US Food Sovereignty Alliance

Category: Indigenous Sovereignty

  • Press Statement on the Assassination of Berta Cáceres and Call to Action

    Berta Caceres 1
    Artwork courtesy of Design Action Collective

    March 9, 2016

    Contacts:
    Saulo Araujo, WhyHunger – (617) 735-5899
    Stephen Bartlett, Agricultural Missions – (502) 415-1080
    Lisa Griffith, National Family Farm Coalition – (773) 319-5838
    Carol Schachet, Grassroots International – (617) 524-1400 or (617) 628-3455

    On Thursday, March 3rd, at 1 am CST, Berta Cáceres, a Lenca Indigenous woman and an internationally recognized leader, was assassinated in her home. Berta was supposed to be under special protection by the local authorities because of the innumerable death threats that she received. As General Coordinator of the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), Berta Cáceres was an organizer working at the frontlines in the struggle against the expropriation of land and water from her community by the construction of the Agua Zarca hydropower dam project in the Gualcarque River basin, promoted by the company Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA) and financed by foreign investors.

    She was a courageous voice in defense of Lenca communities and the struggle for the rights of people and of Mother Earth.  During her 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize Award ceremony, Berta shared these words:

    “In our worldview, we are beings who come from the Earth, from the water, and from corn. The Lenca people are ancestral guardians of the rivers, in turn protected by the spirits of young girls, who teach us that giving our lives in various ways for the protection of the rivers is giving our lives for the well-being of humanity and of this planet… Let us wake up! We’re out of time. WE must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction.

    “Our Mother Earth – militarized, fenced-in, poisoned, a place where basic rights are systematically violated – demands that we take action.”

    The atrocious crime happened just three months shy of the seventh anniversary of the coup d’état that devastated Honduras and had rippling effects across the American continent. In the first year of the coup, 43 people were killed – half of them were trade union members. Since 2009, there have been over 100 organizers killed, many of them Indigenous Peoples and small scale farmers engaged in nonviolent struggles for land and territory, including Tomás Garcia of COPINH and Margarita Murillo of La Vía Campesina Honduras. Thousands of people left the country, a place considered one of the most unsafe places on Earth. Unaccompanied children travelled alone to find safety in the US, only to be held in makeshift warehouses and deported back to the very place they had fled. At the same, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization for the American States reports that children from 5 to 23 years are receiving military training in Honduras.

    BertaCaceres 3

    The murder of Berta Cáceres is a direct result of the ill-advised US policies for Latin America. It is past time for the US government to recognize that the financial and political support it has provided to the 2009 military coup and to the current Honduran government only fuels abuses by military personnel and the role of death squads against journalists, students and organizers, especially those at the forefront of defending land, territory, and natural resources.   Berta had warned that DESA was once again invading Lenca territories, this time accompanied by private and public armed forces, including the military police called “Tigres” – trained and financed by the United States.  Furthermore, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is directly supporting the Agua Zarca project through the USAID MERCADO program.

    Besides Berta, other leaders from trade unions and peasant, Indigenous and Afro-descendent organizations are frequent targets of death threats.Currently, the Honduran authorities are holding one member of COPINH and an international ally Gustavo Castro as part of the criminal investigation in a clear attempt to criminalize the victims of Berta’s assassination. We ask friends and allies to participate in local actions to demand a prompt and full independent investigation into the killing of Berta Cáceres, by the Inter American Human Rights Commission. We call on everyone determined to uphold human rights to immediately contact their congressional representatives, advise them that the US support to Honduras and to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project is destroying democratic rule in Honduras and killing innocent people, and demand an immediate end to such support.

    Finally, we support the rightful demands of COPINH and of all Indigenous communities to protect and defend their lands and to prevent unwanted megaprojects in their territory, starting with the Agua Zarca dam project on the sacred Gualcarque River.

    Next Monday, March 14 is International Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers, Water, and Life. Around the country and around the world, organizations will be taking action in tribute to the powerful work Berta Cáceres led to protect the Gualcarque River, and in solidarity with the ongoing work of COPINH and of other movements in defense of water rights around the world. We dedicate ourselves to these struggles.

    In solidarity,

    US Food Sovereignty Alliance, United States
    American Federation of Government Employees (AFL-CIO), Local 3354, United States
    Climate Justice Alliance, United States
    Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, United States
    Food Chain Workers Alliance, United States
    National Family Farm Coalition, United States
    Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, United States
    Rural Coalition, United States
    World Forum of Fisher People, Global
    Action Aid, United States
    Agricultural Missions, United States
    American Jewish World Service, United States
    Campaign for Food Justice, United States
    Centro de Estudios en Ecología Política, Colombia
    CIP –Americas Program, United States
    Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, United States
    Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations, United States
    Community Alliance for Global Justice, United States
    Community to Community, United States
    Cooperation Operation, United States
    Family Farm Defenders, United States
    Farmworker Association of Florida, United States
    Food First, United States
    Global Greengrants Fund, United States
    Grassroots International, United States
    Groundswell International, United States
    Growing Food and Justice Initiative, United States
    Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, United States
    Indigenous Environmental Network, United States
    Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy, United States
    Institute for Social Ecology, United States
    International Development Exchange, United States
    Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary, United States
    Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, United States
    Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, United States
    Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project, United States
    National Family Farm Coalition, United States
    Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, United States
    New Roots, United States
    North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers Land Loss Prevention Project, United States
    Oakland Institute, United States
    Other Worlds, United States
    Partners for the Land & Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples, United States
    People’s Climate Movement-NY, United States
    Pesticide Action Network – North America, United States
    Rede Social de Justi ça e Direitos Humanos, Brazil
    Rural Community Workers Alliance, United States
    Small Planet Institute, United States
    Soil Generation, United States
    Soul Fire Farm, United States
    Southwest Organizing Project, United States
    Southwest Workers Union, United States
    St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America, United States
    Surplus People’s Project, South Africa
    Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville, United States
    Urgent Action Fund, United States
    WhyHunger, United States

     

    Quotes :

    “For decades, Berta Caceres gave everything she had to the causes of true democracy; indigenous power; protection of the earth, the forests, the rivers; rights of women and LGBT individuals; and an end of tyranny by the US government, transnational capital, and Honduran oligarchy. Berta advanced these agendas not only in Honduras, but globally – most recently even in an audience with the Pope. Now, the one thing she did not freely give has been taken from her: her very life. But she is not gone; she lives on in all of us who continue to believe in and work for a just, humane, and ecologically safe world.” – Beverly Bell, Other Worlds

    “The assassination of Berta Caceres is a tremendous loss to us, and to all communities who seek justice and dignity. And her murder is an indictment on an insatiable and immoral system – supported by US policies since the 2009 coup – that grabs ancestral lands from indigenous communities, poisons and privatizes waterways and seeks profit above all else.  She stood courageously in the face of mounting threats, knowing the dangers, and with love in her heart, organized to protect the lands and waters of the Lenca people. We mourn with and call on the international community to take action, to bring justice for Berta and to work to continue her legacy.” – Chung-Wha Hong, Grassroots International

    ¨A Honduran friend who recognizes his Lenca ancestry called me today and declared:  They have killed Lempira again. They killed the person carrying the banner of Indigenous Dignity the Highest, Berta Caceres.  Lempira was the Lenca leader killed by the Spanish at the time of conquest.  I agree:  On March 3, 2016 Lempira Was Killed Again.  I mourn for our collective loss and the loss of a beautiful, inspirational sister of supreme struggle.¨ – Stephen Bartlett, Agricultural Missions

    “Berta was a tenacious leader. She worked tirelessly to bring indigenous and peasant families into international alliances to contain the greed of international capital for local resources. Above all, Berta was a dear friend and a sister in the struggle for many people in Central America and beyond. The loss of Berta Caceres is now our mística, the energy that will unify us and will sustain our struggle for a more just society.” – Saulo Araujo, WhyHunger

    ”At Grassroots Global Justice Alliance we are saddened and enraged by the murder of our compañera Berta. She stood up fiercely against her government and trans-national corporations, but always grounded in her love for people and the land.  We will continue to live up to the example that she set to fight for land, for life, for dignity, and for happiness!   The US government is as much responsible for her death as the people who invaded her home.  We will not forget the fights Berta has been engaged in, Let’s channel her strength and her courage to continue her legacy.” – Cindy Wiesner on behalf of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

    “We are deeply saddened by the death of this courageous leader. Her assassination is another horrific example of the violence against environmental activists and the criminalization of people, particularly women and indigenous peoples, around the world who are fighting to protect basic rights to water, land, forests, and life. May Berta’s blood bring strength and determination to her immediate family, comrades, and all of us.” – Terry Odendahl and Nnimmo Bassey, Global Greengrants Fund

    “The terrible news of the assassination of Berta Cáceres, internationally recognized human rights defender and Lenca indigenous leader, leaves us shocked and saddened, but determined to continue the fight she so boldly led. She was an inspirational example of how the defense of land and territory, and indigenous and women’s rights, can and must be taken up together. We join the call for an independent investigation and immediate suspension of US security aid that has fomented the militarization and post-coup abandonment of human rights in Honduras.” – Laura Carlsen, CIP Americas Program

     

  • Call to Action

    Call to Action

    The following Call to Action is adapted from the Call to Action to End the Food Crisis issued by the US Working Group on the Food Crisis in 2008 and endorsed by several thousand organizations and individuals. It is included here as a springboard for future action of the Alliance, with the understanding that it will evolve to reflect new ideas, voices, and perspectives as the Alliance develops.

    We call on people across the United States to use our political power and actions to fight poverty by rebuilding local food economies, and specifically for food system changes that:

    1) Stabilize prices for farmers and consumers locally, nationally and globally by:

    • Ending rampant financial speculation in food;
    • Establishing and strengthening publicly-owned domestic, regional, and international strategic food reserves;
    • Suspending international trade and investments in industrial-scale biofuels (a.k.a. agrofuels);
    • Transforming corporate-oriented food aid;
    • Ensuring fair prices to farmers, fishers, pastoralists and other food providers;
    • Establishing equitable regional and global trade arrangements that enable countries, communities, and all farmers, fishers, pastoralists and other food providers to meet food and livelihood needs.

    2) Balance power in the food system by:

    • Reducing the political influence of agrifood corporations on public policy, e.g., by strengthening antitrust enforcement on those corporations and reducing their unregulated market power;
    • Convening multi-stakeholder, representative food policy councils at state and local levels.

    3) Make agriculture environmentally sustainable by:

    • Supporting family farms’ transition to agroecological practices through incentives, purchasing and procurement;
    • Halting expansion of government-supported agrofuels (biofuels) and transgenic seeds programs, mandates, and tax incentives and other subsidies
    • Directing state and national farm policy, R&D, education and investment toward agroecological farming and sustainable food businesses.

    4) Guarantee the right to healthy food by building local and regional food systems and fostering social, ecological and economic justice by:

    • Calling on the US to join the community of nations to support the human right to food;
    • Supporting domestic food production and independent, community-based food cooperatives and businesses in the United States and around the world;
    • Establishing living wages, so that everyone can afford healthy food;
    • Implementing full workers’ rights for farm workers and other food system workers;
    • Implementing agrarian reform that takes land out of the hands of large corporations and puts it in the hands of communities for local food production.
    • Strengthening the social safety net for low-income people across the US;
    • Creating a solidarity economy that puts people before corporate profit in the US and around the world.

    Through food sovereignty, the Earth can feed all living things.

  • Member Organizations

    Agrarian Trust (National)
    Agrarian Trust’s mission is to transform our relationships to the land and each other, to increase land access and ownership by farmers and communities, and to foster regenerative agriculture and care for the Earth. AT collaborates with communities of stakeholders to create Agrarian Commons, which support the next generation of farmers and ranchers. AT works for racial and gender equity as an integral part of their efforts toward social, environmental and climate justice.

    Black Dirt Farm Collective (Maryland)
    The Black Dirt Farm Collective is a collective of Black farmers, educators, scientists, agrarians, seed keepers, organizers, and researchers guiding a political education process. Through its cultivation of Afroecology, it works to activate Black agrarian communities’ personal, cultural, and technical capacities to be used as a transformative organizing tool. It does this through co-facilitating political trainings rooted in the wisdom of nature. It sees this as a process of recovering the Black community’s innate agrarian identities, Afro-diasporic histories, and magic.

    Center for Hunger-Free Communities (Pennsylvania)
    The Center for Hunger-Free Communities is a community-engaged research and advocacy center at Drexel University focused on developing innovative, empirically tested solutions to the challenges of hunger and economic insecurity.

    Community Alliance for Global Justice (Washington)
    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 Farm Alliance (Kentucky)
    The Community Farm Alliance works to organize and encourage cooperation among rural and urban citizens through leadership development and grassroots democratic processes to ensure an essential, prosperous place for family-scale agriculture in our economies and communities. It envisions a food and fiber system that provides nutritious food for Kentuckians in a manner that is socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable and that is vital to the state’s economy.

    Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (Michigan)
    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.

    Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation (Michigan)
    The Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation (DPFLI) is Michigan State University’s first urban food research center, developing solutions to economic and nutritional challenges unique in urban environments.

    Duluth Community Garden Project (Minnesota)
    The Duluth Community Garden Program strives to cultivate healthy neighborhoods by providing access to land, resources, and community

    Eastern Woodlands Rematriation (Based in traditional territorities of indigenous peoples throughout what is now the northeast United States)
    Eastern Woodlands Rematriation (EWR) is boldly reclaiming the right to food and relationship to the earth for indigenous peoples. We initiate and help sustain existing community-led food and medicine projects across tribal communities in the Northeast. EWR prioritizes collective leadership and is led entirely by indigenous womxn and two-spirits. From our initial formation, we intentionally decentralize power to raise up folx as experts in their respective communities. Our collective decision-making, community organizing, and collective cultivation practices align with matriarchal principles of earth-centered stewardship. We are restoring polycultural food systems and local fisheries, assuring transmission of traditional medicine and foodways while reengaging spiritual foundations of our livelihoods. We embrace agroecology and anti-oppression/anti-violence frameworks as a pathway to food sovereignty and the rebuilding of indigenous agro-economies.

    Family Farm Defenders (Wisconsin)
    The mission of Family Farm Defenders 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.

    Farmworker Association of Florida (Florida)
    The Farmworker Association of Florida affirms the right of farmworkers to live and work in healthy environments and communities and upholds our commitment to the transformation of our current agricultural system to one that is free of corporate control and that puts power back into the hands of communities and the people.

    Farmworker Support Committee (New Jersey/Pennsylvania)
    The Farmworker Support Committee/El Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas (CATA) is a non-profit, migrant farmworker organization that is governed by and comprised of farmworkers who are actively engaged in the struggle for better working and living conditions. CATA’s mission is to empower and educate farmworkers through leadership development and capacity building so that they are able to make informed decisions regarding the best course of action for their interests.

    Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers (Florida)
    Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers Inc. (FOG) is a nonprofit corporation established in 1987. FOG operates two programs: Education & Outreach and Quality Certification Services.

    Food Chain Workers Alliance (National)
    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 for Maine’s Future (Maine)
    Food for Maine’s Future is dedicated to building a just, secure, sustainable, and democratic food system to the benefit of Maine farmers, fishers, their communities, and the environment. The core work of Food for Maine’s Future is addressing the need for democracy and social justice at all levels of the food system, from localizing production and distribution decisions to eliminating the WTO and the corporate patenting of seeds. It is working to preserve local food cultures, support family and peasant-based production, ensure equitable distribution of healthy food, and support the civil rights, health, and security of all people.

    Food First (California)
    Food First’s mission is to eliminate the injustices that cause hunger.

    Food in Neighborhoods Community Coalition (Kentucky)
    Food in Neighborhoods is a community coalition that supports community efforts to build a just, healthy, and sustainable food system in Louisville, Kentucky.

    Franklin Community Co-op (Massachusetts)
    Franklin Community Co-op produces and distributes food products. The Co-op offers delis, cookies, meats, cheese, ice creams, and bakery products.

    Grassroots International (Massachusetts)
    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.

    Greenhorns (Maine)
    Greenhorns works to promote, recruit and support the next generation of farmers through grassroots media production. Our role is to explore the context in which new farmers face the world, through publications, films, media, and events – and by promoting the important work being done by so many organizations, alliances, trusts and individuals regionally and around the world.

    Groundswell: Center for Local Food and Farming (New York)
    Groundswell Center engages diverse learners and empowers them with skills, knowledge and access to resources, so they can build sustainable land-based livelihoods and equitable local food systems. They help people become successful small-scale farmers and homestead food producers through practical, on-farm training. Our peer-to-peer networks build community and foster skills-sharing among farmers, homesteaders and “food citizens.”

    Grow Hartford Youth Program (Connecticut)
    Grow Hartford is a youth program that advocates against social injustices such as food injustice, racism, and adultism. Our mission is to not only bring awareness to these issues but to also motivate citizens to bring change.

    Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (Minnesota)
    IATP works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.

    Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa)
    ICCI is a member-driven organization taking collective action on issues important to people living and working in Iowa.

    Mississippi Association of Cooperatives (Mississippi)
    MAC provides support for cooperative businesses, family farmers, and rural people which enables them to improve their lives and communities; and to maintain and support training and educational programs that will enhance the quality of life for rural residents.

    National Family Farm Coalition (National)
    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.

    New Roots (Kentucky)
    New Roots works with community stakeholders in Louisville, Kentucky, to maintain a “Fresh Stop Market” model, a food delivery system that ensures affordable, fresh, organic food is available year-round in all neighborhoods.

    Northeast Organic Farming Association (Regional)
    The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) is a coalition of seven NOFA state chapters. Our purpose is to advocate for and educate on organic and sustainable agriculture, family-scale farming and homesteading in rural, suburban and urban areas, agricultural justice and other related policy issues. The NOFA Interstate Council serves as the Board of the NOFA chapters’ coalition.

    Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (Massachusetts)
    NAMA is a fishermen-led organization building a broad movement toward healthy fisheries and fishing communities. NAMA builds deep and trusting relationships with community based fisherman, crew, fishworkers and allies to create effective policy and market strategies.

    Pesticide Action Network – North America (National)
    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.

    Presbyterian Hunger Program (National)
    The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), works to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes. They work with partners in the United States and around the world to understand and address the systemic and structural causes of hunger and poverty through grantmaking, education, organizing, advocacy and movement building.

    Rural Coalition (National)
    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.

    Rural Community Workers Alliance (Missouri)
    A place where people from the Milan community and the Northwest Missouri area can discuss their needs and necessities for the community. This alliance a chance to enhance community involvement, employment, civil rights, and public recreation.

    Rural Vermont (Vermont)
    Rural Vermont’s mission is to lead the resurgence of community-scale agriculture through education, advocacy, and organizing in support of Vermonters living in deep connection to one another and to the land that nourishes us all.

    Somali Bantu Community Association (Maine)
    The mission of the Somali Bantu Community Association is to provide vital transitional services, advocacy, and programming that empowers members of the refugee community to uphold cultural identity and thrive in their new life here in Lewiston/Auburn, Maine.

    SouthWest Organizing Project (New Mexico)
    SWOP was founded in 1980 by young activists of color to empower their communities in he SouthWest to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice. They seek to redefine power relationships by bringing together the collective action, talents, and resources of the people within their communities. SWOP works primarily in low-income communities of color to gain community control of their land and resources. At the core of our work is the belief that all families have the right to healthy, sustainable environments in which to live, work, and play.

    Sustainable Agriculture Louisville (Kentucky)
    Community-led organization dedicated to advance food sovereignty in the city of Louisville.

    Urban Tilth (California)
    Urban Tilth cultivates agriculture in west Contra Costa County to help our community build a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system. We hire and train residents to work with schools, community-based organizations, government agencies, businesses, and individuals to develop the capacity to produce 5% of our own food supply.

    US Friends of the MST (National)
    The Friends of the MST (FMST) is a network of individuals and organizations that support the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) in the struggle for social and economic justice while securing respect for human rights. The FMST works to build solidarity and educate the public in the US and English-speaking world in order to raise the international profile of the MST. The FMST has a direct relationship to the MST and is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization.

    Washington Heights/Inwood Food Council (New York)
    The Washington Heights/Inwood Food Council works to encourage sustainable food systems and healthy food consumption, to create a space for residents to identify their food justice issues and determine their own solutions.

    WhyHunger (New York)
    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.

    Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (National)
    The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) with National Sections covering every continent, an International Secretariat based in Geneva, and a New York office focused on the work of the United Nations (UN).