US Food Sovereignty Alliance

Category: Food Sovereignty

Contains all pages under the Food Sovereignty menu item.

  • Restoring my Indigeneity: Reflections on South Africa Agroecology Exchange by a Queer Black Urban Farmer

    Article by Dean Jackson
    First in the South Africa-US Agroecology Exchange Article Series
    Dean Jackson is Executive Director of Hilltop Urban Gardens in Tacoma, Washington

    In October I was honored to join seven other delegates on a US-South Africa Agroecology and Food Sovereignty Learning Exchange. As a Black queer and non-binary person who is working to remember and restore my Indigeneity through the work I do in community and at Hilltop Urban Gardens, this trip held both personal and organizational meaning for me. My ancestors were forcibly removed from their homelands. The intergenerational trauma from that displacement and subsequent horrors and enslavement, Jim Crow Laws, sharecropping, and into modern day anti-Blackness, modern day displacement through gentrification and the ongoing fight against white supremacy and white nationalism stay in my consciousness as I work to live my life for liberation and freedom. In 2017 I also committed to find Black joy and healing justice practices. This was my first trip to Africa and off the North American continent, and Hilltop Urban Garden’s first opportunity to connect with other food sovereignty and agroecology farmers internationally. I brought this all with me as I left Seattle-Tacoma International airport with my friend Xolotl Edgar Franks from Community to Community Development. I also brought the intention of coming open and ready to be filled with all that our South African comrades had to share with us.

    Our first visit was to Sibhale Community Food Project in Soweto. SCFP grows food that is used for meals at the health clinics and shared with some of the families that visit the clinic. We met with the Project Coordinator, Calvin Moloto Makgaila. Calvin also helps people grow food at their homes and teaches children about the importance of nutrition. Since HUG does similar work in our community, I felt a special connection to Calvin’s work with SCFP. He’s an awesome agroecologist! We are staying connected through social media and I expect that we will nurture and grow our relationship in the coming years. Hilltop Urban Gardens holds an annual Beloved Community – Food Sovereignty Day of Action in our neighborhood in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s vision of radical transformation. This year we will be raising some cash for SCFP.

    Sibahle Community Food Project – Calvin Moloto Makgaila

     

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    That same day we visited the Greenhouse Project in downtown Johannesburg. One of the things I learned is that after apartheid supposedly legally ended, and Black* people started moving into the cities, there was massive white flight from the city center of Johannesburg. (Sound familiar?) There are now many areas where white folks still own buildings, but have disinvested financially. Because economic apartheid still continues, these largely all Black areas are in a great struggle. (Sound familiar?) Forty percent of the country is unemployed. I also learned that much like the United States, the best land was given to white settlers and Indigenous communities were forcibly removed to the poorest lands in the country.

    I don’t claim that in 11 days I understand much. I got brief snapshots. My goal is to share what I learned and witnessed and, in some cases, give my analysis. I was surprised at the many similarities between post-civil rights era US and post-apartheid era South Africa. There’s much more to learn, process, and share.

    *I’m using Black like we do in the US. It includes Black/African and Colored people which are the racial designations in South Africa.

     

     

  • MEDIA ADVISORY: Launch of Article Series on South Africa-US Agroecology Exchange

     

    Media Contact: Simone Adler, Organizing Director, Community Alliance for Global Justice | simone@cagj.org | 215-873-4672

    International Agroecology Exchange – Reflections from the US Delegation to South Africa

    Article Series November 2017 through January 2018

     

    2017 South Africa-US Agroecology Exchange

    In October 2017, seven delegates from the US representing farmworker and African-American farmer organizations participated in the second South Africa-US Agroecology Exchange. For 10 days, the delegates visited the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo, and the Western Cape to meet with small farmers, farmworkers, Agroecologists, and organizers in the Food Sovereignty movement. Together they learned and exchanged social, political, and technical aspects of Agroecology. The 2017 Agroecology Exchange was co-organized by US Food Sovereignty Alliance members WhyHunger (NY), Community Alliance for Global Justice (WA), and Farmworker Association of Florida, and South Africa-based Surplus Peoples Project. (Please read this press release for more background and see photos from the Exchange.)

    Article Series

    Starting in November and ending in January, members of the delegation will author a series of articles reflecting on different aspects of the Exchange. They will share how their trip to South Africa shaped new ideas, tactics, connections, and other means of continued engagement in the global Food Sovereignty movement, and how they’re bringing these insights to their local organizing.

    The series will also include perspectives on Agroecology in South Africa after learning from on-the-ground practitioners involved in organizations including Surplus Peoples Project, Mopani Farmers Association, African Centre for Biodiversity, Ithemba Farmers Association, the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union, Mawubuye, Trust for Community Organization and Education, Rural Legal Centre, and others.

    Article Series Calendar

    All articles will be published on the US Food Sovereignty Alliance website (www.usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org) on the following Wednesdays:

    1. November 29: Dean Jackson, Hilltop Urban Gardens (Tacoma, WA)
    2. December 6: Edgar Franks, Community to Community Development (Bellingham, WA)
    3. December 13: Alsie Parks, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (New Orleans, LA)
    4. January 3: Shalon Jones & Ben Burkett, of Mississippi Association of Cooperatives (Mississippi)
    5. January 10: Kathia Ramirez, The Farmworker Support Committee (New Jersey)
    6. January 17: Justina Ramirez, Farmworker Association of Florida

    Please help distribute these necessary analyses on the importance of Agroecological Farming!

    Agroecology is an agricultural method based on the traditional knowledge of those who cultivate the land. Its practice is critical to addressing hunger, cooling the planet, and increasing communities’ access to basic resources such as land, water and seeds. The increased corporatization of agriculture in Africa and the US sidelines small-and-medium sized family farmers in service to increased profits for agribusiness. The South Africa-US Agroecology Exchanges exists to directly confront this trend and to exchange experiences, tools, and strategies for resistance and to strengthen the Food Sovereignty movement.

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  • Agroecology Community Leaders Travel to South Africa for Learning Exchange

    Agroecology Community Leaders Travel to South Africa for Learning Exchange

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Media Contacts:
    Simone Adler, Organizing Director, Community Alliance for Global Justice |simone@cagj.org | 215-873-4672
    Corbin Laedlein, Global Linkages Program Coordinator, WhyHunger |corbin@whyhunger.org | +27 064 738 4703 (South Africa)

    Agroecology Community Leaders Travel to South Africa for Learning Exchange

    SEATTLE, WA October 10, 2017 – Today a delegation of seven African American, Latinx, and Mexican farmers and farmworkers from the US arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa to participate in the second South Africa-US Agroecology Exchange. For 10 days, the delegates will travel around urban and rural South Africa to meet with small farmers, farmworkers, Agroecologists, and organizers in the Food Sovereignty movement to learn and exchange social, political, and technical aspects of Agroecology.

    Agroecology is an agricultural method based on the traditional knowledge of those who cultivate the land. Its practice is critical to addressing hunger, cooling the planet, and increasing communities’ access to basic resources such as land, water and seeds. The purpose of the Agroecology Exchanges is to build transnational ties among Agroecologists and grassroots organizations in order to strengthen the global food sovereignty movement. In addition to exchanging Agroecological practices, participants will engage in political education through collective analysis of major agricultural issues facing the US and South Africa and refine strategies to stop the growth and influence of international agribusiness, land loss, and land dispossession.

    The 2017 Agroecology Exchange was co-organized by US Food Sovereignty Alliance members WhyHunger (NY), Community Alliance for Global Justice (WA), and Farmworker Association of Florida, and South Africa-based Surplus Peoples Project. The idea arose from the 2014 Africa-US Food Sovereignty Strategy Summit in Seattle which brought together African and US-based family farmer and community-based organizations and international networks to deepen solidarity and shared analysis of current public and private interventions in African agriculture, most notably by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The first Exchange in 2015 brought two South Africans to the US, where they shared experiences with urban farmers in NYC and Detroit, visited farms in Iowa and California, met African immigrant farmers and Indigenous Mexican farmworkers in Washington, and participated in the Black Urban Growers Conference and the US Food Sovereignty Alliance National Assembly.  They returned to South Africa re-invigorated and supported in new ways through the transnational alliances that were formed.

    The 2017 delegation represents a range of experiences in Agroecology and small-scale urban and rural farming, community organizing, and leading movements at the intersections of Racial, Climate, and Food Justice. Participating are Ben Burkett and Shalon Jones of Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Justina Ramirez of Farmworker Association of Florida, Alsie Parks of Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Kathia Ramirez of New Jersey-based The Farmworker Support Committee, Edgar Franks of Community to Community Development in Bellingham, Washington, and Dean Jackson of Hilltop Urban Gardens in Tacoma, Washington. Corbin Laedlein of WhyHunger is joining as technical support and a lead organizer of the Exchange.

    The delegation will visit Johannesburg, Limpopo, Capetown, Citrusdale, Roberston, and rural areas, with host organizations: Surplus Peoples Project, Mopani Farmers Association, African Centre for Biodiversity, Ithemba Farmers Association, Mawubuye Woman’s Groups, Trust for Community Organization and Education, Rural Legal Centre, and others.

    The exchange is taking place in the context of increased corporatization of agriculture in Africa and the US. The biotech industry, the Gates Foundation, and World Bank have aligned with governments to advance profit-driven agendas favoring corporate agribusiness over small-and-medium sized family farmers. With the threat of the six largest agribusiness corporations merging (Monsanto, Syngenta and others), it is especially important to share experiences, tools, and strategies for resistance and Food Sovereignty.  Follow the US Food Sovereignty Alliance on Facebook (@USFoodSovAlliance) and at usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org for updates.

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  • USFSA’s Participation in the #PeoplesClimate March

    USFSA’s Participation in the #PeoplesClimate March

    The US Food Sovereignty Alliance, an alliance of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental, faith-based, and food producer groups, is joining in solidarity with the It Takes Roots Coalition at the People’s Climate March in Washington D.C. on April 29, 2017 to stand for “the rights, actions, and leadership of communities who are at the frontlines of fighting for water, land, and home.”

    As a US-based organization, the USFSA upholds the right to food as a fundamental human right and works to connect our local and national struggles to global movements led by farmers, fishers and indigenous people. Corporate-controlled industrial agriculture and fishing are significant contributors to climate change and smallholder farmers producing and harvesting food build the resiliency of ecosystems which contribute to both nourishing people and cooling the planet.

    Humans have a right to the resources required to meet their basic needs and provide themselves with shelter, sustenance, and an adequate livelihood. The means of meeting these needs are often embedded in cultural practices that are vital for people’s sense of identity. Food feeds more than the body.

    Climate change increases hunger.  A sustainable and nutritious food supply is essential for the entire human population, but it’s also essential for the economic well-being of food producers.  People who produce food – like farmers and fishers – are often hardest hit by climate change, which directly affects their family’s food supply and sources of income.  With 78 percent of the world’s poor relying on farming to support their families, it’s important to develop sustainable ways of farming that support both the environment and those who rely on crops for economic stability.

    The industrial food system accelerates climate change.  The corporate-controlled, profit-driven industrial food system is responsible for 44-57% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.  Emissions from agriculture, forestry and fisheries have nearly doubled over the past fifty years and could increase an additional 30 percent by 2050.

    Industrial agriculture requires deforestation to make room for endless fields of soybeans, corn, grain, oil palm and sugar cane.  It requires the dispossession (often times violently) of indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers from their territories through land grabs to make room for resource intensive mega plantations and unsustainable resource extraction.  Today small farms account for 90% of all farms yet occupy less than a quarter of the agricultural land.

    The industrial food system relies heavily on the extraction and refinement of fossil fuels to produce chemical insecticides and herbicides which results in nutrient depleted soils in addition to contaminated bodies and ecosystems; the further removal of land from food production; and green gas emissions due to the transportation required for global trade.

    Industrial aquaculture depends on the fossil fuel driven harvest, processing and distribution of wild fish, often depleting resources and ecosystems that small scale fishers depend on while growing salmon and shrimp for first world markets.

    Food sovereignty is climate justice.  Cooling the planet and nourishing people go hand-in-hand.  We can cool the planet AND ensure adequate food and nutrition to the world’s human population by fighting the destructive and building the new.

    Food sovereignty rejects the false solutions of so-called Climate Smart Agriculture (methods that call for increased productivity and intensification) and tax incentivized conservation and reforestation and calls for the scaling out of agroecology.  Agroecology is a science and practice defined in the daily lives of millions worldwide that puts food sovereignty into action.  It represents both a form of agricultural production and a process for organizing and building community self-determination. Agroecology is a way of life and a pathway to end hunger, protect our natural environment and transform society. It is farming, feeding, restoring, preserving, protecting and democratizing, grounded in the ongoing accumulation of knowledge of those relying on nature’s resources to nourish their families and communities. And it begins with an intuitive understanding that ecology is about the interdependent relationships of natural organisms—including humans—to their local environment.

    Food sovereignty calls for the self-determination of indigenous communities, valuing women’s leadership, and the defense of territories, land, water and seeds.  A small fraction of lands and water are still in the possession of indigenous communities, farmers and fishers, nevertheless they continue to produce most of the world’s food, steward the land and defend the rights of Mother Earth. We need a food system that works for and nourishes everyone, not towards the capital gains of a small percentage of people.

    Food sovereignty calls for policies that support local economies and local markets.  Localizing production, processing and distribution of food cuts out the need for extensive food miles resulting in greenhouse gas emissions, and creates and supports jobs through the development of local businesses. This localization redistributes wealth, power, and decision-making into the hands of the people.

    Food sovereignty calls for a deepening and strengthening of democratic processes that puts people before profits and protects nutritious food as a fundamental human right. Food sovereignty is defined by communities’ control over the way food is produced, traded and consumed and protects their rights to define their own food and agriculture systems.

    Food Sovereignty and Climate Justice is only possible through a rural-urban, internationalist alliance led by working people. As resource poor people at home experience the effects of food deserts and people around the world are violently driven from their land in the name of profit, a global response is necessary. The presence of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance in alignment with the goals of the It Takes Roots delegation at the People’s Climate March is an important step in building towards such a broad-based alliance.

    Food Sovereignty and Climate Justice, NOW!

    The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA)