#ruralnsw — Public Fediverse posts

Fruit and veg from NSW plantations of servitude

"The NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner says there are several thousand absconded PALM workers in Australia, without access to health insurance and formal income. Among them are women with unplanned pregnancies denied antenatal care due to ineligibility for Medicare. A report by the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner entitled Be Our Guests has identified signs of debt bondage, deceptive recruiting, forced labour and, in extreme cases, servitude, sexual servitude and human trafficking."
>>
https://theconversation.com/promoted-as-a-win-win-australias-pacific-island-guest-worker-scheme-is-putting-those-workers-at-risk-240333
#Food #IndustrialRelations #plantations #exploitation #NSW #servitude #slavery #Pacific #Australia #RuralNSW #Work #PALM

Modern forestry techniques are destroying biodiversity, poisoning communities and compounding the climate crisis

"Perversely, the use of glyphosate and other herbicides is ensured by industrial monoculture plantations around the world. Under the pretext of climate change mitigation schemes, millions of trees are planted. The plantations do provide raw materials for biofuels and act as powerful carbon sinks. But when a natural forest is converted to a plantation, a natural ecosystem is destroyed. Biodiversity is lost and organic matter and nutrient levels are depleted. In a bid to manage reduced soil fertility, forestry planners use artificial fertilizers and herbicides. Each year, 10 million hectares of natural forest are lost to monoculture plantations. The policy is not addressing climate change. It’s compounding it."

"A 2019 study showed that 80 percent of First Nations communities in Canada are located in fire-prone regions that are often isolated. But the imperatives of eco-capitalism and the commodification of nature have long taken precedence over the traditional knowledge of Indigenous communities—to our collective peril."
>>
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/canadian-forestation-policies-add-fuel-to-the-fires
#loggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #FlammableForest #plantations #pesticides #BellingenLogging #GumbaynggirrCountry #RuralNSW #MidNorthCoast #monoculture #SaveTuckersNob #pesticides #bushfires #climate #IndigenousPeoples #ClimateExtremes