In the spotlight

By Rick Jonasse

Food and agriculture have been intertwined with community and culture for thousands of years, but the modern food economy with its industrial production and large impersonal grocery chains, not only distances people from the source of their food, but also from one another.

Asiya Wadud was recently featured in a recent New York Times article for on her efforts to forage in the urban landscape for fruit that is not being eaten. She is connecting people in a 200 member fruit exchange network called Forage Oakland.

We Declare:

1. The expansion of plantations for agrofuels is advancing quickly in Guatemala. Over the last five years national and international agribusinesses have been increasing their control over land to plant sugarcane and African palm for this purpose. This is leading to a decrease in the land planted for food, putting the population’s food security at risk. It is also contributing to the weakening of many rural communities, undermining the basic elements of indigenous communities’ cohesion and identity.

GENEVA / BRUSSELS -- The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, on Thursday (June 11, 2009) proposed a minimum set of principles and measures based on human rights in the elaboration of large-scale transnational land acquisitions and leases, more commonly referred to as "land grabbing". His call comes at a time when Governments are preparing to negotiate on responsible investment in agriculture at the forthcoming G8 Summit.

Statement from the African Biodiversity Network

From 23 - 31 May 2009, the African Biodiversity Network (ABN) have gathered together near Mount Kenya, 25 organisations from 10 countries that work with farmers and local communities on the issues of biodiversity, food sovereignty, livelihoods, climate change, traditional knowledge, culture and community rights in Africa.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION to support our Indigenous brothers and sisters in Peru who are literally fighting for their lives at this very moment. In protest of the Peruvian government’s attempts to change laws and the constitution to open up Peru’s Amazon to exploitation by the oil, gas, mining and agribusiness industries to meet its obligations under the Peru-US Free Trade Agreement, Indigenous Amazonians have been protesting non-violently for over 60 days.

Dear Mr. Dennis Avery,

I have read your article “Cubans Starve on a Diet of Lies,” written last March 23, regarding Cuban agriculture. At first, I hesitated to respond to such fundamentally flawed claims. However, because the misinformation propagated in your piece is unfair to Cuba and Cubans, I am doing so now.

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By Fernando Funes Aguilar, PhD., Agro-ecologist

Introduction

Please contact your senator today and forward this by e-mail to friends.
Co-sponsors of this bill include Sen. Mark Begich (D, AK), Sen. Robert Casey (D, PA), Sen. Susan Collins (R, ME), Sen. Richard Durbin (D, ME), Sen. Thomas Harkin (D, IA), and Sen. John Kerry (D, MA). If you live in one of the districts served by these senators, it is important that they hear from you. Please cut and paste this information into a personal letter to your senator.