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.
By Annie Leonard
Since The Story of Stuff was launched online on December 4, 2007, the site has been visited by millions of people in over 224 countries and territories around the world, and we have received literally thousands of requests for the film to be translated. We are pleased to launch this international site, which includes translated versions of the films with subtitles, as well as the contact information for the organizations around the world that did the translations.
Again raising both legal and moral questions, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on January 6, 2009. Below are both his introduction to the letter and the text itself. Please write to thank Rep. Kucinich for his leadership on this issue.
From Dennis Kucinich:
In light of press reports that Israeli forces fired on a United Nations school where civilians were taking shelter, I sent notice today to Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, that Israel's actions in Gaza since December 27th, 2008 may constitute a violation of the requirements of the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (AECA).
*Donate to Grassroots International's emergency relief campaign for Gaza.
Grassroots International joins our partners in Palestine and Israel and thousands of peaceful activists worldwide to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the siege of Gaza , especially the violent attacks on Palestinian civilians including women and children, and the resumption of negotiations for a lasting and just peace in the region. We call for an immediate end to all attacks on civilians on both sides.
The British solidarity organization, the Haiti Support Group, today wrote to Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), requesting information about the type of rice that the organization is distributing in Haiti.
The Haiti Support Group is concerned about the nutritional content of the rice that the WFP is distributing to hundreds of thousands of hungry and starving Haitians. In particular, the organization is seeking reassurance that the WFP is not distributing imported rice that has undergone the usual commercial milling process, thereby considerably reducing the rice's mineral, vitamin, and fibre content.
Grassroots International's amazing on-line auction is now open!
You can bid on beautiful artwork and crafts from around the world, tickets to events, vacation get-aways, professional services, and much more. This is a great way to shop for the holidays, buy something special and support Grassroots International at the same time.
Grassroots International works to create a just and sustainable world by building alliances with progressive movements. We provide grants to our Global South partners and join them in advocating for social change. Our primary focus is on land, water and food as human rights and nourishing the political struggle necessary to achieve these rights.
Grassroots International hosts Inaugurating Real Change: an evening of envisioning global justice on November 15, 2008, as Grassroots International celebrates its 25th 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)
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.
More than 500 men and women farmers and leaders from 70 countries will gather in Mozambique from October 16 to 23, 2008 to attend the 5th International Conference of the Via Campesina. Grassroots International is providing support for its partners, including members from Brazil, Haiti, Central America and Mexico, as well as a delegation from Indonesia, to participate in the international event. Two staff members from Grassroots International will also attend part of the conference, which will focus on Food Sovereignty and the current agricultural crisis. The Via Campesina's press release outlines more details of the conference.