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Please help – Our partners in Gaza are reaching out for support

By: Carol Schachet | January 10, 2009
You already know that the news looks grim:
- Both Israel and Hamas have rejected international calls for a cease fire and the violence has escalated
- Gaza's border with Egypt and Israel remains closed
- Humanitarian aid has halted due to attacks on UN and Red Cross/Red Crescent workers.
Direct updates and news make it out of Gaza only in short bursts, when there is sufficient power to feed cell phone batteries and computers. Grassroots International's locally based partner organizations within Gaza continue to send us word as they can about how they are responding to the crisis and facilitating relief and reconstruction. Because of their ongoing commitment to social justice and human rights in the region, their efforts stand the greatest chance of having a lasting impact.
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Sweep Down the Walls

By: Carol Schachet | January 9, 2009

When I talk to people in Gaza these days, two things usually come up. The first, even in the midst of such a devastating war, is sincere gratitude for keeping in touch. The second is the question of why the world - especially the US whose taxpayers are financing the war - is silent. Although our actions have not yet been able to halt the attacks on Gaza, I can honestly tell our Palestinian friends that we are not silent.
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The 19th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

By: Carol Schachet | November 19, 2008

On November 9, 1989, the German people knocked down the Berlin Wall.

The Berlin Wall had been erected on August 13, 1961 dividing the people of Berlin into two sectors. One sector was controlled by the US and its allies, and the other was controlled by the Soviet Union. German people were not free to cross from one sector to another. Families and friends were separated by the wall for 28 years. During this period of time, about 5,000 escape attempts were made to reunite with relatives, friends or to seek better economic opportunities. Nearly 300 people died attempting to cross the wall.
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Opponents challenge U.S./Mexico border wall 19 years after Berlin Wall falls

By: Maria Aguiar | November 19, 2008

For several years Grassroots International has had a collegial relationship with Carlos Marentes of the Sin Fronteras Border Agricultural Workers Project in El Paso, Texas. Carlos is also a leader of the Via Campesina - North American Region and chair of the Via Campesina's international commission on Migrations and Rural Workers. The Via Campesina understands that most migration is a consequence of the corporate-led global trade model that has exacerbated rural impoverishment in many already poor countries.
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Speculation a Major Contributor to Global Food Crisis, New Report Finds

By: Nikhil Aziz | November 14, 2008

The world's most powerful "leaders" meet today in Washington to debate what is to be done about the global financial crisis - a crisis they themselves were instrumental in causing. It is their blind devotion to a consistently failed ideology, outright greed, and a slavish willingness to be accountable only to their corporate backers (on the part of almost all that are gathering), and an ambition to get a seat at the table in the country club (on the part of the G-20 minus 7) that has created this toxic mix that we are all being forced to swallow.
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Opposition Mounts as G-20 meets in Washington

By: Nikhil Aziz | November 14, 2008

The world's most powerful "leaders" meet today in Washington to debate what is to be done about the global financial crisis - a crisis they themselves were instrumental in causing. It is their blind devotion to a consistently failed ideology, outright greed, and a slavish willingness to be accountable only to their corporate backers (on the part of almost all that are gathering), and an ambition to get a seat at the table in the country club (on the part of the G-20 minus 7) that has created this toxic mix that we are all being forced to swallow.
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Tickets now available to Grassroots International 25th Anniversary

By: Carol Schachet | October 31, 2008

Grassroots International hosts Inaugurating Real Change: an evening of envisioning global justice on November 15, 2008, as Grassroots International celebrates its 25^th Anniversary. The event features Grassroots International partners from the Via Campesina, a keynote address by Frances Moore Lappé, music by Sol y Canto, and much more.
Inaugurating Real Change
November 15, 2008
Cambridge, MA
(Washburn Hall, Episcopal Divinity School, on the corner of Brattle and Mason Streets near Harvard Square)
Tickets are available online (www.GrassrootsOnline.org/25) for $75 ($25 student, low-income)
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Announcing: A New Popular Education Tool!

By: Carol Schachet | October 16, 2008

Grassroots International and the National Family Farm Coalition announce the release of a new popular education tool that can help you understand and fix the world food crisis: Food for Thought and Action: A Food Sovereignty Curriculum.
It's been said that "you are what you eat." In the face of a global food crisis, it's clear that we've been forced to swallow far more than what's on our plates. Our global food system is broken, with nearly a billion hungry people around the world and millions more forced from their failed farms as industrial agriculture privatizes and despoils our water, soil and biodiversity.
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Americas Farm Bill

By: Carol Schachet | July 1, 2008

The tidal wave of American interest in local, sustainable agriculture, and the waves of protest around the world over staggering food prices, seem to have washed over the heads of most members of Congress without them even noticing. The 2008 Farm Bill proves it.
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An Open Letter To Congress on the Need for Strategic Grain Reserves

By: Grassroots International | April 28, 2008

Dear Member of Congress:
All around the globe, food riots have shaken countries from Haiti to Egypt to India to Uzebekistan while rising rice prices cause grief in many Asian countries. A global food crisis threatens to impoverish millions around the world. Here at home, livestock and dairy producers, bakers and food processors have expressed their fears over skyrocketing commodity prices while higher food prices are eating into many family budgets. News reports nervously highlight that U.S. and world grain stocks are at all-time lows since World War II.
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Linking Agriculture, Development and Migration: A Critical Look at NAFTA

By: Carol Schachet | February 1, 2008

Organized by Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Washington Office on Latin America, Alliance for Responsible Trade, Institute for Policy Studies, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and Global Exchange.
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Speaking Tour of Brazilian Land Rights Activist in Massachusetts

By: Saulo Araujo | November 29, 2007

Grassroots International and U.S. Friends of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (FMST) are delighted to host Luis Antonio Pasquetti, from the National Committee of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), a member of Via Campesina, during his tour in the United States.
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The Threat of Agrofuels

By: Nikhil Aziz | November 14, 2007

Wisconsin based Family Farm Defenders (FFD) is a leading member of Grassroots International's ally National Family Farm Coalition. FFD was formed in 1994 and works to create a family farmer-controlled and consumer oriented food system, and has been a leading ally of farm workers and minority farmers including indigenous farmers. John Peck, the executive director of FFD recently wrote an article warning against the threat of agrofuels for family farmers in the Global South and here in the U.S.
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Food Security, Clean Environment and Diversity at Stake in Farm Bill

By: Jake Miller | November 12, 2007

The Farm Bill is one of the last major pieces of legislation that will make it to the floor of the Senate during the current legislative season, which makes it a ripe target for political maneuvering and special-interest pork.

Grassroots is working with a coalition of allies to fight for farming policies that will protect the human right to food, support family farmers in the United States and abroad and build a healthier food and farming system for consumers, communities and the environment.

The Senate's plan to set aside $25 million for locally-sourced food aid is a big win for family farmers in some of the world's poorest regions, but there is a lot that is still at stake in this farm bill.
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What’s the Bush administration cooking up now?

By: Nikhil Aziz | November 9, 2007

World Food Day was recently observed around the world with people everywhere taking the opportunity to organize and act on our obligations to ensure "The Right to Food." Here in the United States, the Right to Food is as relevant as anywhere, especially in light of our recent imported food safety crisis that is causing many citizens to question their grocery purchases.
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Senate to Vote on Local Food Aid in Farm Bill Next Week

By: Nikhil Aziz | October 30, 2007

We have some exciting news to share.

Your voice was heard in the U.S. Senate.

The Farm Bill, scheduled to be voted on by the full Senate next week, includes funding for a $25 million pilot project for locally-sourced food aid for hungry people around the world.

We want to thank you for your support of this crucial legislation.

This is a big win.

At the last minute, Senator Pat Roberts (KS-R) threatened to call an amendment that would have squashed the pilot project. Thanks to the support of activists like you, this program that will offer support to family farmers around the world and improve our ability to feed the hungry is alive.
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When Hope Triumphs Over Fear: An Invisible Global Revolution: Frances Moore Lappé at the Jamaica Plain Forum

By: Carol Schachet | October 18, 2007

Thursday, November 1st
7:00pm
FREE

First Church in Jamaica Plain
Unitarian Universalist Sanctuary
6 Eliot St (Across from the Monument)
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130

In 2006 an energized electorate seemed poised to reassert ownership of the democratic process. Since the elections, however, polls show that citizens confidence in government has resumed its downward trend. Far from waning, disillusion and disengagement continue to spread.

Why is this happening, and how can we stop it?
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The ABCs of Rainforest Destruction

By: Jake Miller | October 11, 2007

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) officially launched their new Rainforest Agribusiness campaign this week, targeting ADM, Bunge and Cargill (ABC) for the role they are playing in the massive expansion of soy and palm oil plantations throughout the world. Global South movements including our partners in the Via Campesina are doing similar campaigns in various parts of the world.
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Congress Urged to Ditch Energy Bill Renewable Fuel Standard

By: Carol Schachet | October 10, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders are being urged by environmental, family farmer, and social justice organizations to ensure that a radical biofuels provision passed by the Senate be left out of final energy legislation under consideration this fall.
In a letter being sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today, the groups warn that the massive Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) passed by the Senate earlier this year could lead to significant environmental and social harm. The RFS would mandate the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022, a five-fold increase over current levels.
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Lessons from NAFTA: Building a New Fair Trade Agenda

By: Carol Schachet | September 10, 2007

Join activists, researchers and policymakers from the U.S., Canada and Mexico in Minneapolis, MN, to review how NAFTA has affected all three countries, learn about efforts to expand NAFTA, and exchange ideas on a new fair trade agenda.
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