Grassroots International -

Livelihood Rights: The Right to Exist

Saulo Araujo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:47:12 +0000

Members of Grassroots International's partner La Via Campesina -- an international network of peasants, indigenous peoples, fishers, pastoralists, women, and youth -- gathered in late June in Jakarta, Indonesia to defend their right to exist, and called for a UN Convention on the Rights of Peasants. (Below, see their final declaration)

Under intense threat from the expansion of agro-fuels in South America and Indonesia, militarization in Colombia and South Korea, and increasing food prices, rural families are voicing a predicament that affects all communities.

Abolish the MST, or the Unproductive Latifundos?

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:44:27 +0000

In late June, Grassroots partner, the Landless Workers Movement (MST) made public a document they got a hold of that showed the intention of the Rio Grande do Sul state Public Ministry to "dissolve" the MST. The document is based on a meeting, on December 3, 2007, during which the state Public Ministry decided: to outlaw any mobilization of landless workers, including marches and walks, to intervene in settlement schools, to criminalize leaders and members, and to "deactivate" all the encampments in Rio Grande do Sul.

Local and Fair Trade at the Crossroads

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:46:14 +0000

Grassroots International ally Phyllis Robinson of Equal Exchange recently wrote about the potential wedge driven between advocates of local foods (often called "localvores" in the current vernacular) and those working for Fair Trade. As she points out, Fair Trade and Buy Local advocates share many important concerns about the ways we can take back our food system so that it works best for small farmers and consumers, both locally and throughout the world – developing systems that promote food sovereignty. For more information, read her article.

The Truce of the Matter

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:29:45 +0000

After nearly one year of a suffocating siege imposed on Gaza by the Israeli military establishment, a truce agreement was reached between Hamas and Israel. This followed months of dedicated Egyptian good offices. Rockets launched from Gaza against Israeli settlements were to stop in return for gradually lifting the blockade. A cease-fire sustained for six months would then roll over to the West Bank. Gilad Shalit, the hostage Israeli soldier, would be released in a separate deal involving exchange of Palestinian prisoners. Future negotiations would set the terms for opening the borders between Egypt and Gaza.

America’s Farm Bill

Daniel Moss — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:03:02 +0000

The tidal wave of American interest in local, sustainable agriculture, and the waves of protest around the world over staggering food prices, seem to have washed over the heads of most members of Congress without them even noticing. The 2008 Farm Bill proves it.

The Hidden Face of the Global Food Crisis

Paul Venuti — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:22:54 +0000

Subheadline

Massive Farmers' Rights Violations

Partner

Via Campesina

Outside Link

The Hidden Face of the Global Food Crisis: Massive Farmers Rights Violations

New Community Guide to Environmental Health Tackles Resource Rights from the Grassroots

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:15:52 +0000

Friends and supporters of Grassroots International may be familiar with Hesperian Foundation, a non-profit publisher of community health education materials, best known for Where There Is No Doctor, recognized by WHO as "the most widely-used health manual in the world." With this month's publication of the long-anticipated A Community Guide to Environmental Health, Hesperian celebrates more than just the release of another book. It allows us all to celebrate and learn from the myriad ways in which people at the grassroots can and do take control over their own environmental health.

Empty Policies for Empty Plates

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:04:51 +0000

Subheadline

Press Release of the Civil Society Forum Terra Preta

Partner

Outside Link

Empty Policies for Empty Plates

A Crisis of Empty Promises

Saulo Araujo — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:14:15 +0000

Our partners in Guatemala have told us: the current food crisis will continue unless we guarantee the land, water and seeds rights of communities necessary to grow food. The same message is being echoed in Brazil, Mexico and many neighborhoods in the U.S.

In two separate statements, Guatemala's National Peasant and Indigenous Coordination (CONIC) and Brazil's Small Producers Movement (MPA) put forth food sovereignty as a solution to the crisis: the right of communities to produce food for local markets and for consumers to have access to local healthy foods. Both organizations denounce the expansion of industrial agriculture and growing control of agribusinesses for contributing to the hunger of urban and rural communities.

The World Food Crisis in the Palestinian Context: Rising Prices under Occupation and a Call to Action

Salena Tramel — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:22:45 +0000

As the heads of states meet with the Secretary General in Rome this week to discuss world food security in the light of climate change and bioenergy, Palestinians are experiencing a different dimension of the food crisis. Food is of the most basic of all human rights, and in much of the Palestinian context, is being systematically denied to civilians.

Our partners in the West Bank and Gaza recently released a call to action, which we have reproduced here. We have also posted a copy of the open letter to the conference organizers referenced below.