Alternative Nobel Prize Goes to Cuban Group Promoting Organic Revolution

Alternative Nobel Prize Goes to Cuban Group
Promoting Organic Revolution

Dr. Fernando Funes-Aguilar, president of GAO

The Grupo de Agricultura Organica (GAO), the Cuban organic farming association, long at the forefront of the country's transition from industrial to organic agriculture, was named winner of the 1999 Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize.'

The Grupo de Agricultura Organica brings together farmers, farm managers, field experts, researchers, and government officials to develop and promote organic farming methods. Its aim is to convince Cuban farmers and policy-makers that the country's previous high-input farming model was too import-dependent and environmentally damaging to be sustainable, and that the organic alternative has the potential to achieve equally good yields.

'This award is truly an honor for Cuba, for GAO, and for all the farmers, researchers, and policy makers who have struggled to make organic farming work in Cuba,' said Dr. Fernado Funes-Aguilar, President of GAO. 'We hope that our efforts will demonstrate to other countries that conventional chemically-dependent agriculture is not the only way to feed a country.'

GAO was founded in 1993 as the Asociación Cubana de Agricultura Organica (ACAO), but recently changed its name when it was legally incorporated as part of the Cuban Association of Agricultural and Forest Technicians (ACTAF). Over the past five years it has built up an impressive program of lobbying, training courses, workshops, documentation centers, demonstration farms, and exchange visits for farmers, and has held three international conferences.

'I hope this award will awaken the world to the amazing achievements Cuba has made in organic farming and food security,' said Martin Bourque, Sustainable Agriculture Program Director of Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy. Food First has had a scientific and technical exchange program with GAO for several years, and will co-sponsor GAO's Fourth National Encounter on Organic Agriculture in May 2000.

GAO is the first Cuban winner of the Right Livelihood Award. It shares the prize money of approximately US $225,000 with Consolidation of the Amazon Region (COAMA), a Colombian network working for indigenous rights and biodiversity, and with Chilean-Spanish lawyer Juan Garces, for his untiring efforts to bring the former Chilean dictator, General Pinochet, to justice.

For more information on GAO or Food First, you can access the following website: http://www.foodfirst.org/cuba

New Book Offers Fresh View of US Human Rights

In October, Food First Books released America Needs Human Rights, a new anthology that takes a fresh look at hunger and poverty in America through the lens of human rights. The editors of the book conclude that current social policy in the United States violates universally recognized human rights standards, and call for a human rights-based movement to change these policies.

America may be in the midst of a economic boom, but millions of Americans are not sharing the benefits. The gap between rich and poor in America is approaching its worst point in fifty years and is the largest such gap among eighteen industrialized nations. Hunger affects an estimated thirty-six million Americans, at least fourteen million of whom are children. One in five children under the age of five lives in poverty — the highest rate among industrialized countries. It doesn't have to be that way in a nation like ours. America Needs Human Rights is a call to reverse those priorities.

In America Needs Human Rights, editors Anuradha Mittal and Peter Rosset argue that the wealth and resources clearly exist in the U.S. for every man, woman, and child to have access to housing, food, a decent education, health care, and a job that pays a living wage. Ms. Mittal, Policy Director at the Institute, explains that, 'the very survival of our democratic system depends on breaking out of the narrow confines of conventional political views. We need to focus on public policy issues affecting hunger and poverty in America as social and economic human rights issues.'

In the past, the U.S. government has applied the framework of human rights selectively to mostly Third World countries. 'The time has come,' said co-editor Rosset, who is the Executive Director of the Institute, 'to take a hard look at our human rights record right here at home.'

America Needs Human Rights ($13.95 plus $4.50 shipping and handling) can be ordered from Food First by calling (510) 654-4400 or faxing (510) 654-4551, or from our web site, www.foodfirst.org

Cuban Organic Farming Exchange Program Announces National Meeting

Food First's Cuban Organic Farming Exchange Program announces the Organic Agriculture Group--ACTAF IV National Meeting to be held May 17--19, 2000. The Organic Agriculture Group of the Cuban Association of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians (ACTAF), in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), are convening to examine the contribution of organic agriculture and agroecology to the transformation of Cuban agriculture towards sustainable rural development. All interested parties are invited to share a few days of reflection and exchange of experiences.

Topics of discussion include Cuba in the world of sustainable agriculture; support for sustainable rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean; integrated systems of livestock/crop production, the agroecological ideal; biodiversity and biotic regulation; and urban agriculture, among others.

Food First's Fifth Annual Organic Agriculture Delegation to Cuba

February 20-29, 2000

This nine day delegation will give farmers, agronomists, and other agricultural professionals an opportunity to witness first-hand the remarkable innovations being employed in Cuban food production. Delegates will tour farms, urban gardens, research and development facilities, and resource and extension agencies. They will meet the farmers, scientists, and policy makers who have spawned this agroecological revolution, and hear about their challenges and victories.

The total cost, including round trip airfare from Cancún, a double occupancy room, visas, meals, program translation, health insurance, and reading materials is US $1,400.

The deadline for application is December 31, 1999. For an application contact us at foodfirst@foodfirst.org or download it from the website at http://www.foodfirst.org/cuba

The 1999 Delegation report is available at http://www.homestead.com/cubatrip/

Food First 25 Years in Review: The middle years The 1980s were a time of tremendous change. The U.S. government involvement in Central America, the fall of the Marcos regime in the Philippines, and the collapse of the Soviet Union affected not only the countries involved, but also the balance of power in the world. Food First's 1981 publication of Circle of Poison contributed to the formation of the Pesticide Action Network, an organization that quickly grew into an international network of groups concerned about pesticide poisoning. Food First education and advocacy around Central America included the 1984 Central America Television Organizing Project that split off two years later as the lobbying organization, Neighbor to Neighbor. In 1986, the first Global Exchange store opened in a small garage front on 24th Street in San Francisco, and the following year the organization, Global Exchange, was started by Food First Staffers Kevin Danaher and Medea Benjamin. In 1989 Ballantine Books published Frances Moore Lappé's book, Rediscovering America's Values; shortly afterwards Frances moved back to the East Coast to form the Institute for the Arts of Democracy, now known as the Center for Living Democracy.

Food First publications - The 1980s 1981 Circle of Poison David Weir and Mark Schapiro Land Reform: Is It the Answer? A Venezuelan Peasant Speaks An interview with Carlos Rojas by Frances Moore Lappé and Hannes Lorenzen with historical overview by Dr. Howard Handelman Breaking the Circle of Poison: The Integrated Pest Management Revolution in Nicaragua Sean Swezy and Ranier Daxl 1982 Development Debacle: The World Bank and the Philippines Walden Bello, David Kinley, and Elaine Elinson Nicaragua: What Difference Could a Revolution Make? First Edition Joseph Collins with Frances Moore Lappé, Nick Allen, and Paul Rice Now We Can Speak Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins Food First Comic Leonard Rifas 1983 Trading the Future: Farm Exports and the Concentration of Economic Power in Our Food System James Wessel with Mort Hantman A Quiet Violence: View from a Bangladesh Village Betsy Hartmann and James Boyce 1984 No Free Lunch: Food and Revolution in Cuba Today First Edition Medea Benjamin, Joseph Collins, and Michael Scott Food First Curriculum Laurie Rubin 1985 Alternatives to the Peace Corps: Gaining Third World Experience First Edition Central America: We Can Make a Difference Slide show 1986 World Hunger: Twelve Myths First Edition Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins Food Self-Sufficiency in North Korea David Barkin Tough Row to Hoe: Women in Nicaragua's Agricultural Cooperatives Rural Women's Research Team of CIERA, Nicaragua The Challenge to End Hunger Video/slide show Education for Action: Graduate Studies with a Focus on Social Change First Edition Faces of War Video 1987 Don't be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart -- The Story of Elvia Alvarado Translated and edited by Medea Benjamin Betraying the National Interest Frances Moore Lappé, Rachel Schurman, and Kevin Danaher Exploding the Hunger Myths: A High School Curriculum Sonja Williams Help or Hindrance: United States Economic Aid in Central America Kevin Danaher, Phillip Berryman and Medea Benjamin U.S.-Sponsored Low-Intensity Conflict in the Philippines Walden Bello Medea Benjamin receives a BABRA award in 1988 for her translation of the book, Don't Be Afraid, Gringo 1988 Family Farming: A New Economic Vision Marty Strange A Fate Worse Than Debt: The World Financial Crisis and the Poor First Edition Susan George The Missing Piece of the Population Puzzle (later published as Taking Population Seriously) Frances Moore Lappé and Rachel Schurman Elvia Alvarado Video and Documentary 1989 Kerala: Radical Reform as Development in an Indian State Richard W. Franke and Barbara H. Chasin The Philippines: Fire on the Rim Joseph Collins Brave New World? Strategies for Survival in the Global Economy Walden Bello Rediscovering America's Values Frances Moore Lappé

Institute for Food and Development Policy News & Views

Winter 1999, Vol. 21, No. 24, Extra