1. New Orleans Two Years After Katrina
2. Historic Victory for Tupinikim and Guarani Peoples of Brazil
3. The Cooperative Grocery

1. New Orleans Two Years After Katrina

Today President Bush told reporters covering his visit to New Orleans that things are getting better every day. But the question remains, better for whom? Many of the 800,000 low-income residents—mostly African Americans—who became homeless, have been unable to return due to high rents and the slow pace of reconstruction. Red tape continues to present major obstacles.

1. Walking The Walk At FOOD FIRST
2. No News is Bad News: Global Protests Over Failure to Meet Millennium Development Goals, But No Mainstream Media Coverage
3. Indentured Servants freed from Brazilian Sugar Cane Biofuel Plantation

1. Walking The Walk At FOOD FIRST

The Food First office inhabits a former home, which sits on a quiet, tree-lined residential street in North Oakland. The yard in front of the office was taken over by weeds and Bermuda grass. But that all changed in February 2007, when interns decided that the time was ripe, so to speak, for Food First to make use of the overgrown yard and grow its own food. The approach is two-pronged; not only does a garden supply Food First with free food, but it is a living example of sustainable agroecology.

1. Migrant Workers Campaign To Be Treated As Human Beings
2. Graton, California day laborers organize for better working conditions
3. Online Microcredit: A Double-Edged Sword
Speak Out

1.Migrant Workers Campaign To Be Treated As Human Beings

Now that the 2007 immigration bill has died with little hope of change until 2009, farm workers who pick almost all of the vegetables, fruits, and nuts grown in the U.S. remain vulnerable to abuse, intimidation and exploitation. Working conditions are often hazardous and payment for labor is sometimes denied, or so low that workers are forced to live outdoors in makeshift camps.

1. Immigration Reform
2.The Federal Trade Commission challenges “Whole Paycheck”
3.Cutting out the middle man—increasing access to affordable food
****Action Alert—Ask to EPA to protect us from heavy metals****

1. Immigration Reform

In recent weeks, the headlines have been full of talk about the stalled immigration legislation in Washington D.C.. An abundance of possible amendments (over 300 have been considered), conservative mobilization against anything resembling “amnesty, and President Bush’s claims that the bill will be passed drew the most headlines. But are Americans getting a full analysis of this bill?

1. Creative alternatives to USDA Organic Certification
2. Mission Pie
3. Willits Brookside Farm
ACTION ALERT—Call or write your congressional representative requesting removal of recently added Sec. 123 in the 2007 Farm Bill draft that would prevent states and counties from determining whether genetically modified crops can be grown.

1. Creative alternatives to USDA Organic Certification

Are corporations finally putting food first? Philip Morris, Cargill, Nestlé, Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Tyson, ConAgra, Dole, etc, – have gained access to the $14 billion (and growing) organic food market. Some are thrilled at the mainstreaming of organic, wanting to boost sales as high as they’ll go, even if it’s primarily accomplished by purchasing smaller organic food companies. However, the transition to “big organic” has left a sour taste in the mouths of those who consider the word to mean more than a list of “do’s” and “don’ts.” The federal USDA standards say nothing about many of the elements that the word “organic” encompassed before it became USDA standardized. These include living wages, preserving family farms, bolstering rural communities, localization, and farmer-to-farmer education. How then, are growers with these concerns differentiating themselves?

1. KIBISOM: One Kenyan Community’s Struggle to Thrive in the Face of Adversity
2. Less Food Miles = More Sustainability
3. Grassroots Change and the Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council
ACTION ALERT—Call Your Representative and Senator on the U.S. 2007 Farm Bill

1. KIBISOM: One Kenyan Community’s Struggle to Thrive in the Face of Adversity

KIBISOM (Kiagasa Breast Feeding Single Mothers/Orphaned Child), translated from the local language, Luo, means “come and learn.” KIBISOM, community-based women’s organization on Rusinga Island, Kenya, aims “to mobilize global and grassroot responses to address the needs or orphans and vulnerable children, people living with HIV/AIDS, and local, neglected, illiterate women.” Since 1996, KIBISOM has grown to include 150 members, empowering and educating around healthcare, HIV/AIDS, and water. They have also developed economic activities and are working toward food sufficiency.