Photo of the 2018 SLEE Dinner Action
Read our 2018 Annual Report!
April 5, 2019
Dear CAGJ supporters,
This Membership Month, we are kicking off an exciting moment of growth for CAGJ: engaging our membership base (that’s you!) in a strategic assessment and planning process! As we plan for the next phase of CAGJ, we ask you to pledge your money or time, which makes our organizing for food sovereignty possible. Thanks to UFCW 21 and generous members, up to $5000 will be matched through Give Big on May 8th, so please donate today to double your gift and sustain our work!
What were you up to in 1999? If you’re of Simone’s generation, you may have been in grade school, relishing the release of Destiny Child’s second album. If you were in Seattle, maybe you joined Heather and tens of thousands of others in the streets, or remember the mass protest against the World Trade Organization, an historic moment for social movements that catalyzed organizing for trade justice on a local level, and led to CAGJ’s founding in 2001. Now CAGJ is 18 years old, and this Fall Seattle will mark the 20th anniversary of our people’s uprising that permanently damaged the WTO’s neoliberal agenda.
So what’s ahead? CAGJ is about grassroots organizing at the intersection of local food justice and global food sovereignty. Climate justice – which addresses the root causes of climate change and centers the solutions of communities experiencing the worst impacts of climate disasters – is essential to a sustainable food system.
- Climate Justice for Agroecology & Food Sovereignty: This month Cyclone Idai devastated Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, and the Midwest is facing disastrous floods. Agroecological farming practices build resilience to climate change and a path toward democratic food systems. CAGJ is highlighting how food sovereignty is central to climate justice through Doria Robinson’s keynote at our July 13 SLEE Dinner, and our work to center agroecology and food sovereignty as the way forward.
- Building Locally for a Just Transition: We are continuing to support our local partners resisting big tech in our city and food systems, from Got Green’s organizing against the displacement of South Seattle residents, to Native communities opposing GE salmon. With the Green New Deal under the spotlight, we are expanding our vision around local economies and working with our Fair Trade partners to reject NAFTA 2.0. CAGJ is linking up with the Just Transition framework – a shift toward an equitable, ecologically sustainable, and decentralized economy that works for everyone.
- Solidarity Organizing with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa: As new members of AFSA, AGRA Watch is excited to support their Agroecology for Climate Action campaign, launched last month in Ghana. We are plugging into the long-term work to shift narratives by contributing much-needed research of the Gates Foundation-funded Cornell Alliance for Science which is dangerously and falsely using the name of “science” to promote corporate agribusiness in Africa.
Will you support this emerging chapter of CAGJ? If CAGJ has been your organizing home for the past 18 years, or has been important to your activism recently, please consider becoming a Sustaining Member to give on a monthly basis, or increasing your monthly pledge.
Membership Month helps us ensure our long-term commitment to the movement is actionable. If you can’t donate funds at this time, but can pledge your money and/or time to organize with us this year, sign up to become a Member!
In solidarity,
Heather Day, Executive Director Simone Adler, Organizing Director
P.S. You can expect us to reach out to you for your feedback on our strategic assessment and planning process – stay tuned for our survey and ways to be involved!
