January 2013

The Growing Discussion About Food Newsletter

Volume 1, Number 1

Why a Peoples Assembly About Food?

What Is A Peoples Assembly?
by Carlos Huerta

What Is The Growing Discussion About Food? by James Bartoli

qu el pueblo manda y el gobierno obedece. (Here the People rule and the government obeys.) Many Indigenous communities in Mexico have been on a struggle for access to food and land as multinational corporations, with the help of the government, keep constantly pushing them off their lands. Through their collective efforts and global support they have been able to set up self-governing horizontal communities run and schooled through direct participation of the community itself creating a sense of autonomy. In countries such as Greece, Spain, and Colombia, among others, governments failures to address the peoples needs and grievances have led to the realization of a shared struggle and have seen a rise in collective community organizing to address such failures through a process known as Peoples Assemblies. What is a Peoples Assembly? A Peoples Assembly is a gathering of members of the community to discuss and analyze the conditions of their local neighborhoods, share their grievances, and engage in a dialogue to come up with a collectively shared vision of what they would like to see. It is a horizontal democratic process run and facilitated by the people, thus direct participation by members of the community (local or regional) is crucial. This includes but is not limited to union members, activists, professionals, educators, and community members. How Does it Work? Peoples Assemblies can take place on different levels. Its up to the participants of the Assembly to set up the agenda and the way to facilitate. The dialogue can start by participants answering a survey and engaging in a discussion regarding any issues in their communities. Participants come up with solutions or alternatives through a consensus-building process, meaning that if there are two opposing or related ideas then through further discussion a new idea might be born that embraces the collective consciousness of the group. Participants
... please see page 2, column 1 facebook.com/groups/foodassembly

ver the past few months, people concerned with food justice and other members of the local community have been talking with each other about our mounting concerns with the industrial food system, increasing food insecurity, and growing inequalities in access to healthy and nutritious food. Rather than creating a new group or organization, The Growing Discussion About Food (GDAF) seeks to germinate a new bloom of grassroots organizing by cultivating a more diverse dialogue about food justice, with both local and international vision, and a strengthened network for collective action. Through discussing our varied concerns about food using a bottom-up Peoples Assembly process, we may decide together how to transform our local food system and build real democratic communities to take action while connecting and empowering motivated groups and individuals. Why does everyones voice matter in The Growing Discussion About Food? Everyone eats, and everyone has a stake in having access to healthy and nutritious food a human right denied many people by todays political economy. Through cultivating a larger and more diverse discussion about food security and food justice in San Diego, outside the normal channels dominated by privileged interests, we may build bridges and increase the social capital we will need from a basis of unity to address the many different problems we experience around food. By growing together, we may learn from each other and build mutual understanding and community. Recognizing the global scale of the conversation, learning from the experiences of others, and thinking and communicating outside the confines of national borders, we may cultivate healthier communityoriented values. Where are we from, and where are we going? We are people from all walks of life, and we live scattered throughout San Diego County but we are citizens of
... please see page 2, column 2 foodassemblySD@gmail.com

page 1

The Growing Discussion About Food

What Is A Peoples Assembly?

contd from p. 1, col. 1

Discussion About Food

contd from p. 1, col. 2

might decide to establish commitments to action and if needed, take up tasks or committees before they re-convene. An Assembly can take from a couple of hours to several days. In Spains Indignados movement, the Peoples Assembly would meet on public space on an almost daily basis. After months the people disbanded the encampment and decided that smaller, locally based, Neighborhood Assemblies would be more suitable but they would convene once a month as a larger assembly to talk about the projects they are involved in, the progress being made in their communities, and to strengthen the network. Peoples Assemblies in Action In Barcelona, the PAH-Platform for those Affected by Loans, was created in 2009 with the purpose of helping individuals facing eviction. Concurrently, Neighborhood Assemblies all over Spain have established committees dedicated to collecting data on homes in danger of being foreclosed on. The Spanish government has now stopped evicting families facing extreme financial hardship. In the British city of Bath, the Peoples Assembly gathered signatures in an attempt to force city government to change banks. The city did not, so the people simply changed their own banks to a local bank stimulating their local economy and uniting the community. Peoples Assemblies have been used as an alternative to the already established democratic venues when they failed to give the people a voice in the decision-making democratic process. They give a voice to the disenfranchised members of the community by providing a platform for people to express their grievances. They encourage and empower participants in a decision-making process that impacts their lives and their neighbors. It builds community. It strengthens and creates a collective culture as people join in a shared struggle towards a common vision. It gives people the power to govern their own lives based on a collective consciousness and community morality. Conclusion In a time when state corruption is no longer hidden: governments dont provide the necessary help to the victims of natural catastrophes and families get thrown to the streets due to shady bank loans. In San Diego: half a million people lack proper access to food and must wager between food, medicine or education; families are torn apart by racist institutions; multinational corporations use their money to both invade communities driving away local business and they lobby against grassroots organizing to label GMOs; and the city council no longer represents the interest of the people, opting to sell out Balboa Park. Its imperative to realize that the only ones that stand in the way between us and the world we dream of is ourselves. It is through a dialogue with our neighbors, when we see where we stand, that we realize that although we might be different we share the same struggle. Its through our collective thinking, coming up with solutions and alternatives, direct participation and cooperation in our communities, that we can move our communities forward. A better world is possible if we work together. v
facebook.com/groups/foodassembly page 2

the Earth. We come together through our mutual concern about food, the recognition that breaking bread with each other is valuable, and our desire to help make food justice and food sovereignty become a reality for all people, not just in San Diego County. To get there, we believe the answer must begin with us alone and through our collective action not through corporateled techno-fixes that further increase unemployment, and global and local inequality, nor through a broken political system that protects the profits and property rights of transnational corporations ahead of the human rights of people. How is The Growing Discussion About Food different from dinner table conversation? The Growing Discussion About Food is not just a potluck, it is more than stone soup, and it is bigger than our gardens. This discussion is perhaps the first step in developing collective plans before we put them into action. Through a Peoples Assembly process, collective plans may be developed from the bottom-up, affording more space for the most vulnerable voices and establishing a broader and more solid foundation for future action. Additionally, the Peoples Assembly process is a global phenomenon and it asserts its own legitimacy in embodying self-determination. The GDAF highlights the culture in agriculture by focusing on how re-visioning the relationship between our food consumption and food production can also mean reconnecting human relationships around food on local and global scales that have been disconnected in the marketplace. Through working to increase local farm-to-table solutions, we can simultaneously address food inequality and the job crisis while reducing dependency on global agribusiness. By revealing the global forces behind local problems, we may also build solidarities across borders and strengthen healthy exchange networks. In focusing on connecting real human problems with effective solutions, we can ground practice through foregrounding justice. What can we use The Growing Discussion About Food to accomplish? The only limit is our imagination. First, we must get to know each other, learn from each other, and understand our mutual and particular concerns. From our local roots, we must seek out and offer global connections and solidarity. Then, through coming together in our neighborhoods in traditional barn-raisings, let us reconnect and build the healthier social and economic relations we find necessary for a sustainable local food system, a greener San Diego, and a safer planet. v
foodassemblySD@gmail.com

The Growing Discussion About Food

Carrots Are Not Enough:

by Parke Troutman
Here are some bare extracts from a longer article by Parke Troutman, originally published in the LaVidaLocavore blog. These extracts attempt to present the authors challenges to the community. We encourage everyone to read the full article: http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/5233/carrots-are-notenough-the-limits-of-the-local-food-movement

The limits of the local food movement (extracts)

deplorable trends we are witnessing is not enough. I am convinced that locavores - and everyone else concerned about the future of the American republic - must consider or reconsider three points, starting with the most basic. Point One: You cant recreate what never existed. The problem begins with the story locavores tell of how the world works and whats wrong with it. The story itself of paradise lost and to be regained - is so well-known that it hardly bears repeating: at some time in the hoary past, people ate food grown near where they lived. Food was sustainable, it was moral: those who consumed it had a direct connection with those who made it, and everyone was connected to the earth and the cycle of life that seasons represented. ... But how much food advocates think should be local isnt clear, and thats the problem: the vision is murky, including on such key points as how much food were trying to grow locally anyway. ... Point Two: Access isnt the only issue. ... We need a better approach. Those who have fought to make schools sanctuaries from junk food pushers point the way: we have to do more to challenge the hypocrisy of corporations that proclaim the sanctity of individual freedom while using science to undermine it. We need to rethink the relationship between people and food businesses. Weve concluded that families bear all the responsibilities and corporations have only freedom, that having a majority of the population overweight is a small price to pay for companies having the right to sell whatever they want without regard to the health consequences. Its become a challenge to even have grown-up discussions about what a more balanced distribution of freedoms and responsibilities would look like. Point Three: Localism, as a style, has never succeeded anywhere on anything. ... If people honestly calculated how many farmers markets, CSAs, community gardens, neighborhood aquaponic farms, etc. it would take to supplant the industrial food system and then calculated how long it would realistically take to create them, then they would likely recognize the yawning gap between their aims and their methods. ... The Future ... We have to ask what it would take to have the world reflect our values and then do it. v
foodassemblySD@gmail.com

ver the past decade, especially the last five years, the local food movement has come of age. Ordinary people are pouring tremendous amounts of energy into building community gardens, supporting farmers markets, raising backyard chickens, connecting local farms to schools and hospitals, creating seasonal restaurant menus and advocating to make all of these things legal. The sheer volume of editorials, case studies, reports, blogs and the like - to say nothing of the proliferation of new organizations and coalitions - has become numbing, well past what any one mortal can follow. Foundations have taken an interest, and the movement now receives (modest) support from all levels of government. As Joe Biden would say, its a big deal. When the dust settles, however, locavores are likely to be disappointed and frustrated. The modern food system will bear their imprint to be sure: any serious sit-down restaurant will source as much locally as possible, schools will have salad bars, and big box stores and groceries will glowingly highlight foods on sale grown within the state. Indeed, all of these things are happening already. But farm soil will become even more scorched earth, standard coffin sizes will be wider around the waist, and the eating habits of the majority of Americans will be barely changed. Why? The local food movement is shortsighted. It ignores what is inconvenient and sets itself up for failure. If the movement confronted its weak spots, it would force a change in expectations and tactics, would force locavores to up their game, relegating some of what they do now to the status of fun hobbies and pushing them in promising but uncomfortable directions. This is not a hostile critique. I do not think the current food system is sustainable, let alone the one and only way well be able to feed earths growing population: based on what weve seen of how transnational agribusiness is feeding the world, if thats the only approach thatll work, were really, really in trouble. ... Instead, my concern is that the anticipated transformative potential of local foods has been overestimated. I have poured several years of my life into the movement, and I have slowly become convinced that what were doing to reverse the many
facebook.com/groups/foodassembly

page 3

The Growing Discussion About Food

Places to Learn and Places to Get Your Hands In the Soil

Many thanks to Mariah Gayler for sharing this list of resources gathered for the Cultivating Food Justice conference. Weve added a few. If you are reading this online the links are live.

Farm and Garden Resources

Farms and Gardens

San Diego Farmers Markets
http://sdfarmbureau.org/BuyLocal/Farmers-Markets.php

Organizations (continued)
La Va Campesina
http://www.nffc.net http://viacampesina.org/en/

San Diego Farms (search by city or zip)

http://www.localharvest.org/organic-farms/ http://www.cityfarmersnursery.com

National Family Farm Coalition Network for Healthy California

http://obpeoplesfood.coop http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/CPNS/Pages/default.aspx

City Farmers Nursery, City Heights Enchanted Garden Intentional Community, College Area
http://www.lesliegoldman.com/Enchanted_Garden_Intentional_Community

Ocean Beach Peoples Food Co-Op, San Diego Peoples Produce Project, Southeastern San Diego San Diego Community Garden Network San Diego Edible Garden Society
http://www.sdedible.org/ http://www.sandiegocommunitygardennetwork.org http://www.healthyworks.org/healthy-foods/peoples-produce

New Roots Community Farm, City Heights

http://www.rescue.org/blog/farm http://olivewoodgardens.org

Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center, National City Rosa Parks Community Garden, City Heights
http://parks.sandi.net/Pages/Garden/home.html http://www.sdpeacegarden.org http://sdcity.edu/SeedsAtCity http://suziesfarm.com

San Diego Peace Garden, City Heights Seeds at City Urban Farm, San Diego City College Suzies Farm, Border Field State Park Wild Willow Farm, San Ysidro/Imperial Beach
http://www.sandiegoroots.org/farm/index.php

San Diego Cultivating Food Justice

http://www.sdfoodjustice.org http://sdfnb.org

San Diego Food Not Bombs San Diego Food Not Lawns
http://www.sdfoodnotlawns.com http://sdfoodpolicy.org

San Diego Food Policy / 1 in 10 Coalition San Diego County Food System Alliance
http://aginnovations.org/alliances/sandiego/

Organizations
The Brighter Side Foundation
http://thebrightersidefoundation.org http://www.crfgsandiego.org http://www.foodfirst.org

San Diego Hunger Coalition

http://www.sandiegohungercoalition.org

California Rare Fruit Growers, San Diego & North County Food First / The Institute for Food and Development Food Not Bombs City Heights
http://fnbcityheights.wordpress.com

San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project

http://www.sandiegoroots.org/index.php

Shakti Rising, Golden Hill

http://shaktirising.org

Slow Food Urban San Diego

http://www.solanacenter.org

http://www.slowfoodurbansandiego.org

Greater Logan Heights Sobreruedas/ Community Market

http://www.glhcp.org/archives/portfolio-items/clean-up-the-greaterlogan-heights-region

Solana Center for Innovation, Encinitas Squeeze Play!, San Diego County Victory Gardens San Diego
http://squeezeplayorganics.org/sandiego.html http://www.victorygardenssandiego.com

Grow Strong, City Heights and Kenya

http://www.growstrong.org http://www.rescue.org

International Rescue Committee (IRC), City Heights

The editors of The Growing Discussion About Food newsletter encourage submissions. Please include your name and contact info so that we can inform you should we decide to publish your submission. Please send submissions to foodassemblySD@gmail.com Art by Nicole Gonzalez Layout by Nic Paget-Clarke