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.
Here is a listing of workshops led by or featuring US Food Sovereignty Alliance participants:
Credit and Capital for a Just and Sustainable Food System, featuring Ben Burkett, Bob St. Peter and Lisa Griffith of the National Family Farm Coalition and Niaz Dorry of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance.
Food Movements Unite! Led by Eric Holt-Gimenez of Food First and featuring Joann Lo of the Food Chain Workers Alliance, Rosalinda Guillen of Community to Community Development.
Innovative Solutions to Food Deserts in Urban Areas, featuring Malik Yakini of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, and others.
Food Justice Forum, with Eric Holt-Gimenez batting clean-up in a panel, calling for transformation as opposed to reforms of the current model.
From Detroit to New Orleans: Building a US Food Sovereignty Movement, led by Stephen Bartlett (AMI) and featuring Ben Yahola of theMvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative, Karen Washington, New York City Urban Farmer, Bob St. Peter (NFFC/ Via Campesina), Joaquin Martinez, Community to Community, and Nefer Ra Barber, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network.
Confronting Corporate Power in the Food System: Si se puede!, with Kathy Ozer (NFFC), Joel Greeno (NFFC, Family Farm Defenders),and Karen Washington, Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners, and Niaz Dorry (Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance)
Emerging Technology and the Threat to a Just Food System, with Dave Andrews and Sarah Alexander of Food and Water Watch.
Organizing for Labor, Racial and Immigrant Justice in Community Food Systems, with Derek Robinson, ROC-NOLA and Joann Lo, Food Chain Workers Alliance.
The International Links Committee, with Marcia Ishii-Eiteman of Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), Andrew Kang Bartlett (PHP), Heather Day of Community Alliance for Global Justice-AGRAWatch, Christina Schiavonni of WHY Hunger, Stephen Bartlett, (AMI)
The Annual Food Sovereignty Prize awarded by the International Links committee went to long-time fighters for food justice the Family Farm Defenders! With honorable mentions to another USFSA member the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, as well as the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty of Canada and the Network of West African Peasant and Agricultural Producers Organizations!
See photos from Brooke of WHY Hunger at: http://picasaweb.google.com/WHY.GAN/NewOrleans2010#
Excerpted from write-up by Stephen Bartlett