WINSTON CARROO
Executive Director, Agricultural Missions, Inc.
It is that time of year for submitting program reports for 2010 and for filing applications for support for the next year. These reports and applications, along with the necessary budgets and financial reports, have taken a significant amount of time during the month. In addition, the following travel and related program activities were completed:
Attendance at the 4th Quadrennial Conference of International Rural Churches Association (IRCA), held in Altenkirchen, Westerwald, Germany, September 19-26.
The IRCA is worldwide community of rural church and denominational leaders who are concerned with the challenges faced by rural churches around the globe. The U.S. based Rural Church Network, with which AMI is associated, is affiliated with the IRCA and that was the channel through which I was invited to attend as a keynote speaker. The theme of the conference was “Hunger- the Global Challenge” and was attended by some 50 delegates from Australia, New Zealand, Malawi, United States, Germany, India, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Great Britain, Switzerland, Canada and South Korea. more details
I was asked to make a presentation on the “Politics Facing the IAASTD Report” from the North American perspective. The theme of my presentation was that the conclusions of the report are in direct opposition to the promoters of “BIG AG” and their political allies and thus the report faces major opposition from the food and biotechnology industries - with deep pockets and considerable influence. The text of my presentation can be viewed at
http://www.agriculturalmissions.org/IRCN-Presentation.pdf
The
text of the
resolution
passed at the meeting is also available at this website.
IAASTD-Ag-Assessment
THE WEST AFRICA INITIATIVE (WAI)
The WAI is a continuing effort to develop and implement a community-centered model of development in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The program, now in its third year, was initially supported by three agencies of the Presbyterian Church USA, now also has the support of the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the United Church of Christ. AMI, in partnership with the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone and community-based organizations in Liberia, is responsible for the design and implementation of the program. More Details
The September 30 interim report of the WAI in both Liberia and Sierra Leone is also available on our website.■
http://www.agriculturalmissions.org/WAI-P2-REPORT-Sept-30-2010.pdf
STEPHEN BARTLETT
Coordinator for Constituency Education
U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance launched on Oct 16, 2010
in New Orleans! Ag Missions was there!
On October 16, 2010, World Food Day, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance was launched.... We gathered, we marched and we protested the injustices endemic in the restaurant business nationwide and in particular in New Orleans.
For photos posted by a member of the Food Chain Workers Alliance go to the flickr link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foodchainworkers/5096601559/in/set-72157625073802709/
Food Sovereignty movement infuses Community Food “Security” Coalition gathering in New Orleans with urgent need for solidarity and structural transformations.
The ‘Food Sovereignty’ track of activities during the 3-day Community Food Security Coalition gathering in New Orleans looked like the program of a gathering of Via Campesina, the worldwide peasant and family farm movement that first popularized this comprehensive and transformative concept decades ago. Member organizations of the newly launched US Food Sovereignty Alliance, including Agricultural Missions, were present in numbers, and organized! Here is a listing of workshops led by or featuring alliance members: More Details
See photos from Brooke of WHY Hunger at: http://picasaweb.google.com/WHY.GAN/NewOrleans2010#
See additional reports, photos and video footage: http://presbyterian.typepad.com/foodandfaith/2010/10/solidarity.html
Sacred Land Liturgy Explored at Worship Service, October 20, 2010 at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. More Details
Stephen, Becca and Garrett read the following dramatic sermonette click:
Dialogue/ Call and Response for Sacred Land/Earth worship service. (in lieu of sermon)
Plans for Haiti Rural Community Solidarity Delegation are progressing, despite an unconscionably stagnated response to the catastrophe, a rigidity of aid agencies that maintain the homeless in urban camps in order to receive any aid, an upsurge in protests, problems of security in the camps, an outbreak of cholera and intermittent rains. More Details
Week of Actions Featured 10 10 10, 350.org events across the country.
The U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance sent out a Call to Action for 10-10-10 to make the connection between industrial ag and climate chaos. More Details
Stephen Bartlett has also supported the work of the Community Farm Alliance (CFA), an AMI partner and member organization of the National Family Farm Coalition. More Details
Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville (SAL), another partner organization of AMI, added a new program this year, a Training Program for Aspiring Farmers, Urban Agriculturalists and Food Justice Advocates. October 25 will mark the last seminar for that training that began in February and entailed 9 seminars, four months of practicum work, and 3 business planning sessions. SAL also held its 8th annual series of four one-week gardening day camps that served 60 children, 65% of whom were returnees, some with up to five summer camps under their belts. The Father Coyote story series continued as did the Rhubarb Pie Fridays, now in its second year as a camp tradition. Kids roll pie crusts by hand and bake freshly harvested rhubarb pies to share with fellow campers and their parents.
AGRA watch begins national planning process to combat the two-headed hydra of Philanthra-capitalist Gates Foundation beside Monsanto corporation. The news that the Gates Foundation purchased $500,000 worth of Monsanto shares brought home the reality that so much of the so-called new Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA) agency is loaded with individuals who previously worked in executive positions for Monsanto corporation. Ag Missions staff has been participating in these planning calls and has been communicating about this process with our Ugandan partners.
The Educational Working Group of AMI is beginning the planning process for the 2011 AMI Study Session. The Rural Coalition and AMI is planning for a joint gathering in Oklahoma for late June or early July, possibly on the theme of Land, Colonization and Liberation. You will be hearing more about this soon.
New York City urban agriculture visits: Stephen visited (and worked on) a farmers’ market organized by Karen Washington, an urban ag producer and community organizer in the Bronx, and also consulted with Jessie Walker Beaumont on the progress being made with the dynamic and growing Brooklyn Food Coalition, following up ton the collaboration at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit.
The BAD EGG of Seed Thievery is confronted.
Louisville’s Health Food Local Farmers annual conference featured Anna Lappe as the keynote. Anna took this photo of the Socio Drama enacted by AMI staff SDB as part of that conference that took place September 24-25, 2010 at Spalding University in Louisville, KY.
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