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Posted October 13, 2015 by Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director of Food First
This is part of a blog series around the 2015 U.S. Food Sovereignty Prize, which will be presented in Des Moines on October 14, 2015. The Food Sovereignty Prize is awarded by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, which IATP is a member organization. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance works to end poverty, rebuild local food
What's in a prize? The politics of distribution versus growth.
On October 14th in Des Moines, Iowa, the Food Sovereignty Prize will be awarded to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, run by African-American farmers of the southern United States and to OFRANEH—the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña).
The next day, hundreds of distinguished international guests will also gather in Des Moines, Iowa as Sir Fazle Hasan Abed accepts the World Food Prize in the name of BRAC—the world's largest non-governmental rural development agency.
Both prizes are awarded in recognition of the fight against hunger. That's where the similarity ends and the lesson begins.
Founded in 1986 by the "father of the Green Revolution" Norman Borlaug, the World Food Prize typically celebrates technological innovations that increase agricultural yields. This is because the award committee assumes that there is not enough food in the world to feed everyone. Actually, over the last four decades we have consistently produced 1 ½ times enough food for every man, woman and child on the planet. Yet, over a billion people are still hungry and malnourished because they are too poor to buy food. Awarding the Word Food Prize to BRAC should be a reminder that poverty, not scarcity, is the main cause of world hunger.
Sir Fazle's knighthood and 20 international awards all attest to the positive impact of BRAC's anti-poverty work. Their selection was a safe move for the World Food Prize, which has been roundly criticized for giving the award to yet another Green Revolution scientist last year and to a triad of biotechnology scientists from the private sector the year before. BRAC will undoubtedly help restore some of the Prize's lost luster in a world were genetic engineering has lost much of its credibility.
Does this award reflect a shift in the World Food Prize's paradigm? Is the emblematic lightship of the Green Revolution ready to admit that hunger will not be ended by dint of a continuous flow of industrial crop varieties and chemical inputs? Not likely. A review of nearly thirty years of Food Prize laureates reveals a smattering of recipients who do not fit the dominant Green Revolution paradigm (Hans Herren, Muhammad Yunus, George McGovern and Robert Dole, among others). While the Prize entertains intermittent forays into areas of food aid, economic development and even agroecology, it always returns, lemming-like, to its foundational discourse: to end hunger we must double food production. The corollary to this theorem is that only chemically-based, industrial agriculture is up to the task.
That the planet has been overproducing food for nearly half a century is irrelevant to Green Revolution champions. That agroecological methods of production are cheaper, more accessible and consistently more productive and climate resilient than anything the Green Revolution has on offer, is also quietly swept under the rug in the yearly World Food Prize celebrations.
The destitute farmers producing over half the world's food—primarily peasant women—make up most of the world's hungry. They need more land, more water and a larger share of the food dollar. But the World Food Prize does not understand hunger or poverty as a problem of resource distribution. Rather, the World Food Prize believes that hunger and food insecurity are the result of scarcity. Whatever the problems underlying poverty and world hunger—in the Global South and the Global North—the solution for hunger is always the same: growth. Growth in productivity, growth in commercial inputs, growth in credit, growth of global markets…
But global food supply has been growing at 12% per capita a year for several decades. At the height of the global food crises of 2008 and 2011, the world saw record-breaking grain harvests. The problem of hunger is poverty. Resource-poor farmers—who make up 70% of the world's hungry—are forced to sell their harvest cheaply (because they are poor). Later, when their own supplies run out and prices rise, they go hungry because they can't afford the food in the markets. The steady spread of high-external input, plantation agriculture—largely soy for livestock, cane and maize for biofuels and oil palm—pushes smallholders and pastoralists off the land, destroying their livelihoods, increasing poverty and hunger even as more food is produced.
Why does the World Food Prize insist that the answer to hunger is growth?
Because a focus on growth allows us to ignore the problems of inequity, exploitation and the growing disparity of wealth in the world. It allows us to ignore the issue of resource distribution—and its corollary: re-distribution. Eighty-four individuals now own as much wealth as half of the world's population. The growing wealth gap is causing hunger. It is easy to talk about baking an ever bigger pie. It's much harder to talk about who get the biggest piece, or who gets to cut the pie.
This political convenience becomes evident when we look at the Food Sovereignty Prize, in many ways the antithesis of the World Food Prize. This prize has a shorter history (and an infinitely smaller budget) than the World Food Prize. This year's laureates, the U.S.-based Federation of Southern Cooperatives and OFRANEH were chosen for their steadfast commitment to human rights and their historical resistance of oppression.
What do human rights and oppression have to do with hunger? Everything.
The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, founded in 1967 came out of the civil rights movement when according to its founders, as a black person in the rural south,
"You took your life in your hands when you went anywhere. Particularly if you were going somewhere where they were talking about freedom and independence and cooperative farming."
For four decades across 16 southern states, the Federation has promoted Black and family owned farms, coops, training in sustainable agriculture, forestry, management and marketing, and has advocated in the courts and state and national legislatures for the rights of Black farmers. They have stood up against the steady trend in Black land loss that has gone from a peak of 14% to less than 1% of agricultural land in the United States. Ben Burkett, southern farmer and Director of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives (and president of the National Family Farm Coalition) states,
"Our view is local production for local consumption. It's just supporting mankind as family farmers. Everything we're about is food sovereignty, the right of every individual on earth to wholesome food, clean water, clean air, clean land, and the self-determination of a local community to grow and do what they want. We just recognize the natural flow of life. It's what we've always done."
Co-prize winner OFRANEH from Honduras came together in 1978 to protect the territories and the human rights of the Garifuna people of Honduras' Atlantic coast. These descendants of African-Carib ancestry are a historically oppressed minority in Honduras. Their traditional lands are being grabbed by oil palm plantations and tourism developments. Because displacement and deforestation have made the Garifuna extremely vulnerable to the extreme weather events associated with climate change, OFRANEH works with local populations to build climate resilience. Says OFRANEH Coordinator Miriam Miranda,
"Our liberation starts because we can plant what we eat. This is food sovereignty. We need to produce to bring autonomy and the sovereignty of our peoples. If we continue to consume [only], it doesn't matter how much we shout and protest. We need to become producers. It's about touching the pocketbook, the surest way to overcome our enemies. It's also about recovering and reaffirming our connections to the soil, to our communities, to our land."
The difference between the World Food Prize and the Food Sovereignty Prize is the difference between entrepreneurial "empowerment" and real political power. While the former implies an increase in personal agency within the existing system—by becoming economically successful—the latter is about how the resources of that food system are allocated.
When compared to BRAC's impressive economic successes, the impacts of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and OFRANEH seem circumscribed, their positions romantic; small, grassroots Davids standing up to the Goliath of institutionalized racism and unstoppable global economic forces.
The World Food Prize provides us with an optimistic story of successful grassroots capitalism, while the Food Sovereignty Prize is a resistance story about hope against all odds. But these narratives actually distort our understanding of hunger and its causes. The fact is that for the vast majority of the world's peasant farmers, BRAC's successes are the exception rather than the rule. The default is land grabs, racism, hunger, institutionalized violence and climate disasters—the daily reality of the farmer and fisher families of OFRANEH and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.
If the entrepreneurialism promoted by BRAC is so good for rural people then why, after four decades and widespread international recognition, haven't these alternatives become standard policy everywhere?
Clearly, farmers with BRAC are better off and their success stories should be celebrated and replicated. But giving prizes for optimistic alternatives should not blind us to the harsh realities of an economic system that prevents most farmers from accessing the coops, micro credit, training and services promoted by BRAC. Indeed, unless "empowerment" enables rural communities to protect themselves from the waves of dispossession and climate chaos resulting from global capitalism and the spread of industrial agriculture in the name of ending hunger, even these gains may be short-lived.
Economic development is necessary for the oppressed, discriminated and exploited communities of our food system. It is also insufficient. Not all growth benefits the poor. Indeed, much of it hurts them. Economic growth without redistribution of power and wealth ultimately reinforces the existing systems of exploitation. Without political control over land, water, markets and food producing resources—without food sovereignty—rural people will be a tourist development or an oil palm plantation away from poverty and hunger.
What's in a prize? A tale of two paradigms and the difference between optimism and hope, between food security and food sovereignty—between the status quo and the end of hunger.
Copyleft Other Worlds. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Other Worlds.
Attend the Food Sovereignty Prize Ceremony on October 14 in Des Moines, Iowa or watch the
Posted October 8, 2015 by Stephen Bartlett, Agricultural Missions, and Beverly Bell, Other Worlds
This is part of a blog series around the 2015 U.S. Food Sovereignty Prize, which will be presented in Des Moines on October 14, 2015. The Food Sovereignty Prize is awarded by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, which IATP is a member organization. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance works to end poverty, rebuild local food economies, and assert democratic control over the food system. We believe all people have the right to healthy, culturally appropriate food, produced in an ecologically sound manner. As a US-based alliance of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental, faith-based and food producer groups, we uphold the right to food as a basic human necessity and public good and work to connect our local and national struggles to the international movement for food sovereignty.
"Our liberation starts because we can plant what we eat. This is food sovereignty," said Miriam Miranda, Coordinator of the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras, or OFRANEH by its Spanish acronym, in an interview.
OFRANEH is winner of the 2015 Food Sovereignty Prize, given by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. "There is a big job to do in Honduras and everywhere, because people have to know that they need to produce to bring the autonomy and the sovereignty of our peoples. If we continue to consume [only], it doesn't matter how much we shout and protest," said Miranda. "It's about recovering and reaffirming our connections to the soil, to our communities, to our land. We need to become producers."
In order to produce, through, one must have land. OFRANEH has organized the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people of the Atlantic Coast of Honduras into a movement to protect Garifuna territory – including ecologically rich lands, rivers, forests, and oceanfront - against theft by multinational corporations, the national government, and the oligarchy. On the lands and waters, OFRANEH members are also actively strengthening their skills of ecological farming and sustainable small-scale fishing practices.
OFRANEH also aims to defend all that is nurtured upon their territories. This includes community, autonomy, traditional culture, the Garinagu language, local radio stations, ancestral spirituality, and ceremonial life.
OFRANEH's defense of its identity and territory is head-on, through direct-action community organizing, national and international legal action, and movement-building. In its work, OFRANEH especially prioritizes the leadership development of women and youth.
Garifuna lands are being grabbed, with approval from the Honduran government and often the US government - for tourism, a naval base, deep-water port, and gas and oil extraction. This is despite Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization; the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and Honduras' own constitution, which guarantees free, prior, and informed consent to any projects in indigenous territories. Narco-traffickers have seized additional lands.
On September 10, 2015, Garifuna peoples were forcibly evicted from the city of Puerto Castillo – formerly claimed by United Fruit Company – by a major landowner. This robbing of ancestral lands and compressing the displaced into a restricted location has happened in the town before, for the construction of a major port.
The community of Triunfo de la Cruz has brought a case about dispossession of its land to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This is only the fourth case ever brought to protect indigenous territories. (The other three are the Sarayacu in Ecuador, the Saramaca in Suriname, and the Awas Tingni in Nicaragua.) A decision is expected soon.
Narco-traffickers, interested in the strategic characteristics of the land for clandestine drug running – space for a runway, a hidden creek to the sea, and remote location – had invaded the legally titled Garifuna lands. In 2012, the community reoccupied its land with drumming and ceremony, despite narco and paramilitary threats and automatic rifle fire. Since then, however, a portion of the land has been re-invaded by campesinos, with the support of narcos. The community is threatened with an illegal sale by narco-connected individuals, with the complicity of politicians. OFRANEH's strategy to win back and keep Vallecito is to apply strong enough pressure, together with allies around Honduras and the world, that the governmental Agrarian Institute of Honduras (INA) will be forced to evict the illegal usurpers.
The future of Vallecito is complicated by Honduran government plans for so-called "charter cities" (ciudades modelos in Spanish), foreign enclaves shielded from Honduran sovereignty with their own security and laws, financed by international investors. Vallecito is at the center of a large swath of Garifuna territory the government has in mind for this project. If it is consolidated, dozens of Garifuna communities could be displaced.
Regardless, OFRANEH plans to recover and keep Vallecito and transform it into a center of Garifuna renewal. All community members dislocated from their lands, for whatever reason, will be able to resettle there. Strengthening traditional Garifuna agriculture, aqua-culture, and culture in general will be an integral part of the resettlement. Immediate plans include the construction of a Garifuna ceremonial/cultural building. Youth leadership development is another part of the plan, so that urban youth and young adults can learn the same skills and knowledge as Garifunas living in remote rural locations.
Like other indigenous and non-indigenous Hondurans standing up for their rights, the Garifunas suffer continual violence, threats, and human rights abuses. Both the land grabs and the violence surrounding them are part of a political climate resulting from a coup d'état against President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009. Then, with the help of the US government, a clique of the top oligarchs of the nation swept to power. The U.S. government has played an enabling role with a series of post-coup regimes, providing political cover and military and police aid, and looking the other way as human rights violations and impunity mount. Hundreds of assassinations of opposition organizers and their family members have marked Honduras in recent years, bringing to mind the death squads of the 1980s.
In addition to the government's impunity and corruption, the illegally imposed congress has conceded land and minerals to foreign investors. Beyond what is happening in indigenous communities, campesino land across the country is being grabbed by agribusiness, particularly for African palm plantations planted to feed the craze for biofuel in the North.
Miriam Miranda said, "Our lands and identities are critical to our lives. For us, the struggle for our territories and our commons and our natural resources is of primary importance to preserve ourselves as a people."
Attend the Food Sovereignty Prize Ceremony on October 14 in Des Moines, Iowa or watch the
Originally published by Daily Kos.
Posted October 7, 2015 by Shannon Duncan Bodwell
This is part of a blog series around the 2015 U.S. Food Sovereignty Prize, which will be presented in Des Moines on October 14, 2015. The Food Sovereignty Prize is awarded by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, which IATP is a member organization. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance works to end poverty, rebuild local food economies, and assert democratic control over the food system. We believe all people have the right to healthy, culturally appropriate food, produced in an ecologically sound manner. As a US-based alliance of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental, faith-based and food producer groups, we uphold the right to food as a basic human necessity and public good and work to connect our local and national struggles to the international movement for food sovereignty.
"In the end we succeeded. But it cost us six years in jail, and five of my colleagues were assassinated. However we are still here, working, and pushing forward," said Alfredo Lopez.
Alfredo, a well-known and respected community leader, is the vice-president of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), a partner of Grassroots International. OFRANEH organizes with indigenous, Afro-descendant Hondurans (known as Garifunas), whose ancestral territory contains some of the most breathtaking and fertile areas along the Atlantic coast of Honduras. And they also constantly face land grabs by agrofuel plantations, tour-resort developers and narco-traffickers.
While leading efforts to stop a tourist development from displacing Garifuna communities, Alfredo was jailed on trumped-up charges and spent six years in prison before being released for lack of evidence. It was only through community pressure, international solidarity, and a ruling by the International Human Rights Commission Court in Costa Rica that the Honduran government finally freed Alfredo.
Since his release, he and with other members of OFRANEH have received numerous threats and been the target of several attacks. Soft-spoken and humble, Alfredo explains that threats to personal safety are commonplace for human rights defenders in Honduras. Embroiled in the middle of political violence spurred by a hardline, military-backed government, Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the Western Hemisphere.
Alfredo has helped OFRANEH set up a network of six community radio stations that are unifying Garifuna communities along the coast. The stations educate communities about their rights, history and culture, and keep them current on news and strategies for defending their territories. OFRANEH has also set up an impressive network of international solidarity and a national network of allies across the country to help them in their efforts.
The determination of OFRANEH and its organizers like Alfredo – to continue to defend their rights in the face of such adversity – has been recognized internationally as they have been named the international winner of the 2015 Food Sovereignty Prize. The Food Sovereignty Prize spotlights grassroots organizations working internationally and in the United States for a more democratic food system. The Food Sovereignty Prize will be awarded on October 14, 7 pm Central Time in Des Moines, IA, and will be livestreamed over the Internet.
While the challenges are many, Alfredo and OFRANEH continue in their push for justice and find strength from the past. "Our ancestors suffered through the same situation as us, perhaps even worse. They were forced onto boats and shipped from Africa. Many were not lucky enough to survive the journey and died along the way. We try to remember and respect their sacrifices, and this helps us today in our struggles," said Alfredo.
Attend the Food Sovereignty Prize Ceremony on October 14 in Des Moines, Iowa or watch the
Originally published by Grassroots International.
Posted October 7, 2015 by Beverly Bell, Other Worlds
This is part of a blog series around the 2015 U.S. Food Sovereignty Prize, which will be presented in Des Moines on October 14, 2015. The Food Sovereignty Prize is awarded by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, which IATP is a member organization. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance works to end poverty, rebuild local food
In 2015, the US Food Sovereignty Prize honors the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH by its Spanish acronym), Afro-indigenous farmers and fisherpeople who are defending their lands, waters, agriculture, and way of life. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, primarily African-American farmers across 13 states in the deep South, shares the prize, which will be presented in Des Moines on October 14, 2015.
The prize is given by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, which is comprised of groups of advocates, activists, and farmers and other food producers. Food sovereignty asserts that people everywhere must reclaim their control over food systems. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance upholds the right to food as a basic human
Below are excerpts from an interview with Miriam Miranda, coordinator of OFRANEH. OFRANEH works with the 46 Afro-indigenous Garífuna communities of the nation to defend their lands, agriculture, fishing, other riches of nature, identity, and rights.
Without our lands, we cease to be a people. Our lands and identities are critical to our lives, our waters, our forests, our culture, our global commons, our territories. For us, the struggle for our territories and our commons and our natural resources is of primary importance to preserve ourselves as a people.
We are a mix of African descendants and indigenous peoples who came about more than 200 years ago in the island of San Vicente. We live on the Atlantic coast of Honduras. What we Garífuna face is largely the same things faced by people all over Latin America,
If you map out the conflicts that are threatening our country, you'll see they reflect exactly where transnational capital is trying to take more resources from indigenous peoples. Maybe you believe that President Mel Zelaya was ousted in a coup d'état [in 2009] because he was a leftist. No. It was because [those with wealth] wanted to take land and resources, which they are now doing. There's more pressure on us every day for our territories, our resources, and our global commons.
Look at the search for so-called alternatives to oil - through mining, mega-dams, et cetera. All these resources are being taken from indigenous areas. In Honduras, they're taking land that we were using to grow beans and rice so they can grow African palm for bio-fuel. The intention is to stop the production of food that humans need so they can produce fuel that cars need. The more food scarcity that exists, the more expensive food will become. Food sovereignty is being threatened everywhere.
Another of our main challenges is the tourism industry. We live almost on the sea, right on the beach. It's a
We've occupied and claimed ancestral lands that had been taken by others, such as Vallecito Limón. We're also using international human rights law in order to guard our territories. We have a claim against the government in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Washington regarding Triunfo de la Cruz [a beachside Garífuna community whose communally owned lands have been taken]. We hope to have a decision in November or December. This will create an important precedent for all indigenous peoples, not just for the Garífuna. It'll define the responsibility of the state to protect territories and rights of indigenous peoples. This will only be the [fourth] case ever brought that will help establish policies and mechanisms to protect the territories and resources of indigenous peoples, and all of humanity, of course.
The marvelous women comrades in Triunfo de la Cruz, Garífuna women, many of them elders, have incredible strength. They participate in meetings, in actions, tearing down walls that are built on the beach. They're sustaining the Garífuna youth so that they know who they are, without shame. They're producing the yucca that is our staple food.
Women [everywhere are] defending life, culture, and territories, opposing a model of death that grows stronger each day. We are at the front of the avalanche of attacks. Everywhere throughout Honduras, like in all of Latin America, Africa, Asia, women are at the forefront of the struggles for our rights, against racial discrimination, for the defense of our commons and our survival. We're at the front not only with our bodies but also with our force, our ideas, our proposals. We don't only birth children, but ideas and actions as well.
If the problem is global, we have to have a global response. It's time for every human being in the global North to take up his or her responsibility in respect to the use of resources, responsibility relative to waste and to consumption. The standard of living that you all have in the US is unsustainable. You are the button-pushers.
We [on the other end] have crises piled one after another. We are trying to resist and find every solution we can, but we ask ourselves: Hmm, are we the ones consuming all this energy? If those in the North are the consumers, why are we in Honduras paying? Why are we being displaced to generate energy for others? What are we supposed to do? Leave the planet to destruct, or make a change for future generations? They won't have land or water or air. This is not pessimism, it's reality. The time has come.
For more information, please see US Food Sovereignty Prize. And also visit this site to learn about the US Food Sovereignty Alliance's Month of Community Power.
Attend the Food Sovereignty Prize Ceremony on October 14 in Des Moines, Iowa or watch the
Originally posted at worldpulse.com
Posted October 6, 2015 by Beverly Bell, Other Worlds
This is part of a blog series around the 2015 U.S. Food Sovereignty Prize, which will be presented in Des Moines on October 14, 2015. The Food Sovereignty Prize is awarded by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, which IATP is a member organization. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance works to end poverty, rebuild local food
The 2015 US Food Sovereignty Prize goes to two organizations that are demonstrating just how much Black lives matter, as they defend their ancestral lands for community-controlled food production. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, primarily African-American farmers across the deep South, shares the prize with the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras, Afro-indigenous farmers and fisher-people. The prize will be presented in Des Moines on October 14, 2015.
Food sovereignty goes beyond ensuring that people have enough food to meet their physical needs. It asserts that citizens everywhere must reclaim their power in food systems by rebuilding the relationships between people and the land, and between food providers and those who eat. The US Food Sovereignty Alliance upholds the right to food as a basic human right and works to connect our local and national struggles to the international movement for food sovereignty.
The Federation of Southern Cooperatives strengthens a vital piece of food sovereignty: helping keep lands in the hands of family farmers. Its members are farmers in 13 Southern states, approximately 90 percent of them African-American, but also Native American, Latino, and White.
The Federation's work is today more important than ever, given that African-American-owned farms in the U.S. have fallen from 14 percent to 1 percent in fewer than 100 years. To help keep farms Black- and family-owned, the Federation promotes land-based cooperatives; provides training in sustainable agriculture and forestry, management, and marketing; and speaks truth to power in local courthouses, state legislatures, and the halls of the U.S. Congress.
Below are excerpts from an interview with Ben Burkett, an active member of the Federation. Burkett is also a farmer, director of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, president of the National Family Farm Coalition board of directors, and a member of La Via Campesina's international board
"Our view is local production for local consumption. It's just supporting mankind as family farmers. Everything we're about is food sovereignty, the right of every individual on earth to wholesome food, clean water, air and land, and the self-determination of a community to grow and eat what they want.
"The Federation of Southern Cooperatives grew out of the civil rights movement [in 1967]. Racism is still here in the marketplace and in credit, but we have learned to deal with it and not give up on changing the system. We struggle every day to bring about a change.
"We recognize the natural flow of life. It's just what we've always done. We want to go back to the way things were. It's supporting mankind as small farmers and family farmers. It's not so much a matter of making money, it's a matter of carrying on so your farm will continue on. But you have to make some profit off it in order to keep it going.
"Myself, I'm a fourth-generation farmer on a farm that my great-grandfather homesteaded in 1889. That wasn't but about 20 years after the end of slavery. He got 164 acres from the United States government. I still have the title – they called it a patent – signed by Grover Cleveland. And we're still farming that same land.
"Some say the system is working. It appears to be working fine, but corporate agriculture is not sustainable. Our system of growing food is heavy, heavy, heavy dependent on
"You've got a few companies that want to control all the seed stock of the world, and they've just about got a handle on marketing three of the main commodities: corn, soybean, and cotton. [For us,] it's hard to find seeds that aren't treated with the Monsanto-manufactured Roundup Ready. I've tried to find cotton that wasn't treated, but I couldn't. Now they're working on controlling wheat and rice.
"And they make those seeds so most of them don't regenerate the next year anyway. But if you do save any of the seeds,
"I don't think that's fair. Once you've bought the seeds and planted them on your own land, it looks to me like they ought to be your own seeds. That's the essence of life. Where did Monsanto and the other companies get their first seed from? Someone gave them to them. Those seeds didn't fall out of the sky.
"We've been – I don't want to use the word co-opted – trained by the institutions of agriculture, the companies, the university system, and technology, to give our rights over to the company, which I think is absolutely wrong. We have to be more proactive than reactive as small farmers, family farmers. We can't wait for the government and large corporations to dictate to us what we can do in our region.
"They've got a unique way of buying you off to not fight here. The American consumer doesn't care as long as it's cheap. But no matter what farmers plant, the consumer's got to change the system. People buying the end product have to complain. As long as they don't complain, there's no need even talking about it."
The prize is given by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, which is comprised of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental, faith-based, and food producer groups. To learn more about the work of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, please visit http://www.federationsoutherncoop.com/.
Attend the Food Sovereignty Prize Ceremony on October 14 in Des Moines, Iowa or watch the
Posted October 2, 2015 by Matilde Perez U., La Jornada (Mexico)
English translation of original post by La Jornada
The Union of Dairy Producers of the Mexican Republic and the Mexican Dairy Federation asked the government to refrain from presenting offers in the negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which are being carried out in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, that have not been agreed to by the national sector.
The National Front of Dairy Producers and Consumers demanded that the product be removed from the negotiations. Alvaro Gonzalez Muñoz, the group's president, explained that the risks are very high, since the nations that make up the commercial bloc will offer very low prices for dairy products, which will lead to the bankruptcy of the majority of the 250,000 producers.
Vicente Gomez Cobo, president of the Mexican Dairy Federation, indicated that the national negotiators "should not use milk producers as a bargaining chip. We are not like textiles or patented medicines."
Salvador Alvarez Moran, president of the Union of Dairy Producers of the Mexican Republic, explained that the sector is going through a profound crisis, created by the oversupply of milk on world markets, which has led to a 70 percent drop in prices in the last year and a half. "The situation could get worse if we include dairy in the TPP, since New Zealand is the main exporter of milk and cheeses in the world. Its competitive advantages allow it to produce milk at half of what it costs in Mexico."
He referred to the Mexican dairy supply chain, which is made up of 250,000 farms, of which 96 percent have fewer than 100 heads of cattle, and which generate 635,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Both reported that the 240,000 dairy producers continue to confront a complicated situation due to the low prices they receive, which are below the costs of production. "Hundreds of small and medium producers are at risk of disappearing," they indicated in separate interviews.
Gomez Cobo said that production costs have risen 30 percent due to the effects of the devaluation of the peso against the dollar, since 85 percent of inputs are priced in that currency.
Posted October 1, 2015 by Karen Hansen-Kuhn
Trade ministers and negotiators are meeting this week in Atlanta in what might be the final round of negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Leaving aside the fact that they first announced a "final" round nearly two years ago, it does seem that they are down to a few sticking points. As in so many trade agreements, whether and how to include agriculture is one of those points of controversy. This time, much of the debate focuses on just how much the member countries must open their dairy markets to imports, and whether Canada will be compelled to weaken its dairy supply management program.
These demands come at a time when dairy producers in many countries are reeling from falling prices. After increases in global prices over the last few years, farmers in many countries increased production. Then conditions changed dramatically. Russia banned dairy imports from the U.S, EU and Australia. China substantially increased its own production. According to USDA reports, the price of non-fat dry milk (the main reference price) fell from $1.77 per pound in 2014 to about $0.89 as of September 2015.
Wild swings in supply and demand have pushed many dairy farmers over the edge. According to an article in Bloomberg Business, the U.S. has lost more than 76 percent of its dairy farms in the last 25 years. In the article, Andrew Novakovic, an economics professor at Cornell, said, "This is a problem of globalization. You are exposing yourself to a lot of risk without a lot of control."
Sound familiar? One of the big lessons since the 2008–2009 food price crisis has been that volatile prices are bad for both farmers and consumers. And that too much dependence on fickle world markets is dangerous for food security. But the official answer to the dairy crisis that resulted from too much of a focus on global markets seems to be to open those markets wider and more permanently.
Canada's dairy supply management program has helped to insulate it from these wild swings, but that sensible policy is under threat in TPP. In what sounds like a kind of shell game, several governments are demanding market opening under TPP, each with the idea of strengthening its access to the others' markets. For several years now, New Zealand has made clear that one of its top priorities in TPP is to open U.S. and Japanese markets to imports of milk protein concentrate on behalf of Fonterra, which controls the vast majority of its production. The U.S. has said that it won't increase access to its dairy market unless Canada opens its dairy markets to U.S. exports.
Canadian dairy farmers are pushing back, staging protests all over the country, including bringing cows and tractors to block traffic at the Parliament to protest the proposed TPP deal. They have made it a major issue in the electoral campaign, with current Prime Minister Stephen Harper claiming that he will safeguard the current system. Still, agriculture ministers for Ontario and Quebec, the two biggest dairy producing regions, decided to join the talks over concerns that the federal government would give up too much. Quebec Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis said, "We want the minister, who left the federal campaign to go down there, to feel that this is a big deal."
The Dairy Division of the International Union of Food, Agriculture, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF) issued a statement saying that, "we believe that sovereign democratic nations have the right to protect jobs and livelihoods in the interests of their peoples. For example, the supply management system in Canada provides price stability for producers and income stability for workers and has widespread democratic support within Canada. Its retention or otherwise should solely be for the people of Canada to decide, free from any intimidation or blackmail by corporate interests or by other nations."
If dairy markets are opened under TPP, the end result won't be just more milk being shipped across borders. It will undoubtedly lead to further bankruptcies of family farmers who are unable to cope with falling prices and rising costs, and greater control by a few big businesses. The driving force for these proposals is not farmers, consumers or even governments. It is agribusiness groups including the U.S. Dairy Export Council and Fonterra, the world's largest dairy producer, for whom a "balanced" approach means opening up markets as much as possible.
The lessons of the past are clear. Trade agreements have been used as weapons against supply management programs, going back to NAFTA and the 1996 U.S. Farm Bill. Opening agriculture to "market" forces dominated by a few big producers results in greater corporate concentration, reduced bargaining power for smaller producers, and new challenges for fair and sustainable local economies. TPP is supposed to be a 21st Century trade agreement, but it looks like more of the same failed policies. It's time to learn the lessons of history instead of just repeating them.
Posted September 30, 2015 by Ben Lilliston
One year after it was launched at the UN Climate Summit in New York, the controversial Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA) is at the center of an emerging international debate. Last week, more than 350 civil society organizations from around the world urged global decision-makers to oppose GACSA, charging that the initiative opens the door for agribusiness greenwashing while undermining agroecological solutions to climate change.
GACSA, housed at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is made up of 21 national governments, agribusiness interests (particularly the fertilizer industry) and some civil society groups. GACSA was formed to lobby international institutions, like the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to support agricultural production systems and projects deemed "climate smart."
But with a murky governance structure, no solid criteria or definitions for what climate smart agriculture (CSA) is or isn't, and heavy corporate influence, GACSA appears to be more of a marketing campaign than a positive way forward for agriculture in the age of climate change. In their open letter, civil society groups criticized "climate smart" agriculture's lack of social or environmental safeguards and failure to prioritize farmers' voices, knowledge and rights. Without clear definitions, corporations such as Monsanto, Walmart, Syngenta and the world's largest fertilizer company, Yara, have filled the void, branding themselves as "climate smart."
Instead, the groups opposed to GACSA called for greater recognition of "agroecology within a food and seed sovereignty framework" to help the world adapt to a changing climate while contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, we "need a radical transformation of our food systems away from an industrial model and its false solutions, and toward food sovereignty, local food systems, and integral agrarian reform in order to achieve the full realization of the human right to adequate food and nutrition," the groups wrote.
GACSA is part of a larger debate happening at international institutions (like the UNFCCC, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization) and within national governments about how to integrate our understanding of climate change into agriculture and food policy. Last year, a letter signed by 70 scholars openly opposed the "climate smart" agriculture model, promoting instead the scientific and social legitimacy of agroecology. Agroecology, with a strong emphasis on community ownership, farmer knowledge and food sovereignty, poses a direct challenge to the corporate-led, chemically-intensive industrial model of food production.
The issue is also being debated at the Green Climate Fund (GFC, a funding mechanism to support developing country programs, established at the 2010 Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC in Cancun), which hopes to announce initial funding for projects prior to the December climate talks. The GCF should be a good match for supporting agroecology in developing countries. GCF projects need to provide broad environmental and social benefits–including a gender-sensitive approach. At least 50 percent of the GCF's projects must focus on climate adaptation–what is most needed by developing countries. IATP contributed to a report earlier this year on exactly how the GCF could support agroecology.
U.S. government agencies are also considering how to integrate "climate smart" agriculture into their programs. The U.S. Agency for International Assistance (USAID)'s Feed the Future program sought comment earlier this month on integrating "climate smart" agriculture into their programs (See IATP's comment to USAID, calling for a stronger emphasis on agroecology). The USDA is currently seeking comment on a new interagency report titled: Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the U.S. Food System In the U.S., we can expect the debate over what is and isn't "climate smart" to escalate as we head into the writing of the next U.S. Farm Bill in 2018.
Right now, the focus of the climate smart debate is at the FAO, which hosts both GACSA and a series of international symposiums on agroecology. Later this year, global decision-makers at the UNFCCC meeting in Paris will consider whether to support a GACSA-driven agenda or farmer and community-led agroecology. GACSA has the backing of some enormously powerful political and economic interests that can lean heavily on international institutions. But those same interests are not immune from the impacts of climate change–including economic and political instability. When it comes to the future of agriculture, we can't afford to choose GACSA-led marketing over agroecology's proven track record.
Posted September 28, 2015 by Dr. M. Jahi Chappell
IATP's long-time ally in Mexico, ANEC (the National Association of Producers' Enterprises) held a three-day conference recently (Aug. 31 – Sept. 2) celebrating its 20th anniversary, and more significantly, discussing what should be the next steps in creating an international agenda for agroecology in Latin America. Momentum in favor of agroecology is growing in response to a number of documents and events including our own report on Scaling Up Agroecology, several open letters by prominent scientists, International Seminars in Rome and Brasilia organized by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Nyéléni Declaration of the International Forum on Agroecology, and upcoming meetings in Senegal and Thailand, to name a few examples. Building on that momentum, the meeting's theme was "Peasant Economies and Agroecology: Social Movements, Knowledge Exchange, and Public Policies."
The meeting included more than 300 participants from 16 countries and 15 Mexican states. Following the opening remarks of Olga Alcaraz (Secretary of ANEC's Governing Board) and Victor Suárez (Executive Director of ANEC and former IATP board member), I gave my own welcoming comments (IATP assisted as co-coordinators of the conference). Looking out into the crowd before I began my formal talk, I asked how many campesinos[i] were in the audience; I figured there was a good number due to the many Stetson hats in the crowd. Around a third of the attendees—100 people or so—raised their hands. This, I noted, was an excellent sign, and one of the most exciting and significant elements of this anniversary and conference: there are very few conferences I have attended as a professor or as a staff member at a nonprofit that had so many farmer attendees. Having a critical mass of the people living the challenges we're confronting is so important, and alongside the numerous extensionists and academics, the ANEC meeting showed the power of bringing scientists and farmers together directly to talk and exchange experiences. What's more, the scientists in attendance included some of the most prominent
Those two prominent scientists barely scratch the surface of the numerous dedicated, knowledgeable, and deeply passionate researchers in attendance. And in addition to farmers, researchers, activists, university administrators, financial authorities, and representatives of charitable foundations who support agroecology, the new national Secretary of Agriculture of Mexico, José Eduardo Calzada Rovirosa, and the Mexican representative to the FAO, Dr. Fernando Agustín Soto Baquero gave remarks and support.
After presentations by many of these figures, the conference broke into working groups on Day Two. The groups covered five separate topics of fundamental importance to realizing and supporting peasant agroecology:
What's interesting is that these five themes are relevant not just in Latin America, but in the U.S., and throughout the world. We're seeing this in forum after forum, not just at the FAO Regional Meetings nor simply from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology in the UK, or even in recent discussion and debate with the European Parliament. These themes appear in scholarly papers and demands by social movement members themselves. We're seeing these their relevance in the continued study and implementation of "dialogues between ways of knowing" and alternative practices, in the focus on supporting women and youth and their leadership and also supporting men to assume a wider diversity of new and shared roles. And we continue to learn ever more about the potential for agroecology to support biodiversity, address climate change and resilience, and to enhance nutrition and food sovereignty.
The meeting in Mexico ended with a powerful joint statement, agreed to by acclamation from the conference floor, acknowledging that "Because the model of peasant agroecology is an alternative paradigm, not only for agriculture, food, and climate change, but for of all life against the collapse of civilization in which we live, we consider it a duty of solidarity and an unavoidable political commitment to share it, to divulge it, to advance it for all of our America." The final statement also agreed to a number of commitments from the attendees, including:
[Some points have been summarized here for brevity; read the full declaration in Spanish or an English translation of the declaration.
With the FAO Regional Meetings on Agroecology in Africa and Asia to come this November, commitments from the ANEC meeting attendees to participate in worldwide days of action against free trade agreements (October 10–17, 2015), the upcoming United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris, possible regional meetings on agroecology in Europe and more still, we are seeing the beginning—and maybe beginning to see the middle—of the transition towards a truly just, sustainable, sovereign and agroecological system happening right before our eyes. That said, we cannot wait for it to happen. It will happen because we work together to keep this momentum, collectively and around the world, and keep pushing the agendas of agroecology forward.
Photos from the event and farm tour.
[i] "Campesino" translates more or less as "peasant", but in Spanish it carries more of its original connotations of "a person of the land" and is not considered insulting as it is customarily in English. It refers to small and medium-scale farmers, who in many cases are experiencing the same struggles around the world—including in the US and Europe. For the purposes of this piece, I use campesino, peasant, and farmer interchangeably.
Posted September 16, 2015 by Laurel Curran
At the end of July, trade negotiators and ministers representing 12 Pacific Rim countries failed to reach agreements on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), leaving the negotiations hanging. Ensconced behind closed doors at the Westin Resort and Spa in Ka'anapali Maui for over a week, representatives were apparently less unified than the hundreds of protestors representing human rights, environmental interests and Native Hawaiians who gathered outside on the Ka'anapali beach. Those activists collectively broke the Guinness World Record for the number of participants in a simultaneous conch shell blowing, a massive kahea (call) to "Stop the TPP by Land & by Sea."
Protestors fear that continued prioritizing of corporate interests in global trade treaties will derail the ability of Hawaiians to determine the health of their communities and environment.
In a press release issued at the start of the talks, Kaleikoa Ka'eo, professor of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii stated, "The TPP is a threat to our sovereignty as Native Hawaiians, and as human beings. This secret trade agreement would allow corporations to control decisions about how we live without any accountability to us, the people of this land."
Lack of corporate accountability for public health and the environment is not a new topic in Hawaii, a state that is recognized as ground zero for some of the most controversial agribusiness behavior. Since the collapse of the Hawaiian sugar cane industry in the 1990s, the world's leading biotech companies—Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, Dow and BASF—have descended on the state. Drawn to Hawaii for the year-round growing season, agribusiness has designated the islands as the premier location for the development of GMO and pharmaceutical crops. The Hawai'i GMO Justice Coalition estimates that GMO companies own or lease 40,000 – 60,000 acres in Hawaii for the development and testing of GE seed breeds – an industry that is worth $243 million. Of the 90 million acres of GMO corn grown last year on the U.S. mainland, almost all of it has Hawaiian ancestry.1
Counties in red indicate GMO test & development sites
Source: Pesticides In Paradise, EarthJustice
"Today, Hawai'i has more experimental field trials of genetically engineered crops than any other state in the nation, with operations on Kaui'I, O'ahu, Maui and Molka'i. Where sugar cane, taro, breadfruit and papaya once reigned, mile-long fields of genetically engineered corn now grow." (Pesticides In Paradise, EarthJustice)
Public health concerns, fear of environmental consequences, and a lack of satisfactory regulation have prompted Hawaiians to create local laws that regulate the activities of biotech giants on the island. At the end of 2013, both Kauai County and Hawaii County passed local ordinances that attempted to mitigate the impact of the development of GM crops on local health and the environment. Hawaii County Ordinance 13-121 banned biotech companies from expanding their operations to the Big Island, and prohibited cultivation of GM crops beyond papaya. Kauai's Ordinance 960 required that Dow, Syngenta, BASF and DuPont Pioneer—who test and develop seed varieties on about 15,000 acres in Kauai County2—disclose their use of pesticides and GE crops, and establish pesticide-free buffer zones between fields and public areas, schools, hospitals and waterways. In 2014 a Maui County initiative created a temporary ban on GM crop production until the county could conduct its own environmental impact study.
These county laws sparked massive debates across the state about community rights to public health, and although the actions had public support, they were relatively short-lived. Within months DuPont, Pioneer and Syngenta filed a complaint in federal court challenging Ordinance 960, saying that their pesticide usage (which is ten times greater the national average for restricted-use pesticides),3 and development of GM plant breeds "present no unreasonable risks to the environment or public health," and furthermore that any disclosure requirements of the use of pesticides and GM crops was "burdensome" and would "compromise Plantiff's confidential commercial information and unnecessarily expose Plantiffs to risk of corporate espionage, vandalism and environmental terrorism."4 Hawaii County's ordinance was similarly challenged by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, as well as a number of grower associations in the county.5 Finally, the Maui County GM ban was challenged by Dow and Monsanto, which according to Honolulu Civil Beat, collectively raised nearly $8 million to challenge the initiative, while advocates of the ban have spent less than $83,000.
Eventually all three county actions were overturned by the U.S. District Court of Honolulu, which ruled that the ordinances are preempted by state and federal law. These disputes raise important questions about local democracy and community self-determination, and also illustrate the reasons for concern over the trade agreements that could broaden corporate control over local food systems. With increased ability to rely on "burdensome regulation" and the harmonization of standards across the Atlantic, multinationals will be able to advance a deregulatory agenda. State legislative measures designed to strengthen local economies will be at risk across the country.
Local policy innovators are fighting to create landmark state programs that promote a new vision for Hawaiian agriculture, or rather an old one, by investing in local agriculture to build sustainable and resilient systems of food production. In 2005 Hawaii enacted a measure that initiated the development of a modern sustainability plan for the island. The successor of the Hawai'i State Plan, Hawai'i 2050 is a state sustainability initiative that outlines goals and achievement indicators for the future of the island. The plan prioritizes "kanaka maoli," Native Hawaiian tradition, while protecting the environment, natural resources, and promoting local food systems. The development of a stronger sustainability ethic, combined with grassroots efforts to promote local food and awareness of GMOs has prompted an upswing in sustainability-oriented policy, including:
(Abstracts sourced from official bill text summaries)
Act No. 097 Increases renewable portfolio standards to 30 percent by December 31, 2020, 70 percent by December 31, 2040, and 100 percent by December 31, 2045. Requires the Public Utilities Commission to include the impact of renewable portfolio standards, if any, on the energy prices offered by renewable energy developers and the cost of fossil fuel volatility in its renewable portfolio standards study and report to the Legislature.
Act No. 2013-55 Amends the Hawaii State Planning Act objectives and policies for the economy to support the purchase and consumption of locally grown food and food products, by residents, businesses and governmental bodies; provides for an effective promotion, marketing and distribution system.
HI S 875 2015 (Pending) Establishes, beginning January 1, 2016, labeling requirements for any food or raw agricultural commodity sold in the State that contains a genetically engineered material or was produced with a genetically engineered material; establishes exceptions; establishes violations; requires director of health to adopt rules.
At least 10 other bills are pending that work to regulate the growth and sale of GMO crops in the State.
HI S 1040 2015 (Pending) Requires Hawaii fresh produce or items made with Hawaii grown produce sold at farmers' markets to be displayed with a label or sign containing an identity statement declaring the Hawaii produce's county of geographic origin. Requires out of state produce sold at farmers' markets to be displayed with a label or sign containing an identity statement declaring the produce "imported."
HI S 1270 2015 (Pending) Requires all sweetened beverages to contain a warning label.
Laws of this kind, that have created renewable energy standards and local food procurement programs, as well as others under consideration to limit or label the use of GMOs in food, create nutrition disclosure standards, and regulate state-grown labeling, could be jeopardized by TPP rules that deem them to be "unnecessary" barriers to trade. Hawaii's internal struggle with biotech multinationals is rooted in the same concern of the protestors on Kaanapali beach who fear the prioritization of global commitments over the local interests. The bottom line is that these trade agreements, which promise transparency and regulatory protections, in fact have the potential to devastate local economies' and rural communities' democratic efforts to promote and protect safe and sustainable food initiatives.
IATP will be publishing a series of fact sheets that outline different high-risk areas of state legislation that may be undermined by TPP and TTIP.
1 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/paradise-found-hawaiian-agriculture-from-sugar-cane-to-seed-farms/
2 http://www.agri-pulse.com/Agriculture-companies-sue-Kauai-County-GMO-bill-01-12-2014.asp
3 http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25868-hawaiis-gmo-battle-federal-judge-strikes-down-kauais-pesticide-regulations
4 http://www.slideshare.net/civilbeat/lawsuit-kauai-bill-2491
5 http://www.civilbeat.com/2014/06/hawaii-farmers-biotech-industry-challenge-big-islands-gmo-ban/


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Born and raised in Dundas, Ontario, Alexandra Feswick formed a connection with food and nature from a very young age. Graduating from the University of Guelph with a BA in Sociology, she eagerly began training at George Brown Chef School in 2005. Feswick landed an apprenticeship at the Ancaster Mill for five years under Chef Jeff Crump, and was educated with the belief that good food should speak for itself and that it is vital to the integrity of what you're cooking to do it with your heart. In addition to invaluable cooking skills, she also picked up knowledge about working on a farm and the importance of high quality, fresh, seasonal ingredients - insights that continue to inspire her menus today.
After relocating to Toronto in 2010, Feswick quickly gained ranking as one of Toronto's top chefs, working behind the line at restaurants like Brockton General and Samuel J. Moore with her loyalty to fresh, local produce served in unique and elegant ways. She remains committed to food service by actively contributing to the network of culinary leaders in Ontario, and regularly donating her time and expertise to cooking for various charitable events. Career highlights so far include cooking at the venerable James Beard House, participating at Cook It Raw with some of the world's top chefs, and being invited to compete in the influential Gold Medal Plates competition. In March 2014, Feswick joined forces with Corporate Executive Chef Teddy Corrado as Chef de Cuisine at The Drake Hotel, where she now has a place to call home and an ever-growing, ever-inspiring space to create – which includes an urban garden full of fresh herbs and ingredients, located in a secret alley off of Queen St. W.
Local media don't call Drake's kitchen "right on the mark" for nothing. After taking a stroll down West Queen West, you're sure to work up an appetite. Whether you stop by for an early breakfast in the Café, a burger + beer in the Lounge, a delicious dinner of the whole roasted fish in our decor-rotating Dining Room or to say cheers with a Rust & Bone cocktail on our Sky Yard – we think dining should be fun. Our homespun menus change with every season and we hope that you like our reinvented classics as much as we do.


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VGXI to Manufacture GMP IL-12 Plasmid for OncoSec's ElectroImmunotherapy Trials
OncoSec Medical inked an exclusive agreement with VGXI for the process development and large-scale cGMP production of interleukin-12 plasmid DNA (DNA IL-12) used in OncoSec's ElectroImmunotherapy cancer treatment. OncoSec's cancer therapy approach involves the use of electroporation, delivered using its OncoSec Medical System (OMS) device, to transiently increase the permeability of cancer cells to chemotherapy (OMS ElectroChemtherapy) or immunotherapeutics (ElectroImmunotherapy).
The clinical-stage ElectroImmunotherapy product is an engineered DNA plasmid encoding IL-12. Three Phase II trials are ongoing in the treatment of metastatic melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
VGXI is a contract manufacturing organization specialized in the GMP production of DNA plasmids for use in human clinical trials. The firm offers a full spectrum of plasmid preparation services, from the manufacture of purified plasmid preparations for DNA vaccine and gene therapy research in small animals, through to preclinical plasmid production services for large animal testing, and cGMP production of injectable-grade plasmids for human clinical trials and commercial supply.
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text: Brian left his Louisville home to pursue his dreams in Indiana. Posted December 11, 2011 by Dan Flaherty 0 0 Related Posts:A Dating Site for Catholics? What!?!?4 Reasons to Take Another Look at the Annulment ProcessAs Brian Rebuilt His Life Andrea Entered His PathA Single Woman's PrayerHow Do I Know She Is "The One?"Does Marriage Confusion Lead to Bad Dating? About Dan Flaherty Dan Flaherty is the is the author of Fulcrum , an Irish Catholic novel set in postwar Boston, which includes a fictitious mayoral campaign based on the values that once dominated the Democratic Party. A Late-Night Christmas Eve Chat United Brian & Amy »


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State offers fun, free venues
Some say the best things in life are free, and in Mississippi, there are plenty of things to see and do for free.
"August is a great time to visit Mississippi to enjoy summertime fun and a variety of free attractions across the state," said Mary Beth Wilkerson, director of the Mississippi Development Authority's Tourism Division.
Some of the great places and activities you can visit for free in August in Mississippi are:
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Skip to comments.Aircraft carrier will guard Bush at G8
Posted on 05/19/2005 4:43:34 AM PDT by cooper72
AN aircraft carrier packed with hundreds of US marines will be anchored off the west coast of Scotland during the G8 summit, according to security sources.
The assault ship, also laden with helicopters, is expected to be dispatched as the United States armed forces prepare their own massive security operation to protect the president, George Bush, during the Gleneagles summit in July.
A fleet of Galaxy C-5 planes, carrying armoured limousines and the helicopters that will take Bush and his entourage to the venue, is expected to touch down at Prestwick airport.
The US is also believed to be insisting on having its own command post so it can act independently of the British police and military if there is a threat to the president.
A military source said: "The Americans want to do everything themselves. They want to have their own helicopters; their own armoured limousines. This happens at every summit like this, and it always causes tension between America and their hosts.
"The aircraft carrier is about giving America the capability to do lots of things with people, helicopters and the like. They also want their own command post if Bush decides they have to carry out their own operation."
Meanwhile, security chiefs are planning a ban on all plane, train and vehicle movements around the airport when the worlds most powerful leaders fly in for the meeting.
Advisers want to impose "30-minute total travel exclusion periods" around each flight arriving at Prestwick with a world leader on board, to thwart protesters and terrorists.
The effect could be motorway gridlock, as well as an air-traffic nightmare for holidaymakers. This would mean all roads around the Ayrshire airport being closed, all trains being halted and all commercial flights being grounded for the arrival and departure of Bush, Vladimir Putin, Jacques Chirac and other world leaders for the summit from July 6-8.
Traffic experts say the "lockdowns" could lead to 30-mile tailbacks on the M77, as the effects of the security clampdown are felt as far north as Glasgow and south into Dumfriesshire.
Top-ranking officials met at Prestwick last week to finalise details of the operation.
A security source said: "This is by far the biggest security operation ever mounted on Scottish soil. It may well cause widespread disruption, but that cannot be avoided. Its a small price to pay."
However, the plans have caused alarm among local police chiefs. Military commanders are also concerned that the "no-fly" periods may halt helicopter flights from HMS Gannet, the Royal Navy rescue base.
Prestwick has been chosen as the main arrival airport for the world leaders because it is more difficult for protesters to get to than Edinburgh or Glasgow.
A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: "There may be traffic delays and disruptions because the leaders of the G8 can change their plans, and this will, in turn, force us to change our plans - but we will be keeping local communities updated."
Its obvious, we're invading Scotland, with the President leading the charge...America always uses the pretext of a Presidential visit to invade....Oh wait, that is in the Bizarro universe.
Why dont we just stay home? If this place is all that dangerous, lets not go.
Aircraft carrier will guard Bush at G8
The assault ship, also laden with helicopters
W can show Chiraq a working carrier.
I don't think that all of us get to go, just the President and his staff.
They mix things up these days. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) deployed to Haiti during Clinton's Haiti fiasco laden totally with helos. No jets.
Your question is a good one, though. I suspect it'll be an LHD or LHA, not a CV or CVN.
I love it when the "powerful" of the world have to fear the unwashed masses. The more power one attains, that much more fear is realized.
Don't be silly. And what do you mean "this place"?
Anyway, America does this everywhere. President Reagan probably has a team of Delta Force guys around him in heaven right now, "just in case"!
You are right of course. I just cringe when I read an article written in total ignorance. I keep hoping against hope that an editor will read the comment and decide that maybe just maybe their military reporters should know at least a little about the military.
Unwashed masses? There is nothing like American diplomacy! :)
Oh, it's the new ship - the CVNLHD.
Trust me - it's one ship you don't want to mess with.
Oh yeah. Many times I've heard carriers, cruisers, and destroyers referred to as "battleships." I've heard any carrier based aircraft with a jet engine referred to as a "fighter." One can routinely see stories in which masses of troops are referred to as "officers."
The press doesn't get it because they never served, nor do they know anyone who did. For them, the military is an inert entity, able to be moved around the chessboard by them when they achieve the rank to which they all aspire: policy wonk.
I went to grad schoool with many of these types. They know enough about the mil to be dangerous, but not enough to understand its real missions, capabilities, and limitations.
I doubt it was written by a military reporter. Its not a military story. Its a local story, with an American ship off the coast. The type is not really of relevance to the story.
Knit pickers abound as usual. Call it a scow with three drunk marines going to protect Scotland. Who really cares????
Holy $h!t !!
That's a helluva' football team !
Pat Tillman has been able to get God to run defense for us.
Waaayyyy cool !!
Now on to my comment: the skipper of the USS Saipan (LHA 2) gave a group of us poor grunts his command brief a few years ago. He insisted that his ship, while it didn't have airplanes, was indeed an aircraft carrier.
It was an impressive ship. I enjoyed the brief and the tour that followed very much.
Anyway, I had the same question when I read the article. I am assuming it is an LHA/LHD.
LOLOLOL Thanks for my first hardy laugh of the morning.
Other than being a big expensive photo op using my tax money and using my tax money to provide an aircraft carrier no less, does anything good come out of these meetings, anything that cant be accomplished if everybody stayed home? I have the right to see the bill for this.
"...fear the unwashed masses..."
Hey now. I bathe at least once a day.
I would rather see the bill that I help pay for the Welfare in this country.
"I would rather see the bill that I help pay for the Welfare in this country."
That's true. I can't argue with that. We'll just ask for both bills.
I hear it over 200,000 feet long and carries an entire division of marines, all their air and arty support and a really good BX.
When I was growing up, reporters were generally not journalism graduates. The ex military were used as military reporters, ex cops were used as crime reporters etc. Id like to see it go back to that system.
I don't mind the President going to this summit. It would not look good if our President stayed home due to fear. It's better to show the rest of the world our great leader and let them salivate when they see our powerful military protecting him.
Once a day??? We will need certified statements by either your Mother or your wife which ever is pertinent. Please submit in triplicate.
It was written in a Scotland paper but shouldnt an editor catch it?
"It's better to show the rest of the world our great leader and let them salivate when they see our powerful military protecting him."
You've convinced me. I hope they take a lot of underwear with them.
If these poor blokes are frightened by the sight of an assault ship, can you imagine their shock were an aircraft carrier and its full battle group actually to appear?
Well they wont see much since the carrier (or whatever) will be off an uninhabited beach around 50 miles away
LOL, we should fire a few shots also.
Im retired Army but I had the privilege of being Waterborne and often workrd with (helped out) our Navy. The Saipan skipper was correct in a way his ship does carry aircraft, both fixed wing and rotary. They are impressive, carrying troops, landing craft and air elements.
By common convention an aircraft carrier is a CV or CVN.
Bummer! It should be right behind him at all times!
It's an established fact that the streets of Heaven are guarded by United States Marines.
An entire old fashioned Carrier Battle Group? Now that is impressive and attention getting!
Oh dang!!! Now I have to fess up. I bathe at the beginning of each season whether I need it or not. I bath at the end of December as dry season is starting, and again at the beginning of April when raining starts again. Sometimes I feel that I dont need to bathe just because of the changing seasons, but I do it out of habit anyway. My mother would be proud of me.
Well they could - -but they would need a hell of a size of a trailer for it ; )
Thank you for your service, by the way.
Thanks - I can honestly state that I enjoyed about 99% of my time in.
Er...that's "nit pickers" (just to keep things straight)
Sorry but our policy ALWAYS has our guys protecting our president.
Semper Fi Marines.
Firstly why settle for second-best? ;)
Secondly, the marines would not be allowed on British soil anyway.
>>Secondly, the marines would not be allowed on British soil anyway.<<
You cannot allow foreign troops (except for the Secret Service) to be active. They would have no jurisdiction to fight.
Would you like hundreds of British Commandos to be active with jurisdiction in Washington? I don't thinks so! :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
Kim Kardashian Admits to Family Drama: What Did She Say?
All is not well in the land of Kardashians and Jenners.
In fact, all is actually REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad if certain reports are to be believed.
All is not well in the land of Kardashians and Jenners.
In fact, all is actually REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad if certain reports are to be believed.
The name Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna intend to give their baby girl has reportedly been revealed, and it will make you bust a gut.
What's in a name? In this case, a lot ...
Kim Kardashian is a ridiculous human being, and that's an undeniable fact.
As sure as the sun will rise, as sure as Kanye West will embarrass himself, Kim Kardashian will be ridiculous. That's just the way it is.
Kim Kardashian made headlines earlier today for brushing aside talk of a feud with Taylor Swift.
In an interview with Wonderland Magazine, Swift acted all sweet and innocent and coy and said she never threw any shade in Swift's direction.
While the Internet continues to choose a side in the ongoing Kim Kardashian-Taylor Swift feud, Kim Kardashian would like to make something clear:
She's on Team Swift.
Kim Kardashian is constantly in the public eye, so she knows she has to look good to keep the paparazzi interested in her.
Anyone in the spotlight knows that looking good comes as part of the job.
Kanye West was feeling generous, blessed, artistic, loved, etc, so he put another ring on Kim Kardashian's finger.
The biggest secret in Hollywood has finally been spilled.
Why did Angelina Jolie really file for divorce from Brad Pitt?
There's going braless, and then there's public indecency.


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A sugary haze wraps you when you get near.
It fills your throat and drifts up behind your eyes, like the incense of a secret rite.
It's my first barbecue competition.
And how far I've come. Barbecue for me started with watching my father in a blue "Reach Out and Quiche Someone" apron, tending a grill from the open garage while the Florida rain dropped like a curtain a few feet away.


text:
Probiotics Help Save the Spine
Sounds of Science Podcast
Transcript-Savvy Discovery Is a Smart Bet
Drug Developers Are Finding Ways to Bend the Transcriptome to Their Will
Humanizing Animals for Immuno-Oncology
Success in Humanizing Mice Has Inspired Similar Efforts in Rats, Pigs, and Other Animals
Molecular Dx Has Your (Copy) Number
CNV Detection and Analysis Tools Are Being Used To Fill Genetic Diagnostic Gaps
Scientists Identify Gene that Controls Mucous Production in Lung Diseases
Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have identified a gene that causes excessive mucous in the lungs. Their research also turns certain beliefs about how certain cells promote chronic lung infection and excess mucous production on their head. Results appeared in the September 14 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Scientists previously thought that after airways were attacked by an allergic response or inflammation, mucous cells (known as goblet cells) divided and proliferated at a very fast rate, a process called hyperplasia. Instead, the Cincinnati Children's team discovered that beneficial lung cells called Clara cells change their cell type to become goblet cells in a process called metaplasia. They also found the metaplasia process in this instance to be reversible.
The study identified transcription factor SPDEF as a gene that regulates a chain of downstream genes involved in mucous production. SPDEF is an active player in other organ systems that need to produce mucous for normal function, such as the digestive system. In healthy lungs, however, the researchers report that the gene is mostly quiet.
Using an egg white protein called ovalbumin to induce an allergic reaction and inflammation in the lungs of mice, the researchers observed a dramatic elevation in the expression of SPDEF in the lung tissues of the affected animals. The animals also experienced hyper-production of thick mucous in their lungs.
The researchers report that SPDEF turned off genes involved in biological processes that help protect lung tissues from infection and damage. Conversely, it activated genes that promote inflammation and excessive mucous, in particular FOXA3, AGR2, and mucins.
AGR2, for example, helps assemble mucous proteins by folding together different molecules. When SPDEF is overexpressed, it results in increased production of AGR2, which in turn promotes an over-abundance of protein folding and mucous production.
In mice where the SPDEF gene was switched off, inflammation and excessive mucous production did not occur. Mice lacking SPDEF were unable to increase mucous production or develop goblet cells.
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the dukester wrote: »True story.
One of my knockers attended, and graduated from ITT Tech.
Nigga said it was a fight everyday, & somebody was always pulling the fire alarm in the building.
Muhfucka said the entrance exam was so easy a blind man could pass it. Said he banged a rack of ratchets while going there.
Seen the nigga a few months after he graduated at the gym.
Muhfucka working at Home Depot in the garden section.
Black_Thunder wrote: »Lol my man Bart ain't that bad he just want every black person in the E to be world champion.
I dont know what for, besides lashley,kenny king and moose, the rest of these wrestling niggas today lame as fuck and aint got no charisma
Jay Lethal
Apollo Creed/Crews
GayR Fox
Cedric Alexander
Not one of them is shit next to a ahmed johnson or a butch reed or ron simmons


text:
Thru-hiking the Colorado Trail exposes a "wilderness" that is anything but.
A transient outdoorsman, he only wanted to be in the mountains or down some canyon.
In the Grand Canyon, pack in some common sense.
Squirrel suited flyers say the bans actually contribute to deadly accidents.
A biking boom in Sedona, Arizona, forces locals to ask: Is there room for all these people?
Review of "Snowblind: Stories of Alpine Obsession" by Daniel Arnold.
Is the new sport just an expensive way to get into trouble on the river?
Documenting recreation on Instagram, Strava and YouTube is changing the way we experience the outdoors.
Review of "So, How Long Have You Been Native? Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide" by Alexis C. Bunten.
A misstep in the backcountry alters an avid hiker's perspective.
Airbnb-like websites spring up in response to overcrowded public campsites.
Why the outdoor industry opposes a federal minimum wage.
We're better than ever at understanding the dangers of avalanches. So why can't we avoid them?
A bikepacking trip in Canyonlands offers a new look at a well-travelled landscape.
Can $5,000 fines and jail time protect an endangered species from thrill-seekers?
Does Utah's mega tourism campaign compromise the outdoor experience?
Vast stretches of Nevada and Northern California are now protected, bringing Obama's count to 19.
What dropping water levels could mean for the region's recreation economy.
A Colorado land swap with the Forest Service gives developers a green light.
Can a small Alaska town overcome the booms and busts of resource development?
Readers voted in our bracket-style tournament to crown the West's best public lands on which to recreate.
Bill would allow recreation businesses to operate on federal land without paying staff $10.10 an hour.
Review of 'The Hidden Canyon: A River Journey' by John Blaustein


text:
We are a global organization with programs in 170 countries. This site may be customized by language and geographic region.
Teens and college students are the future leaders of Special Olympics.
It's the mission of Special Olympics to show the world the capabilities of people with intellectual disabilities.
We have over 4.7 million athletes of all ages with intellectual disabilities around the world.
Our celebrity supporters are Olympians, professional athletes, social leaders, and movie and music stars.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver was a pioneer in the struggle for the rights of people with intellectual disabilities.
Direction for our movement comes from leaders in government, entertainment, sports and business.
All adults and children with intellectual disabilities can become Special Olympics athletes. Here's how.
Get involved with Special Olympics in your neighborhood. Find the program nearest you.
Get results by sport and team for major Special Olympics competitions.
Explore how Special Olympics is creating a more inclusive, welcoming world for all.
Your gift of $35 will help train an athlete for an entire season. Give today!
Discover the many ways you can support Special Olympics through your estate plans.
Make a donation and send a card in celebration or honor of a loved one.
Your efforts will help transform more lives through the joy of sports. Get started today!
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Make a Difference
People use the R-word, retarded, carelessly or as an insult. Here are stories about ways we've dealt with it.
Kaufman, Mona
I was a young mom in the 80's, working from home for scheduling donation pick ups for a company going by the name of NW Center for the Retarded.
Lee Ann Flener
My son was born with Down syndrome on Jan. 1, 2016. I have heard the r-word used several times in my life and haven't really thought much about it.
My son has autism and since he was born, the word "retard" wasn't allowed in our house - even as a childish joke of a word.
Erin Griggs
I was in high school when the use of the word was brought to my attention. It was a moment of embarrassment for me when I used it.
I have helped at my school for two years with kids with disabilities.
Barbara Miller
My son was born with epilepsy and had two seizures a day. He was in special schools, as he didn't t walk till he was 7.
Mary Rule
My grandson, now 23, fills my heart every day, with smiles and love. I am grateful that I have been able to share in his life.
Mr. G
calysta waller
I have always used the r-word. I try not to but I do. I am going to stop because I have a little sister who has autism.
Korey Scott
My brother is challenged, and I hate when people use the r-word. It makes me feel bad because he can't say what he feels.
My beautiful girl, the light of my life, nows deals with being called many awful things by her peers, including the r word. If they'd take the time to get to know her, they'd see that she is many things (smart, beautiful, caring, kind hearted, and so much more).
Kenneth.Giles By Kenneth Giles
My neighbor, her name is Madison. She is 13 and she has cerebral palsy from the neck down, so she cannot walk or stand up. Even though she can't walk, she's so much fun to hang out with. She can talk and laugh and she has a pet gerbil.
Malana Shaffer
Not everyone is the same. Everyone has their own abilities where not all are the same. God didn't make things the same for a reason.
I have always hated the r word, as some of those with that "label" are some of the smartest people I know. They figure out quickly how to play life's games.
We really need to stop hating each other and start loving and embracing our differences.
Sondra Clemens
Terri "Maria" Ridgway
My two daughters go to a special development school. They love their school. My only sadness is my son calls them the r-word all the time.
Elizabeth Begin
I want to say thank you to everyone that knows that people with obstacles in their lives are just the same as everyone else. And in fact in my eyes they're better.
Carson Cooper
sammi bove
My name is Sammi. I have many disabilities. I was in special ed classes in school. That meant dealing with people calling me the r word.
Alaina Torkelson
When I was a kid I used the r-word frequently even picking on kids that were different....that is until I met Tony.
When I was a child my best friend had Down syndrome, I didn't notice it but as I got older I started noticing how other people made him feel.
Cassie V
My husband has dyslexia. He had to repeat his first and second grades. He was looked down on for being 'stupid, retarded', etc.
Denice Porterfield
I am now a 60 year old woman. But when I was a child, I heard that horrible word so often.
michael landy
It's a term used to belittle and an oppressive term that inpacts on all people with a disability and seeing people as less than non-disabled people.
We have more than one special kid in our family and the r-word is my biggest pet peeve. People use it all the time, but nothing makes me angrier as when it is used to describe a child.
I have intellectual disability and it not fair to say those words. I dislike that word. Lots of people used to call me that.
Taylor Rusche
As I got older I realized that people were unconsciously using the R-word...and I was not okay with that.
DIana Cooper
Pastor Frank
A couple of years ago, a little boy with Down syndrome came into my life. I fell in love with him from the start.
Kallie Fuller
My brother who is intellectually disabled once asked me, "why do people use the word 'retarded' to make fun of other people? That's what I am, isn't it? Why is that bad?"
Hannah Kim
I will fight ableism. The R-word is out!
I think that it's horrible that people will act so despicable towards people who are "not like them", as if they don't have feelings.
Naomi Lokison
Samantha Sewell
Heather Kylene Hillebert
When I was in 8th grade, some of my classmates would use the R-word offensively without knowing what it really means.
Growing up with a sibling with Down syndrome has its perks. My brother is one of the sweetest kids I've ever met.
Letty Vargas-Lopez
For my girl scout silver award, I taught students at my school the meaning behind the r-word.
Rosanne Brubacher
I can not believe how much society will segregate those who are special needs. It starts off right away as soon as they enter the school system.
Chyntia Poedjokerto
Everyone is created differently. With different characteristic, different physically and different ability.
I lived in Lucasville, Ohio when I was a baby to 7 years old. My mom had a really hard time keeping me inside and out of the woods as soon as I started walking.
Yvette Pople Patil
While growing up there was not a day or person who wouldn't call me the R word even my family called me and it defeated my strength and my zest for a brighter future.
I live in Great Britain and many years ago the word commonly used for Down syndrome was "spastic" retarded was used as well.
When anyone used the word retard or retarded it was absolutely so hurtful, both when he was here with me and now to his memory.
Ashley Asti
Far too often, we choose words that dismiss individuals with different abilities, that dismiss their strength, their love, their vision, their endurance—how they survive even as they are knocked down.
Alexia Weber
Some years ago my youngest daughter (age 4) was asked "what's the matter with him?" about her brother's best friend.
Some years ago my youngest daughter (aged 4) was asked "what's the matter with him?" about her brother's best friend


text:
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inca flower headband
The perfect fun faux flower headband to finish off any outfit. These headbands are tightly wrapped with gorgeous ribbon and felt backed faux flowers for comfort and security.
60% Plastic; 25% Polyester; 15% Cotton.
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