Ending Poverty by Rebuilding Local Food Economies–Celebrate the Launch of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance!

Emerging out of the US Working Group on the Food Crisis, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance will be the first of its kind in the United States. Grassroots International is a member of this new alliance. To celebrate its launch, we encourage people fighting for food justice and sovereignty to take actions during the week of October 10-17.

In solidarity with people all over the world, we call on food justice groups to hold community events that educate, celebrate, and create affordable access to safe, healthy, and culturally appropriate food while turning our food systems into engines for local economic development. We call for actions to build food sovereignty in the US.

October 10:    Global Work Party to Tackle Climate Change
October 12:    Day of Indigenous Resistance to Conquest
October 15:     World Rural Women’s Day
October 16:    World Food Day
October 17:    International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 

October 10:  350.org is calling for actions on 10/10/10. Up to one-third of global greenhouse gases come from industrial agriculture, but small-scale farming can eliminate hunger and cool the planet. Climate change also disproportionately affects food insecure people and communities of color. Some suggested actions:

• Throw a work party to support or create community gardens or farmers’ markets
• Hold “Farm to School Fresh Food Feasts” or a community meal of local food
• Petition local governments to support local agriculture to end climate change and poverty

October 12:  Day of Indigenous Resistance to Conquest (formerly Columbus Day) is celebrated across the Americas with actions toward recovering the land, water, and autonomy that belonged to indigenous peoples and their displaced urban allies. Currently, corporations are grabbing land in the U.S. and all over the world, depriving all people of their rights and their livelihoods. Some suggested actions:

• Celebrate “liberated land” – community gardens, public parks, or protected indigenous lands
• Join existing land campaigns and alliances like Right to the City, Take Back the Land, and FIAN International
• Circulate petitions denouncing genetically engineered food, fish, and trees 

October 15: World Rural Women’s Day. Rural women make up more than a quarter of the world population. They hold a key role in food production and contribute to the wellbeing of their families, rural economies, and food security. Some suggested actions:

• Write a letter to the editor of your local or regional paper about the importance of rural women in our states and around the world for food production and food security
• Invite women farmers to discuss their lives and struggles
• Create an award for exceptional local rural women or women’s groups
• Link up with sister organizations for a joint event like a community meal
• Inform local media, the mayor, city council, and local business associations about what you’re doing and why

October 16:  Ending Poverty by Rebuilding Local Food Economies/World Food Day.  La Via Campesina—a global movement fighting for food sovereignty and agrarian reform—calls for actions against transnational corporations responsible for privatizing seeds, promoting a chemical-dependent, industrial-scale form of agriculture and aquabusiness/industrial fisheries that bankrupt and displace fishers, farmers, and farmworkers. Local food economies are the solution. Some suggested actions:

• Declare Who Fishes Matters by signing the petition (www.change.org/nama) and uploading your own short video about why the concentration, consolidation, and industrial-scale takeover of our fisheries is a bad idea. For more action steps, see www.namanet.org.
• Support CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food (www.ciw-online.org/tools.html) against supermarkets that refuse to pay higher wages to farm workers
• Host a Food Justice Workshop to share food and information about taking back our local food systems
• Celebrate and organize community meals with local chefs, gardeners, farmers, and eaters to build community and dismantle racism and sexism
• Promote local food with Farmers’ Market Fair Food Festivals
• Protest BP in solidarity with fishermen, farmers, restaurant workers, and others in the Gulf of Mexico food system

October 17:  International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. October 10-17, 2010 is also the Churches Week of Action on Food, and denominations and congregations in the US around the world are praying, studying, and acting during this historic week. Guides, worship resources, and action ideas are available by clicking here.

To get involved or inform us of actions you will be planning, contact the co-facilitators of the Grassroots Mobilization & Action Committee: Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau, WhyHunger:  tristan@whyhunger.org (646) 380-1162; or Stephen Bartlett, Agricultural Missions:  sbartlett@ag-missions.org  (502) 896-9171.  Also consider joining this committee!

Download copies of the one-page flyer and full flyer: