USC Canada » Blog Archive » Beyond Hunger and Profit

| More

Nov 20, 2009

Beyond Hunger and Profit

This item currently has no comments. Add your comment.

Grassroots Solutions to the Global Food Crisis
Thursday November 26, 7:30 pm
Travelodge Ottawa Hotel & Conference Centre, 1376 Carling Ave

The global food system is at a crossroads. What food future will we choose? The 2008 food crisis generated worldwide attention, leading many to question the current model of global food production and consumption. Beyond hunger and profit, what principles can help us re-build a food system that nourishes farmers and communities, and sustains our planet?

More and more civil society organizations, farmers, and thinkers are rallying around the concept of food sovereignty as a guiding light for crafting solutions for our food system. This public forum is an opportunity to hear about this first-hand – from farmers, farm movement leaders, and global thinkers from Canada and the global South. Reporting from the World Food Summit in Rome, the fields of Honduras, and the farms of Canada, speakers will include:

Pat Mooney, ETC Group (Canada)
Luisa Gomez, farmer and community leader (Honduras)
Sarojeni Rengam, People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty Asia (Malaysia)
Nettie Wiebe, National Farmers Union (Canada)

Free admission (donations encouraged). Wheelchair accessible. Traduction simultanée sera fournie sur place. Presented jointly by the National Farmers Union (as part of the NFU’s 40th Annual National Convention) and the Working Group on Canadian Science and Technology Policy.

Download the event poster and the event handbill in English. For more information, contact Sarah by phone (613.234.6827 x230) or by email (smohan@usc-canada.org).

About the Hosts
The Working Group on Canadian Science and Technology Policy monitors Canadian policy in the area of science and technology, specifically as it relates to agriculture and rural development in Canada and in the South. Membership includes farmers, human rights, church and international development groups including: Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, Development and Peace, ETC Group, Inter Pares, National Farmers Union, Partnership Africa-Canada, the Ram’s Horn, and USC Canada. Co-hosted by the National Farmers Union.

About the Speakers
Pat Mooney (Canada) is the Executive Director of the ETC Group (Canada). He has more than four decades experience working in international civil society, first addressing aid and development issues and then focusing on food, agriculture and commodity trade. In 1977 Mooney co-founded RAFI (Rural Advancement Fund International, renamed ETC Group in 2001). He received The Right Livelihood Award (the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) in the Swedish Parliament in 1985 and the Pearson Peace Prize from Canada’s Governor General in 1998. He has also received the American “Giraffe Award” given to people “who stick their necks out.” The author or co-author of several books on the politics of biotechnology and biodiversity, Mooney is widely regarded as an authority on issues of global governance, corporate concentration, and intellectual property monopoly.

Luisa Gomez (Honduras) is a young farmer leader involved in ecological agriculture and resource conservation in the Otoro region of Honduras. With help from local NGO FIPAH (the Foundation for Participatory Research with Honduran Farmers), and USC Canada’s Seeds of Survival program, she helps run a community seed bank, is a radio journalist (tune into www.otororadio.com) and community organizer.

Sarojeni Rengam (Malaysia) is the Executive Director of the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN-AP), a global network working towards the eradication of pesticide problems and promoting sustainable agriculture. She works in the areas of gender particularly women in agriculture, food security and sovereignty, anti-globalisation and community pesticide monitoring by developing modules, conducting training and conducting research. PAN-AP is a member of the pan-Asian People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty Asia and a focal point organization for the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty. A zoologist by training, she has vast experience training at national and regional levels and has organized major Asia-Pacific level seminars and workshops on diverse issues of concern. An experienced coordinator of research on women, campaigner and organizer of advocacy campaigns in international institutions such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, CGIAR, ESCAP, she has held various positions on the boards of numerous citizens groups.

Nettie Wiebe (Canada) grew up farming in Saskatchewan and went on to receive her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Calgary in 1983. A strong advocate for family farming, she served as the President of the National Farmer’s Union from 1995-1999, where she was the first woman to lead a national farm organization in Canada. Today, Nettie is a partner in Maida Vale Farms, a family farm near Laura, Saskatchewan, growing organic grains, pulses, oilseeds and livestock. She is also the ethics professor at St. Andrew’s College, University of Saskatchewan. Nettie is an active participant in public policy forums across Canada and around the world speaking on such issues as sustainable agriculture and rural communities, trade agreements, women’s equality, human rights, peace, economic and environmental issues and food security.