“Soybean Wars” speaking tour kicks off in Chicago
The RAN agribusiness campaign, together with Student Trade Justice Campaign have organized a U.S. speaking tour for Leticia Galeano, a campesina youth leader from Paraguay. Other co-sponsors include Georgetown University, School of Americas Watch, Institute for Policy Studies, Grassroots International, Across the Americas, World Hunger Year, Global Justice Ecology Project, Small Planet Institute, Witness for Peace Upper Midwest and the Washington Office on Latin America
Leticia Galeano is an inspiring youth leader from the Movimiento Agrario y Popular (a peasant organization in the department of Caaguazú) and student at the Universidad Catolica in Asuncion, Paraguay. Leticia will speak about militarization in Paraguay, and about the role of U.S. agribusiness giants like ADM, Bunge and Cargill in fueling the soybean wars.
Her community, Tekojoja, is an example of organized resistance to agribusiness exploitation. In 2005, the police violently and illegally displaced families from the community, resulting in the deaths of two individuals. There is now an attempt to bring this case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The speaking tour will also be an opportunity to learn about the landless movement in Paraguay and about unique stories of community resistance through food sovereignty initiatives based on the concept of agroecology and subsistence farming. Events will be held at universities, cultural centers, and conferences in various cities. Additional speakers will join Leticia at the events.
The tour will officially kick off on Tuesday evening, September 23 at Loyola University in Chicago. We will then travel to Minneapolis, Washington D.C., New York City, Burlington and Philadelphia. For more information about events in individual cities, see below:
- Chicago
- Minneapolis: IATP, Waite House Community Center
- Washington D.C.: Friends of the Earth, Georgetown University
- New York City
3 Responses to ““Soybean Wars” speaking tour kicks off in Chicago”
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September 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Why isn’t ran responding to criticisms re: ancient logging support and participating in deals that trade away wilderness at: http://forests.org/blog/2008/09/feature-old-growth-carbon-find.asp . You are hurting your credibility by working on soy and coal but not protection for all wildlands and ancient forests. I am considering canceling my membership and protesting.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Hi Matt,
I want to take a moment to respond to the criticisms and concerns you have raised. Let me first clarify that RAN campaigns to protect ancient forests. This is one of our four primary campaigns. Over the summer we achieved a major victory in a campaign led by the Grassy Narrows First Nation and supported by RAN and a number of other NGOs, when together we pressured Abitibi-Bowater to stop logging in the old growth boreal forests of First Nation’s traditional territory. Read more at http://understory.ran.org/2008/06/23/grassy-victory-articles/. In particular, I recommend the CBC interview with Roberta Keesick.
Later, the government of Ontario announced a plan to protect 50% of the far northern boreal forests. RAN has made no deals to trade away forests in the boreal, we were not at any negotiating table in the far north. After the announcement was made, RAN wrote to the premier with a broad coalition of NGOs to pressure him to ensure that the government’s promise is implemented. (http://understory.ran.org/2008/07/24/broad-coalition-writes-to-ontario-premier/). We have also worked to bring the voices of Indigenous leaders from the affected region in Northern Ontario to the forefront of the debate. (http://understory.ran.org/2008/07/18/ki-chiefs-statement-on-youtube/).
Protecting 50% of the land base of a region is good news. Globally, such victories are rare, (http://understory.ran.org/2008/07/29/the-biggest-environmental-victory-you%E2%80%99ve-never-heard-about/) and RAN along with an awful lot of observers are impressed that an area half the size of the state of California will be set off limits if this plan is implemented. However, RAN did not participate in this deal. We encourage you to join us to hold the government of Ontario accountable to this commitment, and to campaign for further wilderness protection in Ontario and beyond.
RAN has a long history of support from and for forests.org, and we have previously responded to criticisms on forests.org (http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2007/11/the_transcript_ran_dodges_rega.asp). At the time, we were hoping to agree on next steps, and we have been ever since.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Jennifer Krill
Program Director
October 31st, 2008 at 6:25 am
A couple of days ago I receive an email from you with great info. It gave a list of 50 companies that I WILL DEFINITELY BOYOCOTTTTT! Unfortunately I have lost it and would you be so kind as to email me the list.
THANK YOU…THANK YOU…THANK YOU
PEACE