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FOOD AS A HUMAN RIGHT MOVEMENT-BUILDING FOR FOOD SOVEREIGNTY |
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SECTION
1
HAITIANS: Successful Planting
Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program
U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance Launched
Training is Forever
Justice for Women is Justice for All
Capacity Restoration Following Disasters
SECTION
3
Organizations |
COMMODITY SPECULATION WITHOUT LIMITS=MASS HUNGER
The weak and incomplete reforms that followed the bursting of the Financial Bubble have failed to reign in wild west speculation in the commodities futures markets. In any market whereby speculative capital flows outweigh the actual value of the commodities themselves, any slight rise or fall of a baseline market price results in extremely volatile rises and falls in price.
Despite sufficient food production worldwide, speculation is leading the world back to commodity prices that make enough food out of reach to more than 1 billion people. Uprisings in places like Tunisia, Egypt are made more urgent by the reality of hunger and deepening impoverishment. Egypt may be a good place to take stock of this situation. In Pharaohnic Egypt, grain reserves amassed during time of abundance helped buffer the impact of periodic drought years. Such grain reserves also stabilized the price of food.
Under neo-liberal, corporate-led economic policies, grain reserves do not fit into the logic of quarterly profit-taking, shrinking government coffers and market-driven policy. We need to bring back grain reserves democratically controlled by farmers. HAITIANS: SUCCESSFUL PLANTING DURING THE FIRST RAINS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE
Marchers from Papay to Hinche to defend the biodiversity of their crop seeds against seed dumping from abroad, June 4, 2010.
Agricultural Missions, together with other organizations and church agencies, was able to raise and send sufficient funds to a coalition of Haitian peasant farmer organizations (FONDAMA) in order to replace the saved seeds used to feed displaced earthquake victims. Those replacement seeds were purchased in Haiti from private stocks of well-adapted (and open-pollinated) corn, beans and vegetables, and distributed to thousands of farmers across Haiti. In addition, thousands of farm tools were provided and distributed to otherwise idle hands. Thirty artisans were trained to produce grain silos for the storage of next year's planting seed by communities and 10,000 Haitian farmers marched in June to protest the prospect of what they called the "mortal gift" of 460 tons of hybrid seeds, much of it coated with poisons and coming from abroad. The struggle for Food Sovereignty in Haiti continues!
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY CONVERGENCE IN DETROIT: AMI FACILITATES MOVEMENT-BUILDING
AMI co-led a Peoples Movement Assembly for Food Sovereignty Canopy at the U.S. social Forum in Detroit, June 2010.
The Agricultural Missions' annual Study session was experienced as part of the 2nd U.S. Social Forum held in Detroit late June 2010. Agricultural Missions' delegates took part in the Food Sovereignty Canopy tract, including the first Peoples' Movement Assembly (PMA) on Food Sovereignty that brought hundred to begin to build a food justice and sustainability platform that responds to both rural and urban peoples and their struggles.
AMI also co-hosted a Food Sovereignty Reception that provide locally sourced food and featured speakers from Honduras, Haiti, Palestine, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The Food Crisis Working Group expanded its base and widened its scope, focusing on land access and liberation, the defense of common goods of nature and a commitment to dismantle racism as key elements fro the U.S. food sovereignty struggle. ALL ORGANIZING STANDS ON THE STRENGTH OF LOCAL ORGANIZING: SOIL, HANDS FERTILITY AND JOY THROUGH FARMING IN KENTUCKY!
Refugee gardeners from Burma, Bhutan and Congo received refurbished bicycles, spare tires and patch kits which greatly eased the effort of tending their gardens.
The 8th annual summer gardening camp, serving some 60-plus children, took place in Louisville, co-sponsored by AMI partner Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville (SAL) and Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. SAL also launched the first Training Program for (adult) Aspiring Farmers, Urban Agriculturalists and Food Justice Advocates, which attracted nine participants, seven of whom completed the comprehensive eight-month program, including seminars featuring farmer-to-farmer exchange, studies of soil types and fertility, agro-ecology, "natural farming," crop timing and management, forest products, economics of scale, solidarity economy marketing, food sovereignty and business planning. Funds were raised to refurbish ten bicycles for refugee gardeners in Louisville. Several trainings and consultations were done by AMI staff with churches and groups starting community gardens or other local food economy projects. COMMUNITY IS THE CENTER OF DEVELOPMENT
Farmer in Liberia in his vegetable seedbed.
Lasting solutions to the food crisis must be viewed in the larger context of holistic development that is community centered and controlled by those who are most affected. The west Africa Initiative (WAI) is one such effort that is being implemented by AMI in Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries recovering from decades of civil war. WAI is an ecumenically supported effort that was initially supported by three agencies of the Presbyterian Church (USA) - Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian disaster Assistance and Self Development of People - and now joined by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and the United Church of Christ. In partnership with the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone (CCSL) and local communities in both countries, this program aims to accompany rural people through the development of the necessary human and material resources required from development on a sustainable basis, all within the local community. Now in its third year, this program trained development facilitators from the communities and supported their work, trained farmers' groups in appropriate production technologies, supported farmers' groups with tools and seeds. The exit phase involves the building of community organizations and the establishment of community-based businesses to provide the resources for continuation of the program. REFUGEE AGRICULTURAL PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM
Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program completes third year with eighty families from Africa and Asia attaining food security. AMI staff assisted in organizing regional RAPP conference, bringing program leaders and refugee farmers from six Midwest states, and performing agricultural extension input distribution and garden management functions on lands doubles in size from the previous year.
A cowpea variety brought from Paraguay years ago caught the attention of local agriculturalists as it was the only bean variety, widely distributed among refugee gardeners, to withstand an infestation of Mexican bean beetle. Three community gatherings brought non-refugees to work and play with the refugee farmer families, including a field work day on 10-10-10, day of action against climate change.
U.S. FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ALLIANCE LAUNCHED IN NEW ORLEANS ON WORLD FOOD DAY
Culminating almost three years of organizing at the national level, the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) was launched on October 16 at the Bourbon Street protest in New Orleans in support of exploited restaurant workers.
The Community Food Security Coalition's annual meeting which followed was driven towards "food sovereignty" principles by the USFSA member organizations' numerous workshops, panels and seminars.
AMI staff helped facilitate several of these events, together with grassroots partners such as the Family Farm Defenders (who won the coveted Food Sovereignty Prize for 2010), the Muskogee Food Sovereignty Network of Oklahoma, the Indigenous and Latino organization Community to Community from Bellingham, Washington and the Detroit Black Farmers Food Security Network. Woman from Community to Community holds a handmade sign in protest and solidarity with restaurant workers. TRAINING IS FOREVER
Photos above: (1) Food preparation and sale provides income for women's cooperatives; (2) Constructing Kenya Top Bar Bee Hives; (3) AMI actively promotes women in leadership roles.
Since its inception ten years ago, Agricultural Missions has accompanied the Sustainable Agricultural and Development Program (SA&D) of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) by providing guidance in the development of the initial conceptual framework, training and technical services on an ongoing basis. This program emphasizes training of farmers in low cost, appropriate agricultural production technologies and in nutrition improvement. this is an entirely community-centered program in which the training events take place in farmers' field, using the Farmer field School methodology. the philosophy behind this program is that knowledge and skills, once learned, cannot be separated from and remains with the individual for life, unlike material belongings.
When the civil war disrupted life in Liberia many people were forced to flee their homes, leaving most of their belongings. However, with the knowledge and skills they learned in the SA&D training programs, they were able to produce food even while living in refugee camps.
Upon returning home, these skills were put to good use to restart the building of livelihoods and communities. In the ten years since the program started, more than 7,000 farmers and community residents have been trained in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Those who have received the training continue to train other farmers, proving that this training is not only forever -- it also multiplies.
JUSTICE FOR WOMEN IS JUSTICE FOR ALL
It is particularly true in rural communities that women assume the major responsibility for feeding their families, either through producing or purchasing the food they need. At the same time, they often do not receive the recognition and support they deserve in fulfilling this critical role. In this era of never ending food crisis, women are finding it increasingly difficult to provide adequate food for their families and bear an increasingly heavy burden. Increasing women's abilities to produce or otherwise gain access to affordable food will go a long way in ameliorating the impact of the food crisis on local communities.
Over the decades, AMI has taken the lead in actively and deliberately facilitating the advancement of the rights of women within their local communities and on the national and international stage. Whether through training, networking and supporting economic activities, AMI seeks to end gender-based discrimination at all levels of society and in all spheres of human endeavor.
AMI ensures that all its programs and activities benefit from the full participation of women and requires its partners to do the same ˗ not only as beneficiaries but also as leaders in the decision-making of their organizations and communities.
CAPACITY RESTORATION FOLLOWING DISASTERS
Beekeeping provides economic opportunities.
Disasters affect all sectors of the community whenever and wherever they occur, including our partner organizations. At the same time, these events place higher than normal demand for the services of our partners at a time when they too are suffering the impacts. Following the Asian Tsunami of 2004, AMI initiated a program of Capacity Restoration Following Disasters, aimed at assisting our partners in the affected areas in the restoration of their organizations and programs. This is not emergency response in terms of food, medicine, water and other material resources, but is focused on assisting partners in restoring their capacity to fulfill the role they are called to do during and after the crisis.
The critical role of our partners in these times of crisis is advocating for and protecting the interests of the most vulnerable sectors of the population against discrimination and exploitation that seem to be common practice following disasters. In the case of the Asian tsunami, our partners in India and Sri Lanka were there to assure that resources for relief and rehabilitation reached the low caste and impoverished communities that have no political or economic influence.
Here, as in the case of the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, there was a mad rush by wealthy individuals and businesses to take over valuable beach front lands that were owned or used by the poor. Our partners in these areas were able to work with local communities to mobilize, educate, advocate and confront where necessary, to prevent massive and blatant injustices and loss of land and livelihoods. These struggles continue.
This program also supports our partners in community level rehabilitation and restoration. These programs and activities usually begin with the restoration of food production capabilities as the basis for social and economic recovery and the rebuilding of community life. This is the current focus of our work with partners in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, in India and Sri Lanka following the Asian tsunami, and in Liberia and Sierra Leone following the civil wars in both countries.
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