Environmental for Food Justice

Maize mural detail. Diego Rivera Moderator’s Note: While I just now received my early review copy and I will pen an extensive review essay in the next few weeks, I thought it appropriate to present these notes from the author himself: Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez presents an overview of his new book, Our Sacred Maíz is our Mother , which was just published by the University of Arizona Press. I will post my review in October. Our Sacred Maíz is our Mother INDIGENEITY AND BELONGING IN THE AMERICAS Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez | Tucson, AZ | September 24, 2014 I’ve written or edited several books in my life and each of them have been special, especially since most were banned by Tucson’s school district during the state’s infamous battle in Arizona to eliminate Raza Studies, However, this one, Our Sacred Maíz is our Mother , released early by the University of Arizona Press, seems to be a little more special. Perhaps it is so because it speaks to a topic that recognizes no borders and co...

Moderator’s Note: Returning from our farm in Colorado, loaded with our heritage crop produce and churro lamb, I am able to comment now on some very significant developments related to the global social movements for “climate justice” – a term that has become almost as ubiquitous as “universal human rights”. From an indigenous vantage point, the climate justice movement requires withdrawing from the position of human ecological dominance involving control over all other organisms and “natural” processes; this includes “environmental managerialism”. This is the first in a series of documents and sources related to the intensifying climate justice movement. We start with a few introductory comments and a re-post of a press release from the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA). Sometimes the movement discourse does little to clarify the meaning of concepts like climate justice. The public needs to understand the meaning and I believe that it demands at least two formative understandings about ...

Moderator’s Note: The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) announced on September 9 the two co-recipients of the 2014 Food Sovereignty Prize : The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) of Palestine,  based in Gaza and the West Bank, and Community to Community  Development/Comunidad a Comunidad (C2C) of Bellingham, Washington. Please join us in celebrating the good news and continue to support the food justice innovations of C2C and the South Central Farmers. We are reposting the press release from the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. I personally would like to extend congratulations to Rosalinda Guillen of C2C who has been our colleague for more than a decade as a member of the Board of Directors of The Acequia Institute . She is the second of our Board Members to win this prize along with Tezozomoc of the South Central Farmers Feeding Families who shared the prize in 2011. Please join us in celebrating this accomplishment by our esteemed colleagues at C2C. FOR IMMEDIATE ...

BIOSAFETY AND FOOD JUSTICE ACTIVISTS TO MEET ON EVE OF KEY ORE. & CO. VOTES ON GMO LABELING Moderator’s Note: The 4th Conference of the Biosafety Alliance: Justice Begins with Seeds convenes this week on September 12-13. We are posting a Welcome Letter prepared by Miguel Robles of the Biosafety Alliance and Devon G. Peña of The Acequia Institute that accompanies the Official Program. Please visit the Conference page at The Biosafety Alliance .   Welcome to the 4 th ‘Justice Begins With Seeds’ Conference Miguel Robles | Biosafety Alliance Devon G. Peña | The Acequia Institute The Fourth Conference of the Biosafety Alliance, Justice Begins with Seeds, convenes in Portland, Oregon on September 12th and 13th. The conference was planned 
during the 2013 Seattle gathering. It reflects lessons learned from the movement
 as it unfolded between the I-522 defeat in Washington state and the overwhelming approval, earlier this year, of the Jackson and Josephine County ordinances in Orego...