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 CAGJ Monthly E-Newsletter | Feburary 7, 2019

February E-News:
CAGJ has a new office on Beacon Hill!
 
CAGJ HAPPENINGS
2/19 FJP Mtg and New Green Deal
 
4/9  "Salmon People" Film Screening at Langston Hughes
CAGJ is Hiring Organizer for 7/13 SLEE Dinner
11/30: 20th WTO Anniversary at Town Hall
 
TAKE ACTION
Stop Selling Roundup: Thanks Costco!
 
CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS
 
NFFC Board Meeting Report
Bt Cotton Entering Kenya?
USDA Labeling Rules
Gene Drive Resources
 
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
Local events

 

Get Involved! Upcoming CAGJ Meetings:

Food Justice Project:
3rd Tues/month, 6:30 - 8:30; for more info email us.
 
AGRA Watch:

time varies, for more info email us


Contact us with any questions!
 

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Blogs
CAGJ's blog
AGRA Watch's Blog

Listservs
Sign up here for Food Justice Project Listserv
Sign up here for AGRA Watch Listserv
 
Please support the food producers who support CAGJ & SLEE!
Alvarez Farm, Alter Eco, Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, City Fruit, Clean Greens Farm and Market, Eleven Winery, Equal Exchange, Georgetown Brewing Company, Growing Washington, Kamayan Farm, Kirsop Farm, Local Roots Farm, Loki Fish Co., Mac and Jacks, Madres Kitchen, Mair Farm-Tami, Martin Family Orchards, Metropolitan Grill, Nash’s Organic Produce, One Leaf Farm, Organically Grown Company, Pok Pok Som, River Run Farm, Rockridge Orchards and Cidery, Steel Wheel Farm, Tall Grass Bakery, That Brown Girl Cooks, Tonnemaker Hill Farm
CAGJ has an error in not sending this out on the intended date! Please enjoy, and look forward to our March Enewsletter next week.
 
CAGJ has moved to Beacon Hill
Come see us in our new office!

We are thrilled to have found a beautiful new office on Beacon Hill, just north of the Lightrail station (1322 S Bayview Street, Seattle, WA 98144). We have been warmly welcomed by Welcome Table Church, a congregation with a long history in South Seattle. They recently built an eco-friendly building, with many garden beds and meeting spaces, including a beautiful sanctuary. We are so grateful! We will hold an open house soon, but feel free to stop by any time!

 

 

CAGJ HAPPENINGS

TUES FEB 19, 6:30 - 8:30PM

Monthly Food Justice Project Meeting & Green New Deal Discussion

What is the Green New Deal? 

As the threat of climate change becomes a reality and as economic inequality continues to rise in the United States, are there ways we can work within our current system to fight these injustices? The Green New Deal is an economic stimulus program that seeks to do just that, and is based off of FDR's New Deal that is credited for kickstarting our economy after the Great Depression. For a Green New Deal to truly shift us towards a more equitable and environmentally just future, what must it entail? What conversations are taking center stage, and do they address the systemic and foundational structures of oppression that our current economy perpetuates? Join us to discuss these questions and more. 

 

Participants are encouraged to read the following pieces to have some background, but all are welcome, regardless of your knowledge of this topic:

FJP Meetings are a great way to get involved in CAGJ, and are held the 3rd Tuesday/month. New volunteers are invited to our orientation at 6pm: Please RSVP. POTLUCK: Please bring food or drink to share, if you are able. All are welcome! Location: 412 Maynard Ave S. Seattle, at Homestead Community Land Trust office. For more info, email the Food Justice Project.

 

TUES APRIL 9th, 7-9PM Town Hall Seattle and CAGJ present

Salmon People: NW Native Opposition to Genetically Engineered Fish

What are the risks from genetically engineered fish to the people and environments of the Pacific Northwest? We tackled this question head-on with our short film Salmon People. Now Town Hall joins forces with CAGJ to screen this powerful new film and call together a panel of indigenous and advocacy perspectives—all key activists working on Northwest Native food security and justice in the Pacific Northwest. Sit in to hear from the voices across the Pacific Northwest who are speaking out about the risks of genetically engineered fish.


Speakers:

Valerie Segrest, Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project

Fawn Sharp, President of the Quinault Indian Nation

George Kimbrell, Legal Director, Center for Food Safety

Alan Stay, Office of the Tribal Attorney, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe

 

Location: Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Ave S. Tickets $5: Purchase online and at the door.

 

SLEE Dinner SAT JULY 13, 2019

CAGJ is Hiring! 2019 SLEE Dinner Organizer

The 13th annual SLEE Dinner will take place SAT July 13 – save the date! We are excited to return to St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in the Montlake neighborhood. We are currently seeking our SLEE Dinner organizer, who will co-coordinate the event with CAGJ Director Heather Day, working ten hours/week March 1 – Sept 1. More information on our website. Deadline for applications is 5pm, WED February 13. Contact us if you would like to get event-planning, grassroots fundraising, auction procurement and/or volunteer coordination experience, either as a volunteer, or intern.

 

SAT NOV 30, 2019

Save the Date! 20th Anniversary of WTO Protests

We are excited that Town Hall Seattle has agreed to co-produce a day-long event on SAT Nov 30, the 20th anniversary of the people’s victory and shut-down of the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle! Contact us to get involved in planning the event, where we aim to learn from our history and build today’s movements for global justice.

 


TAKE ACTION

Stop Selling Cancer-Causing RoundUp! Call Home Depot and Lowe's, Thank Costco
After Moms Across America generated over 85,000 petition signatures, and calls, Costco recently confirmed that it has ceased selling Roundup (and all glyphosate herbicides), due to its carcinogenic effects and lack of labeling.This is great news! They will also increase the number of organic products. Now we must pressure Lowe’s and Home Depot to follow in Costco’s lead. According to one source, Costco was influenced by the recent legal victory of Dewayne "Lee" Johnson, a 46-year-old grounds keeper and father of three young boys, who sued Monsanto for causing his Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer because the glyphosate products he used at work carried no cancer warning label. “By the end of the year, over 10,000 people are also expected to sue Monsanto for the same kinds of exposures that Lee Johnson experienced using glyphosate-based products.  There are many safe, non-toxic alternatives on the market today. There is no need to sell a known carcinogen.”

 

Please take action:

1. Sign the petition to Costco, Lowe's & Home Depot: Help reach the goal of 150,000 signers!

 

2. Call & tweet Seattle-based Costco to thank them: Walter Craig Jelinek, CEO, Costco Tel: 800-774-2678, ext  6,  or 425-313-8163 (425) 313-8100. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @CostcoTweets

 

3. Call & tweet Home Depot and Lowe’s:

Craig Menear, Chairman and CEO of Home Depot 800-466-3337 ext 7, 5 (customer care). Email [email protected] Twitter: @HomeDepot

 

Marvin Ellison, President and CEO of Lowe’s 704-758-1000, ext 3. Email [email protected]  Twitter: @Lowes

 

Thank you!


CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS

Farmers and Advocates Gather in DC in Midst of US Farm Crisis: Report on National Family Farm Coalition Annual Board Meeting By Heather Day, CAGJ's Director
This past week-end I had the honor of traveling to DC to participate in the annual board meeting of the National Family Farm Coalition. CAGJ has been a member of NFFC since 2010, and participated in the meeting two years ago which came on the heels of the untimely death of Kathy Ozer, NFFC’s longtime leader. At that gathering, we grieved the loss of Kathy, and started laying the groundwork for the future of the organization without her. It has been challenging, but staff and dedicated members developed a new strategic plan, with an updated mission, vision and guiding principles to guide the work going forward. Guided by the excellent facilitation of Jeremy Phillips, participants of this year’s meeting approved the plan, and worked on developing specific strategies for each of the 4 goals. We discussed how to expand the Coalition, particularly with the goal of reaching our principle of increased equity and diversity, and I hope to reach out to WA farmer groups later this year about becoming members. A real sense of urgency pervaded the meeting, given the crisis facing many farmers, especially but not only those in the dairy sector. The supply management system, as practiced by Canada’s dairy industry for the past several decades, was discussed as a model that could provide a much-needed fix for the volatile markets and lack of fair prices causing many farmers to go out of business. We also had the opportunity to meet NFFC’s new DC-based Policy Coordinator, Jordan Treakle, who comes to the job after seven years at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, and previous work with RAFI-USA. Lisa Griffith remains as NFFC’s National Program Director, Siena Chrisman acts as part-time Communications staff, and Cynthia Bush is the finance and operations coordinator for both NFFC and NAMA under the new shared leadership model while Niaz Dorry acts as ED for both NAMA and NFFC. In addition, leaders from Rural Coalition, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Food and Water Watch briefed us on the 2018 Farm Bill and NAFTA 2.0 negotiations as well as other issues such as industrial aquaculture, and many members met with their Congressional Representatives on Tuesday. I always gain energy from the comradery of old friends, and greatly enjoyed making new friends as well. We look forward to participating in future meetings. Stay tuned for the location and dates of the summer meeting soon.
 
Bt Cotton No Aid to Textiles Sector but a Trapdoor for Unsafe Food
In this article Anne Maina, national coordinator of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBioC), sounds the alarm about the introduction of Bt cotton in Kenya. (CAGJ leaders met with Anne and KBioC when they visited Kenya in 2009, and again in Senegal this past November.) Over the past few months, the Kenyan government has been pushing farmers to plant Bt cotton seeds, starting next year. Proponents of Bt cotton are promoting the seed for use in textiles only; however precedent shows that only 40% is likely to be used in textiles, and the remaining 60% will end up as cottonseed oil in the food chain for human consumption. Studies in France have shown that Bt cotton does not integrate well into the environment, and it has been found in the water supply as much as 30 years later. Bt cotton is being promoted to revive the cotton industry in Kenya. Multinational corporations claim that poor quality conventional seeds led to the collapse of the industry. However, the cotton sector collapsed in the 1980s because of mismanagement of the cotton ginneries, leading farmers to not get paid for their cotton, not because of the conventional seeds they used. In 2008, Bt cotton seeds were introduced in Burkina Faso, yet local small-scale farmers claimed that the shorter fibers were of lower quality and 37 times more expensive than conventional seeds. Bt cotton seeds require huge amounts of water to irrigate the fields, and may also lead to increased pesticide use to kill secondary pests. According to Maina, if Bt cotton is accepted in Kenya, it is only a matter of time until genetically-modified maize and soya enter the food system as well. Multinational corporations will benefit the most, and Kenyans, along with other Africans, will continue to depend on subsidies. Maina declares, “there are better, safer and sustainable solutions to food insecurity and revival of the textile industry.”  

 

Long-awaited Final Regulations for GMO Food Labeling Leaves Millions of Americans in the Dark

As 2018 wrapped up, the US Dept. of Agriculture under the Trump Administration released the final regulations for mandatory labeling of genetically-engineered foods (GE or GMO), which it calls “bioengineered foods.” As stated in a press release from Center for Food Safety, these long-awaited regulations “leave the majority of GMO derived foods unlabeled; discriminate against more than 100 million Americans, and prohibit the use of the widely known terms ‘GMO’ and ‘GE.’” "The USDA has betrayed the public trust by denying Americans the right to know how their food is produced," stated Andrew Kimbrell, executive director at Center for Food Safety. "Instead of providing clarity and transparency, they have created large scale confusion and uncertainty for consumers, food producers, and retailers." Read the full press release here.

 
Resources on Gene Drive Technology

Last month, CAGJ’s AGRA Watch Campaign and Food Justice Project teamed up to discuss gene drive technology and its implications on our food systems. Some of our questions included: “What arguments have been made about the threats gene drives pose to biodiversity, ecosystems, and human health? How would this affect our food system?” “Why are rural people, peasant farmers and indigenous peoples among those most immediately impacted by potential gene drive organisms?” “Knowing that the Gates Foundation has invested over $70 million into Target Malaria project alone, what ideas do you have for CAGJ/AGRA Watch to take action?” We’ve created a list of resources now available on our website to continue learning about gene drive technology. Please send us more resources!

 


COMMUNITY CALENDAR

 

SAT, Feb 9, 1-5pm

Solidarity City: The 1919 General Strike and 100 Years of Worker Power

Join us for the Labor Archives of Washington annual event!

Speakers include: UW History Professor James Gregory, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the MLK Jr. County Labor Council Nicole Grant, historian and author Dana Frank, historian and author Cal Winslow, activist and author Jonathan Rosenblum. Learn more here.

 
Ongoing through FEB 23rd
Sanctuary: Design for Belonging
The Center for Architecture and Design is holding an exhibit on resistance to anti-immigration laws. Aiming to raise awareness of the 60 million people who have been pushed out of their homes. It is an interactive exhibit with multi-media signs and structures presenting solutions to the global refugee crisis. For more info.

 

SAT, March 30, 12-3pm

Farm Share Fair

Meet local farmers, learn about Community Supported Agriculture boxes (meal kit/online delivery program). A CSA share "share allows customers to enjoy the benefits of convenience and eating well while supporting local farms. CSA programs also let you skip the middle man and forgo busy box stores, all while ditching plastic packaging and creating less waste with food that was grown minutes from your dining room table." Learn more here.

 

MON, April 8, 7:30pm

Hedrick Smith FILM: Winning Back Our Democracy

Join us for a film screening of Winning Back Our Democracy. "The great under-told story of American politics today is the wave of citizen movements winning back our democracy with political reforms at the state level. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith... outlines the ways in which large majorities of Americans are unsatisfied with our nation’s electoral process—from elections dominated by corporations and billionaires to gerrymandering and voter suppression." Learn more here

 

FRI, April 26, 7:30pm

Nathaniel Rich, "Losing Earth - A Recent History"

Join us for a talk with Nathaniel Rich, author of the 2018 NYT Magazine article about the "decade we could have saved the earth", 1979-1989. Nathaniel Rich "takes the stage with a chronicle of the lives of the people who grappled with the great existential threat of our age. Rich reveals, in previously unreported detail, the birth of climate denialism and the genesis of the fossil fuel industry’s coordinated effort to thwart climate policy through misinformation propaganda and political influence." Learn more here.

 

 
 

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Community Alliance for Global Justice
1322 S Bayview St, Ste 300
Seattle, WA 98144