cagj_header

 CAGJ Monthly E-Newsletter | February 2, 2021
 

FEB E-News
AGRA Watch Climate Justice Webinar in FEB!
 
CAGJ HAPPENINGS
TODAY 2/1 Zine Meeting
THURS 2/4 CAGJ on Clean Greens Podcast
TUES 2/16 FJP Monthly Meeting
THURS 2/25 WFTC Trivia Night
Food Justice Youth Workshops with Clean Greens
AGRA Watch Published
 
TAKE ACTION
Fund Zine Artists
Stop Tom Vilsack
 
CAGJ NEWS &
ANALYSIS
No Longer the 'Wrong Seeds'
Hazard Pay Victory
Concerns with UN Food Systems Summit
Tanzania Bans GMOs
 
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!

 

Social Media

facebook_logo Join us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter


Blogs
CAGJ's blog
AGRA Watch's Blog

Listservs
Sign up here for Food Justice Project Listserv
Sign up here for AGRA Watch Listserv
 
 
Billionaire or Community Solutions to Climate Chaos?
Attend the CAGJ/AGRA Watch Webinar!
Late February, exact date TBA
FREE event. Register here, and we will send event details ASAP!
Help Publicize: Share the Facebook Event

Speakers:
  • Million Belay, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
  • Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network/Climate Justice Alliance
What solutions are needed to respond to climate disaster? Social movements are organizing around the world for Climate Justice. Meanwhile, on February 16, one of the richest men on earth, Bill Gates, will release his vision in his new book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”. 
 
Climate change is one of the crises used by Gates and his Foundation to justify urgent, technocratic “solutions” for altering food systems around the world. To counter top-down, billionaire expertise as the means of solving our world’s most pressing issues, our panelists will present an alternative approach centered on food sovereignty, with communities leading the way to a climate just future. For more info, contact Heather.

CAGJ HAPPENINGS

 
TONIGHT TUES FEB 2, 6:30 - 8:30 PM PST on ZOOM
"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 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.

THURS FEB 4, 3:30 - 4:00 PM PST
Clean Greens Podcast - Available here 
Join our very own CAGJ intern and organizer Lisa and Food Justice Project Co-Chair Sophia in a conversation about food justice with Bri and Robyn from Clean Greens Farm. The episode will highlight the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program in honor of Black history month, our campaign to fight the release of GE Salmon, and a brief overview of the mission and aims of CAGJ. The episode will be a brief 30 minutes followed by a more in-depth discussion on Instagram-live the following day. We look forward to seeing you there!
 
TUES FEB 16, 6:30 - 8:30 PM PST
Monthly Food Justice Project Meeting: Rituals for Renewal
Orientation for new Members at 6pm: RSVP       
Please register to receive the ZOOM link. 

For our February meeting, we will be focusing on positionality and ways we bring our identity into our activism.  We will discuss ways to be more intentional in how we move through the world while carrying and simultaneously dismantling so many of the histories etched into our bodies. This meeting is designed to invite us to pause and think about how we can best engage in the work we are doing while maintaining ethical reflexivity. There is both power and responsibility in understanding how our identities have shaped us, and we are looking forward to sharing and learning from all of you! We are so excited to invite you into conversation with us around this critical topic. 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.

THURS Feb 25, 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Join CAGJ’s Team: Virtual Trade Justice Trivia Night & Fundraiser
We will deliver Fair Trade goodies for you to eat and drink while you attend. If you would like to get into the typical trivia night vibe, and have a beer or glass of wine, we encourage you to purchase from this list of union breweries and wineries! For more info, please contact [email protected]
 
CAGJ Joins Clean Greens for Food Justice Youth Workshops
Blog by Lisa Colligan, Food Justice Project Intern
Last October, the usual passing of summer to fall was shuffling along; temperatures were cooling, trees were losing their leaves, and gardens were offering up their final harvests. But at Clean Greens Farm and Market, the excitement for food justice was just heating up! Over the course of a couple weeks, Food Justice Project Co-Chair Sophia Kitay and intern Lisa Colligan from CAGJ joined with Director Bri Scott and Kassandra Oakes of Clean Greens to lead a Youth Workshop about food justice, environmental justice, and food sovereignty. Clean Greens grows organic, pesticide-free produce by and for Seattle’s Central District, on a 23 acre farm in Duvall, WA. Entering into its 14th year, Clean Greens was founded by Rev. Dr. Robert Jeffrey Sr. with the vision of providing healthy food and economic empowerment to Seattle’s Black community. Keep reading.
 
AGRA Watch Research Highlighted in Third World Network Publication
Third World Resurgence: The Great Inequity
Issue No. 345-346 (pp. 10-15)
Our research on the Cornell Alliance for Science was published in the latest issue of Third World Resurgence. See the full issue here.

TAKE ACTION

Fund an Artist for our forthcoming zine!
Fundraiser for “Our Food, Our Right”, 3rd Edition: “Recipes for a New Normal”
This zine brings together the voices, wisdom, and dreams of food-loving creatives to share reflections in all mediums on food sovereignty and movement building during these unprecedented times. Artists were asked to share lessons in world-building learned throughout 2020, with a special focus on (re)connection through food during a time of disconnection. Help us bring this project to life - we need your help to pay our artist and print the zine!
 
Donate! Our fundraiser page is officially LIVE (tinyurl.com/zinetolife) - please consider donating at any amount that feels possible for you. We also take donations via Venmo @cagj-seattle (please note “zine” in the description).
  • All donors will get free early access to the e-publication and the joy of knowing you helped make radical art more accessible!
  • Donors at amounts above $25 will also receive a copy of the printed zine
  • Donors at amounts above $50 will receive copies of all 3 of CAGJ’s publications
  • Donations at amounts $100 and above will be considered a sponsor - your organizational logo or name will be printed on the zine as a token of appreciation for your generous contribution.
Please share this fundraising page and boost our social media posts @cagjseattle!
 
A Harmful Legacy: 7 Reasons to Oppose Tom Vilsack’s Nomination for Secretary of Agriculture
Write your Senators via the Center for Food Safety 
CONFIRMATION HEARING TODAY AT 7:30AM PST!
The nomination of former Iowa Governor and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for President Biden's Agriculture Secretary is a huge step backwards in our urgent need to support agricultural systems that protect public health, the environment, and mitigate the ongoing climate crisis. His nomination will be voted on by the Senate Agriculture Committee on February 2nd and at a full Senate confirmation vote later in the month. Read the Center for Food Safety blog, then take action!
 

CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS

No Longer the "Wrong Seeds": Farmer Seed Enterprise
Blog by Carol Thompson
“They called and asked to buy sorghum and millet seeds from us.” This simple statement reversed more than 25 years of derision and outright scorn of the idea that smallholder farmers in Southern Africa could propagate good quality seeds for planting, instead of grain. The decades of public denigration from agribusiness claimed smallholder farmers did not know how to propagate seeds, but even if they did, it was the wrong ones. Commercial agriculture calls the small grains of sorghum and millet “coarse grains”, “feed grains”, as if they are not fit for human consumption.  And if a few could grow out such seeds, they would be of low quality, genetically weak with low germination rates, certainly not officially registered.  Such seed propagation was only for “African subsistence farming”.  Keep reading.
 
CAGJ Advocates for Hazard Pay in Seattle & Burien
Bonus for Grocery Workers Likely to Begin Next Week in Seattle
With the support of UFCW 21, CAGJ Members Delia Pinto and William Mace offered testimony in favor of continued bonus-pay for frontline food workers at the Seattle and Burien City Council meetings over the past week. Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously in favor, and hopefully Burien, as well as other municipalities throughout the state, will soon follow, to honor the sacrifices grocery workers are making to keep everyone fed during the pandemic!
 
“Thousands of frontline workers at large grocery stores in Seattle will soon see a $4-per-hour raise under emergency hazard-pay legislation passed Monday, Jan. 25, by the City Council. Labor leaders hope the new rule will inspire similar action around Puget Sound, including neighboring Burien and unincorporated King County. The increase requires Seattle grocery businesses with 500 or more total employees to raise workers’ hourly wages by $4 in recognition of the higher risk of contracting COVID-19 involved in their work. The measure does not apply to small businesses, convenience stores, or farmers markets.” Article by Ben Adlin re-printed from South Seattle Emerald: Keep reading.
 
UN Food System Summit ‘Dialogue” events spark renewed concerns of corporate capture  in North American food system and rural economies globally 
National Family Farm Coalition
Jan 14, 2021 - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that this week a series of invitation-only  ‘U.S. National Food System Dialogue’ events will be launched ahead of the United Nations Food  System Summit (UNFSS), slated for later in 2021. As civil society and food producer groups in  the United States, and members of the self-organized United Nations Committee on World Food  Security’s Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism (CSM), we have significant concerns. Keep reading.
 
 
Tanzania Bans GMOs: Solidarity and Appreciation
AFSA Statement; CAGJ?AGRA Watch is an allied member
On Tuesday, January 12, 2021, Tanzania’s government took the crucial leap of joining the global community of nations that rule out GMOs and choose a just, healthy and sustainable path to food security. Tanzania’s Minister of Agriculture, Prof. Adolf Faustine Mkenda, issued a directive to halt all GMO research trials in the country, expressing the government’s concern about creating seed dependence on foreign-based corporations. He said, “Tanzania does not allow GMOs, because we have enough better seeds. We will protect our natural seeds, and the government will work together with our research centres to ensure we get better seeds.”
 
The decision makes Tanzania the first African country and the third country in the world to ban GMOs in January 2021, following Mexico and Peru. The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), on behalf of millions of African smallholder farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, faith-based institutions, CSOs and consumers, welcomed the news with great African pride, solidarity and enthusiasm. We express our most profound appreciation to the government for carrying the torch and ushering in a new era of conserving genetic resources and farmers’ variety seeds in Africa. Keep reading.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR
 
TUES Feb 2 + TUES Feb 23, 11:30am - 1:30pm PST
Miijim: Food as Relations ~ Winter Sessions
Miijim: Food as Relations is a series of conversations presenting Indigenous, Black and People of Colour food scholars, growers, artists and advocates who will gather virtually across Canada. The series will discuss the interconnections between art, earthwork, cultivation and harvesting experiences that decenter colonial frameworks, while thinking through labour and power relations related to food justice in urban and rural communities. Register here.
 
SAT Feb 6, 12:00 - 1:00pm PST
Whole Being Health: Your Physical, Emotional, and Environmental Well-Being
In this class series, taught by Dr. Sarah Sue Myers, we will explore the ways we can support ourselves, one another, and the planet through physical, emotional, and environmental kinds of care. Each week in this three-part series will guide you through therapeutics, practices, activities, and awareness to support these three areas of wellness. Learn more.
 
FRI Feb 12, 6:00 - 7:30pm PST
adrienne maree brown on Pleasure Activism: A Live Online Conversation
Prevailing ideas around social justice activism tend to focus on 'doing the work', putting in long hours, and facing challenges head-on. Activism is rarely associated with personal joy and pleasure. But can there be a deep connection between activism and pleasure? How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Register here.
 
WED Feb 24 - SUN Feb 28th
Plum Village Presents: Action From the Heart
Five-day online retreat for mindful activism
This is a special retreat for climate activists, social activists, activists in other fields and anyone working to create a healthy and compassionate society. Activism carries the risks of burnout, interpersonal conflict, emotional exhaustion, and despair. As antidotes, we’ll explore how to truly listen to our hearts, restore balance and harmony in our life, and find the strength and inspiration we need to build collaborative communities and realise our collective aspiration. See program details, registration, and cost here. 

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!

 


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