Many of you will will receive our end of year letter in the mail this week. If not, here is what you missed! Thank you for donating generously to CAGJ during this giving season, to help us continue to build the global food sovereignty movement!
Dear Friend of CAGJ,
“People! Power! We are the Women, No Women, No Food!” We just returned from the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa meetings in Senegal, and can’t stop chanting the slogans of the rural women, small-scale farmers and fishers, and movement organizers with whom we had the privilege to strategize. We were also in Kenya, where we met with our long-time partners and youth, activists, and agroecologists. All of the powerful stories we documented will propel our efforts moving forward to shift narratives around the solutions to hunger and the future of agriculture. We can’t wait to get deep into the next phases of AGRA Watch’s campaign development with what we learned and the connections we made. Thank you for helping us make this important trip!
We’re proud to report that CAGJ’s capacity grew this fall with Heather going to fulltime after successfully making it through her breast cancer treatment! It was an enormous feat to keep up our organizing throughout the process, and we couldn’t have done it without this community. That’s because CAGJ understands that building movements to win takes organizing at every level, from the personal to global. Check out some of what we were able to accomplish in 2018, thanks to your support!
Locally: Rise Up! Summer School We launched an exciting 3-month program over the summer with over 20 people committed to political education centered on an anti-oppression analysis. We dove into CAGJ’s food sovereignty campaigns and took field trips to contextualize the history and current struggles. Summer School impacted people on a personal level, bringing new members and leaders into CAGJ.
RiseUp! Summer School Visits Tierra y Libertad Cooperative Farm
Regionally: PNW People’s Agroecology Encounter How will agroecology be advanced in the Pacific Northwest? This question guided the first agroecology encounter in our region, which we co-organized with our friends Community to Community in Bellingham, Hilltop Urban Gardens in Tacoma, and Got Green here in Seattle.
PNW Agroecology Encounter, hosted by C2C, Bellingham, WA
Nationally: US Food Sovereignty Alliance National Assembly Over 200 people from across the US – plus international allies – came to Bellingham in October for USFSA’s fourth National Assembly. CAGJ held down the logistics and facilitated parts of the gathering. We’re excited the Youth Process, which Simone helped launch this year, was officially approved, and we look forward to bringing our members into the new collectives formed to advance food sovereignty on the national level.
March to Bellingham City Hall during USFSA National Assembly
Globally: Strengthening Solidarity with African Food Sovereignty Movement AGRA Watch was approved as an Associate Member of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa! This huge honor drives us to strengthen our international organizing against the Gates Foundation’s agricultural investments. We will continue our community education efforts, building off the success of Who Profits from Philanthropy?, our event to raise awareness of philanthrocapitalism and social justice-oriented alternatives.
People Power! Participants of the 2nd African Food Systems Conference
As you can see, 2018 was a very full year of CAGJ pouring our hearts into our community through organizing these programs, events, and gatherings with our movement friends and comrades. With nearly all our funding coming from individual donors, we need your support to continue this work.
We have exciting plans for 2019!
- Strategic planning: Building on our racial justice-focused leadership development in 2018, we are prioritizing strategic assessment across the organization. We will reflect on our work over the past 18 years; collect feedback from partners, allies, and our members; and assess CAGJ’s role in the food sovereignty movement so we can strategize for the years to come.
- Town Hall Film Screening and Discussion on Native Food Sovereignty: Save the date! TUES April 9 Town Hall Seattle is screening our short film Salmon People, and we will hear from Valerie Segrest with Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project and Fawn Sharp, President of Quinault Nation, on Northwest tribes’ priorities in advancing the fight to protect wild salmon.
- 20 Year Anniversary of WTO Protests: We have reserved Town Hall SAT Nov. 30 to mark the people’s victory and shut-down of the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle! Join us to plan this day-long event to learn from our history and build today’s movements for global justice.
CAGJ is Solidarity in Action: We mobilize people to engage in frontline-led campaigns locally, regionally, across the US, and internationally, while providing political education and leadership development to show up with a strong analysis and commitment to food justice and food sovereignty.
Work on this many scales with only two staff is only possible because of People Power! We are so grateful to our members who donate their time and money. We fight for Food Sovereignty to have hope for a brighter future: Your generous year-end support will ensure that CAGJ can continue to take on some of the biggest challenges of our time.
Thank you for your dedication to building a better world!
In solidarity,
Heather Day and Simone Adler
P.S. We can go further with sustained funding in 2019! Please consider donating monthly as a Sustaining Member: To ensure our monthly income meets CAGJ’s needs, our goal is to sign up 18 new sustainers by the end of 2018. To show our gratitude, all new Monthly Sustainers will receive a beautiful T-shirt designed by artist Heather Elder, or our poster with art-work by Nikki McClure.
