Sustainable Agriculture Louisville works with a number of community organizations, individuals and global networks. Below are links and brief discussions of some of these community connections.
Please forward additional links and descriptions that you think should be added here. You can send your suggestions to [email protected] or by joining the SAL email discussion group.
Ecological Food Systems:
Ecological Food Systems: The purpose of this group is to discuss and develop ecologically sound sustainable agricultural systems based on the following principles
- Maximum recycling and processing of organic wastes and the development of distribution networks for the resultant soil amendment and fertilizer products.
- community support of local production.
- accessible (neighborhood) distribution networks for local organic products.
- cooperative economics.
You may join these groups by going to:
http://yahoogroups.com/group/Ecological-Food-Systems and/or
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/ecological_food_systems
Adena
Adena Working Group & Adena Institute Sustainability research informatics and association management. This non-profit organization develops collaborative community based research resources for whole systems transitions to sustainability. t
Kentucky Jobs With Justice
Kentucky Jobs With Justice
email: [email protected]
Boycott Taco Bell! Campaign
Farmworkers from the tomato fields of Immokalee, FL, are asking you to drop
your chalupa and join their effort to obtain dignity, and a fair wage for
the hard work that they do
For more information, visit http://www.ciw-online.org
Institute for Social Ecology
Institute for Social Ecology One of the oldest and most respected sustainable education and networking organizations, ISE is dedicated to educating and organizing for ecological community with networks worldwide.
Global Exchange
Check out Global Exchange's moderated listserves, updated weekly.
Human Rights in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Palestine, California;
Global Economy campaigns on Fair Trade and corporations; and more:
http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/lists.html
ADVOCACY NETWORK ON AFRICA (ADNA)/AFRICA TRADE POLICY WORKING GROUP
Africa Faith & Justice Network
(http://afjn.cua.edu)
3035 Fourth Street N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20017, U.S.A.
Phone: 202/832-3412
Fax: 202/832-9051
E-Mail: [email protected]
Action Alert: URGE YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE TO COSPONSOR
The Agriculture and Farm Resources for the Indigenous Communities of Africa
Resolution
(The AFRICA Resolution - H. CON. RES. 260
(See this appendix for more information)
Contact:
Larry J. Goodwin, (202)-832-3412, [email protected]
AFJN Associate Director; Chair, Africa Trade Policy Working Group
Kathleen Sengstock, (202) 225-2201
Legislative aide to Rep. Maxine Waters
You can view the full text of the AFRICA Resolution on the Africa Faith &
Justice Network web site at http://afjn.cua.edu
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group We are very excited to announce that the next Southern SAWG
Conference will be held January 23-26, 2003 in Mobile, Alabama
at the Adams Mark Hotel, overlooking Mobile Bay!
Offering a longer program this year, the conference will begin first
thing Friday morning and close at noon on Sunday. There will be
optional field trips Thursday (likely full day and half day) as well as
on Sunday afternoon. In addition to the usual program offerings, we are also planning a beginning farmer program and a wider variety of field trips this year. Watch for details this fall in our newsletter and on our website: http://www.attra.org/ssawg
Plan to join us at the coast this January. And spread the word!
Because they are hosting a national meeting in the fall, the Southern SARE PDP will not hold their annual Workshop this January.
Presbyterian Hunger Program:
Presbyterian Hunger Program
Contact:
Andrew Kang Bartlett
Associate for National Hunger Concerns
Presbyterian Hunger Program, PC(USA)
100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202
Phone: (888) 728-7228 X5388 Fax: (502) 333-7388
[email protected] http://www.pcusa.org/hunger
Tentative Program Agenda
Note: Presentation times are subject to change
Thursday
6:00 p.m.
Welcome & Announcements
6:15 p.m.
Fred Kirschenmann (Iowa State University) "Where are We Now"
8:00 p.m.
Gene Logsdon & Maurice Telleen "Old and New Agrarianism"
Friday
8:30 a.m.
Brian Donahue (Brandeis University) "Agrarianism in the
Suburbs"
10:30 a.m.
Eric T. Freyfogle (University of Illinois) "Land Ownership and
Land-Use Planning"
Noon
Lunch
2:00 p.m.
Karen Armstrong Cummings, Mary Berry Smith, Steve Smith
(Commodity Growers Association) "The View From the Local"
4:00 p.m.
Susan Witt (E. F. Schumacher Society) "The Community Land
Trust"
5:30 p.m.
Dinner on your own
7:30 p.m.
Wendell Berry "Why Agrarianism Matters"
9:30 p.m.
Reception
Saturday
8:30 a.m.
Wes Jackson (The Land Institute) Agrarianism: Mere Nostalgia
or Practical Necessity?
10:30 a.m.
Mark Ritchie (Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy) "Economics
as if Agrarianism Mattered"
Noon
Lunch
2:00 p.m.
David Kline An Amish View
4:00 p.m.
Hank Graddy, John Berry "The Legal & Legislative Front"
5:30 p.m.
Dinner on your own
7:30 p.m.
Dr Vandana Shiva "A View from India" More Info
Canada Colombia Solidarity Campaign
Canada Colombia Solidarity Campaign http://tao.ca/~ccsc/
ALSO: http://tao.ca/~ccsc/letter-venezuela
Dear Peace Lovers, Farm Advocates and Farmers of Kentuckiana, all Friends:
Today on the 'international day of peasant struggle', and on the eve of yet another round of democratic expressions of resistance in Washington D.C.(resistance to profit-taking war, to intervention in Colombia and Venezuela, to World Bank and IMF impoverishment policies, to neoliberal economic imperialism), at marches, strategy meetings and protests which I and many others from Louisville will be joining, I send you this poignant message from Canadians to the peasant farmers of Colombia.
I rarely forward postings, but this one regarding the farmers of Colombia (and evidently translated from the Spanish) was particularly meaningful to me in my understanding of subsistence farming and its irreplaceable value to the world. By the way, I do not agree as is implied that US small farming has been 'defeated'. I do think we are at the bottom and now have only to recover what was lost. The time is ripe. And we are on the move. And the way is so much easier for us than for the farming communities of Colombia who must work their land under the threat of paramilitary incursion and US financed fumigation.
(Also please note that a 'hug' as translated in English sounds very dainty compared with the Spanish 'abrazo' which is more like a bear hug of solidarity, like what long-lost friends give each other when meeting again.)
Stephen Bartlett
Convener of SAL
Latin America Liaison for Agricultural Missions
On the international day of peasant struggle
Canada Colombia Solidarity Campaign
April 17, 2002
To the peasants of Colombia (who are the peasants of the world)
Today, the International Day of Peasant Struggle, we salute you for your struggle. We salute you because the very fact that you continue to exist is a testament to your struggle, to your courage, to your defiance.
To be a peasant has always been a struggle. Whether you are indigenous, afro-colombian, or mestizo, you have always had to struggle with the soil and with the weather, to use your ingenuity and the ingenuity of those who came before you as you did your work of feeding the world. But to be a peasant today is a different kind of struggle.
Today your struggle is not only to strike a balance with nature, something you have found ways to do in many places and times, but to survive against many who would see you disappear. There are those, for example, who believe Lauchlan Currie's (an example of a Canadian-Colombian connection, Currie advised several Colombian presidents) theory of 'Accelerated Development' that says that you are an obstacle to 'development', and that you have to be pulled or pushed off the land. There are those who implement Currie's theory by murdering you, in the thousands, every year, with the result that 2.5 million of you have been 'pushed' off your lands and into shantytowns and refugee camps. There are those who are trying to 'patent' the ingenuity that you have developed over thousands of years, steal it and sell it back to you, leaving you and the world hungrier to enrich
themselves. There are those who are doing the same for water. There are those who want to push you off the land so that they can get the minerals that lie underneath it. There are those who would rather that you, instead of feed the world from your little plot of cleverly managed land, grow a cash crop for the world market with its capricious nature that will lock you into debt and leave you constantly uncertain about whether you will feed your family this season. And those who would rather that you join the millions of unemployed in the city, fighting with others for the scraps of 'development'.
Against all of these, you have persisted. You have survived. And this means that you have struggled. You have struggled on the Pacific Coast and in the Cauca Valley, where you have brought the land back to life despite the worst horrors that they could inflict on you. You have struggled in Putumayo, where they spray toxic chemicals on you from the air. You have struggled in Tocaima, building for food security and against the whims of the world market. You have struggled all over Colombia for peace and social justice against a war to which you have contributed the dead.
The small farmers of North America are nearly extinct. 'Accelerated Development' here has done its work. Our agricultural system is based on corporate agribusiness, every type of agrochemical and biotechnology, the exploitation of migrant workers. This system brings large profits to the corporations. It produces more than can be consumed here, and so the rules of the world market are changed to force your country to buy it, another way to force you to stop producing food. And despite this, it is still you, and your counterparts all over the world, who feed the world.
For that, for surviving, for struggling, we are in your debt (and not, whatever the IMF says, the other way around) and we hope to be able to learn what you have to teach us, while there is still time.
We send you a hug from Canada,
Canada Colombia Solidarity Campaign http://tao.ca/~ccsc/
ALSO: http://tao.ca/~ccsc/letter-venezuela
Louisville Coalition of Neighborhoods
Louisville Coalition of Neighborhoods represents Louisville Neighborhood organizations, small cities, individuals and groups with a neighborhoods interest. While focused initially on government merger issues, the coalition takes a broad approach to networking and representing the over 250 geographic areas of the metropolitan area. LCON is a natural ally in the development of sustainable agriculture initiatives in Louisville, has inquired about working with SAL, and is currently entertaining several proposals for "greening" neighborhoods which could include SAL partnerships.
Communicas: Strategy, Communications, and Brokering for Sustainable Development
Communicas is a collaborative consulting and production network which focuses on planning, producing and brokering resources for sustainable development at the intersection of community and communications. Projects range from short term consultancies with small business or individual agencies to management of broad public-private consortia and public policy campaigns with a long term focus. Local Communicas projects include the Future of Agrarianism Communications Working Group, the Louisville Coalition of Neighborhoods communications services and strategy, and this Sustainable Agriculture Louisville web development services project.
