CAGJ Monthly E-Newsletter | January 5, 2021
|
|
|
CAGJ Monthly E-Newsletter | January 5, 2021
|
|
JAN E-News
Happy New Year
CAGJ HAPPENINGS
TAKE ACTION
CAGJ NEWS &
ANALYSIS
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
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
Social Media
Blogs CAGJ's blog AGRA Watch's Blog Listservs |
 THANK YOU for your support in 2020!Wishing All a Brighter 2021
Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe how both fast and slow these past twelve months have gone. It has been a year of pain and hardship. We mourn the many lives lost, welcome the exposure of entrenched injustices, and hold great hope that perhaps these wounds that abound may be on a path towards healing. It has been a year of change, and it’s high time for disruption.
The struggle for food sovereignty is more relevant now than ever, and the work continues. We couldn’t have made it this far without all of you— your time, your voices, and your generous donations make our work at CAGJ possible. So much appreciation to our members old and new, our community of dedicated interns and volunteers, and those who’ve contributed financially to bring us forward another year—into our 20th anniversary, at that! Our end of yeear campaign made great strides towards our ambitious goal of $20K and 20 new Sustainers, with $12,000 in new donations, plus 3 new and 11 renewed Sustainers donating over $3000 in the year to come. We feel confident moving into our 20th year that we will soon hire a new full-time organizer. In the meantime, this winter our Director Heather Day will have the able support of 3 part-time organizers: Sara Lavenhar, Noël Hutton and Momo Wilms-Crowe. It is always a good time to support CAGJ: Donate today! In the quest for light within disaster, may we simmer on this insight from activist Valarie Kaur: “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?”
CAGJ HAPPENINGS  We want to see, hear, and feel your reflections on 2020! The *first* deadline (concept ideas and drafts) for submitting to our digital zine is fast-approaching! Please check out our CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS (EN ESPAÑOL), we are eager to receive your submissions of all creative varieties! Maybe that poem you wrote about how quarantine made you fall in love with your garden starts? That recipe for soup you shared with your neighbor? That comic you wrote about quarantine anxiety and sourdough starter? That interview you did with your mom about how this year has changed her perspective? Whatever it might be...and whatever stage it might be in...consider sending it our way!"Recipes for a New Normal" ZINE Project Meeting
Zoom! Registration required to receive the Zoom link; register here.
Be part of the process! Inspired by our conversations throughout our Rise Up! Summer School sessions, and the importance of capturing all that has grown from the turbulence of this past spring and summer, we had the idea to begin working on the third edition of CAGJ’s publication, Our Food, Our Right: Recipes for Food Justice, which will combine stories, resources, art, reflections, and yes, recipes, that combine hands-on tools for change with political education and personal narratives, centered around all that has been revealed in 2020. If that sounds like something you are interested in being involved with in any capacity, please fill out this quick interest form, email [email protected] and join us for our next planning meeting! We need artists, visionaries, editors, writers, creatives, activists, graphic designers, and everyone in between. Note: The organizing collective will meet regularly the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30PST.
Monthly Food Justice Project Meeting: Rituals for Renewal
Orientation for new Members at 6pm: RSVP
This month we will be building on our last meeting to facilitate a mini Zine making workshop. We will use the notion of our seeds, weeds, and fruits from this past year to inspire us and share with one another our ruminations turned Zine! If you were unable to attend December’s meeting, we still encourage you to join us and will provide all of the necessary information to fully take part in the activity. Please have whatever paper, pens, markers, stickers, glitter, and whatever else you want to go into your Zine ready to go for our meeting. We are excited to see what everyone comes up with for this creative and energizing meeting. To a joyful and regenerative 2021! As always, new volunteers are invited to our orientation via ZOOM at 6pm: Please email us to let us know you're attending the orientation. All are welcome! For more info, email the Food Justice Project. 
La Via Campesina recently published a position paper criticizing the current trajectory of the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS21) set to convene in fall 2021 while emphasizing the importance of creating a holistic, fair conversation around global food systems. Keep reading.
TAKE ACTION Help us reach goal of 100 letters to Compass and Aramark to publicly reject GE Samon!
AquaBounty Technologies Inc. was aiming to release its first harvest of AquaAdvantage genetically engineered (G.E.) salmon into the U.S. food market by the end of 2020. In solidarity with Northwest tribes opposed to genetically engineered salmon, CAGJ asks our members and supporters to pressure food service giants Compass Group and Aramark to urge them to strengthen their commitments by rejecting opposing G.E. salmon.
From what we know, AquaBounty started selling unlabeled G.E. salmon to food service companies and restaurants in Canada in 2017, setting a dangerous precedent. This is why we are asking U.S. food servicers to make a strong commitment to not source G.E. salmon.
Please take 3 minutes to send two pre-filled emails urging Aramark and Compass to strengthen their commitments to publicly reject G.E. salmon. All you need to do is insert your name, email, and alter the body text slightly (so your email isn't sent to spam). We need as many letters as possible - let these companies know that you don't want G.E. salmon on your plates! Links to letters:
Other ways to support:
CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS Diverse Coalition Calls for Systemic Policy Changes to Ensure Equity Across Our Food System
After longtime inequities in the farm and food system surfaced through an exceptionally harsh 2020, a diverse coalition of critical thinkers offers recommendations for policy solutions based in parity: racial justice; the equitable access to and control of land, seeds, and other resources; fair producer prices and living worker wages; and a secure, resilient food system to achieve social peace. This advisory describes the Disparity to Parity Project, which collaborators hope will inform the new administration and incoming Congress, and inspire everyone working for food, farm, land, racial, economic, and environmental justice. #Disparity2Parity #LandJustice #LivingWages #FairPrices #SocialPeace
Campaign Videos: The project also describes the need for parity in farmers’ own voices through a series of powerful videos produced by ActionAid USA and NFFC. Two videos were released:
Read the full press release on our blog, and please share widely!
An interview with Valerie Segrest
CAGJ’s solidarity campaign in opposition to GE salmon was initiated in partnership with Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot), Native foods nutritionist and the Regional Director of Native Food and Knowledge Systems for the Native American Agriculture Fund. Learn more from Valerie about what is at stake with the imminent release of GE salmon into U.S. markets, with an interview by Yolimar Rivera Vázquez of Ecotrust (who was also part of 2020’s Rise Up! Summer School cohort!). Read the full interview here.
A Vision For Native Food and Agriculture Infrastructure Rebuilding and Recovery
The Native American food and agriculture sector is the single most under appreciated resource for sustainable, rural and regional economic development in our Nation. The missing link is infrastructure. See the full report, with contributions from Valerie Segrest.
Featured in The Journal of Peasant Studies, by Maywa Montenegro
COVID-19 has exposed racialized vulnerabilities in the dominant agrifood system and granted opportunities to build anew. In this paper, I explore a series of breakdowns, from pandemic ecologies to uncontrolled infection among meatpacking workers. Agroecology has the potential to heal manifold metabolic rifts through which these problems arise. Ecologically, it offers biodiversity-based agriculture to maintain landscape complexity and buffer viral spillovers. Socially, intentional work is needed to center racism in the original accumulations through which metabolic rifts emerge. Specifically, agroecologists can mobilize lessons from abolition, a strategy premised on dismantling exploitative systems through growing relationships and institutions that affirm life. Read the full article.
Decades of failed ‘free trade’ deals must end. Instead, let’s manage globalization to raise wages, create jobs, and protect the environment By Hillary Haden Washington Fair Trade Coalition
(Dec. 3, 2020) — Everyone we know is “for” trade. We can’t remember ever meeting anyone who is “against” trade. This simplistic view of globalization — that everyone is either for or against trade — brought grief to millions of workers and families in America. Thomas Friedman wrote several popular books on globalization. He once said that he didn’t need to read CAFTA — the free trade agreement for Central American countries. The title of the document said “Free Trade.” That was all he needed to know. Continue reading at The Stand.
THURS JAN 7 - WED JAN 13, 2021
Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) Global 2021
ORFC Global will offer over 150 hours of talks, panel discussions, workshops and cultural events which will explore regenerative or agroecological farm practice, food sovereignty, climate justice and COP26, indigenous knowledge, biodiversity, animal welfare, land and the commons, racial inequity in our food system, gender and farming, knowledge sharing and communications. Read more about the conference and book tickets.
FRI JAN 8, 1pm PST
Ask A Sista Farmer, Hosted by Soul Fire Farm
Are you ready to grow your own food and medicine for self-reliance and community resilience? First Fridays, experienced Black womxn* farmers answer your call-in questions about gardening, livestock, agroforestry, plant medicine, business operations, and food preservation. At the end of the show we have a GIVEAWAY to the person who wins our quiz. To free ourselves we must feed ourselves! See the Facebook event for more info.
WED JAN 13 - SAT JAN 16, 2021
RIHN 15th International Symposium | Transitioning Cultures of Everyday Food Consumption and Production: Stories from a Post-growth Future
Seeking a post-growth future for food and society is reengaging with core tenants of RIHN’s mission: to debate how human culture ought to operate on the planet and identify practical solutions and transformative pathways to get us there. This symposium brings together interdisciplinary scholars to share stories of a present and future in which “enough is as good as a feast.” Learn more and register for this free online event, hosted by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.
WED JAN 20 - SAT JAN 23, 2021
41st EcoFarm Conference
EcoFarm Conference will feature inspiring keynotes, educational workshops, skill-building pre-conferences, extensive networking, a virtual trade show and more! And at a price that is more affordable than ever before. More info and tickets here.
FRI JAN 22, 12pm PST
Food Talk: Farmworkers, Forest Fires, & Food, Hosted by University of Oregon Food Studies
Our first Food Talk of winter term will focus on how forest fires impact farmworkers. Our guests speakers will discuss a recent survey being conducted in Oregon and elsewhere on the impacts of forest fires and COVID-19 on farmworkers. 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!
|
