Food Justice Newsletter July 2014 by Andrew Kang Bartlett Presbyterian Program

In this issue: Seed & Trade Hot & Hungry United States Climate Upcoming Events Fair Food! Despite Wendy’s Frosty Stance, CIW Campaign Heats Up PC(USA) joins religious leaders from around the country to call on Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program. Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons said, “Wendy’s should join Walmart and the others in the mighty flood of justice sweeping through the fields of Florida and beyond.” From the letter, "Wendy’s has tried to give consumers the impression that it supports the changes achieved through the FFP while in fact continuing to do business as usual. By refusing to commit to buy its Florida tomatoes only from growers complying with the Fair Food Program, Wendy’s perpetuates the old, “no questions asked” market for those growers unwilling to recognize the FFP’s human rights standards.” The Fair Food Program: A Code of Conduct with Real Rights Bill Moyers & Company picked up this great article, which lays out the Fair Food Program and how it brings labor theory into real-life practice. From the report, "Only workers know the more subtle forms their exploitation has taken over the years – the schemes designed by their employers – which comprise the net that has trapped them in poverty for decades.” Seed & Trade The Fight for Native Seeds Defies Free Trade Agreements in El Salvador Over the last few years, as a result of the social and political advocacy carried out by countless community groups and social organizations, including RUMES, the Salvadoran Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) has increased its commitment to the promotion of native seeds. While the policies and programs of MAG have real benefits for smallholder farming families and farming cooperatives, they may violate the Central American Free Trade Agreement. HOT & HUNGRY: Climate Chaos and Ways Forward Global: Important climate change gatherings are coming up this fall with the November Social Pre-COP (Conference of Parties) in Venezuela, with civil society at the table, the December COP-20 Climate Talks in Lima, Peru, and next year’s COP-21 in Paris. It is essential that people of faith join with hunger, justice, environment, food sovereignty, and other people and groups globally to push our leaders toward changes equal to the crisis before us. The first steps are educating ourselves and building relationships with others who care. A place is the user-friendly National Climate Assessment for US highlights and the Fifth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the global overview. Below are other resources for you to explore. Oxfam's new report – Hot and hungry: How to Stop Climate Change from Derailing the Fight Against Hunger – is a must-read as climate indicators worsen. The poorest people in the world are rural people and food producers, and they are being hit hardest by weather disruptions caused by global heating. At the same time, shifts in how we farm have powerfully cooled the planet. Funding to help farmers adapt to changing conditions is critical. Adopting the Sahel! Farmers dealing drought in California and Australia might learn from the techniques of producers in the Sahel. Burkina Faso farmers are growing food in pits that concentrate nutrients and conserve moisture. Up to 300,000 hectares of land have been rehabilitated with this low-cost technology, producing an additional 80,000 tons of food each year. United States Climate: Coming Home to Roast Our alarming food future, explained in 7 charts by Tom Philpott in Mother Jones magazine Mystic Lake Declaration: From the Naïve Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop Exposed: Social vulnerability and climate change in the US Southeast The State of States on Climate Adaptation: Climate Change Adaptation Plans related to Food and Agriculture EPA Moves to Curb Emission from Existing Power Plants from the Union of Concerned Scientist Sowing a Cool Harvest A great manual from Interfaith Power and Light Climate Change: Food, Transportation, Energy from the Presbyterian Hunger Program and Environmental Ministries Upcoming Events Presbyterian Hunger Program Climate Change Delegation 2014 Climate of Conflict: examining the root causes of social-environmental conflicts in Peru during the U.N. Convention on Climate Change (COP-20); December 5 –12, 2014. Download the flyer for more details. Education and U.S. mission trips available at pcusa.org/trips Presbyterian Earth Care Regional Conference 2014 Seeing the Signs of the Time: A Practical Theology on Climate Change September 2-7, 2014 starting in Anchorage, Alaska

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