Thank you so much for being a part of the 11th Annual Strengthening Local Economies Everywhere Dinner!

Thank you for joining us in celebrating another year of organizing for food sovereignty and strong local economies. The incredible meal of local, sustainable food, the wonderful music of Seattle Fandango Project, and a totally packed and SOLD-OUT room made for an unforgettable, fun, and delicious evening in community together!

It was an honor to hear the inspirational words of Ari de Leña! Watch and share her keynote, “Farming for Cultural and Ecological Resilience” here! (Thank you to Mike McCormick for filming!) Enjoy Sharon Chang’s beautiful photos from the SLEE dinner here.

We are so thrilled to announce that we raised close to $30,000 - including over $6,000 (annually) from new and renewed Monthly Sustainers, an all time record for our food justice dinner! SLEE is critical to CAGJ’s grassroots fundraising model, keeping us accountable to our community and sustaining our capacity to organize through AGRA Watch, our Food Justice Project, and Trade Justice. We look forward to mobilizing with you on the streets, taking action at the Gates Foundation, and building a strong local and transnational food sovereignty movement!

Another chance to get your new CAGJ t-shirt! Unfortunately, our t-shirts arrived too late in the mail for us to unveil them at SLEE. But you can get yours at discount until December 31, order here!

Become a CAGJ Member! In case you missed filling out your membership card at SLEE, becoming a Member is easy to do on our website, just fill out this form! CAGJ is membership-driven and your participation contributes to our growth and collective work toward global justice. Members donate their time and/or money.

CAGJ HAPPENINGS

TUES NOV 21, 6:30 - 8:30PM

Monthly Food Justice Project Meeting

FJP Meetings are a great way to get involved in CAGJ! At this meeting, we will share updates and take action on our solidarity campaigns, and discuss roles around upcoming action organizing. 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, Food Justice Project Co-Chair, Christina.

TUES NOV 14, 6-9PM

SLEE Volunteer Appreciation Party!

Volunteer power makes the SLEE dinner possible! If you volunteered organizing, interning, or in any ways helping with this year’s SLEE (before, the day-of, and after), please join us to THANK YOU for all you contributed. CAGJ will provide dinner & drink! 7:30PM Evaluation of Dinner, 7:30-9:00PM Celebration! Location: Jackson Place Co-Housing 800 Hiawatha Place S, Seattle (wheel chair and ADA compliant). Please email us at [email protected] for specific directions, parking info, or any questions.

THURS NOV 30, 7PM

WTO Shut-Down Anniversary Film Screening: This Is What Democracy Looks Like

On November 30th 1999, a people's rebellion shut down Seattle and the World Trade Organization (WTO)! Tens of thousands of informed activists from all over the globe took to the streets to say NO to the WTO on Nov 30. After a week of strategic daily actions and teach-ins, we made history when the WTO failed to come to consensus, permanently rolling back their agenda to corporatize and marketize everything. CAGJ was born on this day, although we did not materialize until 2001. We are proud and WE ARE WINNING - Don't Forget!

Please join us for a film screening of the documentary “This is What Democracy Looks Like,” co-edited by CAGJ member, Seattle’s own Jill Freidberg. Film followed by a discussion on current trade justice organizing. Location TBD – stay tuned!

TAKE ACTION

Tell Senator Patty Murray: Co-Sponsor the GE Salmon Labeling Act!

The GE Salmon Labeling Act Senate Bill 1528 (1) Mandates that genetically-engineered salmon be labeled; (2) Requires third-party independent scientific review of the FDA approval of GE salmon and all other GE fish in the future.
Please take a minute to call Sen. Murray today! 206-553-5545
Sample script: “I support the right to know about GE and GMO foods and support tribal sovereignty of Native Northwest peoples. I urge you to co-sponsor S.B. 1528 to advocate for food justice and Northwest Tribal and treaty rights.”
Learn more about the campaign to stop GE salmon.

Food Sovereignty is the Solution, Stop the Failing Green Revolution!

Together at SLEE, we took action to tell the World Food Prize and the Gates Foundation that they need to be paying attention to the movement for food sovereignty! Please share our Facebook post of the banner action on CAGJ and on AGRA Watch. Sample message: @worldfoodprize @gatesfoundation: Support Small Farmers Not Big Ag! #SmallFarmers #Agroecology #FoodSovereigntyNow

Global Week of Action Against the WTO and FTAs December 8th – 15th

La Via Campesina is sending an international delegation to the 11th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Buenos Aires, Argentina to take an active part in the numerous civil society mobilisations, forums, and discussions resisting the WTO and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Specifically, La Via Campesina will insist that agriculture should not be part of any of the WTO negotiations!

CAGJ, CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and WFTC (Washington Fair Trade Coalition) are responding to the call to mobilize and are organizing an action! Please stay tuned, and contact Simone if you are interested in helping to organize.

From La Via Campesina: “We will be there to identify the WTO as the criminal organisation that it is and to raise the flag of Food Sovereignty. We will call out all the Governments, who after having realised the weakening of WTO, have resorted to Bilateral and Regional Mega Free Trade Agreements, that threaten to annihilate our food systems, just like WTO has done it over the last two decades.” Read more here.

CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS

South Africa-US Agroecology Exchange Report-Back

We are pleased to welcome back the 2017 delegation of farmers and farmworkers from the US from their learning exchange in South Africa! Stay tuned for a blog series from the participants reflecting on the political, cultural, and agroecological exchanges that took place. In January 2018, CAGJ will co-host a Report-Back from two leaders in Washington’s local food sovereignty movement who went on the Exchange: Edgar Franks with Community to Community in Bellingham, and Dean Jackson with Hilltop Urban Gardens in Tacoma. Look out for more details!

World Food Prize Hides True Cost of Agricultural Development in Africa: Food Sovereignty Prize Honors Critical Work of Small Farmers and Fishers

In October, the World Food Prize awarded Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, who played a critical role in developing the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). While the World Food Prize, Dr. Adesina, and the Gates Foundation (which has funded the World Food Prize for years and funds the AGRA program) celebrate increased corporatization, commercial bank-lending, and high-input intensive agriculture, this comes at the expense of small farmers and the planet. Please read our press statement for more background and analysis.

2017 Food Sovereignty Prize
Congratulations to Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and Zimbabwe Small Holder Organic Farmers Forum!

The Food Sovereignty Prize honors grassroots organizations working for a more democratic food system by promoting Food Sovereignty, agroecological farming, and social justice to ensure that all people have access to fresh, nutritious food produced in harmony with the planet. In case you missed it, watch the live award ceremony on youtube here!

International Seed Treaty: Let’s Not Sweep Peasants’ Rights to Seeds Under the Carpet Press Release from La Via Campesina

“Kigali, October 30, 2017: The 7th meeting of the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) begins today in Kigali (Rwanda). At a time when patents on genetic information have been alarmingly eased by new genetic technologies, the risk that this Treaty be entirely overturned is major.

Delegations from La Via Campesina and the IPC (The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty) have travelled to Kigali to incite government representatives in taking the right decisions and actions if the current Treaty is to be saved from obliteration.

Indifferent to the fact that peasants contribute enormously to reproducing and increasing seed diversity each year, these patents currently allow the privatization of all gene bank-saved seeds as well as those on the farm. This is contrary to the objectives of the Treaty, that aim to make seeds available to ensure healthy, adequate and local food production and to face global challenges prompted by climate change, the needed phasing out of toxic pesticides, social-economic crisis and wars.” Read the full press release here.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

THURS NOV 2, 7:30-9PM

Marcus Harrison Green ‘Hope and Activism in a Complex Political Landscape’

Rainier Arts Center, 3515 S Alaska St. How can we find hope and community within this political climate driven by fear and division? Join Marcus Harrison Green, Town Hall’s former Scholar in Residence and the award-winning founder of the South Seattle Emerald, and Seattle Weekly editor Mark Baumgarten to celebrate the launch of their inspiring anthology Fly to the Assemblies! Voices of Dissent from the Pacific Northwest. Local thought leaders will read from their essays and share ideas about what we can do to take care of each other and keep democracy alive. Presented by Town Hall Seattle as part of the Civics Series. Tickets are $5 at www.townhallseattle.org. Located in Columbia City/Hillman City, Seattle.

FRI NOV 3, 7:00PM

‘An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power’

Keystone Congregational Church, 5019 Keystone Place N. Ten years after the Academy Award®-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” brought climate change to the forefront of mainstream culture, former Vice President Al Gore continues his fight to educate the next generation of climate champions. This compelling follow-up, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” shows that while the stakes have never been higher, the solutions to the climate crisis are still within our reach. With superb cinematography, an excellent soundtrack and focused storyline, this is a powerful, must-see documentary. Presented by Meaningful Movies in Wallingford. Online RSVP recommended but not required. More information at https://meaningfulmovies.org/events/an-inconvenient-sequel-truth-to-power/. Located in Wallingford, Seattle.

FRI NOV 3 – SUN NOV 12
Wing Luke Museum Exhibit: We are the Ocean (An Indigenous Response to Climate Change)

719 South King Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue South) Seattle. At this exhibit, explore how indigenous communities are responding to the ways climate change is affecting our waters and our lives. Listen to stories that have traveled from Guam, Pohnpei and Yap, from Tonga, Hawai’i and Alaska, from people who both know and love the ocean. Hear their words as they speak about the legacy we are leaving for our children, and the ways we are building a world for those after us. Hear their thoughts as they reflect on the sacredness of salt water, canoe journeys and sunlight on crystal blue seas. Hear their voices as they navigate rising oceans, and how the phrase, “We aren’t drowning, we are fighting,” spurs a movement to save and conserve. More information and tickets at http://www.wingluke.org/ocean.

Located in the International District, Seattle.

SAT NOV 4, 5:00PM

Indigenous Showcase – The Resistance Saga part 3 – 500 Years

Northwest Film Forum 1515 12th Ave, Seattle. 500 Years tells the epic story that led Guatemala to a tipping point in their history, from the genocide trial of General Rios Montt to the popular movement that toppled President Otto Perez Molina. While indigenous peoples of Guatemala are no stranger to oppression, the recent events that took place over a tumultuous three-year span, change finally seems possible when their movement is met with popular society’s outcry to end corruption. As witness to this heroic moment in Guatemalan history, 500 Years documents the beginning of the end of an unaccountable rule of law, and a society ready for change. Focusing on universal themes of justice, racism, power and corruption, 500 Years tells the story from the perspective of the majority indigenous Mayan population, and their struggles in the country’s growing democracy.
This is the third chapter of the trilogy of documentaries on Guatemala, led by Pamela Yates, and follows the films When the Mountains Tremble (1983) and Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (2011). Tickets are $12 General Admission, $9 Student/Senior, $7 Member and available at https://nwfilmforum.org/films/indigenous-showcase-resistance-saga-3-500-years/.

THURS NOV 9, 11AM – 1PM

Making it work: Investing Sugar Sweetened Beverage Taxes for Equitable Community Impact – Lunch & Learn with Xavier Morales

South Side Commons, 3518 S. Edmonds St, in Columbia City, Seattle. Got Green is hosting a community event to discuss the recently passed Sugary Beverage Tax with Chair of the Berkeley SSB Commission, Xavier Morales. Berkeley, California passed the first municipal SSB Tax in the nation in 2014. Revenue projections of $2 million in the first year were met. In Seattle, this tax is projected to raise $15 million dollars in the first year. A portion of those proceeds will be used to make it easier for South Seattle Families access to affordable healthy food. Discussion will focus on: 1) The Process developed to make investment recommendations, 2) Evaluating Success, and 3) Navigating Challenges, Opportunities, and Lessons Learned. More information on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/796507810556584. RSVP to [email protected].

THURS NOV 16 – TUES NOV 21

Social Justice Film Festival

Through dozens of strategic partnerships with Pacific Northwest organizations working on issues of social justice, the Social Justice Film Festival exhibits a series of short and feature-length documentaries and narrative films broadly related to social justice, with a special focus on prisoner justice in the US. The 2017 Social Justice Film Festival them is The #Resistance. We present special evenings devoted to climate change, immigration, and Black Lives Matter. Disability rights, prisoner justice, Native American rights, austerity, campaigns for peace, and animal rescue are only a few of the other subjects in our wide-ranging six-day festival. For the schedule and locations for all screenings, along with ticketing information, please go to http://www.socialjusticefilmfestival.org.