CAGJ joined with Community to Community, Hilltop Urban Gardens and Got Green to organize the first Pacific Northwest Agroecology Enceuntro which took place August 24-25 in Bellingham, WA.
Over 50 farmers, farmworkers and organizers from Washington, Oregon, and California as well as Atlanta and New York came together to develop a shared analysis of the political moment and to create a regional network of campesinos, grassroots support organizations, urban and rural farmers, and movement intellectuals working to scale out Agroecology as a practice and a concept.
Peoples’ Agroecology Encuentros are regional gatherings taking place across the country as part of our broader food sovereignty movement. These encuentros/encounters have roots in the US Food Sovereignty Alliance and grassroots organizing efforts with intersecting focuses on farming, just transition, and gender, environmental, indigenous, and racial justice.
We were honored to be joined by Samuel Ramos, a Pureh’pecha healer who was visiting the Pacific Northwest to help bring awareness about the struggle for autonomy in his community of Cherán, Michoacan, Mexico. Samuel and Antonio from Orgullo Pureh’pecha offered a blessing to open the meeting on Saturday. A panel shared their insights on the meanings of both agro-ecology and afro-ecology. We enjoyed delicious food together, including produce brought by participating farmers, and we closed by planting starters from seeds donated by the MST in Community to Community’s garden.
We look forward to future gatherings!
