Report Back From Sacramento: How Technologies Threaten Food Safety and Farmers

A Report Back From the Sacramento Mobilization: How Emerging Technologies Will Hurt Asian Farmers & American Consumers Who: Jayson Cainglet, International Activist from the Philippines and other Speakers When: Thursday, June 26th at 7:00 pm Where: Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Room 5 388 Ninth Street, Suite. 290 Oakland, CA 94607 Telephone: 510.637.0455 About the Event Jayson Cainglet is a farmer and political activist from the Philippines who has worked on agriculture, food security, trade, and economic justice concerns for over 15 years. He has worked extensively with the Philippine National Peasant Movement (PKMP) and a broad network of food sovereignty advocates called the Task Force Food Sovereignty The event will explore how food irradiation threatens the livelihood of familyP farmers in the Philippines as well as posing a local danger for California school children. Jayson will explain how American consumers can work against the trends of globalization that jeopardize food safety and endanger farmers throughout Asia. What is Food Irradiation? Irradiated food has been exposed to radiation equivalent to millions of chest x-rays, in order to destroy invasive insects and drastically extend shelf life. This process allows multinational food corporations to ship food all over the world and exert tremendous control over the food system. Local and indigenous farms and farm workers will be pushed aside to build huge factory farms controlled by powerful agribusiness corporations. In Southeast Asia, the U.S. irradiation company SureBeam has been actively negotiating in at least three countries to construct facilities, threatening the livelihood and well-being of farmers throughout the region. For more information: Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell Public Citizen 510.663.0888 kmayerblackwell@citizen.org www.citizen.org/california