[-empyre-] AMAZON IS BURNING
Brian Holmes
bhcontinentaldrift at gmail.com
Mon Sep 16 23:28:12 AEST 2019
The global political economy alters the face of the earth.
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.
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.
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:
https://www.regionalrelationships.org/tewna
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:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/05/were-thinking-about-amazon-fires-all-wrong-these-maps-show-why
best, Brian
On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 1:53 AM Shu Lea Cheang <shulea at earthlink.net> wrote:
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
> to empyre-ers
>
>
>
> We start the third week of STAY UNFINISHEDxxxYours Sincerely, a special
> month long online edition of STWST48x5 EXPANDED hosted by -empyre-.
>
> 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.
> The fire spread, The Brazilian government refused any help from the
> 'first' world. Let it burn!! Some speculative news articles started
> showing up in various press.
> Soybean, trade war with China and amazon fires, can you weave these
> threads?
>
> https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-25/china-s-soybean-demand-in-trade-war-could-fuel-amazon-fires?
>
>
>
>
> forest, cows, soybeans, machines, trades, global food/trade politics++++++
>
> Some keywords to start this week.
>
>
> I have invited Margaretha Haughwout, who also serves as a empyre board of
> director, to be the moderator for this week's discussion.
>
> Margaretha's personal and collaborative artwork is perhaps best
> understood as a kind of *multispecies worlding, *a co-becoming that
>
> occurs through entanglements with other life forms. Moving across
> technology and wilderness, digital networks and the urban commons,
>
> cybernetics and whole systems permaculture, her practice seeks to
> antagonize proprietary regimes, colonial temporalities, and capitalist
> forms of labor.
>
> For STWST48x5 (Linz, September 6-8), Margaretha presented her recent
> collaborative project, APRIORI, a faux research and development group
>
> that uncovers revolutionary ecologies between plants and machines with
> Efrén Cortés Cruz, Lynn DeSilva Johnson[Elæ], and Suzanne Husky.
>
>
> We are joined by
>
> Fabi Borges (Brazil)
>
> Amanda McDonald Crowley (USA)
>
> Oliver Kellhammer (USA)
>
> Escher Tsai (Taiwan)
>
> Dawn Weleski (USA)
>
> Dan Phiffer (USA)
>
> who Margaretha will further introduce.
>
> From the frontline of resistance, we also hope to bring in updates from Lucas
> Bambozzi (Sao Paulo) who is working on disappearing landscapes and
> jamie.kelsey-fry (London) of
>
> #ExtinctionRebellion.
>
>
> Has the fall arrived in your part of the timezone yet?
>
> We surely welcome all insights, input from you, the readers, the lurkers,
> let the amazon fire smokes you out of the cave!!
>
>
> sl
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
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