Founding Document
Posted: October 16, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Member Organizations
Posted: October 16, 2012 at 6:06 pm
To follow the example of the teachings and life of Jesus Christ, to accompany and support people of faith and conscience around the world in the struggle to end poverty and injustice that affect rural communities, and work toward creation of a sustainable society.
Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust
The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust’s mission is to strengthen Alaskan fishing communities and marine resources through scientific research, education, and economic opportunity.
Tags: Immigrants, Indigenous Sovereignty, Labor & TradeThe Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust’s mission is to strengthen Alaskan fishing communities and marine resources through scientific research, education, and economic opportunity.
The Applied Research Center (ARC) is a racial justice think tank and home for media and activism. ARC is built on rigorous research and creative use of new technology. Our goal is to popularize the need for racial justice and prepare people to fight for it. By telling the stories of everyday people, ARC is a voice for unity and fairness in the structures that affect our lives.
Dando La Mano al Hermano CASA is striving to help people help themselves by way of education with tradition, culture and communication.
CASA ayuda a la gente ayudarse por si mismos por medio de educación, tradición, cultura y comunicación.
Community Alliance for Global Justice
Community Alliance for Global Justice educates and mobilizes with individuals and organizations to strengthen local economies everywhere. CAGJ is grassroots, community-based and committed to anti-oppressive organizing as we build solidarity across diverse movements. CAGJ seeks to transform unjust trade and agricultural policies and practices imposed by corporations, governments and other institutions while creating and supporting alternatives that embody social justice, sustainability, diversity and grassroots democracy.
Community Alliance for Global Justice educates and mobilizes with individuals and organizations to strengthen local economies everywhere. CAGJ is grassroots, community-based and committed to anti-oppressive organizing as we build solidarity across diverse movements. CAGJ seeks to transform unjust trade and agricultural policies and practices imposed by corporations, governments and other institutions while creating and supporting alternatives that embody social justice, sustainability, diversity and grassroots democracy.
Community to Community – De Comunidad a Comunidad
Community to Community Development is a women-led, placebased, grassroots organization working for a just society and healthy communities. We are committed to systemic change and to creating strategic alliances that strengthen local and global movements towards social, economic and environmental justice.
Community to Community Development is a women-led, placebased, grassroots organization working for a just society and healthy communities. We are committed to systemic change and to creating strategic alliances that strengthen local and global movements towards social, economic and environmental justice.
Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
The Detroit Black Community Food Security network is a coalition of organizations and individuals working together to build food security in Detroit’s Black community. Our mission is to build self-reliance, food security and food justice in Detroit’s Black community by influencing public policy, engaging in urban agriculture, promoting healthy eating, encouraging co-operative buying, and directing youth towards careers in food-related fields. D-Town Farm is a seven acre farm on Detroit’s west side that features organic vegetable plots, mushroom beds, four bee hives, four hoop houses for year-round food production, and a composting operation.
Our mission is to create a farmer-controlled and consumer-oriented food and fiber system, based upon democratically controlled institutions that empower farmers to speak for and respect themselves in their quest for social and economic justice. To this end, FFD supports sustainable agriculture, farm worker rights, animal welfare, consumer safety, fair trade, and food sovereignty.
The Food Chain Workers Alliance is a coalition of worker-based organizations whose members plant, harvest, process, pack, transport, prepare, serve, and sell food, organizing to improve wages and working conditions for all workers along the food chain. The Alliance works together to build a more sustainable food system that respects workers’ rights, based on the principles of social, environmental and racial justice, in which everyone has access to healthy and affordable food.
Food First’s mission is to eliminate the injustices that cause hunger.
Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.
The Food ORganizing Collaborative (FORC) organizes food growers, food workers, and food eaters in the Philadelphia region to reclaim control of our food system and build food sovereignty.
Grassroots International
Grassroots International works to create a just and sustainable world by building alliances with progressive movements. We provide grants to our Global South partners and join them in advocating for social change. Our primary focus is on land, water and food as human rights and nourishing the political struggle necessary to achieve these rights.
Grassroots International works to create a just and sustainable world by building alliances with progressive movements. We provide grants to our Global South partners and join them in advocating for social change. Our primary focus is on land, water and food as human rights and nourishing the political struggle necessary to achieve these rights.
The Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative is a new initiative aimed at dismantling racism and empowering low-income and communities of color through sustainable and local agriculture. This comprehensive network views dismantling racism as a core principal which brings together social change agents from diverse sectors working to bring about new, healthy and sustainable food systems and supporting and building multicultural leadership in impoverished communities throughout the world.
Established in 1990 within the United States, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN’s activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.IEN accomplishes this by maintaining an informational clearinghouse, organizing campaigns, direct actions and public awareness, building the capacity of community and tribes to address EJ issues, development of initiatives to impact policy, and building alliances among Indigenous communities, tribes, inter-tribal and Indigenous organizations, people-of-color/ethnic organizations, faith-based and women groups, youth, labor, environmental organizations and others. IEN convenes local, regional and national meetings on environmental and economic justice issues, and provides support, resources and referral to Indigenous communities and youth throughout primarily North America – and in recent years – globally.
IDEX identifies, evaluates, and grows the best ideas to alleviate poverty & injustice, connecting passionate and engaged supporters to visionary local leaders & organizations around the world.
Live Real is a movement of everyday people restoring respect for ourselves, each other, and the Earth.
This organization is a group of individuals of Black African descent and organizations with constituencies and leadership of predominantly Black Afro-descendants, from all socio-economic backgrounds, committed to grassroots community organizing to strengthen their collective power, coming together, to explore the formation of, and interest in, the creation of local, national and global alliances to represent and promote the interests of Black Afro-descendants on issues of peace and security, food and agriculture, and environmental, economic and social justice.
The mission of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns is carried out through education and advocacy in cooperation with other Maryknoll departments and entities. The office also collaborates regularly with other institutions and organizations working for peace, social justice and the integrity of creation. It brings the voice and experience of Maryknoll into policy discussions in the United Nations, the U.S. and other governments, international financial institutions and the corporate world.
The National Family Farm Coalition represents family farm and rural groups whose members face the challenge of the deepening economic recession in rural communities. The NFFC was founded in 1986.
The New Orleans Food & Farm Network works with individuals, communities and growers to support sustainable growing practices and to ensure equal access to safe, nutritious, enjoyable food.
Worlds is a women-driven, multi-media education and movement-building collaborative. We inspire hope and knowledge that other worlds are possible — and also help to build them. We compile and bring to light political, economic, cultural, and social alternatives that are flourishing throughout the world, with the goal of drawing in new participants and strengthening existent efforts for economic and social justice, environmentally sound systems, and meaningful democracy.
Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN North America) works to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives that protect the health of communities and the environment. PAN North America is one of five independent regional centers of PAN International, a worldwide network of more than 600 organizations in 90 countries, including local, national and regional consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups. Our network challenges the global proliferation of pesticides, defends human rights to food, health and environmental quality, and combines community-led campaigns and science to advance environmental justice, sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty.
The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), works to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes.
The Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural is an alliance of farmers, farmworkers, indigenous, migrant and working people from the United States, Mexico, Canada and beyond working together toward a new society that values unity, hope, people and the land.
The South Bronx CSA is a community-driven initiative that brings the people of our community together to build the necessary resources and infrastructure to transform the South Bronx from a “food desert” into an accessible and affordable food oasis. Our mission is to create affordable access to locally and organically grown vegetables for everyone in the South Bronx, while advocating for a more just food system.
Southwest Workers Union
Southwest Workers’ Union (SWU) unites workers, communities and youth in the struggle for dignity and justice. Based in San Antonio, Texas SWU is a grassroots membership based organization working for social change from the bottom up.
Southwest Workers’ Union (SWU) unites workers, communities and youth in the struggle for dignity and justice. Based in San Antonio, Texas SWU is a grassroots membership based organization working for social change from the bottom up.
UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief)
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to alleviating human suffering around the globe. UMCOR’s work reaches people in more than 80 countries, including the United States. We provide humanitarian relief when war, conflict, or natural disaster disrupt life to such an extent that communities are unable to recover on their own.
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to alleviating human suffering around the globe. UMCOR’s work reaches people in more than 80 countries, including the United States. We provide humanitarian relief when war, conflict, or natural disaster disrupt life to such an extent that communities are unable to recover on their own.
WhyHunger
WhyHunger is a leader in building the movement to end hunger and poverty by connecting people to nutritious, affordable food and by supporting grassroots solutions that inspire self-reliance and community empowerment.
Alliance Teams
Posted: October 16, 2012 at 6:05 pm
Fighting Against Land and Resource Grabs for Comprehensive Land Reform
Land is becoming increasingly valuable, and globally, small farmers are losing their land as it is bought by foreign governments, international corporations, and Wall Street investors. Small farmers in the U.S. are unable to stay on their rural farmland, and urban land is lost to the gentrification of cities and waterfronts. Farmers are losing control over productive resources (land, water, seeds) and rights to save, exchange and share those resources; fishermen have increasingly limited access to the water; community gardens are cleared for expensive housing and commercial development projects; and farmers from other countries are often forced to migrate to the U.S. to work as food and farm workers. Changes in land and fisheries use and ownership are critical for developing just and sustainable local food economies and ending hunger and poverty. As a common link to all struggles for food justice and sovereignty, efforts to win community access to and control over land, water, seeds and the oceans can enhance and frame all struggles.
Immigrant Rights and Trade
Food sovereignty and food justice are intimately connected to immigrant rights because in the U.S., it is often immigrants who work in the fields, on our fishing boats, in factories and processing plants, and in our grocery stores. Moreover, many immigrants come to the U.S. to work in agriculture and other industries in the food system because our system of unregulated trade, along with our foreign and agricultural policies, have in turn displaced them from their land: any approach that seeks to address immigration within the U.S. must therefore address the issues of trade. The USFSA thus supports not only the right of immigrants to stay in the country to which they have immigrated, but also the right and ability to stay home, a right which is violated by trade rules and corporate interests.
Read the USFSA’s Immigration Policy Principles for Food Sovereignty
Immigration Policy Principles for Food Sovereignty
Principios de la Politica Inmigratoria y la Soberania Alimentaria
Resources on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
On April 10 at 1 pm ET, the USFSA will host a learning call about the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is being called NAFTA for the Pacific, and its implications for farmers and immigration. If you want to join the call, email info@foodchainworkers.org for the call information.
“‘Free Trade’ is Not Free – Why We All Need to Oppose the TPP”
by John Kinsman, March 12, 2012
by John Kinsman, March 12, 2012
by La Via Campesina, October 19, 2011
With each passing year, it is becoming more and more clear how the struggle for food sovereignty is interrelated with the struggle for the future of the planet. We now know that the industrial agriculture system is one of the main contributors to climate change. We also know that the people who are on the frontlines of the struggle for a just food system (i.e. family farmers, farmworkers, indigenous communities, and low-income urban communities of color) are the ones who experience some of the first and worst impacts of climate disruption – from droughts and floods, to soaring food prices, to contamination of precious land and water from the extraction of oil, gas, and coal. At the same time that our communities experience some of the worst impacts, we are also the source of the best solutions to heal and protect our land, water, seeds, and food systems, as part of Mother Earth. We draw inspiration from and commit ourselves to fight for the Rights of Mother Earth, a concept that has existed for thousands of years in indigenous communities around the world, and which has recently been described in depth through the Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth. Across the country, our communities are developing creative and resilient ways to defend the planet and prevent harmful exploitation by unaccountable governments and corporations. Examples include the cross-border struggle against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline; local fights for public dollars to enable communities to harvest rainwater for food production; marine stewardship; efforts to preserve the centuries-old and ever-evolving ecological relationship between peasant/family farmers and local seeds, free from corporate control; and the global struggle for climate justice. We look forward to finding ways to lift up these struggles from a local to national and international level.
See updates, resources & actions on the Defense of Mother Earth page
Addressing Racism and Creating Leadership Structures that Reflect Frontline Communities
As we all know, the food system in the U.S. is dysfunctional and unjust. Our own movement reflects many of these contradictions and divides – this is why the Assembly was so important and why members of the USFSA recommitted to work together to ensure that as social justice advocates, we are conscious of issues of privilege and oppression in our work together. We will learn more together about issues of race and racism, and will work together to create a leadership structure that reflects the grassroots base-building, frontline communities that are most impacted by injustices in the food system.
Throughout the Assembly, participants reaffirmed the value of a US Food Sovereignty Alliance as a space for grassroots and national groups to build their power together in the food system and to provide solidarity to each other’s struggles, particularly in the face of corporate domination. We will continue to look for opportunities to take action in solidarity with each other.
Vision and Operating Principles
Posted: October 16, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Vision Statement
We believe that food and water must be treated as basic human rights and we uphold the internationally recognized principles of food sovereignty.
We honor Mother Earth, value biodiversity, and support ecological farming and fishing practices that protect the Earth, animals, and people.
We support movement away from the dominant, corporate-controlled food system, which is shaped by systems of power and oppression. Our solutions must dismantle systemic food injustice rooted in race, class, and gender oppression.
We respect people and other forms of life over profits. We honor everyone’s work in the food system, including unpaid, underpaid, and devalued labor. We work to honor our human commonalities and restore traditional ways of growing, preparing, sharing, and eating food as a community.
Operating Principles
- We embrace international solidarity as central to our organizing and view our struggles in the US as part of a broader global food sovereignty movement.
- We believe in transparency and decentralized leadership and power.
- We are committed to a membership and leadership that reflects the entire population of the US and the full spectrum of people impacted by the food system, particularly low-income communities and communities of color in both rural and urban areas.
- We recognize and prioritize the leadership of women, Indigenous Peoples, people of color, migrant workers, and other food providers and workers marginalized by the global food system.
- We listen to and honor all voices, languages, and forms of knowledge.
- We work to strengthen the links between urban and rural struggles for food justice.
- We seek to create a space of mutual education and knowledge exchange.
- We trace and hold accountable our funding sources and ask that they also honor our vision and these principles.
- We strive to create an inclusive and efficient decision-making process.
- We all commit to contribute the resources needed to ensure a strong alliance.
Movement-Building Goals
- Build and coalesce a domestic food sovereignty movement that identifies itself as part of the broader global movement for food sovereignty and is recognized as such by international counterparts.
- Build strategic partnerships with existing food justice and food worker initiatives in the US around the theme of ending poverty through rebuilding local food economies. Ensure that the Alliance is informed by these initiatives, honors them, and actively supports them.
- Build strategic partnerships with international allies. Facilitate the active participation of US-based groups in global food sovereignty campaigns and initiatives (e.g., representation in the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty and involvement in global days of action called by La Via Campesina and other international allies).
- Lead a broad-based educational campaign on food sovereignty in the US, helping communities to understand how their local struggles are connected to broader struggles and imbalances of power.
- Raise awareness of how US foreign aid, trade, climate, and development policies are undermining food sovereignty of communities across the globe and build political capacity to challenge these policies and offer alternatives.
- Identify common struggles that intersect global and domestic arenas – e.g., land grabbing, water rights, and corporate control of the food system. Build mechanisms for communities to effectively support each other’s struggles, both within the US and across borders and continents.
- Through grassroots organizing and alliance-building, work to build political power to bring about structural change in the US and internationally. Use the Call to Action to End the Food Crisis as a tool for organizing.
- Build strategic alliances with related movements – e.g., climate justice, economic justice, community control of land, water, and others.
- Work collectively to raise and share resources that support the leadership and full participation of grassroots members of the Alliance.
- Actively support the leadership of the next generation.
