US Food Sovereignty Alliance

Category: Defense of Mother Earth

  • USFSA Report on Seeds and Seed Practices across the US

    USFSA Report on Seeds and Seed Practices across the US

    The Alliance wishes to dedicate this publication to Charity Hicks, who joined the ancestors on July 8, 2014, after a valiant fight for life after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in New York City as she was preparing to speak at the Left Forum. Every one of us that knew her will deeply miss her and her powerful voice for justice and inclusion.

    Charity worked with a small team from the Alliance’s Rights of Mother Earth workgroup to compile the results of a seed survey into this report, that paints a picture of the experiences of seed savers and seed culture keepers in the United States. This preliminary report offers an overview, anecdotes and stories of seed keeping practices, and the motivations of seed savers. The report also includes resources (with web links on the electronic version) and a set of individual, community, national and international Recommendations for Action for Seed Freedom, including how to resist seed monopolies.

    The report is based on surveys of seed savers and seed advocates from around the United States. It documents who saves seeds, as well as why, where and which ones. Responses reveal that many growers save and share seeds to produce healthy food, preserve their cultural heritage, and to defy efforts by transnational agribusinesses to privately patent and monopolize control of seeds.

    The report is especially pertinent during 2014, the International Year of Family Farming, as designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

    Based on the surveys and the Call to Action of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, the report provides individual, community, national and international action recommendations aimed at defending seeds from privatization and preserving them for the common good.

    The U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance presents this report in solidarity with La Via Campesina in its global efforts to defend food and seed sovereignty.

  • Climate Justice Alliance Challenges “Greenwashing” in Obama’s Climate Action Plan, Puts Frontline Communities First

    The Climate Justice Alliance, of which the USFSA is a member, Releases Statement on President Obama’s Climate Action Plan
    July 9th, 2013

    We support President Obama’s efforts to implement a national Climate Action Plan that is comprehensive, achievable, and promotes a socially and environmentally just future for everyone. Communities on the frontlines of the impacts of climate change are all too aware of the urgency President Obama articulated in framing the Climate Action Plan. These communities are experienced and intimately knowledgeable about the causes of climate change because these causes have long been the source of community and environmental degradation. For this reason, we are also deeply concerned about some of the proposals set forth.

    On the one hand, the Plan identifies energy efficiency and renewable energy as solutions for the future, yet it also announces the scaling up destructive energy sources, including substantial federal investment in “advanced fossil fuel technology” (a euphemism for coal), natural gas infrastructure, that includes hydraulic fracturing, agrofuels, and nuclear power – all in the name of “clean energy.” At the same time that it calls upon EPA’s regulatory authority, the Plan hinges on dangerous and ineffective practices, such as carbon markets and offsets, as an implementation strategy. While hinting at a possible rejection of a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, the Plan leaves the door open for the President to approve the pipeline based on the State Department’s deeply flawed Environmental Impact Statement for the project. And at the same time that it acknowledges the need to adapt to the various types of climate impacts that are already upon us, the Plan stops short of supporting the kind of community-based solutions that can develop true resilience. We are concerned that the Plan continues a deep reliance and commitment to corporate welfare and subjugation of the environment and communities to the demands of profit, free trade, and the commodification of nature.

    (more…)

  • Defense of Mother Earth

    Defense of Mother Earth


    Indigenous Environmental Network Marches for Climate Change

    Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) took the lead at the Forward on Climate march of 35,000 people in DC, protesting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and asking for limits on carbon pollution and investment in renewable energies. While in DC, five indigenous and First Nation women of the Women’s Earth Climate Caucus delivered a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency from IEN, Climate Justice Alignment and others calling for stronger action on climate change.

    IEN is a member of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance and Simone Senogles co-chairs the Defense of Mother Earth Work Team with Sara Mersha of Grassroots International.

  • Resources

    Resources