Halal Sector – it is time to step up, no?

bayer-monsanto-merger(Please have a look at this…http://bit.ly/2d3JyiB

The Bayer-Monsanto deal will create more than the world’s largest agri-chemical industrial monster. It is the latest step towards the globalised monopolisation of the food sector, and it spells bad news for independent small farmers and food producers all over the world…not to mention anyone who might like their food to be in any way ‘natural’.

It is clear, at this stage, that the great majority of politicians are either bought or rented, and are in the pockets of the banking-military-industrial complex. We cannot look to the political classes to champion the small farmers, food producers and processors, or to protect the displaced, dispossessed and starving victims of the weapons industries.

The Halal sector has for too long been obsessed with ensuring technically correct slaughter methods with only minimal regard for the Tayyib components that will ensure real food quality.

What is the point of Shariah compliant slaughter if the chicken was a caged, flightless, force-fed prisoner in a denatured factory farm? Furthermore, if the business model is toxic, how can the end product be Halal?

The world needs small diversified farms that care for the land, provide reasonable livelihoods for farmers and their families, and build sustainable communities. The command to ‘eat from the earth what is Halal and Tayyib’ has to mean more than a looking for a Halal sticker on low quality commodity produce.

bayer-monsanto_mergerThe Halal sector has a collective obligation to oppose these kinds of mergers…and this is the fifth major merger in the past year.

“Consolidation and monopoly in any sector should be of concern to everyone. But the fact that the large agribusiness conglomerates specialise in a globalised, industrial-scale, chemical-intensive model of farming that is adversely affecting what we eat, and the animals that are being made extinct by it, should have us very concerned. Do we want this system to be intensified even further just because their business models depend on it?”

Surely if we want the Halal sector to live up to its divinely-inspired potential, we must all do more; not just to oppose the industrialised monopolisation of food production, we must actively promote, encourage and invest in the kind of agriculture and food production that is sustainable and on a human scale.

Those in the UK may be interested in this event, putting Monsanto on trial…

http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/events/speaker-tour-monsanto-trial

Abdalhamid Evans, Founder, HalalFocus