Lovers of Justice, Sustainability and Dignity in the Agricultural and Food System (and the economy in general):

The June 22-26 US Social Forum was host to the first US Peoples Movement Assembly (PMA) on Food Justice and Sovereignty, which took place in the canopy village of the USSF in Detroit on June 23, despite weather forecasts of strong winds and hail. The People of the Land persevered and converged (about 150 strong representing probably 70 to 90 organizations across the U.S., rural and urban, grassroots and accompaniment NGOs, indigenous and non-indigenous, people of many colors and languages, elders and youth, to work out our common vision and shared lines of action we intend to take together. Below is the resolution/declaration with a list of actions we will be pursuing in the weeks, months and years to come. Also below that is the statement of the Indigenous Sovereignty Synthesis presented at the National PMA on Saturday, June 26, that holds particular resonance with the Food Sovereignty Declaration.) Out of this and other gatherings in Detroit, a new organization emerged, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, that positions organizations part of this US based alliance to build a stronger U.S. counterpart than heretofore existed to the various Food Sovereignty alliances and movements across the planet. Representatives of Via Campesina North America, the Caribbean and International were present in the various meetings that moved this agenda forward in Detroit. (Via Campesina first popularized the concept of “food sovereignty” in their various struggles against international financial institutions, so-called “free” trade agreements and peoples gatherings in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia…) People representing organizations or interesting in joining organizations, who are inspired by this declaration and this organizing effort, and would like to join forces with the process of building and strengthening the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, should contact myself (Stephen Bartlett, sbartlett@ag-missions.org and Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau, tristan@whyhunger.org ) to get in the (on-line listserve and/or other…) loop for future planning and organizing. As the Declaration states: The moment has come for lovers of food justice and sovereignty in the U.S. to “make salt.” Help us plan and implement the actions that will help us strengthen and unify our various efforts to “make salt” (fight impoverishment, cool the planet, preserve our “habitat”, the ecosphere). peace through active struggles for justice and freedom,

Stephen Bartlett
Agricultural Missions/ Sustainable Ag of Louisville (SAL, or “salt”)
US Food Sovereignty Alliance (formerly US Food Crisis Working Group)
***************************************************************

Statement from the People’s Movement Assembly on Food Sovereignty, US Social
Forum 2010

Over a half-century ago, Mahatma Gandhi led a multitude of Indians to the
sea to make salt-in defiance of the British Empire’s monopoly on this
resource critical to people’s diet. The action catalyzed the fragmented
movement for Indian independence and was the beginning of the end for
Britain’s rule over India. The act of “making salt” has since been repeated
many times in many forms by people’s movements seeking liberation, justice
and sovereignty: Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, and the Zapatistas are just a
few of the most prominent examples. Our food movement- one that spans the
globe-seeks food sovereignty from the monopolies that dominate our food
systems with the complicity of our governments. We are powerful, creative,
committed and diverse. It is our time to make salt.

A movement for food sovereignty – the people’s democratic control of the
food system, the right of all people to healthy, culturally appropriate food
produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right
to define their own food and agriculture systems – is building from every
corner of the globe.

We find that our work to build a better food system in the Unites States is
inextricably linked to the struggle for workers’ rights, immigrant’s rights,
women’s rights, the fight to dismantle racism in our communities, and the
struggle for sovereignty in indigenous communities. We find that in order to
create a better food system, we must break up the corporate control of our
seeds, land, water and natural resources.

Because at a time of record harvests and record profits we have over one
billion hungry people on the planet; because poverty is the root cause of
hunger; because the world’s oceans are being polluted and plundered, because
industrial agriculture contributes one third of all greenhouse gas
emissions, because increasing inequality, poverty, hunger, a global land
grab, and environmental destruction are threatening the livelihoods of
family farmers, farmworkers, fisherfolk, and marginalized communities
worldwide; and because community based food systems and agroecological
farming can cool the planet, build resilience to climate change, and
eliminate poverty;

We therefore commit to re-building local food economies in our own
communities, to dismantling structural racism, to democratizing land access,
to building opportunities for the leadership of our youth, and to working
towards food sovereignty in partnership with social movements around the
world;

We call on others in the US to demand an end to the global land grab, to end
both corporate and military land occupations, to demand fairer trade, aid
and investment policies, land reform, and support for sustainable peasant
and community agriculture and sustainable community fisheries;

We endorse actions that include: the liberation of land and water resources
for the production of food and sustainable livelihoods; the creation of new
structures for cooperative ownership of land and food production, processing
and distribution; the integration of labor rights, immigrant’s rights and
food justice; the valuing of women as primary food providers, and the
denouncement of false solutions and false partnerships addressing climate
change, hunger and economic development;

We demand a world in which everyone has control over their food and no one
has to put food in their mouth that hurts people or the environment.
Organizations and individuals among us have therefore committed to the
following actions:

*    Launching a campaign for food sovereignty as a right of the
people
*    Growing and harvesting as much food as we possibly can
everywhere
*    Liberating land through reclaiming urban and rural spaces
for the production of food for communities; demanding the use of public
lands for food production
*    Participating in a global campaign against land grabs, in
which corporations and governments grab up the lands of communities
*    Carrying forward the people’s agenda coming out of the
Cochabamba climate summit — including popular education around food and
climate justice and promoting sustainable agriculture as a solution to
climate change
*    Standing with the people of Haiti, Palestine, Honduras, and
other countries whose food sovereignty is threatened by political, military,
and/or corporate occupation
*    Hosting collective meals in our communities as a way of
connecting people across generations and cultural backgrounds and as a tool
for dismantling racism in the food system
*    Forging new models of collective control of land and
waterways; assuring legal protection of the commons
*    Building the leadership of the next generation; providing
opportunities for urban and rural youth to have a future in food and farming
*    Rejecting GMOs and other forms of the corporate takeover of
our food systems
*    Creatively and strategically working to dismantle the
corporations who have hijacked the world’s food systems
*    Affirming the sovereignty of indigenous peoples in North
America and throughout the globe
*    Committing our food movements in the US to be active
participants in the global movement for food sovereignty and to work to stop
our government and corporations from practices that undermine food
sovereignty globally.
*    Challenging US food and agricultural aid and development
policy (e.g., Monsanto and USAID’s recent “donation” of seeds to Haiti)
*    Working towards a people’s food and farm bill based on
principles of food sovereignty
*    Hosting community seed exchanges
*    Engaging communities in popular education on GMOs and the
role of corporations in our food system
*    Engaging communities in popular education on community
nutrition and public health
*    Creating more community farmers markets that are accessible
and affordable to all; affirming everyone’s right to food that is good,
safe, healthy, and fair
*    Helping everyone understand where their food comes from and
who helped bring it to their table
*    Highlighting the common struggles between farmers and
farmworkers in the US and their counterparts throughout the world

Preamble:
We can build a better world. Working together, we can create a world that
respects the human rights of every human being, nurtures creativity and
health, promotes unity, solidarity and peace, and uses resources in a way
that protects the earth and affirms life.

At this historical moment, there is a growing sense of overwhelming crises.

We recognize that the money and other resources that have been swallowed up
by militarization must be redirected to solve human needs-to protect the
basic human needs of food, shelter, freedom of movement, freedom of speech,
freedom from harm, and protection of Mother Earth which nurtures and
sustains all life.

We believe that we can create a new economic system that is not based on
individual, corporate, or private ownership and does not exploit people, the
planet, natural resources or living beings but instead is based on
principles of collectivity and sustains our communities. We must move aside
old systems that have failed and create new ones that serve and are
accountable to all peoples and all living beings.

We must link arms with our sisters and brothers globally and commit to a
willingness to work together to seek understanding, to coordinate action,
and to move forward collectively with a sense of urgency to create a more
just world. We acknowledge the need to break down barriers. We must
integrate our national struggles for the human rights to dignity, welfare,
freedom and justice.

Each one of us has to dig deeper to understand each other’s culture and
history and to build respectful relationships across difference. Our
struggles and our goals are all connected to each other. Our fronts of
struggle and our goals are all on the same continuum. We have the desire and
energy to create something different that sustains us. As a people, we must
rely on each other. We can realize our dreams to treat each other as equals
and to build alliances and relationships across our commonalities and
differences.

We affirm self-determination and self-reliance. We believe that we can build
our collective power through participation in popular political education
and organizing collective action. We can each realize the power that resides
within each one of us and build collective power by participating in the
fronts of struggle recognized through the People’s Movement Assemblies. Let
us unite and create a better world for all future living generations. A
better world is possible! Another US is near . . .

Front of struggle:
INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY
As older brothers and sisters of this land, we do not want another U.S.; but
the return of our Ancestral homelands and the right to self-determination.
We want others to understand our unique history as the first recipients of
systematic oppression and institutional racism in this hemisphere, to
understand the colonization of our homelands and the exploitation of the
national resources of Turtle Island.

In order to work together, we need non-Indigenous entities to become
educated on our history and issues from our perspectives, to RESPECT and
HONOR our identity, spirituality, traditional ceremonies and related
protocol. We ask that together we work toward the well-being of our
communities, our children, future generations, other life forms, the plant
and animal nations and Sacred Sites. We want others, to RESPECT and HONOR
our expertise in all areas of this land from North to South, and that of
Indigenous peoples respectively on other continents. We want to see more
representation of Indigenous peoples in the USSF planning process and more
Indigenous participation. We want an opening plenary at the next USSF to set
the context of our struggles from our perspectives.

We will take the lead on our own issues as decision makers and we ask for
support on our work in Environmental, Social, and Economic Justice dealing
with issues of: energy development (specifically: TARSANDS, coal, uranium,
gold, gas, and oil, and other extractive industries); green jobs;
disparities due to income, environment, and substance abuse; the banning of
ethnic studies programs; preservation of Indigenous languages and life-ways;
funding for health-care; imposed political borders and immigration issues;
food-sovereignty; protection of Sacred Sites and WATER; repatriation;
privatization of natural resources, and life-forms; commodification and
tokenization of Indigenous images and knowledge; continuity of spiritual and
healing practices; and the unrestricted access to and use of our traditional
medicines and healing practices. We ask you to support us by connecting your
work to the local Indigenous communities’ struggles in your area.

CALL to ACTION: We call for an annual International Day of Action between
October 11-15 to unite against dirty energy projects and to celebrate our
living Indigenous cultures, languages, spiritual practices, sovereignty, and
nations.

As the caretakers of the land we have a responsibility to honor, love, and
give back to our Mother Earth, therefore WE DEMAND that the governments of
the U.S. and Canada fully adopt the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples without qualifications. We support the existing actions
and policies that promote our work by other entities, such as Bolivia’s
Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. We will move forward by working
together collaboratively, involving Youth and Elders, to heal from external
and internalized oppression to restore BALANCE and to build healthy
relationships around the world.

1. Report on “Detroit Highlighted: Detroit Black Community Food Security Network / Earthworks Urban Farm”, by Heather Day (below)

2. 2nd report on the US Social Forum by Mark Engler, “Social Forum Moments to Combat Cynicism” (below)

3. Democracy Now interviewed legendary Detroit activist, Grace Lee Boggs – find the interview here.

4. Learn about Reclaim the Media and NW Media Action Grassroots Networkhere (NW MAG-Net), who gave a generous matching grant to CAGJ to enable more CAGJ members to travel to Detroit!  Many MAG-Net members participated in the Allied Media Conference before the US Social Forum.  Our friends at KBCS and the Prometheus Radio Project led a team of community radio producers to create an hour-long program of interviews and features from the Allied Media Conference. In the program, you’ll hear heartfelt stories from popular educators, community organizers, media makers and more, reflecting on the idea of media and the role it can play in our lives from communicating solidarity to creating justice. Check it out .  Also, Prometheus and Reclaim the Media collaborated on an op-ed, published yesterday, supporting the Local Community Radio Act. Read it here.

Heather Day’s Notes from Workshop, “Detroit Highlighted: Detroit Black Community Food Security Network / Earthworks Urban Farm“

1st speaker: Lila Campbell, Detroit Black Food Security Network:
What does it mean to be accountable to leadership of communities of color?
You can say you are anti-racist, but your behavior won’t change unless you do alot of work. Observing in Social Forum that there is not a strong connection to understanding power analysis.   Can’t talk about capitalism without talking about racism. People’s Institute does outstanding job of connecting economics and racism. Doing this work moves you to a different level of quality. Are you doing for or are you doing with?  Are you perpetuating racism or being anti-racist organizing?

Asked group to identify following…
Examples of Active Racism
-Seeing racism happen but not speaking out
-Denying service
-See a guy mowing lawn and thinking they are not the owner, being suspicious
-Being a white person and not examining white privilege and thinking your successes are the result of your own work
-Being a white organization and moving into a community of color and taking resources

Active Anti-Racism
-Interrupting racist jokes
-interracial romance [controversial!]
-not getting admitted to university and not feeling that this is not okay
-changing language from ‘black’/negative and ‘white’/good (?)
-white organization in community, seeking out group of color and ask them to partner

Passive Ant-Racism
-can’t be passively anti-racist
-anti-racism requires action

Passive Racism
-Not carrying your principles into your family, school or job
-most things folks think of as passive anti-racism is actually passive racism

2nd speaker: Patrick Crouch, Earthworks Urban Farm staff
Earthworks is a predominantly white organization who did anti-racism work, starting to strengthen organizing.The importance of building relationships as starting point for this work. Too often we focus on our work of day-to-day organizing, without getting to know one another. To begin this work, important to tell our stories and know where we are coming from. Need to understand what motivations are for coming to this work. Need to develop commonalities instead of focussing so much on difference.  Black Food Security Network so important for me being in this space right now. Four years ago Detroit was dominated by well-intentioned white activists such as myself, who knew white elephant was in garden, but whites would rather build a compost pile next to the elephant. Powerful that Food Security Network was formed defined as “Black” – Whites were uncomfortable with this, but here in Detroit, this meant they were dedicated to improving food security to 90% of population!

We learned to talking with groups about what they are already doing, figure out what needs they are defining, We have a tendency to want to work with people of color communities, but really we need to work with white people. We need to start talking about this with our white volunteers, many of whom come in from suburban areas to work with poor people in Detroit, with missionary mentality.

Power analysis important: people really excited to talk about food system, but then tried to map power in our organization, and people got scared.  We created a power map, and left it up in our organizing space.  Folks were taken aback by identifying racism at Earthworks, many did not want to talk about it, but also inspired conversations. Caucuses allowed for work to continue. Look at hiring practices – we considered the exclusion of people without college degree, decided we wanted to value skills not usually valued, like for community organizing important that people are based in the community.  Started our Apprenticeship program: you can say ‘we really want to hire people but no one has those skills’, or we can train people!  What we decided to do through Apprenticeship program.  This approach is a lot of work, takes time, alot of people don’t want to do that.

We must actively work against mission mentality, of working with, not for.

3rd speaker: Dr. Monica White, a sociologist involved in Detroit Black Food Security Network
We want to change story of Detroit – not just abandoned buildings, police brutality problems….The story of Detroit needs to be about great people doing important work that can be model when people are heard from a genuine, sincere organic sense.  Can’t say it’s too hard, just need to do work.

Detroit Black Food Security Network getting more land. Have 2.5 acres, are going to have 7 acres in urban neighborhood.  Setting up as agro-tourist location.  Garden includes many elements. Why are bees important?  Children’s garden – kids love worms.  There are 60 school gardens attached to Detroit schools. Want kids to understand not just why it is important to grow your own food and know where it comes from, but from perspective of food justice and food sovereignty, that they have right to know where their food comes from.

Detroit Black Food Security Network  is completely volunteer organization.  Want more elders involved, working to include more people.  Need to document what is happening in Detroit. Collecting data:
-African American farmers: why do they do what they do?  Hard work of gardening and farming, why do they do it?
-Comparing why are blacks involved, why are whites involved?
-Gardening angels: seniors who have established 150 gardens and they are involved in patrolling neighborhoods: “We don’t give it from the lips we do it from the hips.”
-Looking at Policy: we have 400 acres of vacant land, want to make clean healthy food accessible. We want an urban agricultural policy: people who normally would not be engaged in politics inspiring people to engage.  We are not asking for politiians to please get us a grocery store. This is communty based, we are not too far removed from agrarian traditions, go back to what we know and find community-based solutions.
-Also need to document stories of people gardening and farming: stories of people who want to do somethig for communities, for example one man who has a garden where he is reading to children, hosting movie nights, will not sell his produce, no intention of selling.
-This is communtiy renovation, community development
-Detroit Food Policy Council – Council has been appointed, just started in September. Wrote a food policy that is online.  Got grant to get word out about policy…

DISCUSSION:
-African-American participant from Detroit raised issue of vacant land being used for gardens being an additional push of poor people out of city – housing is important for survival, also need to have access to housing.

Response: We don’t need to knock down houses in order to grow food.  There are many issues we are grappling with such as ‘Right-sizing’ – there is a drop in population and there are strategies people are designing to move more people out of city. Land-grabbing called “right-sizing” from corporate point of view. They are putting together land-packages that would facilitate industrial-urban food, and they market it as ‘access’, and it is not necessarily organic.  The power anlaysis is key: what does it mean to have urban agriculture from standpoint of community vs. standpoint of corporations? Urban renewal is negro removal.  There is an industrial farmer trying to grab land to grow for-profit farms.  Asked the elder to participate – “We need your voice”.

There is a major connection between poverty and food security – need to create living wage jobs to make this a sustainable movement. How can movement create jobs, so that people can afford to stay in their homes, and not be pushed off their land?

-Another woman responded: Same issues in Boston – alot of houses were burned down – struggle is right to decide what is on the land – I am hoping for garden in my neighborhood bc I want lettuce.  We need to create legal structures for cooperative land, need land-trusts.  Need to work very hard to protect lands that are commons now. Important to think about getting away from individual ownership

Response: Yes, we Have to have strong connection to policy, need to know history, which brings power, and community voice in terms of decision making.  Important to teach soil-testing and water-quality testing. Started People’s Water Board in Detroit, a coalition that is dealing with water issues.

-What about Farmworkers?  Important to support Ag-Jobs which would legalize 75% of jobs!

-Land is not our land, it is Native American land. Are there attempts to collaborate, return land to Native peoples?
Response:  Indigenous people are typically invisible, can’t say that in Detroit we’ve done the outreach.

-Speaker from Detroit Agriculture Network: History of what is happening today comes out of a strong tradition when first Black Mayor initiated program called Farm Lot – you could apply to city for permit and garden on plot. Program died from neglect. In 90s farming and gardening took on new life – Gardening Angels came out of Farm Lot, strong tradition of black farming. What is new this decade is community gardening, bring together isolated gardeners and farmers.

Social Forum Moments to Combat Cynicism
Mark Engler – June 25, 2010 10:15 am
Early on at the U.S. Social Forum, I was struck by the disjuncture between the huge ambition of the assembly and the limitations of the conference’s agenda and slate of decentralized workshops. In their planning statement for the social forum, organizers declared an intention to respond to “a state of national and global emergency” by defining “a direction for what will be the great project of our generation.” Needless to say, that’s a big task for any convention.

Whenever the social forum speaks of itself as the future of the U.S. Left, vexing issues arise: Can any coherent political program emerge from an amorphous, multi-issue assembly? Can we formulate a vision of the Left without more serious participation from key progressive constituencies such as organized labor? Can the collection of radicals and community-based organizations that are present here become a political force with mainstream reach, or are they too self-marginalizing? The answers are not easy to come by, and non-starry-eyed attendees can easily grow wary in contemplating such imposing matters.

Where the social forum thrives, in contrast, is in smaller moments, free of grand pretense. Walking the halls and seeing a seemingly endless stream of organizers, urban gardeners, fil

6/25/10, by Reid Mukai, CAGJ Co-Chair

Workshops:

Social Movement Strategies and Tactics for Rebuilding Local Food Economies

Keeping it Real: Embodying Alliance in the Quest for Real Food

PMA: Food Sovereignty

I got an early start since I carpooled with Heather, Travis, Yecelica and Maria in the morning, so we stopped at a great “hippy” coffeeshop and bakery called “Avalon” where I got a cup of tea and a breakfast sandwich. The first workshop of the day was Social Movement Strategies and Tactics for Rebuilding Local Food Economies, organized by Agricultural Missions. Steven Bartlett was the main moderator, but also present were Luca Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Via Campesina represtatives from Honduras and Nicaragua, a farmer from the Dominican Republic and Haitian members of Collective of Wise Women, Popular Democratic Movement, Via Campesina and Papay Peasants’ Movement. The structure of the workshop was pretty loose, allowing both questions and answers from all of the participants in the room. There were many questions, but one of the main themes was “what is the best way to support worker’s struggles around the world?”. The diverse range of possible solutions included:

• build broader social movement
• stronger fair trade associations
• an international alliance of CSAs
• educate and influence political leaders
• instill culture of health among youth
• unite allied groups and individuals in a coordinated manner
• let corporations know what they do right as well as what they do wrong
• and a people’s tribunal for corporations such as Monsanto

The next workshop on the list was Keeping it Real: Embodying Alliance in the Quest for Real Food, organized by Navina Khanna and Lloyd Nadal of Food For the People. The opening question posed by Navina was “how can we amplify voices of different groups and form a collective vision?”, and much of the following conversation centered on possible answers. Related ideas that our group came up with included developing and connecting land stewardship programs, urban farm hubs, anti-oppression workshops as part of urban gardens, organic food distribution contracts with family-owned urban convenience stores and outreach to youth using music, poetry, visual art and digital media.

After this workshop I walked over to the “Tent Village” area several blocks west of the Cobo building to attend a second Food Sovereignty People’s Movement Assembly, also moderated by Steven Bartlett. When I arrived, a Food First organizer was discussing the importance of seed sovereignty. He viewed indigenous agricultural communities as valuable storehouses of generations of knowledge about seeds and food. Not long after, we formed break-out groups to brainstorm different aspects of a proposed Food Justice Alliance. The following is the list of group discussion topics and a sampling of some of the ideas from each (the group I was in was Values/Principles):

Structure and Implementation: Should there be individual membership? Create subcommittee focused on membership and structure. Expand coordinating committee and working groups.

Values/Principles: Everyone has right to real food. Respect for inherent value of life and natural systems, cultural diversity and biodiversity. Commitment to anti-oppression principles. International solidarity between youth, workers, activists and agricultural communities. Develop leadership and decentralize power. Localize food systems.

Outreach/Organizing: Outreach for Food Justice Alliance continuing at future USSFs. Networking through existing relationships, phone banks, email lists, and regional workgroups. Develop goals and membership criteria.

Action Agenda: Mobilize around issue of climate change. Fight against land grabs. Organize networking visits.

Heather joined the PMA after I got there, so when the assembly ended we carpooled back to the Cobo building with Dean and Clare, two great organizers and PMA participants from California. At Cobo we reconnected with Travis, Yecelica and Maria then carpooled to the Mexico Town district for dinner. Before going in the restaurant we admired a beautiful mural on a wall across the street in the process of being painted by USSF attendees from Brooklyn. After dinner I was feeling tired so returned to Cobo to do a little writing and check the news before going back to the office/house, meanwhile, the rest of the group partied hard at the USSF’s Leftist Lounge.

6/26/10, by Reid Mukai, CAGJ Co-Chair

Workshop: Detroit Highlighted: Detroit Black Community Food Security Network / Earthworks Urban Farm

It was hard for me to believe it was the last day of the USSF. That morning Shankara and I had breakfast at the solidarity housing and caught the bus to the Cobo building for a workshop called Detroit Highlighted: Detroit Black Community Food Security Network / Earthworks Urban Farm. This was actually a shared workshop highlighting the work of the Detroit Black Community Network and Earthworks, a project of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, which shares some of the same staff. Some of the same speakers from the first USSF workshop I attended were there such as Lila Campbell, Patrick Crouch and Dr. Monica White. Monica spoke first, talking about the mission of Detroit Black Community Food Network (DBCFN) and how food access is their focus but it’s just one aspect of their goal of self-determination. She outlined some of the major problems Detroit’s citizens struggle against, such as unemployment (approx. 35-50% unemployment rate), foreclosures and a weak local economy (out of the city’s 140 square miles, approximately 40 square miles are vacant) and lack of access to fresh and healthy food (Detroit’s last chain grocery store closed in 2007). To address these issues, DBCFN has organized programs that mobilize people to buy locally, develop youth activism and leadership, created a citizen’s food policy council, and established D-Town farms, a 2.5 acre plot in a neighborhood park with 37-40 crops. Patrick Crouch, also a member of DBCFN, then spoke about Earthworks Urban Farm, a community garden that focuses on food access but also educates and engages the community. Projects they organize through the farm include the Healthy Stores Initiative (a partnership with Wayne State University that brings fresh produce to stores that traditionally offer processed foods, alcohol and cigarettes), and the Garden Resource Program, which distributes educational materials, seed and gardening supplies to students. Following Patrick Crouch’s talk was a powerful anti-oppression excercize led by Lila Campbell, which explained why being anti-racist is never passive and is always an ongoing process. This incorporated an open discussion about what is racist and anti-racist leading to a wider conversation about environmental racism, impact of race on Detroit’s history and present, gentrification and land grabs, state and city policy, and alliances with indigenous peoples, the original stewards of the land.

After doing a little sight-seeing after the workshop, I regrouped with Heather, Travis, Yecelica, Maria and Masha, for dinner and coffee. We were all almost deleriously exhausted by the end of the evening but had fun talking about events of the week and any random thing that popped up. After I got dropped off at the solidarity housing I was surprised to find the place was now nearly empty except for Shankara and two other people.

6/27/10, by Reid Mukai, CAGJ Co-Chair

The Day After USSF

I woke up late, enjoyed the peace and quiet of the near-empty office building and got my things packed for the flight back to Seattle later that night. For the past couple of nights Shankara and I were borrowing a couple of camping air mattresses from Travis and Heather, so they stopped by briefly to pick them up. While waiting in the parking lot I met a rapper named Majestic from New York, who told me some great stories about the USSF party I missed on Friday which he performed at. We also got into a good conversation about road trips when Heather and Travis arrived since he was thinking of touring through the midwest and west coast. After they left I had brunch with Shankara at the Avalon coffeeshop down the street, and after that it was another bus ride to the airport and then the flight back home.

Thinking back on the past week at the USSF, I feel inspired by the numerous informative workshops, people I’ve met, and their wealth of ideas and experiences. It’s a rare opportunity to meet many people from a wide range of states and nations (including Detroit locals) working to create a better world in so many different ways. The USSF brings together an analysis of local and global problems from a diverse range of perspectives, making it easier to see connections between various issues as well as ways groups and individuals could potentially collaborate, share information and strategies, and form alliances to stand up to institutions that are often the source of problems (ie. corporations and governments). After days of workshops, the many struggles of the modern world may seem overwhelmingly complex and intertwined, but the multitude of ongoing and future projects organized by allied groups interacting at the forum give reason for hope.

Join AGRA Watch Friday June 4, 2010, as we march in solidarity with Haitian farmers, who have committed to burning Monsanto’s incoming donation of hybrid maize and vegetable seeds, which have been treated with highly toxic pesticides. The Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) has condemned the shipment, and has insisted that Haiti’s future depends on food sovereignty – join us in saying YES! to food sovereignty, and NO! to Monsanto!

June 4, 2010—Meet at 4:00pm at Grand Central Bakery: 1616 Eastlake Ave. E, Seattle

4:30pm Creative action at Gates Foundation
March at 5:00pm to University Bridge

“A New Earthquake for Haiti”–Chavannes Jean-Baptiste
Monsanto recently announced that it will donate 60,000 sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds to Haitian farmers, some of them treated with toxic pesticides.  The shipment is scheduled to arrive this week in Haiti.  However, Haitian farmers are rejecting this “donation,” and rejecting Monsanto’s profit-driven strategy of creating dependency on their products by offering free seeds to poor farmers.  The Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP), a member of the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, called this dumping of seeds “a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds … and on what is left of our environment in Haiti.”  The MPP has called upon the farmers of Haiti to march in opposition, and burn the seeds of this foreign transnational.  Haitian social movements have stressed that keeping chemicals and imported GMO seeds out of Haitian fields are not their only concern.  The future of Haiti depends on establishingfood sovereignty: the right of small farmers to make meaningful decisions about their food system and their agricultural practices — decisions that will allow them to produce abundant, healthy food for the local population.

Why AGRA Watch?
AGRA Watch has spent the past two years challenging the Gates Foundation’s plans for imposing an unjust and unsustainable model of agriculture on countries in Africa.   Both in their direct grants to GMO agricultural research, and through their participation in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) they are paving the way for the widespread use of GMOs in African nations where they are heartily contested. We criticize the Foundation’s strong connections to Monsanto—from their staff and board member choices, the projects they fund in Africa, to the solutions they envision.  The dumping of toxic seeds on Haiti, is only the latest in a long line of acts that Monsanto has done to push unsustainable “solutions” on farmers around the world. If the Gates Foundation wants to support a sustainable agriculture system in Africa or elsewhere, they must divorce themselves from Monsanto.

Learn more:
Beverly Bell: “Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds”

Timi Gerson: “Five Questions Monsanto Needs to Answer about its Seed Donation to Haiti”

On April 20th, 2010 an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, instantly killing 11 workers and injuring 15. The rig was owned by Transocean Ltd. and under contract with British Petroleum. Halliburton was contracted to perform a variety of operations on the rig including a well-plugging procedure called “cementing”, which they performed less than 24 hours before the explosion. Faulty cementing was the cause of a November 2005 oil spill that the Deepwater Horizon was involved in, as well as one that occurred one week later at a different oil rig in the same area. Two days later (which happened to be 2010’s Earthday) the Deepwater Horizon sank, causing two large breaks in the oil pipeline at the ocean floor (about 5,000 feet below the surface). The Coast Guard originally estimated 1,000 barrels of oil a day were leaking into the ocean but the number was revised to 5,000 barrels a day soon after. The precise rate of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico has yet to be determined, but scientists who specialize in spill calculations have warned of a worst case scenario of tens of thousands of barrels a day, which would amount to an Exxon Valdez magnitude disaster every few days.

As of May 18th, the official wildlife death toll caused by the oil spill was 189 sea turtles, 23 birds and 12 dolphins. In actuality the numbers are certainly much higher and will get worse in the future even years after the well is plugged, which it still has not been completely. Throughout the unfolding disaster, the responsible corporations acted swiftly and decisively…to limit their liability, protect profits and pass the buck. Interestingly, most of the “solutions” to the spill attempted by BP, including the failed “top hat” containment strategy on May 8 and the “syphon tubes” installed on May 16, allowed BP to keep collecting oil and did nothing to actually stop the spill. At some unspecified point during the cleanup efforts, BP began spraying a chemical dispersant called Corexit onto the surface oil, despite the fact that dispersants only hide the appearance of oil by breaking it into tinier drops more easily absorbed by living organisms and such chemicals have also been linked to cancer and genetic mutations. BP has bought up a third of the world’s supply of dispersant, and by their own accounts have dumped at least 800,000 gallons of it into the Gulf of Mexico (as of 5/25/10). Not surprisingly, Nalco Co., the manufacturer of Corexit, has board members who are also executives at BP and Exxon. To BP’s further embarassment, on May 25 attorney Brent Coon released internal BP documents showing explicitly that BP had a policy of cutting costs at the expense of upholding optimum safety standards. On May 13th, Transocean Ltd. petitioned the Houston federal court to cap their liability at less than $27 million using an archaic maritime law from 1851. Less than a week later, Transocean informed shareholders that they would be receiving a $1 billion payout starting in July. Given the legal recognition of corporate personhood in the U.S., which allows corporations all the rights and benefits of individuals, perhaps it’s time to give them the same responsibilities and penalties as well? If any corporations are deserving of a death penalty, it’s BP and Transocean Ltd.

As callous, incompetent and self-serving as the corporate response to the disaster has been, the government’s response has not been much better. This would be expected from the Republicans, who have a long history of denial and ignorance regarding environmental issues, but most of us had more hope for Obama. His administration supported BP’s initial conservative assessment of the rate of the oil spill which even at the time contradicted the analysis from many environmental scientists. This in effect downplayed the true scale of the disaster and helped BP stall for time before taking action. In recent press conferences Obama has appeared very apologetic, accepting responsibility for the mishandling of the disaster response, yet he continues to reject the idea of a federal takeover of the situation while defending BP’s inadequate and ineffective measures. But perhaps this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise because during the last election Obama was the biggest recipient of BP cash of all the candidates, and just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Obama announced plans for expansion of oil and gas drilling off the coast of the eastern seaboard and Alaska. Rather than a full reversal of this decision in light of the Gulf Spill disaster, Obama has called for a 6 month moratorium on new drilling permits (enough time for people to forget?) but has not halted plans for 49 offshore drills that were approved without a full environmental review. Despite his flaws, I hope Obama doesn’t become the scapegoat because there are many guilty parties that deserve to share the blame, including the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service division, who during the Bush administration were involved in sex, drug and bribe scandals with oil executives and may have improperly awarded safety certificates to BP and Transocean Ltd.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/bp-gulf-oil-spill-timeline.php

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/24/gulf-oil-spill-bad-cement_n_586952.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/us/14oil.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/17/bp-dispersant-toxic/
http://themoderatevoice.com/73831/epa-orders-bp-to-cut-back-corexit-dispersant-on-gulf-oil-slick/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-25/shocking-bp-memo-and-the-oil-spill-in-the-gulf/
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62T06520100331
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/05/bp-bill-nelson-oil-spill
http://dieoff.org/page55.htm

Part IV, reported March 26

Read parts I-III of WhyHunger’s reports on the Department of Justice’s hearings on anti-trust issues in agriculture

The March 12 workshop that the Department of Justice and USDA held in Ankeny, Iowa, was called “A Dialogue on Competition Issues Facing Farmers in Today’s Agricultural Marketplaces,” but did not leave much room for dialogue. It instead consisted of six panel presentations, mostly made up of government officials, academics, and industry representatives. There was also a farmer presentation, including independent farmers; and two WhyHunger partners from the US Working Group on the Food Crisis were represented on an afternoon panel.

An estimated 800 people attended the workshop at the Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa.

While it was encouraging that Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack were in attendance — and that Holder called the focus of these hearings “a national security matter,” indicating that the government is taking this issue seriously — the discussions at the workshop felt far removed from the stories we had heard the night before at the town hall. There was a lot of seductive rhetoric about the need for large-scale, industrial agriculture to feed a growing world population, and repeated references to local agriculture as a niche market. There was no mention of the difficulties that independent farmers are having feeding themselves or the fact that industrial agriculture hasn’t helped the 1 billion people worldwide currently suffering from chronic hunger.

There was also no mention of the strong research indicating that small scale, community-based agriculture is an incredibly effective and efficient way to feed people. Study after study, including the UN- and World Bank-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD), show that to feed a growing population, we need much greater investment in local markets, local control of seeds and growing methods, and access to land. In short, we need to significantly invest in sustainable agriculture so that it can grow beyond a niche market — and we need to break up the monopolies that control agricultural markets and make it impossible for newcomers to compete.

The Department of Justice investigation is therefore an exciting opportunity — but it is also a moment of great responsibility for advocates. If the March 12 workshop was any indication, we need to continue to educate our elected officials about the practicality of alternatives to conventional agriculture and show them that the public wants those alternatives. Write a comment to the Department of Justice or a letter to the editor of your local paper. Come to the next workshops in Alabama (May 22) and Wisconsin (June 7) and make your voice heard in person. Keep up with the latest on the issue — and read the great media coverage of the workshop – at www.bustthetrust.org.

Please RSVP to agrawatch@seattleglobaljustice.org

About the Film: Darwin’s Nightmare is a tale about humans between the North and the South, about globalization, and about fish. Some time in the 1960’s, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was introduced into Lake Victoria as a little scientific experiment. The Nile Perch, a voracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the native fish species. However, the new fish multiplied so fast, that its white fillets are today exported all around the world.  Huge hulking ex-Soviet cargo planes come daily to collect the latest catch in exchange for their southbound cargo… Kalashnikovs and ammunitions for the uncounted wars in the dark center of the continent.

This booming multinational industry of fish and weapons has created an ungodly globalized alliance on the shores of the world’s biggest tropical lake: an army of local fishermen, World bank agents, homeless children, African ministers, EU-commissioners, Tanzanian prostitutes and Russian pilots.

Bus Routes to Cascade People’s Center: 8, 25, 70-73, 74, 77, 79, 304, 317, 355, 377

Just prior to joining Obama’s transition team last year, Taylor was a Senior Fellow at the D.C. think tank Resources for the Future, where he published two documents on U.S. aid for African agriculture. These papers were funded by The Rockefeller Foundation who also financed the first Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America in the 1960s, and in 2006 teamed up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Not surprisingly, Taylor’s recommendations included a “market-oriented approach and the promotion of thriving agribusinesses”, “applied agricultural research”, “markets for agricultural inputs and outputs” and increased agricultural export capacity. So what’s wrong with a second Green Revolution in Africa? As pointed out by Paula Crossfield in the Huffington Post, “…there is broad consensus that the Green Revolution in India has been a failure, with Indian farmers in debt, bound to paying high costs for seed and pesticides, committing suicide at much higher rates, and resulting in a depleted water table and a poisoned environment, and by extension, higher rates of cancer.” So the Green Revolution hasn’t been very helpful to farmers, but it has been extremely profitable for corporations such as Monsanto.

Michael Taylor’s appointment to FDA food safety czar is the second major setback for food activists from the Obama administration, following their choice of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack is also a proponent of the biotech industry and is famous for taking rides on jets provided by Monsanto while serving as governor of Iowa. One could speculate that Michael Taylor realizes his past mistakes and will seek redemption by maintaining the highest level of food safety standards in his new role, but, given his track record, would you trust him?

Update: On January 21 the US Supreme Court eliminated all limits to corporate campaign spending and reversed the McCain Feingold law preventing corporations and unions from running ads within a certain date before elections. This ruling further reinforces the power of corporations to influence elections and to ensure that elected officials continue giving us more corporate-friendly legislation and corporate-friendly appointees.

Sources:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18866.cfm

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20060.cfm

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-08-monsanto-FDA-taylor/

http://biointegrity.org/list.html

http://www.preventcancer.com/press/releases/july8_98.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-crossfield/g8-promises-20-billion-in_b_229526.html

The World Economic Forum started this week.  For a gathering of critics and advocates for alternatives to the WEF, a World Social Forum in Brazil also began (you can check out some coverage here and here, and other WSF events are happening in other areas throughout 2010).

But thanks to some slick website design and camera work, we can also experience the information and perspectives that should (and must) come out of Davos and world economic leaders!  Check out all the links and video below…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2010

Videos threaten very existence of World Economic Forum

• Close examination of fake website reveals outrageous, elaborate subterfuge
• Videos may be viewed here or downloaded
• Lefty filmmakers mainly to blame
• Contacts: scurrilous@theyesmen.org, 310-780-4008

In a series of diabolically stupid video manipulations, a cabal of anti-poverty filmmakers have performed an elaborate slander of the World Economic Forum, showing its “leading lights” taking a dramatic departure from the litany of meaningless pledges they usually make at the annual gathering in the Swiss resort town.

In response, WEF spokesperson Adrian Monck could barely contain himself. “The only defense to satire is common sense!” he sputtered, before racing back into the WEF war room to deal with the burgeoning crisis.

Fortunately for the WEF, few media outlets picked up on the WEF’s fantastic but fictional approach to world poverty (“World Leaders Pledge Strategy to End Poverty Now“). Instead, the media was dominated by coverage of a real WEF press release warning of “Over Regulation of the Financial Sector” (sic).

The forged videos showed eight of “leading lights of Davos” outlining a few clear strategies to end poverty.

The CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, the world’s largest agribusiness conglomerate, spoke of “agriculture’s role in today’s economic savagery, and the broader long-term issues of robbing whole groups for the greed of the food industry,” before calling for “universal justice and agriculture’s reform” via Food Sovereignty. “We want to undo the injuries of global capitalism,” added a much-improved “Klaus Schwab,” founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.

“The source of our financial treasure was violence towards the colonies of the global South,” admitted “Queen Elizabeth II” most refreshingly, before pledging to sell her lands and use the proceeds to improve the lot of the world’s poor. “We have caused this disaster,” added “Prince Harry” with a stalwart giggle. “Nobody wants a catastrophe,” Canadian Prime Minister “Stephen Harper” chimed in most helpfully.

“Haiti was a house of cards that we built through a history of exploitative economic policies,” said a tired-looking “Bill Clinton.” Now we have a chance to rebuild a more independent society by ending exploitation, forgiving their debt and bringing back real sustainability.”

The perpetrators included a prominent film director, several Hollywood voice actors, at least one disaffected member of the World Economic Forum itself, and thirty-four of the Yes Men.

“Yes, these are real talking heads,” explained Robert Diaz Leroy, a Hollywood film producer who was one of those behind the action. Another co-conspirator, film director Philippe Diaz, went into greater detail.

“We did this out of frustration with the fact that each year in Davos, the wealthy and powerful figure out ways the global economy can continue to benefit them,” said Diaz, who directed The End of Poverty?, which opens this Friday in New York. “Even this year, they’re still talking about economic growth and de-regulation as the solution to poverty. That’s especially obscene in light of this year’s economic crisis, which resulted from those exact policies and has disproportionately affected the poor.”

Despite the WEF’s annual posturing, neoliberal policies have proven to be a massive failure for the vast majority of the poor, said Diaz. “When a disaster strikes a poor country like Haiti, our culpability becomes graphically clear.”

Diaz explained that growth has by and large benefited only the wealthiest fraction of the population. “Our economic system depends on the resources of the global South that we have plundered since 1492. Only the tools have changed: nowadays we rarely use guns or armies, we mainly use economic instruments. But the damage is just as real.” (See the fake press release for some real statistics to that effect.)

“What you won’t hear in Davos is anything about the structural factors at the root of global poverty,” said Beth Portello, who produced The End of Poverty?. “Poverty is created: it’s the byproduct of centuries of exploitation of human and natural resources maintained into modern times by unfair trade, tax and land policies, and odious debt.”

“Unlike the lip-service solutions from Davos, the proposals on our fake WEF site would actually end poverty,” said Diaz. “We’re going to do everything we can to make them happen. The film is just the beginning.”

“Poverty isn’t an accident, and it won’t end by accident, either,” added Portello.

In a dramatic bit of irony, it was revealed that the fake Queen Elizabeth II was played by boy actor James O’Keefe, who was recently arrested for feloniously attempting to tamper with the phone line of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, not long after being honored by House Republicans for his “ACORN pimp” role last year.

“Oh that queen,” said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. “Who knows what trouble she’ll get into next.”