CAGJ Monthly E-Newsletter | February 3, 2016

February E-News:

CAGJ CAMPAIGN NEWS

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

All out to defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership! NAFTA for the Pacific Rim is about to be introduced to Congress, but we can still stop it! Join us Feb 3 to protest its signing, March 1 for a Forum on how this so-called trade agreement will undermine food sovereignty, and watch CAGJ's new webinar! Keep reading for all the details. Thanks for supporting CAGJ!

TODAY! WED Feb 3, 12 Noon

Protest the TPP on the day of its signing!

Rally at City Hall, then march to the Federal Building to deliver our message.

Why today? On February 3, (February 4th in New Zealand), head trade negotiators from 12 countries around the Pacific Rim will gather to sign the biggest corporate trade agreement ever brokered: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). All over the world, from Malaysia to Mexico to Seattle, they will be met with protest. We are tired of corporate interests stealing our jobs, ruining our environment, and undermining our health and security. Now, the decision rests with US Congress -- accept this deal, or reject it and demand fair trade policy? The Chambers of Commerce announced that they are "rolling up their sleeves" to pass TPP, so we are rolling up our sleeves to fight back. Join us to send a message here in Washington and to the world -- TPP is betrayal. Location: Seattle City Hall Plaza, 600 4th Ave. Please RSVP and share the Facebook event widely!

CAGJ HAPPENINGS

MON Feb 15, 9:30 - 10:30am

Gates Foundation Action: NO Human Testing of GMO Bananas!

RSVP & help us publicize - invite your friends!

Join AGRA Watch at the Gates Foundation for a fun, family-friendly action! We will deliver over 57,000 signatures recently gathered by CREDO calling on Iowa State University and the Gates Foundation to halt human feeding trials of GMO bananas. ISU students will carry out a simultaneous action on the ISU campus.

With the purported goal of reducing Vitamin A deficiency in Uganda and other parts of the world, genetically modified bananas are enriched with beta-carotene. The study, funded by the Gates Foundation, purports to examine the extent to which the bananas’ beta-carotene is converted to Vitamin A in the body and absorbed by consumers. This is one of the first human feeding trials of a genetically modified product, and there has been no prior animal testing of this product. Thus, ISU students (who were offered $900 to participate) are being asked to be the first to consume a product of unknown safety. The study is not being conducted in a transparent manner, and concerned ISU community members have not been able to receive answers about the research design, risks, nature of the informed consent given by the subjects, and the general utility of the study. In addition, the banana may have negative long-term impacts on Ugandan agriculture--many banana varieties serve as staples in Ugandan diets, and are "at the very core of our social fabric", according to Bridget Mugambe, food sovereignty activist with Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa. AGRA Watch stands in solidarity with Ugandans who reject GMO bananas because this GMO will have an adverse affect on Ugandan agriculture, food security and food sovereignty. Location: Gates Foundation Headquarters, 500 5th Ave N, Seattle.

TUES Feb 16, 6:30 - 8:30pm
Monthly Food Justice Project Meeting

New volunteer orientation at 6pm! Please RSVP.

**NEW Location: CAGJ Office, 606 Maynard Ave S, Seattle 98104

This month we will get an update from Elena Perez with UFCW Local 21 about how we can support grocery workers in 2016. We will also learn more about possible action to stop slavery in the shrimp industry, and will find out about new actions to support Farmworker union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia. RSVPs appreciated but not required.

TUES March 1, 6:30 - 9:00pm

CAGJ Presents: Another Food System is Possible! But not with the TPP!

What you need to know about how new trade agreements undermine efforts to build a good food movement.

Location: WA State Labor Council - 321 16th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144. Workshop is FREE. Potluck & light fare will be provided.

You are invited to a public workshop! As you know, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP) might come up for a vote in Congress soon. Come to learn everything you need to know about why the TPP must be stopped if we want to keep building a better food system for all. We are all affected! As local Farmers, Eaters concerned about equitable access, food safety and GMO labeling, and as Workers. Presentations: Michael Righi - CAGJ: How the TPP undermines food sovereignty and Gillian Locasio - WA Fair Trade Coalition: How we can defeat the TPP. Workshops: Help prepare for future TPP actions: Make signs, props and banners! And learn more about the TPP and Climate Justice with 350.org, ISDS: How corporations can sue governments for potential lost profits (e.g. Keystone XL), and more! Co-sponsored by WA Fair Trade Coalition, WA State Labor Council, and 350.org.

CAGJ CAMPAIGN NEWS

New Obstacle for GMO Salmon!

CAGJ is collaborating with local and national partners, including Friends of the Earth Campaign for GE-Free Seafood and Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project, to determine next steps for our local campaign. We hope to host an event this Spring focused on Northwest tribal resistance to GMO salmon – stay tuned! Meanwhile, there is good news on the GMO salmon front: After giving the green light to GMO salmon this past November, last week the FDA “issued a ban on the import and sale of the fish until the agency can publish guidelines for how it should be labeled”, according to the Washington Post. Senator Murkowski (Alaska) inserted language in a federal bill last fall forbidding the sale of the genetically engineered AquaBounty product until rules were finalized regarding labeling. Then the FDA issued this import alert. Murkowski stated, “This is a huge step in our fight against ‘Frankenfish,’…I firmly believe that mandatory labeling guidelines must be put in place as soon as possible so consumers know what it is they are purchasing. It seems that the FDA has begun to listen, and I hope this is a sign that the agency plans to develop these necessary guidelines.”

New CAGJ Webinar: Linking Food Justice to Trade Policy

Check out CAGJ's 30 min. webinar (on you-tube) about how food justice and food sovereignty are threatened by new (so-called) free-trade agreements, the TPP/Trans-Pacific Partnership, and TTIP/Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. To give you a overview:

Part 1: Background info including: Food Sovereignty & Fair Trade, What is Fair about Free Trade? What is Fast Track? Corporate Influence on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), Impacts of NAFTA on Mexico, FTAs and the Domestic Economy, Currently proposed Trade Agreements.

Part 2: How our Food System would be impacted by the TPP and TTIPTTIP and Food Policy; FTAs Allow Corporations to Sue Governments; Attacks on Public Health; Threats to Food Safety; Something is Fishy about Seafood Imports; Imported Produce and Food Safety Risks; Intellectual Property Laws and the Corporate Seed Market; Gambling the Global Food Supply on GMO Seeds.

CAGJ wishes to thank 2015 Interns Jordan Beaudry and Lauren Taylor for developing this webinar!

Farmworkers speak to PCC Board to Urge Support of Driscoll's Boycott - Watch video!

On January 26^th CAGJ members accompanied farmworker union members with Familias Unidas por la Justicia when they spoke at PCC’s first board meeting of 2016, to urge PCC to support their call for a boycott of Driscoll’s berries. Familias Unidas members were joined by several PCC members who also spoke to the importance of the boycott, while supporters rallied outside the meeting - watch a video of the action here. PCC is the only food co-op between Bellingham and Olympia that continues to carry the Driscoll's product. PCC states that it is committed to embracing sustainability and building community. We believe this should include standing in solidarity with local farmworkers. Farmworkers and the Boycott Committee in Seattle have been in contact with PCC consumers outside the store as well as in meetings with management for the past two years, yet PCC has not yet joined in supporting the farmworkers’ efforts for improved working conditions and a union contract by honoring their request for a boycott. We hope that by showing consumer support for the boycott and hearing directly from farmworkers, the PCC board will push taking action. Learn more about why Familias Unidas has called for a boycott here.

SAT FEB 6, 11am-1pm

Panel Discussion hosted by Slow Food USA/Seattle

Location: Pike Place Market Atrium. Please join us for a discussion on the future of the food movement and Slow Food as we host SFUSA executive director Richard McCarthy from New York, along with WSU The Bread Lab’s Dr. Steve Jones, seafood expert Jon Rowley, and‪ small farm and meat expert Fred Berman for a panel discussion. The event is free and open to the public. Facebook link here and Brown Paper Ticket link here. Please RSVP on either site and help us spread the word.

TUES FEB 9, 12-1:30pm

Farmworker Tribunal 2016 & Legislative Reception

Location: Olympia Legislative Building, Rules Room, 416 Sid Snyder Ave SW, Olympia, WA. C2C invites all farm worker supporters and allies to our Second Farm Worker Tribunal and our Third Legislative Reception! We are working with Familias Unidas por la Justicia to raise the voices of farm workers in the halls of our State Legislature. Farm workers contribute to the WA State economy every day by keeping the agricultural industry thriving and they are coming from the fields to Olympia to reach the policy makers. Join us in solidarity!

WED FEB 10, 7:30pm

Courtney White: Low Cost Climate Change Solutions

Location: Downstairs at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue (enter on Seneca St.) $5, doors open 6:30pm. Following November’s landmark UN Climate Change conference, finding solutions to this dilemma should be closer than ever. The problem? According to Courtney White (Grass, Soil, Hope), one hitch is that overarching, expensive solutions are crowding the dialogue. He’ll explain why this doesn’t have to be the case, citing a few of his “two percent solutions for the planet.” His solutions tackle climate change, hunger, and drought, by reducing energy use, creating more sustainable food systems, and building on existing ideas, White says we can work toward a better global future in a cost-effective, achievable way.

Movie Screening: "A Place at the Table"

Location: Meaningful Movies: 8900 35th Ave NE, Wedgwood, Seattle. A Place at the Table (84 min, Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, 2013) is a documentary about hunger in America. Some 50 million Americans in 17.5 million households (one in seven) were euphemistically categorized in 2013 as being ‘food insecure’. These households were also the homes of 17 million American children. Approximately 40% of those households were in the “very low food security” category meaning that “food intake of some household members was reduced and normal eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year due to limited resources.” Rates of food insecurity are substantially higher for households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line, households with children headed by a single parent, and Black and Hispanic households. A Place at the Table follows three Americans who struggle to put food on their family’s table. The film points out that hunger in America is the really the consequence of poverty caused by the unequal distribution of income and job opportunity in the economically and agriculturally richest nation on Earth.

THURS MAR 3, 6-8:30pm

Dinner and Movie Screening: "This Changes Everything"

Location: UFCW 21, 5030 1st Ave S. Climate change is THE existential threat of our time. It is impacting our communities and our workplaces right now. Join Labor and Community members in the viewing of a film based on climate activist Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything. At the end of the film there be a discussion on the local ways to take action on climate including the TPP, just transition and investment in infrastructure. Bring your questions, your ideas and your energy. Sponsored by the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO; UFCW 21; Teamsters 117; and PSARA.

FRI MAR 4, 11am-1:30pm

Brown bag lunch and Movie Screening: "This Changes Everything"

Location: Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, 321 16th Ave S. Climate change is THE existential threat of our time. It is impacting our communities and our workplaces right now. Join Labor and Community members in the viewing of a film based on climate activist Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything. At the end of the film there be a discussion on the local ways to take action on climate including the TPP, just transition and investment in infrastructure. Bring your questions, your ideas and your energy. Sponsored by the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO; UFCW 21; Teamsters 117; and PSARA.

Movie Screening: "Starfish Throwers"

Location: Meaningful Movies: 5109 Keystone Place N, Wallingford, Seattle. Worlds apart, a five-star chef, a twelve year-old girl, and a retired schoolteacher discover how their individual efforts to feed the poor ignite a movement in the fight against hunger. Award-winning chef Narayanan Krishnan, fighting against the caste system in India, quits his job to begin a life of cooking and hand-delivering fresh meals to hundreds of people in his hometown. Katie Stagliano’s planting of a single cabbage seedling when she was nine years old blossoms into Katie’s Krops, a non-profit with 73 gardens dedicated to ending hunger. Retired middle school teacher Mr. Law battles personal health issues as he hand delivers more than a thousand sandwiches nightly to the hungry in Minneapolis.This documentary tells the tale of these remarkable individuals and the unexpected challenges they face. Despite being constantly reminded that hunger is far too big for one person to solve, they persevere and see their impact ripple further than their individual actions. Special Guests: Representatives of local anti-hunger organizations.