Worldlog week 22 - 2013 - Hoofdinhoud

The National Forest Service awarded us almost 100,000 m2 of natural reserve as we came together to be the highest bidder. We are the first party in history to have bought a piece of the Netherlands to protect it against failing government policy! Read more about this act in my previous Worldlogs.

Last Saturday the whole world held protests under the name ‘March Against Monsanto’. The Netherlands also held popular protests in such places as Amsterdam and Wageningen. Many of our members were there. Monsanto monopolises the field of genetically manipulated seeds and pesticides. We have been fighting against businesses like Monsanto for years and so we supported the March Against Monsanto with everything we have!

Genetically manipulating plants and seeds is a dramatic break from the way organisms usually reproduce. It affects not only the plants’ integrity, it could also potentially endanger their continued existence and the ecosystem. Genetically manipulated plants can push out their natural counterparts and disrupt the ecosystem. Plus, growing genetically manipulated crops, coupled with using large amounts of agricultural poisons and artificial fertilisers, leads to mass deforestation. It also seems that multinationals like Monsanto that introduce these manipulated crops to the market are using their power to farmers’ expense.

We want to bring an end to growing genetically manipulated crops in Europe and to importing them into Europe, and we want to prevent the Netherlands from growing these crops!

Last week I asked more parliamentary questions about a new television programme in which snakes are thrown from a container with cold water. It is obvious that the snakes are under enormous stress. It is worrying to see people choose barbarism just to raise viewing figures. Animals must be treated with respect and care as they are living, sentient beings with feelings. Fortunately, the Dutch the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has meanwhile started a criminal investigation into animal cruelty on the show!

Last week saw a report by a Dutch research agency that says that intensive factory farming grossly infringes animal welfare laws. Furthermore, the report makes it painfully clear that the factory farming in this country endangers nature and biodiversity. The factory farming industry is not sustainable, and it can never be. The only rules with which this sector must comply are being ignored en masse. Nature is vulnerable so there is simply no room to keep millions of animals. The livestock herd needs to be shrunk by more than half, and the government must take control of monitoring the factory farming industry.

The very few rules that the Netherlands has surrounding the welfare of its 44,500,000 fattened chickens are also largely ignored. More than half of Dutch poultry holders consistently contravene the rules. But the worst of the infringements are found in pig and calf stalls. State Secretary of Agriculture Dijksma needs to take action now!

Good news from the rubble created by the Oklahoma tornados. The Big Picture depicts the destructive force of a tornado.

BAM! Saudi women hit back. That’s what I like to see!

Wonderful news from India. They are going to ban dolphinariums due to moral considerations. Unfortunately at the same time the dolphinarium in Harderwijk is expanding…

See you next week!