Come to Milwaukee and help grow the good food revolution. Hosted by Growing Power—a national organization headed by the sustainable urban farmer and MacArthur Fellow Will Allen—this international conference will teach the participant how to plan, develop and grow small farms in urban and rural areas. Learn how you can grow food year-round, no matter what the climate, and how you can build markets for small farms. See how you can play a part in creating a new food system that fosters better health and more closely-knit communities.

Pre-conference workshops: One-day intensive workshops will be held September 8th and September 9th at Growing Power’s International Training Center.

Understand how non-profit organizations can work cooperatively with city and state governments, as well as for-profit and non-profit agricultural enterprises.

See how to create successful farm-to-school initiatives by drawing on Growing Power experiences in Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago.

Learn how to grow relationships with corporations that can help support locally grown food initiatives.

Discover how to create and utilize renewable energy in local agricultural systems.

Learn about the development of multi-story vertical farms.
Find how social justice and food justice can be fostered through the local and regional farm system.

Visit successful small farms in the Milwaukee metropolitan area.
Enjoy food grown by local and regional farmers and prepared by local chefs!

Over 2,000 participants expected with opportunities to network and mingle
Exhibit hall available
Register, sponsor, exhibit, participate in a panel.
Details at: http://growingpowerfarmconference.org/

I hope to see some of you at the 4th Annual Farm & Food Leadership Conference, "Taking Back Control of Our Food Supply". Jim Hightower will be our keynote speaker, and the lunches will be prepared with local, sustainably raised foods.

WHAT: An exciting gathering of activists, farmers & ranchers, consumers, and nonprofits who care about the state of our food and food choices. Come learn about the latest developments in agriculture and food, and get the tools you need to help make a difference!

For more information, visit http://farmandranchfreedom.org/conference-2010

TOPICS and SPEAKERS

* Keynote, Jim Hightower
* Genetically Modified Foods, Howard Vlieger, FARFA
* Codex: What's happening with supplements? Scott Tipps, National Health Federation
* Update from D.C., Patty Lovera, Food & Water Watch
* Food Policy Councils, Marla Camp, Edible Austin
* How to Develop an Effective Message, Colin Rowan, Rowan Communications
* National Animal ID System: What Has Changed? Judith McGeary, FARFA
* How to Lobby
* Getting Food From Farm to Table: Distribution Issues
* Land and Water Use Issues

And more! The full list will be posted on the conference page soon.

REGISTRATION

Go to http://farmandranchfreedom.org/conference-2010 to register online or download a registration form and mail it to P.O. Box 809, Cameron, TX 76520.

Sponsors include:

Edible Austin
Edible Dallas-Ft Worth
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
Growing Good Things to Eat
Sustainable Food Center
Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association
Wheatsville Co-op

These three tours, offered jointly by Food First and Global Exchange, give you a front row seat into how farmers in diverse cultures are building local food sovereignty.

Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It ensures that the rights to use and manage lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food."
--Declaration of the Forum on Food Sovereignty, Nyéléni, Mali, 2007

Dates for Upcoming Food Sovereignty Tours

October 7-19, 2010 Bolivia Food & Farms Tour.
For more details: http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2920

February 2011 Food Sovereignty and the Green Revolution in Africa: World Social Forum in Dakar and tour of Senegal and Mali.
For more details: http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2934

Basque Country: Food Sovereignty and Cooperative Production
May 21-28, 2011
For more details: http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/3055

For more information on all food sovereignty tours go to:
http://www.foodsovereigntytours.org/

Building a Movement of Movements: Power in Unity

Emerging from the US Social Forum held in Detroit June 22-26, the US Food
Sovereignty Alliance, in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, Climate Justice
activists, Immigrants and Peoples marginalized from their lands and seas and
fighting to defend and enrich their cultures across the world, invites
participants of the food justice and sovereignty movement, especially
members of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, to act during the week of
October 10-17. Another World Is Possible! And a Dynamic US Social Justice
Movement is Necessary (and beginning to coalesce)!

October 10: Global Work Party on Climate
October 12: Day of Indigenous Resistance to Conquest
October 16: World Food Day
October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

October 10: Climate justice activists are ramping up for actions to awaken the world to halt and reverse the dramatic challenge of climate chaos and warming. 350.org is calling for actions on 10/10/10. Since as much as
35%-57% of greenhouse gases are emitted as a result of industrial
agricultural monocultures and the associated loss of soil fertility and
bio-diverse landscapes (that sequester carbon), we understand that a defense
and resurgence of small-scale farming can both eliminate hunger and cool
down the planet. Let’s act in solidarity with all who aspire to care for
our planet for the benefit of 7 generations to come.

October 12: Day of Indigenous Resistance to Conquest (formerly Columbus
Day) is celebrated across the Americas with strong actions aimed at
recovering lands, watersheds and the support of local and national
governments to the needs of family farmers (campesinos), indigenous peoples
and their displaced urban allies and relatives living on the margins of
unjust economies dominated by oligarchs and transnational corporations.
Increasing corporate land grabbing is a reality across the U.S. in
marginalized urban and rural communities in need of a land base to secure
basic needs and to ensure social resilience in the face of numerous crises.
Let us act to demand and claim inclusive access to land, water and seeds for
all who would steward and produce food on those lands.

October 16: World Food Day. On this day La Via Campesina, a global
movement fighting for food sovereignty, agrarian reform, the defense of
seeds, water and land and fair trade, calls for actions against
transnational corporations responsible for privatizing seeds, promoting a
chemical-dependent, industrial-scale form of agriculture that bankrupts and
displaces peoples of the land. The power of corporations to despoil the land
and sea has reached epic proportions. In the Gulf of Mexico, one single oil
corporation has, through its greed and rapacious business practices,
threatened the food sovereignty of everyone in the U.S. who depend on sea
food for a considerable portion of our diet. It has also crushed the
economies of hundreds of thousands of fisherfolk, restaurant workers and
small-scale tourism businesses in the Gulf region.

October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
October 10-17, 2010 is the Churches Week of Action on Food also, and
denominations and congregations around the world are praying, studying and
acting during this historic week. Guides, worship resources and action ideas
are available at

Actions for this week could range from dedicating a new hoop house all the
way to occupying the office of an intransigent transnational corporation…
accessing land (on vacant lots, church campuses, easements, school yards!)
to grow food… or simply sharing a homegrown meal with diverse people of your
community who want to act.

To get involved or inform us of actions you will be planning, contact the
Co-facilitators of the Grassroots Mobilization & Action committee: Tristan
Quinn-Thibodeau, Why Hunger: Tristan@whyhunger.org (212) 629-8850 or
Stephen Bartlett, Agricultural Missions: sbartlett@ag-missions.org 502 896
9171 Also consider joining this committee on our periodic conference calls!
www.usfoodcrisisgroup.org

Justice for People of the Land and Sea
Social Transformation for Resilience in the face of Multiple Crises
Healthy Food for All!

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Hotel right next to the French Quarter. Sleeping room rates are $139.

Great food and field trips. Fascinating content. As close to Cuba in spirit as we can get. Don’t miss it.

Watch for details about registration at the Community Food Security Coalition website: www.foodsecurity.org

CFSC Executive Director Andy Fisher announced that Cuban Head of State Raul Castro will be providing the keynote address at the scheduled for New Orleans on October 16-19, 2010.

For details and registration go to:
http://communityfoodconference.org/14/

Pre-conference trainings on November 11.

Don't miss it! This year, we'll build from the success of NESAWG's 2009 "It Takes a Region" conference. Once again, we'll look at exciting efforts underway in our region -- including alternative supply chain networks, food system assessments, regional planning, infrastructure initiatives, and policy advocacy. We'll move our work forward and address pressing new issues in work groups, listening sessions, topical break-outs and open networking. We’ll continue to explore scale, size, geography and cross-sector partnerships. Watch for new features this year!

PRELIMINARY AGENDA and CONFERENCE INFORMATION: Visit www.ittakesaregion.org.

REGISTRATION: OPENS SEPTEMBER 1. EARLY BIRD DEADLINE is OCTOBER 22. Scholarships and NESAWG member rates available. You may link to online registration via www.ittakesaregion.org.

Over 100,000 concerned citizens from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia are expected to converge on Cancun, including leading farm, food, Fair Trade, climate justice, and anti-GE activists. They'll attend a wide range of workshops, forums, and cultural events. Following up on the theme of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, "Another World is Possible," the emphasis in Cancun will be on presenting solutions and alternatives to the climate crisis.

Come for teach-ins and demonstrations.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND USDA SET DATES FOR WORKSHOPS TO EXPLORE COMPETITION AND REGULATORY ISSUES IN THE AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY.

This margins workshop will look at the discrepancies between the prices received by farmers and the prices paid by consumers. As a concluding event, discussions from previous workshops will be incorporated into the analysis of agriculture markets nationally.

This is the fifth and final workshop in a series of workshops convened by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Workshops to be held in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today the dates and locations of joint public workshops that will explore competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. The workshops, which were first announced by Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Aug. 5, 2009, are the first joint Department of Justice/USDA workshops ever to be held to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. The all-day workshops, which will begin in March 2010, will be held in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin.

The goals of the workshops are to promote dialogue among interested parties and foster learning with respect to the appropriate legal and economic analyses of these issues, as well as to listen to and learn from parties with experience in the agriculture sector.

The current schedule for the workshops is as follows:

March 12, 2010 – Issues of Concern to Farmers – Ankeny, Iowa

This event will serve as an introduction to the series of workshops, but
also will focus specifically on issues facing crop farmers. Specific areas of
focus may include seed technology, vertical integration, market transparency and buyer power.

FFA Enrichment Center
1055 Southwest Prairie Trail Parkway
Ankeny, Iowa
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May 21, 2010 – Poultry Industry – Normal, Alabama

Specific areas of focus may include production contracts in the poultry
industry, concentration and buyer power.

Alabama A&M University
Auditorium, James I. Dawson Cooperative Extension Building
4900 Meridian St.
Normal, AL
------
June 7, 2010 – Dairy Industry – Madison, Wisconsin

Specific areas of focus may include concentration, marketplace transparency and vertical integration in the dairy industry.

University of Wisconsin
Great Hall, Memorial Union
800 Langdon St.
Madison, WI
------
Aug. 26, 2010 – Livestock Industry – Fort Collins, Colorado

Specific areas of focus will address beef, hog and other animal sectors and
may include enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act and concentration.

Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO
-------
Dec. 8, 2010 – Margins – Washington, D.C.

This workshop will look at the discrepancies between the prices received by farmers and the prices paid by consumers. As a concluding event, discussions from previous workshops will be incorporated into the analysis of agriculture markets nationally.

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Jefferson Auditorium
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C.

Each workshop may feature keynote speakers, general expert panels, and
break-out panels that will address more narrowly-focused issues. At each
workshop, the public will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide
comments.

The attendance and participation of the public is encouraged throughout the series of workshops. With the goals of generating further dialogue and understanding the issues, the workshops will involve farmers, ranchers, processors, consumer groups, agribusinesses, government officials and academics. This collection of stakeholders will create a forum for discussion and will ensure various industry perspectives.

The Department of Justice and USDA are also asking for comments in advance of the workshops. Interested parties should submit written comments in both paper and electronic form to the Department of Justice no later than Dec. 31, 2009.

All comments received will be publicly posted. Two paper copies should be
addressed to the Legal Policy Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 5th Street, NW, Suite 11700, Washington, D.C. 20001. The electronic version of each comment should be submitted to agriculturalworkshops@usdoj.gov.

Additional updates and information, including agendas and speakers, will be posted on the Antitrust Division's events website at www.usdoj.gov/atr/events.htm.