Monthly Archives: April 2012

Taking Action for Global Food Justice

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Presenters/Facilitators

Adam Weissman, Global Justice for Animals and the Environment

Christina Schiavoni, WhyHunger

This workshop is a followup to Globalizing Agribusiness: Free Trade, Factory Farms, and Genetically Modified Food

A participatory session to plan strategies and actions to fight free trade agreements that destroy farming communities, make our food unsafe, and globalize unsustainable industrial agriculture. Learn about the latest free trade agreements threatening our food system, hear about past organizing efforts from seasoned activists, and then: get organized!

After learning about how “free” trade threatens the food system, this workshop will:

- provide attendees with information about the latest trade deals coming down the pipeline (in particular, the Transpacific Partnership, which is currently under negotiation by the US and 8 other countries);

- share success stories and lessons learned from past organizing efforts;

- and engage attendees in a participatory strategizing and planning session on how to educate our communities on these issues in a way that speaks to them and how to get the food movement as a whole more engaged in the fight against destructive trade deals.

Tools, Skills or Messages Participants Will “Take Home”

Participants will leave this workshop with up-to-date information on current trade deals undermining food justice; with knowledge of what past organizing efforts have consisted of; and with ideas that they can bring back to their own communities and organizations to connect organizing efforts around food justice and trade. Participants will also have the opportunity to connect with one another and to stay connected to one another for future mobilizing efforts.

About the Presenters

Christina Schiavoni is the Director of the Global Movements Program at WhyHunger in NYC, where she works to connect US-based food and farm movements to global movements for food sovereignty and the right to food, water, and sustainable livelihoods.

Adam Weissman works with Global Justice for Animals and the Environment, opposing trade agreements that endanger animals, ecology, food safety, and human rights, and TradeJustice NY Metro, a coalition fighting NAFTA-style trade agreements.

Foraging for Empathy

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Time: 12:30PM-1:45PM

Location: Room 5E4

Presenter: Zaac Chaves

Because most life on Earth cannot sustain factory farms, its important this industry be thoroughly and quickly dismantled.  However its also important to recognize that Earth cannot sustain mono-cropped soy hot dogs wrapped in plastic and shipped half way across the globe either.  Veganism, as a consumer choice, is a thoughtful but incomplete piece of the riddle concerning how humans ought to live on this planet.Foraging is one strategy that we all ought to be practicing.  As the acceleration of species extinction increases, it is crucial that we seek alternatives to this cultures toxic presence on Earth.  These alternatives need be free and accessible to anyone, able to be deployed today, and committed to discovering ways to still share the planet with animal-plant-fungal neighbors. In this workshop I present foraging as fulfilling all of these goals.Foraging can provide humans with non-animal calories while reducing harm to animals and minimizing the destruction imposed on natural habitats. Learn how foraging with empathy, which encourages humans to forage ‘invasive’ weeds and drying common mushrooms, empowers us with a less-harmful sustenance.

While many alternatives suggested within the greater movement for food sustainability have often failed to include mindful questions around animal ethics beyond the question of large verses small scale farms, this panel offers a special opportunity to highlight foraging as a mindful alternative to obtaining calories for food.  The hubristic entitlement of land presumed in an agricultural scheme, crucial to modern societies as we know them, precludes other animal use of that land for their own livelihoods. Foraging on the other hand seeks a way for humans to acquire food without presuming the land be used solely for human purposes.

Moreover by focusing on invasive and disruptive plants, we can seek to consume in a way that preserves balance in ecosystems which are being increasingly disrupted by introduced species, particularly those species that have been shown to harm ecosystems, often introduced by global trading schemes.

Join us for a vital discussion question how humans ought to relate with the rest of Earth, while recovering the skills necessary for living as fellow Earthlings on this planet.

About the Presenter

Zaac Chaves coordinates mushroom tours at schools, farms, and animal sanctuaries. He authored the pamphlet Least Harmful Sustenance aimed at helping others learn about the edibility of common and invasive plants and fungus.