Justice Begins with Seeds Conference

About:
We are at a time of many crises. And in the face of all the global challenges before us, the domination of the food supply, and the contribution of the current food regime to climate change, numerous environmental crises, humans rights abuses and displacement of people to name a few, makes it perhaps the most pressing issue before us.
To control food is to control people. To destroy topsoil is to destroy the most elemental thing upon which we all depend. And to convince people that this system is the only way and that there is no other option is one of the most pressing myths before us that needs to be shattered.

The conference: JUSTICE BEGINS WITH SEEDS will be a space for movement building to actively address the the symbol of the corporate food regime: genetically modified food, address the many layered implications of GE/GMO food, and build strategic coalitions and deeper collaborations amongst diverse stakeholders more widespread political action addressing GMOs in varying levels throughout the state of California.

The conference will focus on hands on workshops and panels on how to build alliances, how to start a rights based campaign, and how to get involved with GMO labeling initiatives throughout California. People from different organizing contexts will have the space to discuss, share strategy and build the movement to address the corporate food regime, encouraging people to actively take on the issue politically.

Pre-conference keynote event by world renowned activist, environmental justice leader, author and thinker:

Dr. Vandana Shiva
September 13th, 2011, 7-9 PM, San Francisco, CA
Screen shot 2011-09-01 at 11.03.40 PM.png

Horace Mann School Auditorium
3351 23rd Street, San Francisco CA 94110
San Francisco, CA
7-9 PM
September 13th, 2011


Keynote Plenary panelists:

Friday, September 16th morning: Local and global implications of genetically modified seeds.

* Ignacio Chapela: UC Berkeley microbial ecologist and mycologist
* Anuradha Mittal: Oakland Institute executive director
* Marcia Ishii-Eiteman: Pesticide Action Network North America senior scientist


Friday, September 16th afternoon: Agricultural biodiversity and the real solutions we need

* Adelita San Vicente: Semillas De Vida A.Z.
* Dave Henson: Occidental Arts and Ecology Center executive director
* Michael Dimock, Roots of Change president


Saturday, September 17th morning: Where we are, learning from the past, and moving forward

* Carl Anthony: Breakthrough Communities co-director
* Jeffrey Smith: Institute for Responsible Technology executive director
* Eric Holt Gimenez: Food First executive director
* Mari Margil: Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund associate director


Saturday, September 17th afternoon: Linking perspectives and building the movement

* Gayle Mclaughlin: Mayor of Richmond
* Andrew Kimbrell: Center for Food Safety executive director
* Claire Hope Cummings: Journalist and Author of Uncertain Peril
* Miguel Altieri: UC Berkeley professor of agroecology


Panel and Workshop Speakers:

Track 1: GM Seeds: Global Threat, Local Struggles
Dr. Alejandro Espinoza: INIFAP Mexico, Union de Cientificos Comprometidos con la Sociedad
Dr. Antonio Turrent: Union de Cientificos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (Mexico)
Dana Harvey: Mandela Marketplace
David Bacon: Journalist and photographer
Carlos Martinez: Ecoviva
Colin Rajah: National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Dr. Elena Alvarez-Buylla: Instituto de Ecologia-UNAM, Mexico
Juan Pablo: Indigenous voice on seed sovereignty
Katherine Zavala: International Development Exchange
Luis Magana: Comite de Defensa del Maiz Criollo
Maria Catalan: Catalan Farms
Phil Bereano: AGRAwatch
Rucha Chitnis: Women's Earth Alliance
Tezo Tezozomac: South Central Farmers Cooperative

Track 2: Understanding the Landscape: Legal, Political and Business Challenges and Opportunities for Change
Doug Mosel: GMO Free Mendocino and farmer
Gayle Mclaughlin: Mayor of Richmond
John Avalos: San Francisco Supervisor
Mari Margil: Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Mark Squire: Non-GMO Project and Good Earth Foods
Michael Dimmok: Roots of Change
Philip Heiselmann: California Attorney for sustainable food and food safety
Rana Chang: House Kombucha
Rebecca Spector: Center for Food Safety
Albert Straus: Straus Family Creamery
Zea Sonnabend: California Certified Organic Farmers

Track 3: Building the Movement: Goals and Strategies
Adam Scow: Food and Water Watch
Ashley Schaeffer: Rainforest Action Network
Aaron Lehmer: Bay Localize
Claire Hope Cummings: Journalist and Author of Uncertain Peril and other books
Dave Murphy: Food Democracy Now
Doria Robinson: Urban Tilth
Doug Mosel: Farmer and Consultant to the former Mendocino campaign to ban GMOs
Heather Whitehead: Center for Food Safety
Jeffrey Smith: Institute for Responsible Technology
Jeff Conant: Global Justice Ecology Project
John Wick: Marin Carbon Project
Oscar Grande: PODER
Pamm Larry: Label GMOs in California 2012
Rey Leon: Latino Environmental Advancement and Policy Institute
Mary Ensch: Seedlings
Mateo Nube: Movement Generation

The California Biosafety Alliance is a cross sector, multilevel and inter-ethnic alliance of individuals and organizations working together to engage in broader outreach around genetically modified (GMO) food issues and to bring together strategic coalitions of diverse stakeholders to advocate for a GMO free food supply, as a means of pushing for a shift from an industrial food model, to a model of local resilience. GMOs are a symbol that represent the industrial food system and a key point that needs to be addressed in order to address and shift away from the industrial food model.

Our vision is to get the multi-faceted number of issues with GMOs, ranging from health, to social justice, to environmental destruction, to a major contributor to climate change though topsoil degradation and numerous un-factored externalities, to corporate consolidation, to enter the framework of various groups that have not traditionally focused on the issue of GMOs as a central theme and point that needs to be addressed to push for a systemic shift in the current corporate food regime.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Endorsers:

AGRA Watch: project of the Community Alliance for Global Justice
Bay Localize
Breakthrough Communities
Californians for Pesticide Reform
Center for Food Safety
Comite de Defensa del Maiz Criollo
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
Food Democracy Now!
Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
Food and Water Watch
David Campos: San Francisco Supervisor District 9
Gayle Mclaughlin: Mayor of Richmond
Global Exchange
GMO Free Los Angeles
Guerreros Verdes (Mexico)
International Development Exchange (IDEX)
Institute for Responsible Technology
Institute of Near Eastern and African Studies (INEAS)
Latin American Alliance for Immigrant Rights (ALIADI)
Latino Environmental Advancement and Policy Institute
Mandela Marketplace
Movement Generation
Navdanya
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Oakland Institute
Oakland Food Connection
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
Organic Consumers Association
Pequenos Agricultores de California (PAC)
Pesticide Action Network
Pesticide Watch
PODER
Rainforest Action Network
San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance (SFUAA)
Semillas De Vida (Mexico)
Sin Maiz no hay Pais (Mexico)
South Central Farmers Cooperative
Women's Earth Alliance