Across the world, agriculture — on which all human life depends — is under sustained attack by big business.

Small farmers are everywhere being forced off the land and replaced by big corporate outfits whose sole aim is profit maximisation. The industrial farming practiced by agribusiness is marked by land degradation and heavy use of insecticides, herbicides and fertilisers. Agribusiness is also a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

But contrary to the myths spread by big business apologists, the evidence shows that family farms are many times more productive and better cared for than large holdings.

Author Alan Broughton makes an incisive survey of the ills of neoliberal agriculture and highlights the alternatives. Several articles by Elena Garcia focus specifically on Australia and the battle for an agricultural system not dominated by the giant corporations.

This is a primer on what’s wrong with corporate profit-centred agriculture and the fight for a people-centred alternative.