People Putting Food First #111
New on YouTube! Food First Executive Director, Eric Holt-Giménez speaking to a UC Berkeley class on rural development—the green revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp0m5sz26xw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qyife558z8
1. Bakers March on Washington to Protest Rising Wheat Prices
2. Rising Food Prices, Rising Food Protests
3. The Cooperative Grocery of the East Bay is now open to shop the shelves
4. The Learning Farm: teaching street youths to grow food in Indonesia
1. Bakers March on Washington to Protest Rising Wheat Prices
"Members of the Executive Committee of the National Association of Master Bakers met here today to consider means of dealing with the sharp advance in the price of flour, almost 100 per cent, which, it was declared, is driving many small bakers into bankruptcy.”
-- Chicago Tribune, Sept. 6, 1916
Harkening back to those days of food protests, a Band of Bakers March, organized by the American Baking Association, which represents 85% of the baking industry, led a march on Washington on March 12th, 2008 to protest rising wheat prices. "Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. With the critically low reserves and severe conditions in the wheat markets, the American Bakers Association (ABA) is calling on all bakers to come to Washington and demand action by USDA and Congress," said ABA President and CEO Robb MacKie.
The Energy Independence and Security Act, signed into law in 2007, increases the amount of ethanol to be used in fuel, leading to rising grain costs that—along with rising fuel prices and rising food exports—threaten bakers’ profits and jobs. Durum wheat prices increased from $5.16 per bushel February 2007 to $16.40 by February 2008; a 317% increase. The Bush administration has said it opposes limiting exports.
"ABA has repeatedly urged the White House, the USDA and Congress to provide meaningful relief to alleviate the growing wheat crisis” said MacKie “Unfortunately those calls have gone unheeded. Now is the time for all bakers, from all organizations, to join ABA in coming to Washington to deliver this important message personally.” MacKie and other ABA representatives were to meet with newly confirmed Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and senior White House officials in Washington on the day of the march. MacKie told a news conference: "Our concern is that there is a sense at USDA that this is a temporary blip… it's going to get much worse.”
Links:
http://www.americanbakers.org/MarchonWashington.htm
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/03/us-bakers-march-on-washingto...
2. Rising Food Prices, Rising Food Protests
Food riots are currently on the rise across the globe, caused less by shortfalls in world food production than by the rising food prices that increased 37 percent in 2007, according to the FAO.
The global surge in protests and conflicts over rising food prices began in January 2007 with Mexico's "tortilla crisis" when tortilla prices more than doubled over the previous year. The country's dominant tortilla producers, Gruma (of which ADM owns 27%), claimed that it was passing along the high corn prices that were being pushed up by US ethanol policy. However, public outrage pressured the president to open an investigation as to whether the company had been hoarding supplies so as to artificially lift prices even further. Reports say that 70,000 protesters took to the streets, some with banners reading "no queremos PAN, queremos tortillas" in a play on the word "pan" that rejected both the white bread that some households had been forced to switch to as well as President Calderon's PAN political party. For more, see http://grist.org/comments/food/2007/02/22/tortillas/
As grain prices continued to rise–corn, wheat, and soy have each approximately doubled over the past two years–discontent erupted in places that had not fallen victim to such overt price-gouging.
• Italy: In September, Italians boycotted their national food, pasta, for one day to protest a jump in the cost of wheat and other staples. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6992444.stm
• Morocco: Protesters stymied government plans to raise the price of bread by 30% after a confrontation that injured at least 50 people. Violence returned in January, killing 60. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F6F855F2-BF6D-4C99-BBF9-E21FDA362...
• Mauritania: In November, one person died and several were injured after police clashed with groups of mostly young people complaining about the price of cereals and oils. http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__...
• Senegal: Riots were sparked after the president issued an order to evict street vendors in a climate of growing discontent over food prices and inequality. "Prices of basic commodities are reaching incomprehensible levels," a union leader told the Integrated Regional Information Networks. http://allafrica.com/stories/200711220888.html
• Indonesia: In January, 10,000 protesters pressured the government to lift an import tax on soy, a predominately imported staple source of protein for working people, that had doubled in price on world markets. http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20080215-498...
• Burkina Faso: In February rioters targeted government buildings two weeks after officials pledged to take "strong measures" to control the rising prices of food and other basic goods. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76905
• Cameroon: At least 20 people were killed in the country's worst rioting in 15 years after the president announced an extension to his regime's rule. Protesters demanded cuts in food and fuel prices as well as the president's resignation. http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2934234720080229?pageNumber=1&...
• Yemen and Middle East: A dozen people were killed in a string of protests over bread prices that have doubled over the past four months. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/world/middleeast/25economy.html?_r=1&r...
• Egypt: Shortages of subsidized bread have created long lines, making for tense situations that have occasionally turned violent. At least 10 people died during the first two weeks of March outside of bakeries that produce subsidized bread. http://www.reliefmine.com/articles/preparedness/61-preparedness/101-food...
3. The Cooperative Grocery of the East Bay is now open to shop the shelves
Every Saturday, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., members of The CoG http://thecog.org/ can now shop the shelves. CoG member Marti Mogensen says, “I’m getting used to ordering online and find that it cuts down on impulse buying, but it’s nice to have the warehouse open on Saturdays because then members can bring friends and introduce them to the CoG.” It’s also a great way to meet other members and feel like part of a community of people. Elisa Edwards, one of the founding members of the CoG, says that, “people come in and see people they’ve known for years but have lost touch with and then they’re able to reconnect. It’s a real community of like-minded people.”
The COG is a co-op grocery housed in a warehouse at 1450 67th Street in Emeryville, California. Up until recently, the store was only open for online shopping. Eventually, The CoG is slated to become a full-service grocery store, but currently all shopping is online for pick-up on Tues, Thurs, and Saturday, and Saturday shopping from the shelves. The CoG’s product team buys the most local, sustainable options in each product category.
Other CoG News:
The CoG is having a membership drive. Join by May 1st and get $10 off your first order.
The CoG is now a Full Belly Farm CSA drop off point for members. Drop off days are Fridays.
You must be a member to shop at The CoG. All members must donate 2 1⁄2 hours of labor per month. Members invest $100, which is refundable if they leave the CoG, plus a nonrefundable $25 membership fee with the option of paying $10/month for 10 months on the investment portion. Low-income rates are $10 investment and $5 nonrefundable membership fee.
4. The Learning Farm: teaching street youths to grow food in Indonesia
In the hills above Jakarta, Jiway Tung, a Chinese American from New York, is teaching 30 former street kids a new way of life. Jiway moved to Indonesia in 1998 to learn the White Crane form of martial arts, but ended up staying and starting The Learning Farm in 2005, with funding from World Education and a private donor. The land they use is owned by a Father Agatho, a pioneer in organic farming in Indonesia. Poor children from all over Indonesia come here to learn life skills, reading, math, computers, english, and organic agriculture as a potential career or business opportunity.
Many of Indonesia’s poor youth move to the cities in search of jobs but are relegated to poverty due to lack of opportunity and education. Jiway says that it’s difficult for street kids to move from that urban environment, where they have an open schedule and access to easy money, to one where they must get up early and work hard all day.
One student, Joko, says "before I came to The Learning Farm (TLF), I was on the streets every day. I got money from playing music and parking cars. I had no place of my own to stay..." Joko saved money from playing music in Yogyakarta to pay his way to TLF.
Since leaving The Learning Farm Joko and three friends have started an organic farm in Kaliurang, outside Yogyakarta. At first people thought they were escaped criminals and didn’t trust them. "After a while” says Joko “people started to visit and approach us, asking what we were planting and why our cultivation techniques are so different than what they've known before. They ask why we do companion planting and rotations, why we plant herbs and living fences." Joko says that he is happy and proud, now that he has knowledge of farming and marketing his produce “But sometimes I am still overcome by feelings of insecurity, how can we, just street youths, be capable and so overconfident as to dare to teach other people?”
Jiway is worried, however, because funding runs out in June 2008. They are exploring ways to finance the training program thru expanding organic vegetable production and sales but need more time to do so. Unless they find alternative sources for the short term they will need to close up. For more information: The Learning Farm (Yayasan Karang Widya) contact (+62) 251 254024 / (+62) 812 111 0866 or jiwaytung@gmail.com.
More on TLF at: http://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/features/indonesia_learning_to_grow.c...
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This edition of People Putting Food First was written by Rick Jonasse, Loren Peabody, and Vanessa Barrington.
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