on leaving new orleans
leaving new orleans was hard… there’s still so much to do, and it was so hard to say goodbye to people i’ve grown close to during my brief few months in new orleans. i’m in chicago now, putting together next steps. i haven’t written to many of you in a long time — it got so hectic in new orleans it was hard to keep up with communications. i’m still surprised at the questions and reactions i get from people that i talk with about new orleans — people asking, “is it worth rebuilding?” or “is there still that much left to do?!”. i’ve included a few pictures in this post… these are pictures from my last weeks in new orleans – pictures of new orleans nine and ten months after the storm. in the end i needed to leave to try to catch up again with the life i’m just starting out in chicago. it is strange being in another city – one with infrastructure that functions, to a degree – after being so consumed by the damage and debris and unmet needs and military presence of new orleans. it does help to put some context into the inquiries i had been getting (is there still really all that much to do there?). it’s hard to imagine how devastated parts of the city are when you aren’t there. it’s difficult for me even after spending several months living in the disaster zone… i came back to chicago and at first had the overwhelming sense of being somewhere where things worked. traffic lights, phones, electricity…. it starts to seem so normal that it seems just absolutely ridiculous that there could be whole communities in the urban united states that don’t have those things and people/media have moved on to other things.
anyway, i’m getting distracted. i did want to share in this post a few updates on the scene in new orleans since i last wrote, as well as a few pictures to help illustrate. i know, everyone has seen the new orleans pictures. i too had seen a lot of pictures of the flood aftermath – the visual story was definitely part of what compelled me to quit my job and go to new orleans to witness and to contribute in some way. i also knew that the pictures and stories that i was seeing and hearing from most media outlets were failing to provide me with the whole story and i wanted to be able to experience part of the story personally so that i could in turn try to share that with others in my network of friends and family. i’d like to write more, but honestly i’m exhausted. here are some starter pictures in the meantime, maybe of things that you haven’t seen (people resisting the government and standing up for environmental justice and the human right to shelter)… i’ll try to add text slowly in future posts, as well as additional pictures of the state of gutting and rebuilding in the 9th ward.
National Guard Reoccupies 9th Ward – vehicles line up in front of a church
St. Bernard – one of several public housing sites slated for demolition by HANO and HUD
Pictures taken July 4, 2006, on a day of protest, rally, and unity for survivors and former residents.
(lots of pics and information available: see also http://survivorsvillage.com/ and http://justiceforneworleans.org/)
People Gather at City Hall to Protest the Fast-Tracked Opening of the Chef Menteur landfill
The landfill site raises environmental justice issues because the landfill will take debris from all areas of New Orleans but is located near the primarily Vietnamese Village de l’Est community, as well as other minority communities in eastern New Orleans. (here’s an article on the event at city hall: http://www.neworleanseast.com/news/article/landfill/landfill1.htm)
welcome to chicago, and Reclaim the Commons 2006
I don’t have much time to write before I head off to New Orleans, but I did want to quickly get in a couple of words and points from Reclaim the Commons and Bioethics2006 events this week in chicago…
After rushing to pack up my San Francisco apartment and desk, I arrived in Chicago in time (barely) to take part in Chicago’s Reclaim the Commons events April 8-12th. Reclaim the Commons (RTC) is an annual response to the biotech industry’s own annual convention (BIO2006 (http://bio.org/)). I wanted to participate in Chicago’s RTC not just because i’m interested in health and social/environmental justice issues around corporate agriculture (*wallmart* has an organic division?! come on!) or increasing access to safe, sustainable food systems, but also to see what kind of public response or activism is here in my new city. Even though biotech and GM foods are not a new issue to me, by the end of the week, I was swept away (again) by people’s tales of how genetically modified (GM) foods and corporate agriculture were impacting their lives and livelihoods.
the following links provide some context for the events:
http://www.biodev.org/
http://www.biodev.org/archives/001702.php
http://reclaimthecommons.net/
http://www.genewise.org/
http://altercampagne.free.fr/
Joint International GMO Opposition Day (April 8th)
http://altercampagne.free.fr/
So, the whole thing started with a really really free market and tabling and speeches and food not bombs downtown (the “loop” 
. The event was reasonably attended by supporters, but didn’t appear to get too much street traffic, probably due to its taking place on a saturday afternoon on a really cold day downtown. that evening there was a fantastic panel on genetic engineering and human rights which i will post more on below. sunday’s workshops were also excellent, and full of proactive ideas and things to do today to increase the sustainability and health of your own choices. rtc wrapped up on monday and tuesday with marches, pickets, and a community gardening project to reclaim an abandoned city lot as a community resource. overall, the events were not as well attended as i would hope… not sure why… are people not concerned about this issue or just too tied up with other causes? as you’ll see from the stats below, apparently americans aren’t that aware of the prevalence of GM crops in our food supply, but i thought there would be more folks attending rtc who are already aware and want to fight big biotech.
now that you have the context, i can’t help myself but to share some of the bits and pieces and resources from the week…
75% of Americans don’t know or don’t believe that they’ve eaten a GM food.
Only 24% of Americans believe they have eaten genetically engineered foods, while 58% say they have not. Actually, nearly all Americans have eaten genetically engineered foods since 70-75% of all processed foods contain soy or corn that has been genetically engineered.
link to survey: http://www.thecampaign.org/pew0903.pdf
75% foods contain GM ingredients according to GMA: http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2005/Americans-Clueless-GMOs23mar05.htm
the U.S. is the world leader in production of biotech crops (the next largest producer is Argentina, then Canada, Brazil, China, and South Africa). the top US biotech crops are corn, soybeans, and cotton — by 2004, the percentage of US soybeans planted in GM varieties grew to 85%, the percentage of corn planted in GM varieties grew to 45%, and the percentage of GM cotton planted rose to 76%, and US-produced canola is 51% genetically engineered (not to mention the percentages of genetically modified canola being produced in Canada).
http://pewagbiotech.org/resources/factsheets/display.php3?FactsheetID=2
10 corporations own 49% of the world seed market
The ETC Group estimates that the top ten corporations control 49 percent of the global seed market. (A similar report from July 2005 by Phillips McDougall, UK-based agribusiness industry analysts, valued the worldwide commercial seed market slightly lower and thus estimated that the top ten companies owned 51% of the global seed market.)
http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2005/Global-Seed-Industry6sep05.htm
i didn’t expect a connection to be made between corporate seed patents and the war in Iraq this week, but here it is: When former Coalition Provisional Authority administrator Paul Bremmer left Baghdad in June 2004, he left behind executive orders he had enacted as chief of the occupation in Iraq. Among them was Order Number 81 on “Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety”. Order 81 amended Iraq’s previous patent law, citing changes needed to join the WTO, and “modernizing” intellectual property rights to make it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds from new varieties harvested under the law. Then Reuters reported on August 8 2005 that the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation stated the war had destroyed Iraq’s seed supply. “Iraq had a relatively stable and functioning public-sector-controlled seed industry before the war in 2003. After the war, research and seed production facilities have greatly deteriorated,” FAO said in a statement. If no immediate action is taken, serious seed shortages can be expected in the near future, threatening the country’s food security….” http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12547
so now it’s not much mystery to me which corporations are going to sweep into Iraq with their seeds for sale now that war has ravaged the traditional and native seed supply. is there no end to the destruction being caused by this war?
link to the order: http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf
as a side note, i wanted to comment one argument i often hear in favor of genetic engineering — the claim that GM foods are the answer to world hunger and will feed us all…. first, leave alone the fact that there are food surplusses all over the place, that food is being produced and subsidized but not getting to the people who need it, and instead rotting away on lots or store shelves. let’s just focus for the sake of this argument on the US — the leading producer of GM foods, a country that has over 100 million acres of cropland devoted to producing GM foods (ignore the fact that 25% of cultivated land worldwide consisted of GM crops in 2004 and people are still being allowed to go hungry). according to the USDA, more than 13million US families in 2004 could not afford to buy the food they needed. the government also classifies more than 38 million americans as food insecure. if GM crops are supposed to *solve the problem of world hunger*, then why are so many people in a country as affluent and apparently productive as the US unable to afford to feed their families? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5021812 see also this greenpeace study on GM foods and hunger in Argentina, the next largest producer of GM food: Record Harvest, Record Hunger — Starving in GE Argentina
panel discussion on genetic engineering and human rights on April 8, 2006
Audio Link: http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/9413.php.
Moderator: Jeffrey Smith (Institute for Resonsible Technology, Author of _Seeds of Deception_)
Panelists: John Kinsman (National Family Farm Coalition), Anuradha Mittal (Founding Director of the Oakland Institute), Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero (Author and Director of the Puerto Rican Project on Biosafety), and Sarah Alexander (White Earth Land Recovery Project).
If you listen to the audio, there is one segment where the audience and panel collectively tried to come up with a list of Internet resources to share… These are in no particular order, and since they were just kind of captured from URLs people recalled off the top of their heads, these are a good place to look for info, but not comprehensive by any means)
Agroecology in Action
http://agroeco.org/
The Oakland Institute (think tank to increase participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic, and environmental issues)
http://oaklandinstitute.org/
Third World Network
http://www.twnside.org.sg/
Californians for GE-Free Agriculture
http://calgefree.org/
etc group — monitoring power, tracking technology, strengthening diversity
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/
Save Wild Rice (& protect wild rice from genetic engineering)
http://savewildrice.org/
White Earth Land Recovery Project &Native Harvest Online Catalog
http://www.nativeharvest.com/
National Family Farm Coalition
http://www.nffc.net/
Family Farm Defenders
http://www.familyfarmdefenders.org/
Institute for Responsible Technology (GM-free schools)
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/
GMWatch.org
http://www.gmwatch.org/
GRAIN (seed biodiversity and legislation tracking)
http://grain.org/
Center for Food Safety
http://centerforfoodsafety.org/
Despite the depressing overtones of the week’s information (updates on new crops as well as reminders of old issues), we were also left a little inspired… inspired at local initiatives around the country and globe to promote local food security and access to healthy choices, inspired at people’s commitments to educating others about GM food and food security issues in general, and inspired by individuals and organizations who were making it their work to link food safety and social justice issues with local actions… the information and the list of inspiring speakers and organizations and individuals was extensive…. i hope our energy can carry forth into actions.
look for community supported agriculture (CSA) farms and opportunities in your area!
note: i’ve tried to keep these links updated and also provided a link to more recent survey information where available (i.e. the new Pew survey released on December 6, 2006) (Jan 2007)
http://pewagbiotech.org/research/2006update/
