Create a TPP-Free Zone where you live!

Taking to the streets in
Madison WI to derail fast-track
and the TPP

Don’t let the Trans-Pacific Partnership take away our democratic rights as individuals and as a community. Now is the time to organize to create a "TPP-Free Zone" in your town, city, or county.

If you are not yet familiar with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now is the time to find out. TPP is a massive trade pact being negotiated between the United States and 12 or more Pacific Rim countries including Japan. It is being written by and for the transnational corporate elite and is cloaked in extreme secrecy. No member of Congress has been allowed to participate in the negotiations, yet President Obama wants Congress to approve the TPP under Fast Track authority which would only allow for an up or down vote on this corporate-negotiated trade deal.

Like other free trade agreements, TPP’s provisions will trump local, state and federal laws and regulations whenever they interfere with “free” trade—free, that is, for corporations, but very costly for the rest of us. Like with NAFTA and CAFTA, the TPP’s investor provisions would privilege the “right” to profit—even the right to anticipated future profits—over democratic decision-making.

From leaked text and previous trade agreements, it is clear that the TPP would --
•  Undermine financial industry regulations needed to prevent another meltdown
•  Restrict free use of the internet
•  Greatly expand copyright protection
•  Dismantle “Buy Local” and “Buy American” preferences which promote local business
•  Restrict use of cheaper generic drugs
•  Challenge food safety regulations including GMO labeling
•  Delay action on climate change, if not prevent it outright
•  Prevent government limits on the export of fracked natural gas, as well as coal and water
•  Allow the U.S. and countries to be sued by foreign corporations for lost profits as a result of laws and regulations, even those protecting health and the environment

Yet, labor, environmental, health care, internet/free press, climate justice, green energy and democracy organizations have been excluded from the negotiations. They cannot see the text, nor comment on it despite the impact of the TPP on all these issues.

We know that most members of Congress are bought lock, stock and barrel by the corporations and Wall Street. So while we must  raise our voices against Congress agreeing to  fast track the TPP,  we must not end our advocacy at their doorstep. We must take our resistance to a world ruled of,  for and by the corporations right to our doorstep, right to where we live. We must assert our right to self-governance, to a nation of, for and by the people.

How can we do this? Many communities across the country have passed rights-based laws, establishing their right to self-governance, asserting their right to a clean and safe environment, establishing the rights of nature to thrive as ecosystems, and denying corporations the right to use the US Constitution or state constitutions to challenge these fundamental rights.

Now it is time to assert our right to a local economy, free of rules negotiated in secret, without our consent, by transnational corporations for their own benefit.  It is time to say we will not abide by decisions reached by secret trade tribunals which will impact our health and safety when we do not even have a right to be represented. It is time to pass local laws to create TPP Free Zones.

It is time to build a democratic movement of resistance.  It is time to start right where we live, in our own community.  It is time to say to President Obama and to the corporations which are sitting at the negotiating table

“If you, our unelected representatives, create this corporate-driven monstrosity and then go to Congress and get a rubber stamp, WE WILL NOT OBEY.”

We will be following in the footsteps of the successful resistance to an earlier trade agreement, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. This was the first global mobilization against a proposed trade agreement and an important part of the campaign was organizing locally.  In the U.S. and Canada, some municipalities declared themselves to be MAI Free Zones.  The MAI was defeated in 1998.

We must organize to defeat the TPP and if it is not defeated, then we can do no other than say “We will not obey.”

For information on creating a TPP-Free Zone, see this page on the AfD website.

Read more...

Info on the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Jessica Desvarieux of The Real News talks to Lori Wallach of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch about why the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not about traditional trade regulations such as tariffs, but all about expanding corporate rights and privileges. Learn about the few sections of the TPP that have been leaked to the public, why negotiations and content of the agreement are being kept secret, and what a signed agreement would mean for food safety, internet freedom, drug costs, and other basic components of public health and economic justice.

Read more...

Come to the Earth Democracy Conference at the Democracy Convention, August 7-11, in Madison

National and international policies based on neoliberal economics, corporate globalization, and "free" trade which aim to commodify, privatize and profit from almost every aspect of nature are destroying local communities and cultures, and the ecosystems on which all life depends. Earth Democracy is juxtaposed to this system and is grounded in the inherent rights of living beings and Mother Earth.

The Earth Democracy Conference will be one of several tracks at this year's Democracy Convention, to be held August 7 through 11 at Madison College, Madison Wisconsin. Earth Democracy  builds on the declaration adopted by the Ecojustice People's Movement Assembly at the 2010 US Social Forum which states: "We support the conclusion that only by 'living well', in harmony with each other and with Mother Earth, rather than 'living better,' based on an economic system of unlimited growth, dominance and exploitation, will the people of this planet not only survive but thrive."

The Earth Democracy Conference will bring together people who are working on the frontlines of the ecojustice movement to:

• democratize the electric grid and finance local renewable energy
• expose the corporatization of the "green" economy agenda
• recognize water as a fundamental right of people and nature
• combat global warming through creative action
• overcome corporate influence on school curricula and pursue earth-friendly curricula

Sessions include (full descriptions coming soon!): 
Thursday, August 8th- Sunday, August 11th
Awakening the Dreamer Symposium with The Pachamama Alliance Community

Action Tool Kit for Earth Democracy with Randa Solick and Ellen Murtha, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Guardianship of Future Generations & Rights and Responsibilities of Present Generations/Writing Earth Rights into Law with Carolyn Raffensperger, Science and Environmental Health Network and Linda Sheehan, Earth Law Center Energy

Injustice & Environmental Racism: How Dirty Energy Impacts Communities with Mike Ewall Energy Justice Network

Teaching Earth Democracy with Erica Krug, Dan Walkner, and Susan Friess, Madison Public School Teachers

Powering up for People, Peace and the Planet: Re-envisioning the Climate Movement: Building Resistance, Collaboration, Transformation with Victor Wallis, writer on ecology and politics, Sherri Mitchell, Land Peace Foundation (Maine), Stephanie Kimball, 350.org-Madison, and Jill Stein

The Climate of Justice: Asserting our Human, Civil and Earth Rights with Lauren Regan, Civil Liberties Defense Center, Sherri Mitchell, and Jill Stein

Activist Training: Know Your Rights with Lauren Regan

Big Extraction/Big Pollution/Bigger Resistance with representatives from frontline Indigenous and local communities fighting the XL and Enbridge pipelines, sand pits, Penokee Hills Taconite Mine, Rio Tinto Eagle Mine and high capacity water pumping and David Cobb on community rights vs. corporate rights

Re-Envisioning the Climate Movement: Building Resistance, Collaboration, Transformation with Victor Wallis, Sherri Mitchell, and Jill Stein

Water for Life: Local Ordinances to Protect Water, Springs and Rivers with Jane Goddard Center for Earth Jurisprudence and Linda Sheehan

Contours of an Ecologically Sound Economy with Chris Wallace, writer on the ecological crisis and the commons, Rachel Smolker Biofuelwatch, and Mike Ewall

Stop the World’s Largest Trade Agreement’s Harm to the Earth, Agriculture and Food Systems with Jim Goodman, Family Farm Defenders, George Naylor, National Family Farm Coalition and others to be announced

Next Stage: Building the Movement for People, Peace and the Planet – From #Fearless Summer to Fearless All Year Round – dynamic group participant discussion

Alliance for Democracy, Green Action, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom thare the principal conveners of the Earth Democracy Conference. Contact Nancy Price at nancytprice39@gmail.com for more info.

Read more...

Earth Democracy at the Democracy Convention!

Alliance for Democracy is convening the Earth Democracy Conference at this year's Democracy Convention, and you're invited!

The Earth Democracy Conference is one of nine conferences taking place at this year's Democracy Convention, August 7-11 in Madison, Wisconsin.

 Registration is open now, and early registration is a great way to get on the list for first news about convention logistics.


The Earth Democracy Conference builds on the declaration adopted by the Ecojustice People's Movement Assembly at the 2010 US Social Forum: "We support the conclusion that only by 'living well', in harmony with each other and with Mother Earth, rather than 'living better,' based on an economic system of unlimited growth, dominance and exploitation, will the people of this planet not only survive but thrive, and the ecosystems on which all life depends will flourish."



The Earth Democracy Conference is a place to discuss, debate and strategize to ensure that the growing US democracy movement includes those working on the frontlines of eco-justice. 

Join confirmed speakers at the Earth Democracy Conference who are working to make the declaration a reality:



• Arthur Stamoulis, Citizens Trade Campaign
• 
Michael Vickerman, Renew Wisconsin

• David Newby, Pres. Emeritus, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and Pres. Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition

• Linda Sheehan, Earth Law Center

• Jane M. Goddard, Center for Earth Jurisprudence, Barry School of Law

• Carolyn Raffensperger, Science and Environmental Health Network

• Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate

• The Pachamama Alliance
• 
John Peck, Family Farm Defenders

• Speakers from Indigenous tribal and local communities on the front lines of resistance to Big Energy, Industry and Ag, and from the Sierra Club John Muir Chapter (Madison)
• others to be announced as confirmed.



These are just some of our planned workshops and sessions:

• Climate and Planet Earth Emergency: Big Energy and Industry/ Big Pollution/Big Resistance: learn the issues and non violent resistance strategies from Indigenous tribal and local communities on the front lines in the fights against the XL Pipeline, fracking sand pits, the Penokee Hills Taconite Mine, and high-capacity water pumping.
• The Pachamama’s Alliance Awakening the Dreamer Symposium: a transformational educational workshop to “change the dream of the modern world" and empower participants to investigate their unique role in transforming humanity’s future.


• Earth Democracy Workshop: Teach-In/Teach-Back: interactive discussion of  community initiatives to protect public health and ecosystems: the Precautionary Principle, rights of nature, guardianship, and more. 
• 

Bees, Butterflies and GMO Crops: Say No to Monsanto and Dow Chemical: challenging corporate-controlled agriculture/creating healthy farmer-controlled food systems, including ordinances to protect local food. 
• 

Hands off Mother Earth: Writing Earth Rights into Law: local, national, and international movements and success stories. Local initiatives to protect springs and rivers.
• 

Declare your Community a TPP-Free Zone to establish local democracy and nature’s rights.  The Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement will accelerate plunder of the earth and seriously harm the health of all beings. Learn the TPP basics; how the TPP protects corporate wealth and property, and why the TPP must be stopped.

In our plenary session we'll debunk carbon markets and the neo-liberal “green” economy and discuss how to create a true green economy grounded in climate and environmental justice for all.

Special activities include a food fair featuring produce and products from local farmers, an urban agriculture bike tour, act activism for children, and more.

About the 2013 Democracy Convention
If you want to strengthen democracy where it matters to you… in your community, school, workplace, economy, military, government, media or the Constitution… you will find inspiration in Madison this August at the second national Democracy Convention.
 
The Democracy Convention houses at least nine conferences under one roof, recognizing the importance of each of these separate struggles, as well as the need to unite them all in a common, deeply rooted, broad based democracy movement.

Please register, sign up your organization, business or union as a sponsor, and spread the word by sharing this post on social media and posting this convention button on your website.

Thank you, and see you in Madison!
Nancy Price, Co-Chair
Alliance for Democracy

Read more...

Corporate personhood: don't regulate, eliminate!

Bonnie Preston, one of the Alliance's vice co-chairs, was one of the resource speakers at a recent teach-in at the University of Maine-Orono. Bonnie has been an active organizer for local food and self-governance ordinances in her part of Maine. She spoke alongside BJ McAllister, of Maine Clean Elections. Maine's governor is no fan of the state's clean election system, and has attempted to defund it. 

Here's what Bonnie said to the group:

Good afternoon! My name is Bonnie Preston, and I am a member of the Alliance for Democracy, which believes that the overarching task of our time is to get our democratic republic out of the hands of the mega-corporations and back into the hands of We the People.

Money in politics is not just about elections and how they are financed. More insidiously, it is about the two arms of the revolving door--lobbying and corporate capture of the agencies of government. It’s hard to pin down the number of lobbyists in Washington DC right now, but it is certainly dozens for each of our elected representatives in Congress. Many of these are former elected officials. For example, Billy Tauzin led the fight to pass a Medicare prescription drug plan that forbade negotiating prices with the drug manufacturers. After that signature achievement, he went to work for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing of America (PhRMA), the lobbying arm of the drug industry, where he became the highest paid health-law lobbyist in the country.

The flip side of people leaving government for lobbying is leaving the private sector to work for a government agency, temporarily of course. Exhibit A is Michael Taylor, who has moved back and forth from Monsanto to either the FDA or USDA for decades. He is now in charge of writing the regulations that will support the Food Safety Modernization Act, now in final draft form. If implemented, these rules could put an end to small farms in the US.

These two forces are driving the complete take-over of government by the private sector, and no campaign finance reform will touch this.

So what can we do to get the government back in our hands? The Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court galvanized people so dramatically that it has opened a door to a possibility that many of us who have worked for years on this issue have seen as a distant hope, if not a pipe dream. Since 1886, the Supreme Court has granted corporations more and more specific constitutional rights; corporations have used these to increase their political power.

The founders kept corporations under control. Corporate charters, required to show how the corporation would serve the public interest, had to be approved by state legislatures. They were limited in time and scope, had to be extended if desired by the legislatures, and could be revoked if the corporation failed to serve the public. A corporation could not buy another corporation, so they must stay small and competitive.

Today, monopolistic corporations, which include the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks, are preventing progress on everything we need to do if we are going to continue to live on this planet. The rights we have given them are even being enshrined in international law through the World Trade Organization and the NAFTA-style trade agreements. This trade regime is culminating in the Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement with all the powers of NAFTA, but with a significant difference. Once in place, countries will not have to negotiate a trade deal; they will simply sign on to the TPP. The multi-national corporations, with the enforcement powers of the trade organizations backed by the military might of supposedly democratic governments, are growing into a force that will totally destroy our ability to govern ourselves in a humane and environmentally sound way.

We must directly confront corporations and the concept of corporate personhood. A Constitutional amendment that ends corporate personhood as well as the concept that money is not speech is necessary. Abraham Lincoln did not try to regulate slavery, or end it in steps, or disclose its evils. He backed the 13th amendment, which freed the slaves. We are still cleaning up the mess created by slavery, and we will have a lot of work to do to clean up the messes that corporations have made as well, but a Constitution that says that corporations are not persons with constitutional rights will provide the solid ground we can stand on as we do that work. AfD, a founding partner of the Move to Amend coalition, is committed to this type of systemic change.

Read more...

Worth reading: How the TransPacific Partnership undermines democracy

Here's a very comprehensive rundown on what we know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a monster trade deal that involves nearly a dozen nations on both sides of the Pacific. Authors Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese note that from NAFTA on, international trade deals have led to job loss and economic disruption, and warn readers to beware any talk of Congressional "Trade Promotion Authority," the euphemism that the Obama Administration, which is pushing this deal, has seized on to avoid the now toxic term "Fast Track."

Read more...

Updating the end of year update!

Did you recently read our end-of-year 2012 report? It’s already time for an update! In the last few weeks...

• Our Defending Water in Maine campaign has held four “Stop the East/West Corridor” presenter trainings and raised the alert on using this eastern route to send tar-sands oil to the coast for export.
• Vice Co-chair Bonnie Preston presented a workshop at the Pennsylvania Women in Agriculture conference on using local ordinances to protect farm-to-table sales, traditional foodways and local economies from pro-corporate federal regulations, as successfully done in Maine.
• The Populist Dialogues team has produced new shows on wage theft and workers’ rights, access to public transit as a social justice issue, and money in Oregon politics.
• Co-chair Nancy Price met with other members of the Move to Amend executive committee to shape coalition policy for the upcoming year.
• Members continued to lay the groundwork for public banking in Washington DC and Massachusetts.
• In Portland, OR, chapter members and allies scheduled a hearing on a county resolution calling for our Congressional delegation to send a constitutional amendment to the states to end the twin doctrines of corporate personhood and money equals speech.
• In California, Mendocino chapter members and their allies are discussing an ambitious plan to qualify a state ballot initiative to end corporate personhood and money equals speech. Monterey County members are also laying the groundwork for a county-level resolution.

These are reasons to celebrate. An even better reason is that there's more good work coming in 2013. We hope you'll join with us. We also wish you and your communities a happy, peaceful, and fruitful New Year.

Read more...

"Populist Dialogues" sits down with Oregon Working Families Party on student debt, public banking and agriculture

This edition of "Populist Dialogues" features guest Sami Alloy, organizer with the Oregon Working Families Party (OWFP). Sami made a short video with last week's guests, B Media Collective, on the student debt problem which host David Delk screens during the show. The Oregon Working Families Party is addressing the problem of student debt with their "Pay It Forward" program, which Sami describes. Sami also discusses other party campaigns including the efforts to form an Oregon State Bank and county and municipal level public banks. Another party campaign involves assistance to small farmers via the hoped for creation of agi-bonds.

 

Read more...

Safe Water Alliance sends letter in support of AB 635 to Governor Brown

Alliance for Democracy, through our Defending Water for Life campaign, has been working with California's Safe Water Alliance to pass the Human Right to Water Act, AB 635. Most recently, western campaign coordinator Nancy Price signed on to a letter to Governor Jerry Brown, asking him to sign the bill, which has now cleared the state legislature, into law.

From the letter:

The need for a statewide policy is illustrated by the 11.5 million people in California currently relying on water suppliers who faced at least one violation of state drinking water standards in 2007, the 8.5 million people in California who relied in one recent year on water supplies that experienced more than five violations of state drinking water standards, and the recent University of California, Davis report that found that 1 million people in California have been exposed to nitrate-contaminated groundwater. The fact that some of the communities in the latter category have struggled for years to address the contamination is a resounding indictment of the status quo.

Advocates hope to meet with Brown this week to deliver petitions in support of passage.

Read more...

It's been four long years, but we're almost there: the not-so-short history of AB 685, the Human Right to Water Act

This past week, the California Assembly passed AB 685, the Human Right to Water Act. Now we're just a signature away from ensuring law and policy that will bring safe, affordable water to all Californians.

What's the story behind the Human Right to Water Act? Getting this far has meant building a strong grassroots coalition with much community and member support. We hope that the history of this legislation inspires other water democracy and environmental justice activists to get going on their own version of AB 685.

AB 1242, the first Human Right to Water policy bill, was part a “water bill package” introduced in early 2009. After AB 1242 made it through all Assembly and Senate Committee hearings with some amendments and was passed by the Assembly 53-24 and the Senate 23-14, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Schwarzenegger, however, did sign some of the other more “narrowly focused” bills in this 2009 package.

After this, the Safe Water Alliance, a coalition of faith-based, tribal, environmental, health, public-policy and community advocacy groups, including Alliance for Democracy, was formed and in February 2011 introduced AB 685, the Human Right to Water, as part of an ambitious six-bill package of to ensure clean drinking water for all Californians. In early spring, Catarina de Albuquerque, the United Nations Independent Expert on the human right to water made a fact-finding mission to the United States. In California she visited several Central Valley, CA communities in an area where for too many years residents have suffered the financial and health impacts of unsafe water at home and/or in schools.

In 2001, with Governor Brown in office, there was stronger opposition to AB 685 since it was anticipated he might sign this bill. The oppositions’ demands for amendments seemed meant to stop the bill and discourage the bill’s author Assembly Member Eng and Safe Water Alliance members. When it did not, and the bill made it through the Assembly in June, 2011 by 52-24, it was finally stopped by the last Senate Committee, Senate Appropriations that put the bill on the “suspense file” where bills are sent to die.

However, Governor Brown did sign several of the narrowly focused bills in the package, at the signing saying: "The bills I have signed today will help ensure that every Californian has access to clean and safe sources of water. Protecting the water we drink is an absolutely crucial duty of state government."

Meanwhile, with the key policy bill, AB 685, stuck in the Senate Appropriations Committee, members of the Safe Water Alliance met to formulate and implement a strong “inside the capitol” and “outside grassroots” strategy to get the bill to the Governor’s desk. This necessitated taking amendments to clarify this was a broad policy bill to direct State Agencies and Departments when making decisions about water policy to consider the impact on the human right to health and that doing so would not impose a fiscal liability on the state, a point the opposition kept raising.

Finally, at the last minute when the fate of all bills has to be decided, on August 16, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 5-2 to send the bill to the Senate Floor. It was one of only 5 out of more than 200 bills that this Committee voted out and on August 23 it passed by 22-16. Because the bill was amended in the Senate, it has to go back to the Assembly for “concurrence.” On the morning of August 29, it passed by only 42 votes, 41 need for a majority…very close, but “every drop counts.” But by close of session that day, it had gained enough votes to pass 51-28.

Defending Water for Life organizers Nancy Price and Ruth Caplan thank all the Alliance's Californian members and supporters who responded to our action alerts over the years. Taking action is what turns our education into on-the-ground victory as we build the movement for the Human Right to Water and community rights in California. Watch for the launch of our new our website, focusing on California water issues, soon!

Read more...

Blue Hill, Maine, farmer faces suit by state of Maine and Maine Agricultural Commissioner; town and supporters to rally in his support Friday, November 18

On Wednesday, November 9, Dan Brown, owner of Gravelwood Farm in Blue Hill, Maine, was served notice that he is being sued by the State of Maine and Walter Whitcomb, Maine Agricultural Commissioner, for selling food and milk without state licenses.

Blue Hill is one of five Maine towns to have passed the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance, a local law that permits the types of sales Brown was engaged in.

By filing the lawsuit, the State of Maine and Whitcomb are disregarding the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance passed nearly unanimously by the citizens of Blue Hill at their town meeting on April 4.

Residents of Blue Hill will be attending the Selectmen’s meeting on Friday, November 18 to enforce the provisions of the ordinance by instructing the town of Blue Hill to send a letter to the Maine Department of Agriculture requesting the lawsuit be withdrawn, and that the state recognize the authority of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance.

A rally and press conference will take place Friday at the Blue Hill Town Hall beginning at noon.

You can learn more and support Dan at http://www.facebook.com/WeAreFarmerBrown.

For the media, a conference call with Dan Brown is scheduled for Thursday, November 17, 10am-11am eastern time. Dial it at 866-305-2467, and use access code 260454#. Dan will make a statement and cover the counts listed in the summons. Bob St. Peter, family farmer from Sedgwick, Maine and director of Food for Maine's Future will discuss the campaign calling on the State to withdraw the lawsuit.

Here's Dan, explaining rule changes that led to the suit, and that also underscore the need for us to take local control of our food back from state and federal government regulations that are designed by and for industrial agriculture and agribusiness profiteering.

Read more...

Defending Water for Life in Maine: tabling at the Common Ground Fair

Defending Water for Life organizers Denise Penttila and Chris Buchanan spent three days in Unity, ME at the Common Ground Fair, September 23rd – 25th, an annual event sponsored by Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association, which attracts people from all over the state. Chris writes:

Over the course of the weekend, we talked with hundreds of people. We used interactive activities to draw people, including a poster-sized anti-bottled water pledge for folks to sign and drawing on quilt squares to add to our water quilt (pictured at right).

We had the opportunity to talk about taking a rights-based approach to undermine corporate power and to educate many people about how to empower themselves at the local level. Only a few people had ever heard about this method. Folks who approached us with concerns about Nestle in their towns or neighbors’ towns appeared excited and inspired by the end of our talks!

We also learned a great deal about some core issues concerning Maine residents that want to buck the bottle, but feel helpless. In many locations, Mainers have problems with arsenic and radon in their water. This is a rural, well-water issue that we will address more moving forward. It was powerful to hear so many people across Maine share their stories and their passion for water.

Read more...

Is the US and Monsanto pressuring the EU to accept genetically modified crops?

William Engdahl, economic researcher, journalist and historian author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of GMO, offers his perspective on the subject of US pressure on Europe to accept GM crops and terminator seeds and the resistance coming from European citizens.

Thanks to Janet Eaton for forwarding the video, which was posted on Next World TV.

Read more...

Trenton, ME, passes local food and self-governance ordinance

The fifth Maine town to vote on the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance, Trenton, passed it at their town meeting Saturday morning. The vote was close, at 29-25 (Trenton has only about 1000 year-round residents, and there was a fire alarm early in the meeting which cleared the hall and thinned the crowd a little).

AfD vice co-chair Bonnie Preston, who has been working to help spread the word about these ordinances, writes that pro-ordinance people plan to do some follow-up with the town and select board to try to make sure they better understand this issue. They learned a lot from this town meeting about how important the ground-work is, and how important it is to understand the circumstances in each town, something that can really only be done by that community.

They are still anticipating a re-vote in Brooksville this summer; this was the one town where the ordinance was defeated, although a town board may have improperly recommended that it not be passed. Right now Local Food and Community Self-Governance ordinances are 4-1; they will work to make it 5-0.

Read more...

Maine is what “food democracy” looks like

Food democracy is more than “voting with your fork” by spending your food budget with your ethics in mind. “Voting” this way means the more money you have to spend on food the more votes you have. Real food democracy is based on the right of all people to make decisions together about how food is grown, produced and distributed, removing food from corporate control.

In Maine, more towns are set to vote on local food & self governance ordinances similar to those passed by three other Maine towns earlier this year. Local AfD members were active in the campaign to pass these ordinances, especially in the town of Blue Hill.

Trenton will be voting this Saturday. Monroe, which previously passed an anti-corporate personhood ordinance, will be voting June 13. Gray is working on their ordinance for a town meeting later this year.

This is food democracy because it changes the “rules” about food production. These local food ordinances allow local producers to sell home-made or farm produced food, including meat, baked goods, or preserved items without meeting federal inspection or facility requirements. These federal standards are designed for industrial-scale food production, and require an investment that very few small farms can afford. For instance, two Penobscot farmers found that in order to legally slaughter $1,000 worth of chicken on their farm they needed to spend almost $40,000 to build a slaughterhouse, an economic cost that has contributed to the very few alternatives to the highly corporatized and vertically consolidated US food system. (Recently, however, as the demand for local, organic meat and poultry has increased, small-scale and, often mobile, slaughter houses have emerged in NY, VT, and CA in particular.)

Local food and self governance ordinances emphasize the importance of small farm production to the local economy, and make clear that on the local, person-to-person level, individuals can ensure their own food safety. People who know their producers will buy from the ones they trust, and producers, knowing their sales depend on their reputation, will keep their standards for quality and safety high.

State authority vs. local food democracy
Maine is a state with strong municipal home rule, so town-level ordinances have not yet been challenged at the state level, although the towns that have passed this ordinance have received warning letters from the Food and Rural Resources Section of the state Department of Agriculture, saying that the local ordinances are pre-empted by state law: Blue Hill's letter is here. This is of some concern, as two state bills that would have bolstered the local ordinances at the state level were voted down by the Maine House of Representatives on the recommendation of the state's Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee.

The term “food democracy” was developed by Tim Lang in the mid-1990s based on the principle that citizens or “food citizens” have the power to determine food policies and practices locally, regionally, nationally and globally. Food democracy asserts it is a right and responsibility of citizens to participate in decisions concerning their food system.

Food democracy is a framework for making our food system more responsive to the needs of its citizens and decentralizing control that challenges the corporate structure and allow for bottom-up control of the food system. This process transforms individuals from “passive consumers into active, educated citizens”. The goal of food democracy is to ensure all citizens have access to affordable, healthy and culturally appropriate foods. Food democracy emphasizes social justice in the food system, and food is viewed as the center of the democratic process. (Adapted from Food First. And check out Tim Lang, Food Security or Food Democracy.

Read more...

Bolivia set to pass rights of nature

From The Guardian:



"Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as 'blessings' and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry....

"Ecuador, which also has powerful indigenous groups, has changed its constitution to give nature 'the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution'. However, the abstract rights have not led to new laws or stopped oil companies from destroying some of the most biologically rich areas of the Amazon."

Read more...

Blue Hill, ME is the latest town to pass a local food and self-governance ordinance

Blue Hill, Maine, voted overwhelmingly to pass a Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance at their Saturday town meeting on April 2. Discussion of the ordinance, which allows communities to establish their own rules governing sale and production of farm products, was lively, according to AfD co-chair and Blue Hill resident Bonnie Preston. You can read a model of the ordinance here.

Local food activists will be meeting soon to discuss how best to move forward to get this ordinance passed in other towns around the state. Two more towns are going to be voting in June, and several more are interested in adding it to their warrants for next year. Brooksville, which voted the ordinance down after a committee recommended a no-vote, may take the ordinance up again in May.

Bonnie also reports that people from around the country are interested in what the ordinance does to protect local farming and farm-to-consumer sales--the
day the Local Food, Local Rules web site went up, there were 522 hits on the link to the sample ordinance. Everybody eats!

The Bangor Daily News covered the vote here.

Read more...

Farmers, growers and seed suppliers join to sue Monsanto

From NOFA/Mass--the suit, which was filed yesterday, seeks to protect farmers from Monsanto, which has filed patent infringement suits in some cases where pollen from the company's genetically-modified crops has contaminated crops grown in nearby fields. You can read the text of the suit here.

NEW YORK - March 29, 2011 - On behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association/Massachusetts Chapter, Inc. (NOFA/Mass) and others, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit today against Monsanto Company to challenge the chemical giant's patents on genetically modified seed. The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhattan and assigned to Judge Naomi Buchwald. Plaintiffs in the suit represent a broad array of family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the organic and non-GMO agriculture community who are increasingly threatened by genetically modified seed contamination despite using their best efforts to avoid it.

"This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic and other farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto's genetically modified seed should land on their property," said Dan Ravicher, lead attorney in the case and PUBPAT's Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. "It seems quite perverse that a farmer contaminated by GM seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients."

Once released into the environment, genetically modified seed contaminates and destroys organic seed for the same crop. Soon after Monsanto introduced genetically modified seed for canola, for example, organic canola became virtually extinct as a result of contamination. Organic corn, soybeans, cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa now face the same fate, as Monsanto has released genetically modified seed for each of those crops, too. Monsanto is developing genetically modified seed for many other crops, thus putting the future of all food, and indeed all agriculture, at stake.

In the case, plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that if they are ever contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed; they need not fear also being accused of patent infringement. One basis for such a ruling would be that Monsanto's patents on genetically modified seed are invalid because they don't meet the "usefulness" requirement of patent law, according to Jack Kittredge, NOFA/Mass Policy Director.

This lawsuit filing comes on the heels of a recent controversial USDA decision to deregulate genetically modified alfalfa, the fourth largest crop grown in the US and a major source of feed to the nation's meat producers. Arguments against genetically modified food crops include concerns about lack of long-term studies of its effects on human health, concerns for biodiversity within our crop varieties, and contamination of crops grown by organic and other non-GMO farmers.

The Public Patent Foundation, is a not-for-profit legal services organization affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. PUBPAT represents the public interest against undeserved patents and unsound patent policy.

For more info, you can contact the Public Patent Foundation at press@pubpat.org, or Jack Kittredge at NOFA/Mass, jack@nofamass.org.

Read more...

Up and down votes for local food and self governance ordinances

Penobscot and Sedgwick, Maine have passed a rights-based Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinance at their annual town meetings, although it was defeated in Brooksville.

The ordinance gives people the right to purchase food from a local family farm that has not been processed in a licensed and inspected facility. It also protects local farmers' markets and community events such as church suppers and school bake sales. It was necessitated by the recent attempts to enforce USDA standards created for large-scale agribusiness on small farms that have no way to pay for the new facilities they would need.

The Brooksville vote was a narrow defeat, but there are questions as to whether a bylaw review committee improperly recommended that the article be voted down. A fourth town, Blue Hill, will vote on the measure in April and a state legislator has proposed a similar bill that would cover all of Maine. You can read more at this previous post, including links to media coverage.

Read more...

First Maine town passes Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance

At least four towns in Maine will vote on the rights-based Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinance at their annual town meetings this spring--one town has already passed the measure. AfD'ers in the Blue Hill area have been working to get the ordinance before town meetings and build support among farmers and consumers.

The ordinance gives people the right to purchase food from a local family farm that has not been processed in a licensed and inspected facility. It also protects local farmers' markets and community events such as church suppers and school bake sales. It was necessitated by the recent attempts to enforce USDA standards created for large-scale agribusiness on small farms that have no way to pay for the new facilities they would need. Maine law says that the purpose of the Maine Dept. of Agriculture is to protect small family farming in the state.

The measure passed unanimously at the first town meeting vote in Sedgwick on Saturday. This week the measure will go to Town Meetings in Brooksville and Penobscot, and will be taken up by Blue Hill in April. Other area towns are also considering adding it to their warrants this year.

At the state level, District 36 representative Walter Kumiega has introduced two similar pieces of legislation, one to exempt raw milk from licensing if it's sold direct from the producer, and the second to expand this local ordinance statewide. Kumeiga said that access to "straight from the farm" food is important to his constituents, and that he had no trouble finding cosponsors for the bill.

You can read more here and here, and read the ordinance here.

Read more...