CAGJ HAPPENINGS

SAT JULY 29, 11:30AM - 4:30PM

Teach-Out at Mother Earth Farm

We are excited for our summer Teach-Out at Mother Earth Farm in Tacoma!

CAGJ members, volunteers, and supporters are invited to participate in planting, weeding, irrigation, and harvesting on this 8-acre organic farm in Puyallup Valley. Mother Earth Farm is part of the Pierce County Emergency Food Network and distributes 80,000 pounds of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs to food banks and meal sites fresh from harvest. CAGJ’s Food Justice Project organizes Teach-Outs to bring a grounded understanding of how people are reclaiming the food system and rebuilding a local food economy. Join this Teach-Out to learn more about Mother Earth Farm and get your hands in the dirt! RSVP required: Email Simone by July 26 for directions, what to bring, and other details.

Got Green: A Food Security Victory -- and ways to keep up the momentum!

After months of community outreach and organizing, many city council meetings, and lots of work, Got Green's campaign to close the food security gap with the Mayor's proposed sugary beverage tax WON! On June 5, Seattle City Council voted to pass the tax, and Got Green’s advocacy ensured that at least 50 percent of the revenue will enable low-income families and communities of color to access affordable, healthy food. In this way, the communities hit hardest by the tax will benefit the most. An advisory board with community representation was also approved to guide the process.

CAGJ has supported Got Green’s campaign to close the food security gap through the Green-A-Thon, showing up to meetings, giving a solidarity testimony at the hearing, and supporting Got Green's awesome Food Access Team. We are now co-coordinating community outreach to further community awareness and support for the tax. Please join us this summer in door-knocking and flyering at grocery stores and farmer’s markets! To get involved, reach out to Simone.

TUES July 18, 6:30 - 8:30PM

Food Justice Project Meeting in July

New volunteer orientation at 6pm! Please RSVP.

FJP Meetings are a great way to get involved in CAGJ! At this meeting, we will prepare for the Teach Out at Mother Earth Farm and plug into some actions on our solidarity campaigns. Meetings are held 3rd Tuesday/month at CAGJ’s Office in the ID, 606 Maynard Ave. S. Rm 102, Seattle. All are welcome! For more info, email Food Justice Project Co-Chair, Christina.

CAGJ has started producing our first-ever film, about GE Salmon!

In June, we began filming our educational film about Northwest tribal resistance to genetically-engineered salmon, co-produced with Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project and New Canoe Media! The film is funded in part by a grant from Muckleshoot Tribe Charity Fund Grant Program. Check out our 2-page backgrounder on the issue here.

AGRA Watch Conslutations

Our strategic planning process is advancing as we hold video meetings with our partners across Africa to consult on our joint campaigns. We’ve spoken to three of our partners so far, and are looking forward to continuing the consultation process, as we organize our priorities around holding the Gates Foundation accountable for their market-driven agricultural development projects in Africa.

TAKE ACTION

SAT JULY 8 and SUN JULY 9, 10AM - 5PM

Outreach with UFCW 21 to Support Union Grocery Workers!

Union grocery workers with UFCW 21 will be at the Ballard Seafood Fest and Mercer Island Summer Festival sharing information with community members about the campaign to stop the expansion of the aggressively anti-union New Seasons – a Portland-based natural food grocery chain that’s building stores in the Seattle area. New Season’s current sick-leave policy encourages employees to come to work while sick, and one of their investors is the Murdock Charitable Trust that funds extremist right-wing organizations.

UFCW 21 is our Food Chain Workers Solidarity Campaign partner; and CAGJ is part of UFCW 21’s New Seasons campaign coalition. Join us to do outreach at these events about union alternatives and collect petition signatures to tell New Seasons it will have to make some changes if it wants to be welcomed to Seattle. Contact Morgan Currier if you're interested in volunteering.

Tell the USDA: Create a clear and consumer-friendly GMO disclosure standard

The Department of Agriculture is drafting the rules for the first national GMO disclosure system in the U.S. to define GMOs and how their ingredients will be disclosed. Big Food and Big Ag are already pressuring the USDA to create a special loophole for GMO sugars and oils. The USDA needs to hear loudly and clearly from consumers that they won’t stand for Big Food’s anti-consumer antics! Send a letter to the USDA demanding a clear, comprehensive and consumer-friendly GMO labeling standard!

CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS

Familias Unidas por la Justicia Signs Historical Union Contract with Sakuma Bros. Berry Farm

On June 15^th, members of farmworker union Familias Unidas por la Justicia overwhelmingly turned out to cast their ballots on the tentative collective bargaining agreement presented by their negotiations committee. After an overview of the contract, the Mixteco and Triqui hand harvesters voted over 85% in favor of ratifying the tentative agreement. Read more about the victory and a summary of the contract here.

A New Farm Worker Union is Born By David Bacon

“Bob's Burgers and Brew, a hamburger joint at the Cook Road freeway exit on Interstate 5, about two hours north of Seattle, doesn't look like a place where Pacific Northwest farm workers can change their lives, much less make some history. But on June 16, a half-dozen men in work clothes pulled tables together in Bob's outdoor seating area. Danny Weeden, general manager of Sakuma Brothers Farms, then joined them.

After exchanging polite greetings, Weeden opened four folders and handed around copies of a labor contract that had taken 16 sessions of negotiations to hammer out. As the signature pages were passed down the tables, each person signed. Weeden collected his copy and drove off; the workers remained long enough to cheer and take pictures with their fists in the air. Then they too left.

It was a quiet end to four years of strikes and boycotts, in which these workers had organized the first new farm-worker union in the United States in a quarter-century-Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ).” Read the full article about the union win and its history here.

Amazon’s Move on Whole Foods is Primal, More than “Disruptive”

By Wayne Roberts

“A deal that is bad for farmers and farming deserves to be seen as a deal that starts off by violating the public interest and human needs. Perhaps worth a pause for reflection before going headlong down a path of disruption?

The historic reason why farming has such a hard time renewing its workforce is that the income is too low and the stress too high from coping with a situation where individual farmers buy everything retail (at no discount) from a handful of mega-corporations, and then sell everything wholesale (at big discounts) to a handful of corporations.” Read the full article here.

Trump is right to criticize NAFTA—but he’s totally wrong about why it’s bad for America By Jeff Faux, Economic Policy Institute

“Renegotiating NAFTA is… the first real test of Trump’s pledge to create good new jobs by negotiating better trade deals. Will he deliver on this pledge? No. But the reason is not, as the conventional economic wisdom has it, because outsourcing work to low-wage countries is the inevitable result of immutable global forces that no president can reverse. The problem for American workers is not international trade, per se. America has been a trading nation since its beginning. The problem is, rather, the radical new rules for trade imposed by NAFTA—and copied in the myriad trade deals signed by the US ever since—that shifted the benefits of expanding trade to investors and the costs to workers.” Read the full article here.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

SIGN UP NOW: CSA Begins July 15

Clean Greens 2017 CSA and Farm Stand

If you enjoy pesticide-free, locally grown produce and supporting local farmers, support Clean Greens Farm! A small nonprofit owned and operated by Central District residents, Clean Green’s mission is to grow and deliver healthy produce for everyone at reasonable prices through its subscription-based community supported agriculture program (CSA), neighborhood farm stands, and Giveback Program, which offers free boxes of fresh produce to families in need in the community. The list of produce grows each year, with greens, beans, onions, garlic, broccoli, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, beets, watermelon and much more being offered for the 2017 season. CSA'S WILL START BEING DELIVERED JULY 15: Sign up today for your delivery of fresh, organic vegetables from the Clean Greens Farm on the CSA Program page. Check out the farm stand 11:00AM - 3:00 PM at Clean Greens Farm and Market on Saturdays (124 21ST Ave. @ Yesler) and at Harborview Medical Center on Fridays (325 9th Ave).

FRI JULY 7, 2PM - SUN JULY 9, 6PM

Walk to Protect & Restore our Salish Sea

Myrtle Edwards Park, 3130 Alaskan Way, Seattle WA, 98121. Stand in solidarity with Salish Sea tribes to ensure their treaty rights are honored and respected and for other nations to have their unceded territories and natural laws honored and respected. Join the 3-day walk along our Salish Sea in solidarity with the many Nations of our Salish Sea bio-region that are asking all of us to lift them up at this time, to begin our plans of restoration for our beloved Salish Sea bio-region. Hosted by Protectors of The Salish Sea. More details on Facebook.

SUN JULY 9, 6-10PM
Philando Castile, March Against Injustice

Westlake Park, 401 Pine St, Seattle, WA. The Black Freedom Front is calling for allies to protest the killing of Philando Castile and the acquittal of Officer Jeronimo Yanez for his death. Organized by The Black Freedom Front. More info on Facebook.

TUES JULY 11, 7-9PM
Dismantling Racism, a Forum for Southeast Seattle

Rainier Arts Center, 3515 S Alaska St, Seattle WA, 98118. Meet with anti-racists for a free discussion with the Rainier Valley Historical Society, SouthEast Seattle Effective Development (SEED), and South Seattle Emerald. This time, the talk will focus on Seattle's status as a sanctuary city, with guest speaker Joaquin Uy of the City of Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. More info on Facebook.

THURS JULY 13 8PM
The Future Is Feminist Film Festival

Neptune Theatre, 1303 NE 45th st, Seattle, WA. The Future Is Feminist Film Festival, a collaboration of Real Grrls, the Northwest Film Forum, and the NFFTY young filmmakers' festival, boosts young women's moviemaking talents and brings them to a wider audience. See the work of women who are just starting out on their artistic paths. This is part of the Nights at the Neptune series. Get your tickets here.