Food Justice, Food Sovereignty: Building Global Solidarity towards a Just Food System

April 17, 2014
6:00–8:00pm

Room 9204, CUNY GC

Emerging from the Civil Rights Movement, Food Justice embodies the struggles of local communities in the United States for racial justice in the food system. Outside the US, peasants and indigenous people defend the idea of Food Sovereignty, the right of local communities to define their own food policies – what to plant and what to eat. Despite their different origins, both Food Justice and Food Sovereignty represent the goal of moving towards a more Just Food System.

Celebrating April 17th, the International Day of Peasant Struggle, this panel will bring the perspective of a local food justice organizer and a Haitian peasant leader (and member of Via Campesina International, the World’s largest global movement) into conversation about ways of building global solidarity towards a more just food system. US Social Forum organizing committee member and Take Back the Land co-founder Rob Robinson will offer final comments on this provocative panel. This event is open to the public.

food

Speakers and Presenters:
Chavannes Jean-Baptiste – Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP), Haiti – General Coordinator
Chavannes Jean-Baptiste is the General Coordinator and founder of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP) and national coordinator for the National Peasant Movement of Papay Congress (MPNKP). He is also a  member of the International Coordination Committee of La Via Campesina. He is an agronomist, an expert in peasant education and organization, and a specialist in cooperative management and organization. In 2005 he was the recipient of The Goldman Environmental Price and received the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award from Brown University in 1993.

Nancy RomerBrooklyn Food Coalition – Chair, Governance Board
Nancy Romer is the Chair of the Governance Board of the Brooklyn Food Coalition, a grassroots food justice organization working for healthy food access for all, sustainable food systems, and justice for food workers. She organized the first Brooklyn Food Conference in 2009, established the Brooklyn Food Coalition the same year, and continued as its General Coordinator until 2013. She recently returned from India and Sri Lanka where she visited with peasant, women, and fisheries’ movements for food sovereignty. She has also traveled in Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, and Honduras to meet with and learn from social movements. She is a Professor of Psychology at Brooklyn College.

Robert Robinson – Take Back the Land, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
Robert Robinson is a member of the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights supported by the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, a policy and research organization. He is a member of the Land and Housing Action Group with the Take Back the Land, a national movement and a member of the US Human Rights Network. He is a member of the planning committee of the US Social Forum. A champion of building international solidarity, Rob contributes to the US Friends of MAB in building strategic alliances in the US and North America in general.

Moderated by:
Tristan Quinn-ThibodeauGlobal Movements Program, WhyHunger
Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau is the Outreach and Partnerships Manager in the Global Movements Program at WhyHunger. He has worked to support social movements in the Global South, support grassroots organizations in the US, and to build connections and solidarity between them. He is a member of the Coordination Team of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, and received an MA in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research.

 

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