Photo by https://sheokhanda.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/land-for-corporates-for-food-securities/
The Presbyterian Hunger Program has been a long time advocate of efforts to defend the land rights of communities. Much of our work through the Joining Hands initiative is to support communities in their efforts to prevent forced evictions, displacements, destruction of the environment, and loss of livelihoods due to land grabbing. Too often we hear from communities that have been forcefully removed from their land and homes to make way for large development projects or plantations. Frequently corporations promise jobs or compensation, but fail to deliver on those promises. Those impacted by the land deals are rarely, if ever, represented at the decision tables. People who were once able to feed their families and communities sustainably, in harmony with the environment, lose their sovereignty, becoming laborers in plantation fields.
TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF) is one of the largest pension funds in the U.S. and also the largest investor in farmland worldwide, with almost 2 million acres of farmland on four continents, worth as much as $10 billion. These deals are driving land grabs, deforestation, and human rights violations, and they’re squeezing out family farmers and rural communities.[1]
Demand that TIAA stop buying farmland and return land to local communities immediately. Sign the petition now!
And for TIAA participants, please take advantage of the opportunity, not just to vote, but to comment on compensation and responsiveness on TIAA’s compensation comment portal.
Learn more about land grabbing, download the PHP Land Grab Fact Sheet
No comments:
Post a Comment