The Community Food Security Coalition and the US Food Sovereignty Alliance will announce on World Food Day, October 16th 2011 that the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil (MST) has been awarded the 2011 Food Sovereignty Prize. The MST is a Grassroots International partner and member of the Via Campesina.
At the request of the community assembly of Amador Hernández in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, Grassroots International along with the Global Justice Ecology Project, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Carbon Trade Watch, the Global Forest Coalition, the Timberwatch Coalition, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, and the Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project are circulating a communiqué and sign-on letter (posted below) that were written by the assembly concerning the impact they are experiencing from the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) carbon credit plan.
By Cloc/The Via Campesina
(Cancún, 5 December 2010) One idea dominated the opening and first working day of the global forum “For Life, Environmental and Social Justice”, organized by La Via Campesina and its allies at their camp in Cancún: we must foil the carbon markets and the REDD programme which governments intend to legitimize at COP16.
A new online film from WhyHunger, “The Food and Climate Connection: From Heating the Planet to Healing It,” highlights the impact of today’s global food system on the climate and how a community-based food movement around the world is bringing to life a way of farming and eating that’s better for our bodies and the planet. Featuring interviews with farmers, community leaders, and sustainability advocates, the film highlights how the industrial food system is among the greatest contributors to global warming and how sustainable farming practices can pose a powerful solution to the crisis.
Grassroots International recently joined a growing list of colleagues and food sovereignty activists who have signed an open letter to Oxfam America calling on the organization to take a stance to oppose biotechnology. The action comes following the recent release of a book detailing research commissioned by Oxfam.
Harmony Foundation releases new educational presentation, Troubled Waters
Harmony Foundation of Canada recently released a new educational presentation, entitled Troubled Waters. This 27 minute, narrated multimedia presentation examines freshwater issues of global importance and inspires local action through examples of grassroots leaders working to protect and conserve fresh water in communities around the world.
Grassroots International's program coordinator for Brazil &Mesoamerica, Saulo Araújo worked with the Harmony Foundation to helphighlight the One Million Cisterns Project in Brazil, begun with seed support by Grassroots International for its partner Pólo Sindical.
Yesterday Haiti suffered a massive earthquake, which registered a 7.3 on the Richter scale, just outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Initial reports are beginning to pour in on the devastation to both people and property. Grassroots International has set up an “Earthquake Response Fund for Haiti” to support our partners and meet the urgent needs of the population.
Were pleased to announce the release of Food Rebellions!, co-published by Grassroots International and our ally Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy. Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice, written by Eric Holt-Gimez and Raj Patel with Annie Shattuck, offers us the real story behind the global food crisis and document the growing trend of grassroots solutions to hunger spreading around the world.
To learn more, read the Press Release below. You can also order books directly from Food First.
August 4, 2009
Just releasedFood Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice
Below is a letter received from one of our Honduran colleagues asking for support to end human rights violations in the country. As she describes, the situation is worsening. Please visit our action page now to send a letter to President Obama. Thank you.
By Wendy Cruz
Grassroots International joined other organizations and scholars in issuing the statement below.
Grassroots International ally, Food & Water Watch (FWW) issued a statement questioning the Obama Administration's "new" approach to addressing global hunger and poverty announced at the G8 Summit in Italy. Is this really new, or old wine in new bottles? FWW argues that more free trade and biotechnology (or reinventing the Green Revolution) are not new ideas and only end up supporting agribusiness and other corporations.
July 2, 2009
Barack Obama President of the United States 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President, We are writing as American nonprofit organizations to thank you for the comments in your Cairo speech that recognized the problems current rules for charitable giving create for American Muslims, and for your commitment to correct the situation.Washington D.C. (April 16, 2009) - The U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis, a group representing anti-hunger, family farm, community food security, environmental, international aid, labor, food justice, consumers and other food system actors, urges the G8 at the upcoming Agricultural Ministerial in Treviso, Italy to reject the failed policies of the Green Revolution. A recent landmark report backed by the UN and World Bank argues for agroecological and sustainable agriculture, rather than reliance on chemical-intensive practices and genetic engineering.
Washington D.C. (April 16, 2009) - The U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis, a group representing anti-hunger, family farm, community food security, environmental, international aid, labor, food justice, consumers and other food system actors, urges the G8 at the upcoming Agricultural Ministerial in Treviso, Italy to reject the failed policies of the Green Revolution. A recent landmark report backed by the UN and World Bank argues for agroecological and sustainable agriculture, rather than reliance on chemical-intensive practices and genetic engineering.
Today, a coalition of faith, hunger, international development, farm and food organizations – including Grassroots International – sent a letter to President Barack Obama requesting decisive support for efforts to wring out excess speculation in agricultural futures markets that threatens the food security of hundreds of millions of people. The letter notes that "A significant part of last year's food price fluctuations were the result of excessive speculation in the commodities markets by the very hedge funds and investment banks that helped create the current economic meltdown."
The information below is adapted from a press release by Code Pink.
GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP - A 60-member aid delegation was allowed entry into war-torn Gaza today through the Egyptian border crossing today. Two Grassroots International staff and board members (in the middle of the photo above) are part of the delegation, which includes Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker.
Funded in part by Grassroots International, the Oakland Institute announces a new report: Voices from Africa: African Farmers & Environmentalists Speak Out Against a New Green Revolution in Africa. This report issues a direct challenge to Western-led plans for a genetically engineered revolution in African agriculture, and presents African perspectives and solutions rooted in first-hand knowledge of what Africans need.
Human rights and community leaders in Mexico continue to experience threats including death threats. They ask for help from global activists to protect their lives and their community work.
Current threats follow previous repression, including the unjust prosecution of local organizers of the Civil Resistance against the high cost of energy in the southern state of Campeche.Last December, in response to an emergency action, letters of solidarity with Sara Lopez and Joaquin Aguilar brought authorities in Campeche to the negotiating table.
Your support is still needed.
Bélém, Brazil, 1 February 2009
No to neoliberal illusions, yes to people's solutions!
For centuries, productivism and industrial capitalism have been destroying our cultures, exploiting our labour and poisoning our environment.
Now, with the climate crisis, the Earth is saying "enough", "ya basta"!
Once again, the people who created the problem are telling us that they also have the solutions: carbon trading, so-called "clean coal", more nuclear power, agrofuels, even a "green new deal". But these are not real solutions, they are neoliberal illusions. It is time to move beyond these illusions.
The end of 2008 showed a new wave of violence against humanity with the Israeli war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip. The attack by Israeli forces starting on the 27th of December- under the pretext of a war against Hamas - have already killed hundreds of Palestinians and injured thousands of peoples, many of them women and children.
The war in the Gaza strip is destroying houses, schools, hospitals and also Palestinian farmland. Palestinian people in the Gaza strip are currently facing a lack of medicine, water, accommodation and food. Meanwhile, Palestinian farmers are not able to produce their own food. The situation is getting more tragic day by day.
