rising demand for meat among the new planetary middle classes. Soy is to South America what fracking is to the North: a consequence of inceasing world population and burgeoning desire, coupled with the capitalist search for profit in an expanded global market.</div><div><br></div><div>In Chicago, which is surrounded by an infinity of GMO corn and soy, we partnered with folks in Argentina and Brazil to do an exhibition about exactly these issues. It was also shown in Carbondale, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; and Rosario, Argentina:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.regionalrelationships.org/tewna">https://www.regionalrelationships.org/tewna</a></div><div><br></div><div>Concerning the article that Shu Lea sent, it's good and I have no doubt that the demand for soybeans contributes to the fires. But this piece from the Washington Post is a little more precise about everything:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/05/were-thinking-about-amazon-fires-all-wrong-these-maps-show-why">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/05/were-thinking-about-amazon-fires-all-wrong-these-maps-show-why</a></div><div><br></div><div>best, Brian<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 1:53 AM Shu Lea Cheang <<a href="mailto:shulea@earthlink.net">shulea@earthlink.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span><span>
</span>to empyre-ers<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1cm"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:7.1pt"><span>We start the third
week of STAY UNFINISHEDxxxYours Sincerely, a special month long
online edition
of STWST48x5 EXPANDED hosted by -empyre-.<br>
<br>
This past August, news from the streets of Hong Kong hit us with
tear gas,
cannons of blue water, batons and sticks, meanwhile, AMAZON is
burning.<br>
The fire spread, The Brazilian government refused any help from
the 'first'
world. </span><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana">Let it
burn!! Some speculative news articles started
showing up in various press. <br>
Soybean, trade war with China and amazon fires, can you weave
these threads? <br>
<a class="gmail-m_-8423068439027572176moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-25/china-s-soybean-demand-in-trade-war-could-fuel-amazon-fires" target="_blank">https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-25/china-s-soybean-demand-in-trade-war-could-fuel-amazon-fires</a>?
</span><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span>forest,
cows, soybeans, machines, trades, global food/trade
politics++++++</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span>Some keywords to start this week.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span><br>
</span></p>
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<span></span></p>
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</p>
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</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt">
<span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black">I have
invited </span><span>Margaretha
Haughwout, who also serves as a empyre board of director, to be
the moderator for this week's discussion.<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt">
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt">
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt">
<span>Margaretha<span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u>'s
personal and collaborative artwork is
perhaps best understood as a kind of <i>multispecies
worlding, </i>a
co-becoming that <br>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span><span style="color:black">occurs through
entanglements with other life forms. Moving across technology
and wilderness, digital networks and the urban commons, <br>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span><span style="color:black">cybernetics and whole
systems permaculture, her practice seeks to antagonize
proprietary regimes, colonial temporalities, and capitalist
forms of labor. <br>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span><span style="color:black">For STWST48x5 (Linz,
September 6-8), Margaretha presented her recent collaborative
project, </span></span><span><span style="color:black">APRIORI</span></span><span><span style="color:black">, a faux research and
development group</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span><span style="color:black"> that uncovers
revolutionary ecologies
between plants and machines with Efrén Cortés Cruz, Lynn
DeSilva Johnson[Elæ],
and Suzanne Husky.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><br>
<span><span style="color:black"></span></span><span><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span><span style="color:black">We are joined by</span></span><br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>Fabi Borges (Brazil)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Amanda McDonald
Crowley <span> </span>(USA)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Oliver Kellhammer (USA)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Escher Tsai <span> </span>(Taiwan)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Dawn Weleski (USA)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Dan Phiffer (USA)<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>who Margaretha will further introduce.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>From the frontline of resistance, we also
hope to bring in updates from </span><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana">Lucas Bambozzi </span><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana">(Sao Paulo)</span> who is
working on disappearing landscapes and </span><span>jamie.kelsey-fry<span> </span></span><span><span>(London) </span>of
<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>#ExtinctionRebellion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Has the fall
arrived in your part of the timezone yet?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>We surely
welcome all insights, input from you, the readers, the
lurkers, let the amazon fire smokes you out of the cave!!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>sl<br>
</span></p>
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</span></p>
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</p>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt"><span style="font-size:8pt;font-family:Verdana"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:21.3pt;line-height:14pt"><span></span><span><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div>