CAGJ is #SeedingSolidarity

CAGJ 20th Anniversary Appeal

Support CAGJ's Kenyan Partners

CAGJ has had to make a difficult decision these last few days: to cancel our planned trip to Kenya to join the annual meeting of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). We are so disappointed, but decided to heed public health warnings and exercise caution in the face of the new Covid variant, (which is partly the result of the lack of access to vaccines in the Global South, and the need for a TRIPS waiver!). We planned to bring funds to two partners in Kenya, G-BIACK (Grow Biointensive Agriculture Center of Kenya), and Kenya Food Rights Alliance. African NGOs experience a severe dearth of funding, and agroecology-focused organizations in particular are fighting an uphill battle against a corporate-backed industrial agriculture model that is rapidly spreading across the continent, endangering people’s livelihoods. As an organization committed to working in solidarity with our partners, CAGJ will be contributing a solidarity gift of $500--we ask you to consider joining us in making a donation today.

Support CAGJ

Please donate to CAGJ today to celebrate our 20th Anniversary, and to ensure our sustainability moving into the New Year! To celebrate 20 years of global justice organizing, we are asking 20 Members to become Monthly Sustainers at $20/month, or whatever amount you prefer. Sign up today! Or make a one-time donation to help us reach our goal of $20K by the end of 2020. tinyurl.com/FundCAGJ

A few highlights from CAGJ's 2020 Organizing:

The Food Justice Project organized the 3rd Rise Up! Summer School, our political education and leadership development program.
We published both digital and print versions of our 3rd publication, Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for a New Normal, featuring art, stories, and recipes from over 30 contributors – now available to purchase just in time for the holidays! Check out cagj.org/cagjstore/
AGRA Watch co-founded a new collaborative group of organizations that worked with AFSA to strategize in advance of the United Nations Food Systems Summit.
We launched a 5-part film series, Rich Appetites: How Big Philanthropy is Shaping the Future of Food in Africa
We organized several actions with new partners to fight for vaccine justice and a TRIPS waiver at the WTO.

THANK YOU so much for your support!

Heather Day

Executive Director

P.S. We hope you will consider becoming a Monthly Sustainer, or increasing your gift if you’re one already! These members give us peace of mind, as we know we can rely on a steady flow of funds to cover our monthly costs. Sign up today to have an amount securely deducted automatically every month, or increase your monthly donation if you are able. Your support is so appreciated!

P.P.S We understand not everyone is in a position to donate – you can still become a Member or renew by filling out our online Membership form: tinyurl.com/joinCAGJ – Thank you!

SAT DEC 11, 10am-6pm: Get your CAGJ Gifts at Heron's Nest Outdoor Holiday Market

Get your copies of our new book, "Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for a New Normal", Plus Food Justice Apron, Posters, Tshirts, Books

Purchase online: CAGJ's Store

CAGJ is joining the first Annual Heron's Nest Outdoor Holiday Market, in West Seattle, 4818 15th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98106. 30+ Local vendors, Live Music, Food Trucks, Holiday Photo Booth, Pet & Family Portraits, Fire Pits, Activities for all. Dogs Welcome. Bike, walk, roll in to The Herons Nest; Limited on site parking available; Park along Puget Way SW and West Marginal Way.

The Heron’s Nest Landback Project, featuring Outdoor Education and Restorative Justice began in the summer of 2020, when members from the Shared Spaces Foundation—a community nonprofit rooted in the Duwamish River Valley—happened upon a dilapidated parcel for sale near The Duwamish Longhouse. Through discussions with surrounding community organizations, members and tribal services The Heron’s Nest Project developed into an idea towards a shared, brighter future and work began to clean up the land. Shared Spaces is currently leasing the 3.56-acre parcel adjacent to the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center in West Seattle. We are collectively working to repurpose and renovate facilities for community use while raising funds to purchase the land in order to steward and repatriate it to The Duwamish Tribe. Learn more.

SAT Dec 18, 7 - 9PM PST

CAGJ Holiday Party & Open Mic
Back by popular demand: Virtual Open Mic! Share a song, story, reading, joke or favorite poem (only if you wish)
Register to receive the Zoom link

YOU ARE INVITED! Let's relax together, and enjoy each other's company, COVID-style, as we move into the holiday season.
Please join even if you don't plan to share anything, this will be a low-pressure and fun evening, to celebrate a full year, give thanks to CAGJ's amazing members, volunteers and interns, and celebrate our 20th anniversary! Please register, & we will send you the Zoom link: http://tinyurl.com/holidayscagj2021

The Gates Foundation should fund better solutions to hunger and nutrient deficiencies

AGRA Watch Op-Ed in Real Change | By Million Belay, Heather Day, Steve Gloyd
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $922 million investment to address global malnutrition and hunger at the controversial United Nations Food Systems Summit this September. We commend the foundation for investing in nutrition; unfortunately, its focus on food fortification, technical assistance and research into new “high-impact” innovations misses the mark on the root causes of hunger and malnutrition — and the needed solutions. Continue reading.

TAKE ACTION

Flood and Holiday Support for WA Farmworkers

Calls to Action from CAGJ Solidarity Campaign Partners
Community 2 Community Needs Volunteers in Whatcom County!
Help Farmworkers Recover From Recent Flooding
To offer your support, please follow this link: tinyurl.com/whatcomfloodrelief
To donate to C2C’s solidarity fund, foodjustice.org/donate-1
The following is especially helpful:

Post-flood or disaster cleanup experience
Spanish speaking skills
Access to a truck

Familias Unidas por la Justicia Toy Drive

Drop Toys by DEC 12, or Donate
From FUJ: We at Familias Unidas will be collecting toys for the children of the farmworker families here in Skagit County. It’s been a difficult time now for families because many were impacted by the floods. We want to bring some joy to the kids by giving them a present. We will be distributing them at the annual winter union celebration which is scheduled for December 12. Last year because of COVID we could not gather and members picked up the toys at our office. This year we want to gather in a responsible manner and thank the workers and plan for a successful 2022. We want to thank everyone who has supported us throughout the years and want to continue building to achieve farmworker justice.

Please drop toys off at FUJ office in Burlington, WA: 275 W. Rio Vista Ave Suite 3, Burlington, WA 98233, Monday through Saturday 10am-5pm. You can also make donations through Paypal.

Sign Petition by FRI DEC 3: Help Stop the FAO-CropLife #ToxicAlliance!

Pesticide Action Network: Final push for signatories & toolkit
Sign and Share the Petition: https://bit.ly/notoxicalliance

On December 3, anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy and commemorated as the World No Pesticides Use Day, PAN will be submitting to the FAO Director General’s office their global petition to Stop the FAO-CropLife #ToxicAlliance. So far, they gathered around 175,000 signatures asking the FAO to NOT partner with the pesticide industry!

Join the FINAL PUSH for signatories! Share the petition widely! Social Media Toolkit here.

Stand with India's Farmers!

Join the Organizational Sign-On Letter
Sign the statement on behalf of your organization
Organizations are invited to sign a solidarity statement in support of the brave and historic protests in India from farmers, and other agroecology, farm and food justice networks in the U.S.
November 24, 2021 Addendum: It has been almost nine months since we circulated this letter, and on November 26, 2021, it will be one year since the farmers' protests began. The prime minister of India announced one week ago that he has decided to repeal the three controversial farm laws. But the farmers have pointed out that the repeal of the three laws will meet just one of several demands made by the farmers’ unions. They have reiterated three other long standing demands. The most prominent among their other demands being legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price for all crops and for all farmers. This solidarity letter from the U.S. organizations still stands the test of time, and so we are keeping it open for additional signatures at this first anniversary of the historic Indian farmers’ protests.

Further Resources:

CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS

India's historic farmers strike scores a win against Modi government on its one-year anniversary

By Shiney Varghese, Institue for Agriculture & Trade Policy

November 24, 2021 - India’s farmers have mobilized to create one of the world’s most vibrant protests in history, camping on the outskirts of New Delhi for one year now. Friday, November 26, 2021, marks the one-year anniversary of the day when these farmers faced water cannons and tear gas at the Delhi border as they tried to reach the Capital. On November 19, they got a big win, as Mr. Modi, the prime minister of India, announced that he has decided to repeal the three controversial farm laws. Continue reading.

Podcast: Crash #COP26 Hosted by Edgar Franks & Jill Mangaliman

Local to Global Conversations about Climate Justice at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference
Climate Justice can’t wait, and at the 2021 United Nations Conference on Climate Change – COP26 – thousands of frontline people and community delegations from around the world came together in unity to hold parallel workshops and discussions outside of the exclusive multilateral governmental and corporate talks. Front and Centered member organization, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, sent Edgar Franks as part of an international worker delegation for a series of Just Transition actions, sharing the insights of U.S. farm worker organizing, lending his voice, and engaging in international planning with other frontline groups. Climate Justice reporter, human rights activist, and board member of Front and Centered, Jill Mangaliman pairs up with their compadre Edgar to host this climate conversation series, when we Crash #COP26! Continue reading and listen to the podcast here.

Documents Show Bill Gates Has Given $319 Million to Media Outlets

By Alan Macleod
Up until his recent messy divorce, Bill Gates enjoyed something of a free pass in corporate media. Generally presented as a kindly nerd who wants to save the world, the Microsoft co-founder was even unironically christened “Saint Bill” by The Guardian. While other billionaires’ media empires are relatively well known, the extent to which Gates’s cash underwrites the modern media landscape is not. After sorting through over 30,000 individual grants, MintPress can reveal that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has made over $300 million worth of donations to fund media projects. Continue reading.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

SAT December 4, 10AM - 12PM Pacific Time
Barriers to Revitalizing Pacific Northwest Traditional Food Cultures
Join an online seminar featuring a presentation on the Barriers to Revitalizing Pacific Northwest Traditional Food Cultures followed by a quick cooking demonstration that will incorporate some common traditional ingredients. Native Environmental Scientist, Linzie Crofoot (Tlingit Nation/Colville) will present a history of the traditional PNW Coast Salish diet and discuss the events that led to the health ramification of Native peoples from being separated from their traditional foods. The presentation will also highlight the barriers that Native Peoples face today accessing their traditional foods and revitalizing their food cultures. Share the Facebook Event. This free online Zoom seminar is open to all tribal and community members. Join us at the following Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84306628955
Passcode: 120326

SAT December 4, 4 - 5:30PM Pacific Time
For the People: Bloom Winter Fundraiser
FTP invites you to a season of generation and renewal with Bloom, our winter fundraiser on Saturday, December 4 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. online via Zoom meeting. Hear from our organizers on all their wins over the last year, and as community members you'll have the opportunity to creatively connect with each other as well as our organizers. Tickets for the event are on a sliding scale. Please choose tickets at a level that is comfortable for you. You may purchase additional tickets at any level for your guests. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Contact [email protected] if you have questions. Your ticket will include your registration for this online event. We'll register you for the Zoom meeting as the event draws nearer. More information and registration here.

MON December 6, 7 - 8:30AM Pacific Time
The Politics of Knowledge: Evidence for the Future of Food
This webinar event will mark the launch of The Politics of Knowledge: Understanding the Evidence for Agroecology, Regenerative Approaches, and Indigenous Foodways — a new compendium tackling the dominant questions about evidence that are holding back food systems transformation. Authors unpack the narratives and legacies that unpin these questions and explore the many ways funders, researchers, and policymakers can take transformative action. Bringing together diverse speakers and an audience of funders, policymakers, as well as researchers and advocates, the event will both challenge attendees’ existing ideas and assumptions about evidence and decision making, whilst offering a space for rich dialogue and engagement about the future of food. See more information and register here.

THURS December 9, 1PM Pacific Time
Education in the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), Puerto Rico and the United States
Learn how the MST and other social movements have applied the pedagogy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire to their movements and reality Rubneuza Leandro de Souza - MST activist, coordinator of the MST education sector, Agrarian Reform settler, master’s degree in Educatio;n Justo Mendez - Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica de Puerto Rico, CLOC-LVC, Puerto Rico; Stephanie Weatherbee - Popular Education Project. Moderators: Rebecca Tarlau - member, national coordination of the Friends of the MST and author of Occupying Schools, Occupying Land and David Meek - member, national coordination of the Friends of the MST and author of The Political Ecology of Education. Register to receive the Zoom link.

Thank you for reading CAGJ's e-newsletter!

Forward this E-mail | Unsubscribe | View E-mail in a Browser

CAGJ is funded by the community - Become a Member today!