World News

38977 readers

2162 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]

Recommendations

How to spot Misinformation and Propaganda

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

231

Farmers in Africa say their soil is dying and chemical fertilizers are in part to blame (apnews.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

When Benson Wanjala started farming in his western Kenya village two and a half decades ago, his 10-acre farm could produce a bountiful harvest of 200 bags of maize. That has dwindled to 30. He says his once fertile soil has become a nearly lifeless field that no longer earns him a living.

Like many other farmers, he blames acidifying fertilizers pushed in Kenya and other African countries in recent years. He said he started using the fertilizers to boost his yield and it worked — until it didn’t. Kenya’s government first introduced a fertilizer subsidy in 2008, making chemical fertilizers more accessible for smaller-scale farmers.

Problems with soil health are growing as the African continent struggles to feed itself. Africa has 65% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land but has spent about $60 billion annually to import food, according to the African Development Bank. The spending is estimated to jump to $110 billion by 2025 due to increased demand and changing consumption habits.

“Inorganic fertilizers were never meant to be the foundation of crop production,” he said, later adding that because of “commercially inclined farming, our soils are now poor, acidic, and low in biomass resources, and without life!”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

You said ~~we should~~ much poorer people than you should go back to the way things were thousands of years ago, including living in the boonies handweeding mixed-use gardens in order to not starve. Maybe you're still letting them use metal tools, but that's kind of a weak improvement. They could do agriculture the same way the people who feed your white-collar ass do, with a bit of education and a leg up, but that's not good enough apparently for your highness. Look, I'm trying to be charitable, but this is so outrageous it's hard.

A quick look through your profile suggests you were recently a banker in California. You should basically shut up about how much baking in the sun people you have nothing to do with need to endure. Until you goddamn try it, at least.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

They didn’t say that, you inferred it. Also your take on them not going to school? The fuck? They can definitely do both

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I really feel that there must be a streak of racism among the people who responded to this thread. It was weird how people took exception to the idea of food being made in a community.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I think there's a streak of racism among Westerners who think they know better than the people on the ground, if we're going there.

In fact, the people who actually show up to help have a nickname for your lot: "Great White Savior"

I don't think you're a bad person. Or a racist. I do think you stepped in shit and are digging yourself deeper out of, like, pride.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nah, man, this is all on you. Talking about what people in Africa, India, and Pakistan are experimenting with in their own country does not make anyone outside of there a white savior. This is really all on you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

You didn't just talk about it. You said they should all do it, and specifically shouldn't do standard agriculture, like what you depend on. If they find a use for mixed planting, great, and obviously they do sometimes.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago

We're done. You're toxic, have a block.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

No, mate. I'm close with actual relief workers IRL. ^Albeit^ ^one^ ^less^ ^as^ ^of^ ^a^ ^couple^ ^weeks^ ^ago^ ^:(^

Keeping the kids out of school so they can work the land so you don't starve is common as dirt. It's as simple as a certain number of hours in a day, and school taking a good half of them. Shit, even farming folk here in the West did similar things a century ago.