OPEN LETTER to Mr Jacques Diouf Secretary General
of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, Prime
Minister of Japan, President of the G8, Mr. John W. Ashe, Permanent UN
representative, Antigua and Barbuda's Permanent and Chairman of the Group of 77

From: Henry Saragih, International Coordinator for La Via Campesina Jakarta,
April 28, 2008

This week's headlines are ablaze with reports of food riots. Seemingly overnight, the world went from cheap food and surpluses to food prices spiking 80% and countries banning exports of food in an attempt to stave off shortages.

Farmers mobilize around the world and propose solutions to the food price
crisis

(Jakarta, 17 April 1008)
Small farmer's organizations and their allies are celebrating today the International Day of Peasant's Struggle commemorating the massacre of 19 landless workers, women and men struggling for land in Brazil 12 years ago. Today dozens of groups, communities and organizations in about 20 countries around the world are organizing farmer's markets, conferences, direct actions, cultural activities, demonstrations... to defend their right to food and to feed their communities.

World Food Day theme seeks renewed commitment to the Right to Food

16 October 2007 - FAO today called for a renewed commitment to guarantee the right to food for the world's hundreds of millions of hungry people.

Speaking at the World Food Day ceremony on this year’s theme, "The Right to Food," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf asked: “if our planet produces enough food to feed its entire population, why do 854 million people still go to sleep on an empty stomach?” At the same time, Diouf said that “a right is not a right if it cannot be claimed.”

This is a listing of Food Policy Councils in the U.S. If you know of a new Food Policy Council that should be added, please e-mail foodfirst (at) foodfirst.org. If you see an organization listed that in now defunct, you can also tell us to remove it from the list. And finally if you find web site links that don't work or have changed, tell us about that. Thanks for helping us keep this listing up to date.

ARIZONA

Phoenix
Arizona Food and Agricultural Policy Coalition
Community Food Connections

Public policy must be fashioned to protect and strengthen the future of our food supply, environment, public health, and rural communities. A new U.S. farm bill and international trade agreements must reverse the current policy that uses taxpayer dollars as a substitute for income not provided to farmers through the low prices paid by multinational corporations for products from our nation’s farms and ranches. Family farms must help prevent global warming and be an essential source of renewable energy with respect for local control. Low commodity prices and high taxpayer expenses combine to exacerbate the nation’s budget and trade deficit, create cheap feed that encourages destructive industrial production of livestock, and spread the curses of unhealthy diet and low farm income abroad while destroying economic opportunity on family farms and in rural communities here at home.

In 2007, Congress will renew the Farm Bill. Unfortunately for California, we have never received our fair share of Farm Bill benefits. Historically, Farm Bill subsidies have flowed disproportionately to very large farms growing a handful of commodity crops in a few regions of the country. Much less support has gone to diversified farming regions like California that grow fruit and vegetable crops. Far too little funding has gone to support sustainable farming practices that deliver maximum environmental benefits and healthy food.

Presented to the People and to the Congress of the United States of America
Hank Herrera, March 18, 2007

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

That the American People deserve access to fresh, whole, nutritious, affordable real food from American Farmers on a daily basis;

That the current use of American farmland and the predominant practices of American agriculture fail to achieve this purpose;

That the physical, social, cultural and spiritual health of the American People absolutely depends on healthy soil, healthy water, healthy plants and healthy animals living in diverse splendor upon the land and in the waters of this planet; and

The united organizations of the National Union of Autonomous Regional Campesino Organizations (UNORCA), collaborating at the national summit, “Corn, Tortillas and Food Sovereignty” on January 26th in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico declare that:

We oppose the rise in prices resulting from the speculative and monopolistic practices of the big commercial businesses that control the Mexican corn market. We demand that the government implement a policy that encourages domestic production, as well as adequately regulate both supply and prices of staple crops and staple foods.