Witness for Peace and CAGJ Event a Success!

CAGJ recently co-sponsored an event at Seattle’s Labor Temple called “Let Us Eat! Food Security, Trade and Migration in the U.S. and Mexico as NAFTA Turns 15”. Witness for Peace took the lead on organizing this event, which was part of a northwest speaking tour of Baldemar Mendoza, an expert sovereignty and trade agreements from Oaxaca, Mexico.

Food Justice Project Co-Coordinator Teresa Mares was honored to sit on a speaker panel with other key community leaders, including: Carlos Marentes from El Comité Pro-Reforma Migratoria y Justicia Social, Antonio Flores from Orgullo P’urhepecha, and Maru Villalpando from Washington Community Action Network. Together, these speakers spoke about the many ways that free trade agreements such as NAFTA damage people’s self sufficiency and food sovereignty. Baldemar Mendoza grabbed the audience’s attention with his first-hand knowledge about the disastrous post-NAFTA effects on Oaxacan farmers and how drastically it has changed the rural countryside of Mexico. Following the panel, other community leaders helped to facilitate discussions about the connections between food, trade, and migration and the alternatives that we all, as eaters and growers, must support in order to achieve food justice.

CAGJ would like to thank everyone that organized and attended the event, and looks forward to further action around food sovereignty and trade issues.

To hear the KBCS interview with Baldemar, click here and scroll down to “Mexican Migration to the Northwest, the NAFTA Connection”

Posted in Food Justice Blog Posts, News, Trade Justice Blog Posts.

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