CAGJ Monthly E-Newsletter | July 2019
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CAGJ Monthly E-Newsletter | July 2019
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July E-News:
SLEE is July 13!
CAGJ HAPPENINGS
TAKE ACTION
CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS
Failure of Democratic hopefuls agree: Not this NAFTA
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
Join us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Blogs CAGJ's blog AGRA Watch's Blog Listservs |
Please help us sync our new email server! CAGJ has a new email server. Please check to make sure CAGJ emails are not going to your spam folder. To help us establish our emails as reputable (not spam) and increase our ability to deliver messages, it would be very helpful if you could engage with our next few emails. Please click on a link in the email, scroll to the bottom, send us a quick reply, move the email to a folder (e.g. move it out of spam), and/or add our address to your contact list. Thank you!!
SAT July 13, 13th Annual SLEE Dinner!
 Happy Hour 5pm, Dinner 6:30pm Buy your Sliding Scale Tickets or Sign up to Volunteer! CAGJ's 13th annual SLEE Dinner (Strengthening Local Economies, Everywhere!) will be SAT July 13th at St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in the Montlake neighborhood. Purchase your sliding scale tickets today: $40 - $100, no one turned away.
Doria Robinson, a leader in both the food sovereignty and climate justice movements, will deliver the keynote: "For the Love of Soil: Dismantling the Extractive Economy with Justice and Food Sovereignty." Doria is the Executive Director of Urban Tilth, a community-based organization rooted in Richmond, California, dedicated to cultivating urban agriculture to build a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system.
CAGJ's Members & Volunteers make SLEE happen! Help is needed over the next week, and there are dozens of roles to fill on FRI July 12 and July 13!, from picking up donations, to serving, to registration! Read more about volunteering for SLEE. Contact Mads to learn more and to get involved in organizing this year's dinner and community celebration. Thank you!
CAGJ HAPPENINGS Annual Farmworker March for Dignity The march will take place in Whatcom County – details coming soon. Join farm worker leaders from Community to Community in the annual Farmworker March for Dignity to show solidarity for the Farmworker struggle. The march will likely begin in Lynden at sunrise, typical starting time in the fields. More details on meeting locations, activities, and calls for support will be shared closer to the date; Email us to join CAGJ contingent. Join us to plan our NOV 30 WTO Gathering! No Food Justice Project Meeting in July or August CAGJ is organizing a day-long event at Town Hall Seattle on SAT November 30 to mark the 20th anniversary of the people’s victory and shut-down of the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle! RSVP to Heather if you can join us TUES Aug 20 for a planning meeting, or if you want to get involved in organizing the event, where we aim to learn from our history and build today’s movements for global justice. Location: CAGJ Office at Welcome Table Church, 1322 S Bayview St, on Beacon Hill. (Note: This meeting will take place at our regularly scheduled Food Justice Project meeting time; FJP meetings will resume in September!)
CAGJ Membership Gathering Part : Past, Present, Future: Assessing CAGJ Register today! Calling all CAGJ Members, Partners, & Supporters! We invite you to join us for a day of reflection on CAGJ’s role in the food sovereignty movement. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the WTO protests, we invite you to look back at CAGJ’s story, assess how we’re doing now, and vision the organization and world we want in the future. Our consultant Scott Winn will guide us through conversations to assess CAGJ’s accomplishments and current programs through a racial equity lens.
WED OCT 30, 7-9pm, Town Hall Seattle Eating Tomorrow: The Battle for the Future of Food in Africa We are excited to announce that on OCT 30, 2019 Town Hall Seattle and CAGJ/AGRA Watch welcome Million Belay, Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, and Tim Wise, author of Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food (New Press 2019). This event is a rare opportunity to hear directly from one of the leaders of the African food sovereignty movement; in addition to coordinating Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, Belay is founder of MELCA - Ethiopia, and is an expert and advocate for forestry conservation, indigenous livelihoods and food and seed sovereignty. Belay and Wise will engage in a conversation on the themes of the book, which features stories of the victims of land-grabbing in Mozambique, Monsanto officials trying to push genetically modified corn into Mexico, and Malawian farmers trying to preserve and promote their nutritious native seeds. Vandana Shiva, renowned agroecology activist and author of many books including Soil Not Oil writes, “Eating Tomorrow is a wake-up call about the future of food. Wise describes how agribusiness has transformed agriculture into an extractive industry, destroying the land and farmers.” Watch a video of the launch, which was in NYC with Mark Bittman and Shiva. Location: Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101. Contact us to get involved in planning the event!
Save the Date! 20th Anniversary of the WTO Uprising CAGJ is organizing a day-long event at Town Hall Seattle to mark the 20th anniversary of the people’s victory and shut-down of the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle! Come to our planning meeting on TUES August 20 at CAGJ's office (see details above)! Or contact Heather to get involved in planning the event, where we aim to learn from our history and build today’s movements for global justice.
TAKE ACTION Demand King Fuji Ranch Treat Workers Fairly! Call King Fuji Ranch Farmworkers on H2A visas at King Fuji Ranch in Mattawa have been in contact with Familias Unidas por la Justicia union since February 2019 about unsafe working conditions and retaliation from their employer. King Fuji Ranch sent some of the H2A workers back to Mexico in retaliation for speaking out. Many of the workers have joined the union. On June 12, Farmworkers at King Fuji went on strike for 3 days, resulting in some verbal commitments from the company that there will be no blacklisting or retaliations, but there is not signed agreement meeting the workers’ demands. The recently enacted Farmworker Oversight Act, SB 5438, gives C2C and FUJ a seat at the table so that farmworker voices will continue to be heard. Please call King Fuji Ranch to demand workers are treated fairly.
Take Action: 1. Call King Fuji Ranch at 509-628-1619 Sample script: “I am calling to reach King Fuji Ranch as a consumer concerned about the way those who grow my food are treated. I am aware that H2A Farmworkers at King Fuji in Mattawa have been facing abusive conditions and retaliation and are being forced to pick at quotas that are untenable. King Fuji must guarantee better working and humane living conditions for the H2A workers by signing a legally binding agreement with the workers and their representatives.”
2. Send your message in an email to [email protected]. FYI: the phone number goes to Tagaris Winery, which is under the same ownership as King Fuji and is listed as the phone number to call on the H2A contract.
WED July 10, 2PM: Help fill Council Chamber! Tell Council Member Bagshaw: Vote Yes on proposal to protect food security funds Council Member O’Brien has introduced a proposal to the Finance & Neighborhoods Committee to create a separate, specific fund for the Sugary Beverage Tax (SBT) to ensure that the revenue raised by the SBT is used as intended: to grow and increase funding to community food access programs, not to supplement this funding or to be distributed elsewhere in the city budget. Council Member Sally Bagshaw, who chairs the Finance Committee, needs to hear from community that there is broad public support for creating this separate SBT fund!
Take Action: 1. Now & before July 10! Call Council Member Bagshaw at 206-684-8801 (email at [email protected]) Sample script: “I am calling to urge Council Member Bagshaw to vote YES on Council Member O’Brien’s proposed legislation to create a separate, specific fund for the Sugary Beverage Tax revenue. The original ordinance intended to help close the food security gap by increasing funding for food access programs led by communities of color and low income families most impacted by this tax. City Council must demonstrate accountability to these communities and ensure the revenue is used to increase funding to these programs, not supplement it or be distributed elsewhere in the city budget. Please support O’Brien’s proposed legislation to protect food security funds. Thank you.”
2. On Wednesday July 10 at 2pm, join us to fill the city council chamber and demonstrate community support for a separate SBT fund to increase the funding of food access programs led by communities of color and low income families. CAGJ NEWS & ANALYSIS By WA Fair Trade Coalition
Last Thursday, Citizens Trade Campaign released responses it had received from 16 Democratic presidential candidates, including all of the leading contenders — Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Harris, O’Rourke, Booker, Inslee, and others — stating that Congress should not pass NAFTA 2.0 unless major changes are made. The statements come on the heels of President Trump’s official 2020 campaign launch in Orlando, Florida, and deal a blow to the President’s message that he has fixed NAFTA to make it better for American workers. Read summaries of the candidates’ statements in The Stand.
Civil Society Denounces the Release of GM Mosquitoes in Burkina Faso Press Release from African Center for Biodiversity CAGJ/AGRA Watch signed onto this moratorium denouncing the release of genetically modified (GM) “male-sterile” mosquitoes in Burkina Faso. The Target Malaria research consortium, which the Gates Foundation is financing, released the GM mosquitoes in the village of Bana on July 1st. “The release of GM mosquitoes in the village was an unethical experiment, as Target Malaria acknowledges that there are no direct benefits to the local population of this particular GM mosquito release, in terms of malaria control. This was not an early stage trial of the GM mosquitoes intended to be tested later for their impact on malaria, but a release of an entirely different GM mosquito.” With the risks imposed by this release, including incidental release of some biting female GM mosquitos that can spread disease, the lack of adequate community consent, no genuine public consultation, and no comprehensive, published environmental risk assessment, Target Malaria is enacting neocolonialism and experimenting risky technologies on Africans. Read the press release here.
Video Series: Food Sovereignty Stories from the US Food Sovereignty Alliance Food Sovereignty Stories is a series of videos from social movements in the United States working towards a more just and sustainable food system. These films explore issues of farm justice, migrant rights, feminism, radical urban agriculture, fighting the extractive economy, Indigenous cosmovision and farm justice, amongst other critical issues. The first two videos have been released, each about 3 minutes: Food Sovereignty and Justice for Farm Workers in Washington State and Food Sovereignty in Western Alaska: A Sacred Relationship with Animals, Water, and the Land. Watch them here, and please share widely! COMMUNITY CALENDAR THURS. July 11, 6:30-9pm Ancestral Waters: Screening and Filmmaker Q&A Come watch an extraordinary screening of the documentary film “Ancestral Waters” by Native Daily Networks. The documentary touches on the Puyallup Tribe and Water Warrior’s movement to oppose the Liquified Natural Gas which is developing currently on the Tribes ancestral tideflats in disruption of the Medicine Creek Treaty. Learn More.
SAT July 20, 10am-3pm Farm Fest Join us at Rainier Beach Urban Farms & Wetlands for a celebration of urban farming and community. Being a part of cooking demonstrations, picking blueberries, planting seeds, and more. Alongside these festivities you also have the chance to enjoy delicious food from local vendors. Learn more.
SAT Aug. 3, 10am-5pm Tilth Alliance’s Chicken Coop & Urban Farm Tour Join innovative community members who are integrating animals and gardens into their homes. Within this tour you will see simple chicken coops that were constructed in one afternoon and coops that took weeks of preparation and construction. Alongside learning what is needed for keeping mini. goats, ducks, mason bees, honey, bees, and rabbits. Various sites around Seattle will present these tours. Learn more.
MON Aug. 12, 3-7pm Innovations in Strawberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry Production Join farmers from various areas at a Farm Walk in Burlington, WA. The Farm Walk will give you a chance to acquire knowledge from new and established farmers concerning their novelties for planting, producing, and harvesting strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Likewise, will receive more information from WSU researchers and industry experts on various topics. Learn more.
FRI Sept 6-SUN Sept 8, Spokane, WA AMP: Activists Mobilizing for Power This September, Western States Center presents Activists Mobilizing for Power (AMP), 2019 in Spokane! Join CAGJ for this year’s leadership development convening. Every two years, AMP attracts hundreds of social justice leaders from across the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West states for three days of shared learning and opportunities to develop our relationships, skills, and analysis. This year's theme is Democracy Under Siege and will focus on building effective strategies in countering white nationalism and defending inclusive democracy. After a 30-year history of hosting AMP in Portland, AMP 2.0 launches with a new regional model and Spokane is the inaugural host to showcase the vibrant local organizing by Greater Spokane Progress, the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, and others. Sponsorships are available: check out AMP website for more information and to sponsor this year's event. For any other questions about AMP, please contact Amy Herzfeld-Copple.
WED. Sept. 18, 6-8pm Relish the Season Come to the Senior Center at Tacoma to make End of the Season Relish. Making relish is an exciting way to preserve the bounty of a harvest at the conclusion of gardening season. Not only that Relish is awesome to serve at picnics and potlucks. This free workshop is conveyed by Center for Food Preservation Arts. Learn more.
FRI-SUN Nov. 8-10 Tilth Conference: Growing a Resilient Future Come celebrate the slowing down of the production season over the course of 3 days. Food system professionals, educators, and farmers have the chance to acquire knowledge from each other on best practices, hang with old friends, and create new bonds. A wide range of topics will be presented from different speakers alongside an industry trade show, farm tour, and a chance to network. Learn more.
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