CAGJ’s SLEE Dinner on October 19th was a fantastic gathering! Thank you so much to everyone who came, and supported through food, dessert and silent auction donations! It was nourishing as always to come together, have fun, and engage in thought provoking conversations. We felt a renewed sense of hope and connection, needed now more than ever.
Your part in CAGJ History
As CAGJ is moving into a new phase, and on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the WTO protests, we asked participants to reflect on their own engagement with CAGJ’s history through a massive timeline posted on the wall. We’ll be getting out the timeline again for future events, asking you to share your story – when did you first get engaged? What have been your highlights?
Delicious Local & Fair Trade Foods
Our guests enjoyed Loki Fish Co. wild salmon, delicious Madres Kitchen squash stuffed with veggies from several local farms, Aba Ifeoma’s famous kale salad, and Fair Trade and local hors d’oeuvres, and of course the desserts!
Seeing the room so full of generous people working together to make the world a better place was truly inspiring. With everyone’s support, we raised critical funds to continue our work for food justice and food sovereignty!
SLEE Program: Members’ Stories
To celebrate CAGJ’s legacy and impact, four members shared some of their CAGJ stories at SLEE. Phil Bereano spoke about his long time involvement with AGRA Watch, and how his engagement with GMO issues at the global level helped shape campaigns early in CAGJ’s history. He emphasized the importance to our African partners of CAGJ being located in the same city as the Gates Foundation, where we could literally bring concerns to their doorstep. He also highlighted how, personally and as part of this organization, it has been an amazing experience working and traveling with African colleagues. He closed with this thought: “Despite the limitations of size and money, we [CAGJ] have punched far above our weight.”
Chris Iberle joined CAGJ as an intern organizing against the FTAA and CAFTA. It was a formative experience for him to be part of the Food Justice Project, being exposed to the wide range of critiques of corporate agriculture and the alternatives presented by food justice activists, small-scale farmers, fishers, and foodworkers. He spoke about the impact CAGJ has had on him, not only in his ability to analyze a problem and seek solutions in his professional role today – as a food policy & program advisor at City of Seattle – but how to do the work of organizing, solidarity, and allyship with respect and humility. Chris pointed out that we’re in this for the long-haul – these changes don’t happen overnight – and thanked everyone in attendance for being a part of the process.
Lisa Colligan has been a CAGJ volunteer and organizer for several years. She helped organize Rise Up! Summer School and the third edition of Our Food, Our Right, as well as leading the wonderful Art and Activism series last year. She was also CAGJ’s liaison to Block Corporate Salmon, supporting the campaign against AquaBounty’s GE salmon. With the success of that campaign, she remarked: “Through the people, coalitions, and movement space of CAGJ, I learned to believe in the process of justice.”
In closing, Lisa spoke about how she is inspired by this quote from Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy that Heather uses as her email signature; it was spoken at the 2003 World Social Forum: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” She shared that she has learned that “you don’t see the world you’re creating when you’re deep in the systems of oppression – that have tried to convince us that that’s all there is. But that’s not all there is. You are shifting the soil, you are planting the sapling.”
The final member to speak was Emily Reilly, who was also managing our kitchen for SLEE. After organizing student walkouts at Seattle high schools and Seattle Central College protesting the WTO, Emily was recruited to CAGJ’s very first board, 24 years ago. She reminisced about the early meetings, when organizers were trying to find a name with a good acronym (“which never happened,” she said, laughing), and one that matched the complexity of the work we were doing. Her main take-away was that she appreciated the audacity of those founding members, to envision a small, community-funded organization talking about global trade policy, and how the work since then has continued to be audacious in the most beautiful way.
What is Next for CAGJ
At the dinner Heather mentioned Poison PR, an investigation by Lighthouse (with the involvement of several media outlets) that exposes the US government’s funding of what is basically a corporate spying network in an attempt to undermine critics of the agri-chemical companies. CAGJ, Heather, and several members are profiled in this “private social network”. Do learn more through the links below, and help to share the word!
Finally, Heather mentioned at SLEE that it was her last dinner as CAGJ’s director. We hope you will come to our Interest Meeting at 6:30 on November 19th to learn how to carry on CAGJ’s work for global justice! Learn more about our Volunteer Collective Proposal. RSVP for the Zoom meeting: tinyurl.com/CAGJInterestMeeting
Thank you so much for adding more vital energy and resources to community-led organizing and grassroots responses to the climate crisis. We are grateful to have you by our sides in this work.
Sending joyful SLEE energy your way.
Read more: Lighthouse Reports: Poison PR
Co-publications from this investigation:
The Guardian: Revealed: the US government-funded ‘private social network’ attacking pesticide critics
The New Humanitarian: How the US agrochemical lobby is meddling in the future of Kenyan farming
The Wire: How a US-Based PR Firm Is Profiling Activists, Scientists Opposing Pesticides and GMOs
