Trans-Pacific Partnership International Day of Action & Global Fair Trade Day

Saturday, May 11th
2-5pm
Central CO-OP Annex, 1900 E. Madison, Seattle

3/28 Join CAGJ for March Community Meeting & Food Sovereignty Workshop!


Thursday, March 28th, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Location: CAGJ’s Office, 606 Maynard Ave S. Rm 102
Seattle WA 98104, in the International District

New to CAGJ and curious about CAGJ’s projects, and how to get involved? Already active and want to learn more about CAGJ’s current organizing?  Come to our next Community Meeting and learn more about CAGJ’s goals for 2013 and how you can help make this another successful year.

The Food Justice Project will also present our new Food Sovereignty Educate for Action Workshop! This is a great chance to connect with CAGJ’s activists and see what’s going on in other projects.

Everyone is welcome! Food provided.
Questions? Email us or call 206-405-4600
RSVP and Share the event on Facebook with your friends!

Dec. 7: CAGJ Book Release PARTY!

Click here to order the book directly from CAGJ on our website.

SEATTLE: Friday December 7th, 7 – 9 pm

Come celebrate the 2^nd Edition of Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice!

Hosted by Burke Museum, North end of UW campus: 17 ave Northeast and Northeast 45th Street, Seattle, WA 98105. Open to public, $5 requested donation at the door (FREE for UW Students/Faculty & Burke Members). Books available for sale, and to be signed by contributors!

Our Food, Our Right takes you on a journey through many of the current globalized food system’s failures, and showcases creative solutions that communities worldwide are designing to regain control over their food, and the health of their bodies and neighborhoods.  “A cookbook with politics that can be as joyful as the food.” - Raj Patel (from foreword)

Food & Drink! Enjoy delicious drinks, dishes & desserts made from Our Food, Our Right recipes!

Enjoy a glass of wine & CAGJ-infused cocktails!

Readings!

*Valerie Segrest & Elise Krohn, “Traditional Foods of Puget Sound Project”

*Merna Hecht, Poetry: “Breaking Bread”

*Kristen Beifus, “Farmers at the Table: Connecting Food and Trade Justice”

*The story of Sue Faria’s recipe, “The Ritual of Making Black Cake”

Fair Trade & Local Holiday Gifts! Support CAGJ’s annual holiday fundraiser with your purchase of CAGJ’s books, Fair Trade chocolate, olive oils and olive oil soap, 2013 Nikki McClure calendars and gift cards.

RSVP’s appreciated, but not required, to: ofor@seattleglobaljustice.org

Invite your friends on Facebook!

Questions? Please call CAGJ: 206-405-4600

To learn more about the book, or to purchase, www.seattleglobaljustice.org/book/

Local Activists Celebrate National Food Day by Protesting a Possible New Wal-Mart Store In Seattle’s Central District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 24, 2012

Contact: Heather Day, Cell: 206-724-2243, Email: hred2011@gmail.com

Concerned Seattle residents will raise neighborhood awareness about Wal-Mart’s negative impact on workers, tax-payers, community members, farmers and eaters.

Oct 24, 2012 – Seattle, WA – To mark Food Day (October 24th)—a nationwide celebration and movement toward more healthy, affordable and sustainable food– concerned residents will leaflet at Promenade 23, the shopping center at 23rd and Jackson in Seattle’s Central District. The action aims to raise awareness about a possible new Wal-Mart store being proposed for that location and the impacts it could have on local and sustainable food systems. Leafletters will carry out their action from 10am until 1pm.

The organizers of the action are members of the Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ), a Seattle-based non-profit dedicated to strengthening local economies. CAGJ recently joined the Puget Sound Making Change at Wal-Mart Coalition because of their concern for how it will impact the food system.

“Wal-Mart drives consolidation in all industries, and the food system is no exception.” Says CAGJ Executive Director, Heather Day. “It is imperative that we find solutions to ensure everyone have access to healthy food. Wal-Mart is not the solution. Wal-Mart may claim they can solve food deserts in US inner cities, but we know better. Through its huge market power and drive for profits, Wal-Mart squeezes suppliers, negatively effecting every link in the food chain–farmers get unfair prices, farmworkers and Wal-Mart associates get unfair pay, and eaters get lower quality food.”

Concern about Wal-Mart’s entry into the Central District is sprung from Walmart’s new neighborhood market-style stores which many believe aggressively work to gain access to urban markets and undermine local businesses. “We know that Wal-Mart has targeted Seattle for its urban expansion, despite the fact that there are many grocery retailers already operating in this area, many of whom have higher wage and benefit standards than Wal-Mart.  Promenade 23 is one site that we are particularly concerned about, since it already has a union-represented, locally owned Red Apple store,” explained Elena Perez, coordinator of the Making Change at Walmart, Puget Sound coalition.

(more…)

CAGJ’s New Book has arrived! Order it today from CAGJ!

About CAGJ’s Publication: “Our Food Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice”

Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice is a publication of the Food Justice Project of the Community Alliance for Global Justice. There are now two editions, combining hands-on tools for change with community recipes and political awareness to engage YOU in joining in the struggle for food justice!  Our Food, Our Right promotes community knowledge sharing, self-sufficiency, accessibility, and food justice through a food sovereignty framework.

CAGJ published the 1st edition in 2010, and the 2nd edition (cover at left) was  released in September 2012 with a focus on “Stories of Change” -  stories of successful initiatives locally and globally that are helping to create more sustainable food communities.

Check out the Table of Contents

Order your copies today! The 2nd edition costs $18.95, with reduced rates for bulk-ordering. 

Thank you for supporting CAGJ and Food Sovereignty!

Read what people are saying about the 2nd Edition!

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Teach-Out! with Greenbank Farms & Good Cheer Food Bank

Saturday, June 1

Meet at 8:30am at CAGJ office, 606 Maynard Ave S – travel to Whidbey Island for Teach-Out
Return between 4:30 & 5pm

CAGJ’s Food Justice Project invites you to a Teach-out on Whidbey Island, exploring Greenbank Farms, an organic farm, agricultural training center, and natural preserve, and Good Cheer Food Bank, an empowerment-based organic food distribution program! Join CAGJ’s Food Justice Project in learning more about how organic farms can be at the center of building community on Whidbey Island. Then, we’ll spend a bit of time volunteering on the farm to support the Good Cheer Food Bank plot.

Space is limited, so RSVPs are required. To sign up, please email Jeff

We will send you directions, more details on what to wear and bring, coordinate carpools,  upon receiving your RSVP. All activities will be appropriate for children and we can work out disability accommodations if needed.

CAGJ statement in support and celebration of La Via Campesina International Day of Peasants’ Struggle

On April 17 1996, in Eldorado dos Carajás, Brazil, state military police massacred peasants involved in the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), killing 19 individuals. At an ensuing protest, military police from two brigades fired tear-gas and live ammunition at 1500 women and men, killing three and wounding 69. Since then, global people’s movement La Via Campesina has recognized April 17 as the International Day of Peasants’ Struggles. Community Alliance for Global Justice stands in solidarity today with La Via Campesina and allies in the US, including the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, and around the world.

Last May, two military leaders involved in the massacre were jailed, but the conditions and systemic problems that made the massacre possible are still producing more victims. As stated by a recent call for action from La Via Campesina, “The dramatic environmental, economic and social crises that we are currently observing have surprisingly not led to a complete change in the direction taken by most national and international elites. On the contrary, we are seeing an increased offensive by economic superpowers to grab all the resources still available to make a profit. Land has become a valuable commodity entering speculative trade, followed by water, seeds etc.” (more…)

“Our Food, Our Right” Book Reading April 19

With the Community Alliance for Global Justice,  Olympia Food Co-op, and GRuB

Friday, April 19th
7-9 pm

Traditions Cafe and World Folk Art
300 5th Ave SW
Olympia, WA 98501

Come learn about the local and global food movement in your community! Including speakers from GRuB, an Olympia based group dedicated to inspiring positive personal and community change by bringing people together around food and agriculture. And the Olympia Food Co-Op , a community resource that practices and promotes nutritional awareness, local farming and production, environmental responsibility, social and economic justice collective management and consensus decision making.

Also hear readings from the authors of CAGJ’s newest publication Our Food, Our Right; a book that promotes community knowledge sharing, self-sufficiency, accessibility, food justice and food sovereignty.

Readings Include: (more…)

Facing the Threat of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

This op-ed recently appeared in the Vancouver, B.C. Tyee. CAGJ has joined the struggle against the TPP on behalf of farmers and eaters everywhere through our Food Justice Project Solidarity Campaigns. Get involved today and help stop this dangerous new trade deal!

By Kristen Beifus, Raul Burbano, and Manuel Pérez-Rocha

March 6, 2012

A 16th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations is underway in Singapore this week.  Canada and Mexico join the nine other TPP countries for the second time since the U.S. government invited its NAFTA partners to join late last year.

The TPP is a super-sized trade deal-expanding on so called “next generation” trade and investment deals that NAFTA countries have pursued in the wake of the stalemate at the World Trade Organization. This plurilateral agreement poses serious new threats to North American communities – threats that a tri-national movement of trade justice activists is preparing to fight in the lead-up to a possible July TPP negotiating round in Canada.

Since NAFTA was signed almost 20 years ago, all three North American countries have seen good jobs vanish, worsening income inequality, public services weakened through underfunding or offloaded to the private sector, increased food insecurity (in particular in Mexico), and ecosystems on the point of breaking. NAFTA promised a flourishing North American economy that would benefit all. In January, 2014, NAFTA has been in place for 20 years and the promised trickle down benefits have not been realized by communities. (more…)

3/28 Join CAGJ for March Community Meeting & Food Sovereignty Workshop!


Thursday, March 28th, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Location: CAGJ’s Office, 606 Maynard Ave S. Rm 102
Seattle WA 98104, in the International District

New to CAGJ and curious about CAGJ’s projects, and how to get involved? Already active and want to learn more about CAGJ’s current organizing?  Come to our next Community Meeting and learn more about CAGJ’s goals for 2013 and how you can help make this another successful year.

The Food Justice Project will also present our new Food Sovereignty Educate for Action Workshop! This is a great chance to connect with CAGJ’s activists and see what’s going on in other projects.

Everyone is welcome! Food provided.
Questions? Email us or call 206-405-4600
RSVP and Share the event on Facebook with your friends!