Program:
Building Local Agrifood Systems/Oakland Food Policy Council
- Budget:
-
$165,000
- Category:
-
Food, Agriculture & Nutrition
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
In the U.S., the livelihood struggles of low-income,
African-American, Native-American, Latino-American, Asian-American and
immigrant communities are at the center of our programs for food
justice and agricultural sustainability. Low-income people of color are
mobilizing locally, forming national coalitions, drafting legislation,
and reaching out internationally in their efforts to build healthy,
equitable, food systems that contribute to the social and economic
development of their communities. The main challenge to obtaining
healthy affordable food in low-income communities is overcoming the
“industrial agri-foods divide” that separates sustainable producers
from low-income consumers.
The Oakland Food Policy Council received its first start up money from the City of Oakland and hired its first coordinator in 2008. In May 2009 the process of selecting members to serve on the Oakland Food Policy Council began. To learn more about the Oakland Food Policy Council, which is being incubated at Food First, go to www.oaklandfood.org.
In late 2011 Food First participated in the formation of a Bay Area Occupy the Food System coalition which will be holding events throughout the Bay Area in the coming year.
Throughout 2012 Food First sponsored numerous East Bay events in cooperation with the Community Food Justice Coalition. In last 2012 a major East Bay event resulted in the formation of various committees with the goal of allowing the many small food and farming nonprofits to collaborate more closely. In 2012 Food First and Dig Deep Farms started the Urban Farmer Field School in the East Bay.
Program Long-Term Success:
The goal of this work is to build and equitable and sustainable food system for all people in the city of Oakland, California.
Program Short-Term Success:
Selection of the initial Food Policy Council.
Identifying the goals, objectives, and scope of the work for the first three years of the Oakland Food Policy Council.
Building a system of long-term financial support for the Oakland Food Policy Council.
Program Success Monitored by:
Functioning Food Policy Council which sets priorities.
Program Success Examples:
Improved access to quality local food for people living in the low-income neighborhoods of Oakland.
Program:
Farmers Forging Food Sovereignty
- Budget:
-
$75,000
- Category:
-
Food, Agriculture & Nutrition
- Population Served:
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
Dismantling the industrial agri-foods complex at the local food system
level must be accompanied by the construction of alternatives that suit
the needs of small-scale producers and low-income consumers, worldwide.
Farmers Forging Food Sovereignty focuses on farmer alternatives to
corporate control over production and consumption. The strategy is to
help farmer movements for food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture
document and share their alternatives among broad sectors of the rural
and urban population to create political will and advance peasant-led
food system alternatives. Our active projects in this program area
include: The Campesino a Campesino GMO Education Project in Mexico and
Central America, and our coalition work with Vía Campesina.In 2012 Food First convened a group of academic activists to collaborate on publishing information on land grabs in the Americas and how communities are fighting for food sovereignty. The first book in a series of publications was released in February 2013, "Grabbing Power: The new struggles for land, food and democracy in Northern Honduras" written by Food First's Tanya Kerssen.
Program Long-Term Success:
Local sustainable healthy production of food for local consumption.
Farmers earning a fair return for their labor which allows them to sustain themselves and their families.
Program Short-Term Success:
A growing and strengthening of the Via Campesina coalition of two million small farmers.
An increase in the number of agroecological, small-scale farms growing for local markets.
A continued expansion of the farmer to farmer grassroots training in sustainable farming methods.
Program Success Monitored by:
A drop in the number of small farmer suicides.
An increase in the number of small farmers.
A decrease in the amounts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
A decrease in CO2 levels and control of rate of increase in temperatures.
Program Success Examples:
Growing opposition to genetically engineered seeds throughout the global south and in Europe.
Increased understanding of the linkages between our human behaviors and it impact on degrading our environment and our health. For example, growing consciousness about where and how our food is grown and growth of the organic and sustainable and local food movements.
Improved income and quality of life for the worlds' poor majority: farmers upon whom we all depend for our health and our very survival.
Program:
Democratizing Development: Land, Resources and Markets
- Budget:
-
$50,000
- Category:
-
Food, Agriculture & Nutrition
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
Social movements in the Global South are fighting for indigenous and
peasant rights, land reform, sustainable agriculture, clean water, fair
prices for agricultural goods, and freedom from foreign “dumping” and
GMO contamination.
This program area focuses on the structural causes of hunger and
poverty, and bridges the gap between transnational advocacy and local
control over food system resources. Like other program areas it links
critiques of the corporate-dominated food systems with farmer and
consumer-led alternatives that ensure justice, equity and ecological
sustainability. Our projects include the campaign for African
Alternatives to the Gates-Rockefeller Alliance for a Green Revolution in cooperation with the "We Are the Solution," campaign initiated by farmer and women's organizations in Western Africa and No full tanks with Empty Bellies: The Food and Fuel Sovereignty
Campaign, and El Camino del Migrante: Immigrants and the Struggle for
Food Sovereignty.
Program Long-Term Success:
Expansion of agroecological farming, particularly in Africa to counter the foundation/corporate push to bring a new green revolution to Africa. The green revolution will not benefit the majority of Africa's poor people.
Expose the insanity of big ag biofuels and roll back the biofuels standards in the U.S. and Europe which are already pushing many small farmers off their land in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
See the adoption of fair trade rules and worker protections in the Americas to put an end to exploitation of farm workers in the U.S. and those forced to abandon their farms in Mexico and Central America due to unfair trade agreements.
Program Short-Term Success:
Expose the failure of green revolution technologies to feed the world through a concerted media campaign and speaking tour in the U.S.
Publish the books "Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice," "Beyond the Fence: A Journey to the Roots of the Migration Crisis," and "Agrofuels in the Americas"--all aimed at exposing the folly of current U.S. government and international institution policies that are deepening the divide between the super rich and the poor. In 2012 Food First published "Unfinished Puzzle- Cuban Agriculture: The Challenges, Lessons and Opportunities."
Program Success Monitored by:
Numbers of books sold, speeches given, audiences reached by radio, print and the internet outlets.
Changes in behavior of consumers including the rejection of GMO food, an increase in the consumption of local and sustainably grown food.
A decrease in migration from Mexico and Central America due to "real" policy changes that allow people to stay in their communities.
Increased understanding that technology alone cannot save the world from climate change nor can it end hunger.
Program Success Examples:
People write, call and e-mail us almost daily lauding us for making sense out of what often appears to make no sense--for revealing the underlying corporate greed, but also for shining a light on projects and communities where people are taking charge of their own destiny to build local food systems that are healthier and more fair. These love letters from people who value Food First's work sustain us, spur us on, and lead to the individual donor support essential to continue this work of exposing injustices in our globalized food system.