Subject: Food First Reality Tour
Greetings!
Please see the following announcement about an exciting new trip that Food
First/Institute for Food and Development Policy is in the process of
organizing. Please pass on information about this trip to your
members/subscribers or anyone else you think might be interested in
joining us.
Food First announces 11-day trip along the Immigrant Trail
?El Camino del Migrante: Immigrants and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty?
from July 29th-August 7th, 2007, is a fast-paced reality tour from Mexico
and Guatemala to the US.
Traditionally Mexican and Guatemalan peasants fed themselves. Today many
are forced to abandon farming by international economic policies that are
beyond their control.
The purpose of this Food First tour is to understand how 25 years of
neo-liberal policies, structural adjustment, privatization, and
untrammeled resource extraction by transnational corporations, have
destroyed the food systems of the campesino farmers and indigenous peoples
of the Global South, resulting in migration of millions of desperate
people to the U.S. We will also learn how communities are mobilizing
politically within and between countries, using migration to rebuild their
future through farmer-to-farmer sustainable agriculture and broad-based
social movements for food sovereignty.
The tentative itinerary includes the following:
California:
Visit ALBA (Agricultural Land-Based Training Association) in Salinas,
California, an organization that works primarily with Latinos who are
aspiring farmers and helps them to establish economically viable and
ecologically sustainable agricultural practices. We will meet with
immigrant and human rights groups and food justice activists and learn how
their work assists immigrants cope with injustice while playing a vital
role in the U.S. food system.
Mexico:
Mexico City
We will be staying at the Casa de los Amigos, which is run by Mexican
Quakers, and will meet with representatives of Via Campesina, GRAIN
(www.grain.org), and the Zapatista movement.
Tlaxcala
In this, the smallest and poorest region of Mexico, we will visit the
farms and villages of immigrants and hear the stories of resistance from
the people still living there.
Oaxaca
We will meet with families of immigrants, and representatives from CEDICAM
(Center for the Integral Campesino Development of the Mixteca), CEDI
(Center for Intercultural Dialogues and Exchanges), and APPO (People?s
Popular Assembly of Oaxaca).
Guatemala
We will meet with indigenous mayors in Solol?, the site of sustained
anti-mining resistance, CEIBA, CONGCOOP (who are working for sustainable
agriculture and land reform), the Mayan Lawyer?s Guild, and indigenous
farmers from San Mart?n Jilotepeque, the birthplace of the Campesino a
Campesino movement.
Trip expenses from California: The cost of the trip is currently estimated
at $1800-$2000.
Tour leaders: The tour will be led by Eric Holt-Gimenez who spent more
than 20 years working in Central America and Mexico with the
farmer-to-farmer movement. He will be joined by Guatemalan anthropologist
and activist, Leonor Hurtardo. Their knowledge and personal connections
will provide you with a well-rounded sense of how farmers and activists in
the region are organizing to take back control of the economies of their
communities.
We hope that you can join us on this exciting trip! Please contact us
through immigranttour at foodfirst.org if you would like to reserve your
place on the tour or want more information.
Please share this information with others who might be interested.
