The Movement for Community-led Agroecology

Speakers: Ana de Ita Rubio, Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano/Research Center for Change in Rural Mexico (CECCAM); Gabriela Linares Sosa, Union of the Organization of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO); Jovanna Garcia Soto, Grassroots International
Date: June 20, 2:00- 3:15 PM ET

This Solidarity Encounter looks at agroecology: a practice of food production grounded in justice, environmental sustainability, and ancestral wisdom. The encounter will be a dialogue between Ana de Ita Rubio of the Research Center for Rural Change in Mexico, who will discuss agroecology and its significance for social movements broadly, and Gabriela Linares Sosa, who will offer a specific example of grassroots organizing for agroecological food production led by the Zapotec Indigenous people’s movement in Mexico. The speakers will look at the role of political formation and the emergency of agroecology schools in the long-term success of agroecology projects, and will also highlight the ways in which agroecology offers a real and lasting solution to the climate crisis.

	Ana de Ita Rubio is the founder and Executive Director of the Research Center for Change in Rural Mexico (CECCAM). She has a doctorate in political science from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her areas of focus are agrarian and environmental policies and rural agroecology. She is involved in the Network in Defense of Corn and also writes for the newspaper La Jornada.
	Gabriela Linares Sosa is Zapotec from the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca. She is a biologist and the founder of Defense of Native Maize of Oaxaca. She has worked with UNOSJO since 2007, and recently joined the Coordination of the Assembly of Indigenous Women of Oaxaca. Her work is focused on issues related to the rights of Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, right to territory, grassroots feminisms, popular education, and the political participation of women. Her degree is in Biology with a focus on the management of natural resources, and she is a teacher of agroecology.
	Jovanna Garcia Soto is the Senior Solidarity Program Officer – Latin America. Prior to joining Grassroots’ Program team, Jovanna spent five years at the Chelsea Collaborative, where she directed their environmental justice program. Jovanna is trilingual in Spanish (her mother tongue), Portuguese, and English. She is originally from Puerto Rico and was involved there with the student movement for ending the US military occupation of Vieques. She has also spent time working in Brazil with the riverine communities in the Amazonian region.