agribusiness

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 13, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• 150 Million Workers in India Just Staged the Largest Strike in History To Resist Neoliberalism – By Theo Anderson, In These Times, September 9, 2016; [related]: The Biggest Strike in World History? No Thanks, We’re Focusing on the New iPhone - By Jim Naureckas, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, September 8, 2016 | Over 150 Million People Participate In Largest Labor Strike In History – By Eric Scott Pickard, Mint News Press, September 7, 2016
• Can We Bring Back Many Factory Jobs? Let’s Do the Math – By Frank Stricker, CounterPunch, September 8, 2016
• 45 Years After Attica, Prisoners Are Organizing What Could Be the Biggest Prison Strike Ever – By Anna Simonton, In These Times, September 8, 2016
• Political organization, not light bulbs, key to climate fight says Bill McKibben – By Joe Ware, New Internationalist, September 8, 2016
• The Rise of the Unorganizable - Jacobin, September 7, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• NoDAPL Global Weeks of Solidarity - September 3-17, Camp of the Sacred Stones and Red Warrior Camp, ND | #NoDAPL
• Free Space Utopia in Defense of Land - September 17-18, Genova, Italy
• Wendy’s Boycott Summit - Immokalee, FL: September 22-25, 2016
• Nyéléni Europe Movemet for Food Sovereignty - Cluj Napoca, Romania, October 26-30, 2016
• Lucas Plan 40th Anniversary - November 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Opinion: Northwest communities can’t risk another oil train disaster – By Arlene Burns, Ben Stuckart, and Adrienne Fraley-Monillas, Seattle Times, September 7, 2016

Just Transition:

• Jobs in Renewable Energy: the importance of Community Ownership, and the growth of good union jobs under California’s policies - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, September 10, 2016
• Canadian Building organizations call for Zero Emissions by 2030, along with World Green Building Council; Vancouver and Victoria take action - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, September 6, 2016
• Massive support for community renewable energy - By Oliver Tickell, Ecologist, September 6, 2016
• Can the ‘new economy’ and labor movements come together again? - By Eric Dirnbach, Waging Nonviolence, August 31, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• We must reclaim our freedom from Monsanto like we did from the British – By Vandana Shiva, New Internationalist, September 8, 2016
• Farmworkers, allies announce ‘Behind the Braids’ national truth tours, weekend of action this fall! – By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, September 8, 2016
• "More farmers, better food" – By Isabel Vilalba, La Via Campesina, September 7, 2016
• Bayer Increases Bid To Form GM and Pesticide ‘Juggernaut’ with Monsanto – By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, September 6, 2016
• From the archive: "Second Seattle" in Cancun (2003) – By Peter Rosset, La Via Campesina, September 6, 2016
• New Mexican farmers struggle to stay on the land – By J.R. Logan, Taos News, September 6, 2016
• "Take agriculture out of the WTO", Farmer Lee Kyung Hae; Reproducing his letter from 2003 – By staff, La Via Campesina, September 6, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Federal Judge Finds Violation in Pennslvania’s Refusal to Treat Mumia’s Hep-C – By Dave Lindorff, CounterPunch, September 9, 2016
• No State Charges For Cops Who Shot And Killed Mexican Farmworker In Washington State – By Eric M. Johnson, Huffington Post, September 9, 2016
• Union faces £1 million bill for fighting Southern Rail firm – By Raymie Kiernan, Socialist Worker (UK), September 9, 2016
• BART could face additional fines for 2013 worker deaths – By Erin Baldassari, East Bay Times, September 7, 2016
• Tories bail out Southern rail bosses to bash the union – By Raymie Kiernan, Socialist Worker (UK), September 7, 2016
• Union Leadership Disputes Dominion Statement on Lockout – By staff, Clinton County Record, September 7, 2016
• Major job losses feared when self-driving cars take to the road; Former SEIU Pres Andy Stern Says Plan Ahead – By David R. Baker and Carolyn Said, San Francisco Chronicle, September 6, 2016 

By Fred Magdoff - Monthly Review, September 2016

Two weeks ago I returned from my fiftieth class reunion at Oberlin College in Ohio. The brief discussions I had there with environmental faculty and students left me feeling a bit dazed. So many good and intelligent people, so concerned, and doing what they think and hope will help heal the environment—this college has one of the best environmental education programs in the country. However, I was left disappointed and profoundly discouraged by the lack of discussion—or even interest in having a real continuing discussion and debate—regarding the root causes of our environmental disasters. Not just climate change, but also pollution of the air, water, soil, and living organisms, the loss of biodiversity both aboveground and in the soil, the extinction of species, and the overuse and misuse of both renewable and nonrenewable natural resources.

It is as though there is a flat tire with perhaps a thousand holes and people are working on the best way to patch this hole or that one. No one there seems to consider that the problem might be the tire itself—that the design and materials utilized are not appropriate to the way it is being used. And, if that is the case, then no amount of patching can solve the flat tire problem. It is of the utmost importance to be able to distinguish between symptoms (that most people call “problems” or “crises”) and underlying causes.

I ran into this confusion between symptoms and underlying causes time and time again in agricultural science and farming practices. Soils may be prone to erosion, store little water, grow crops that are susceptible to diseases and insect attack, become compacted, or have low fertility. Farmers (and extension specialists), usually think of and deal with these as individual problems—using pesticide applications, lots of commercial fertilizers, irrigating more frequently, using heavier equipment, and so on. In fact, I spent a significant portion of my career as a soil scientist helping to deal with the negative side effects of one of these responses—excess fertilizer use, especially nitrogen and phosphorus.

(As an aside, as I was preparing this talk, an unbelievable thirty-five tons of nitrogen in the nitrate form, worth approximately $35,000, flowed down the Raccoon River past Des Moines, Iowa, on the way to the Mississippi and the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. This flushing of nitrate out of the soil by prolonged spring rains, partially the result of nitrate left over after last year’s drought [2012], was mainly a consequence of an ecologically damaging, but profitable, emphasis on growing corn and soybeans without an ecologically sound crop rotation.)

However, what I learned over time was that in reality these are symptoms of an unhealthy soil and a simplified approach to soil and crop management. The same is true of never-ending unemployment, inequality and poverty, the systemic necessity of perpetual growth, and pollution of air, water, soil, and organisms. As harmful as each of these is, they are all only symptoms—of an economic system that is essentially unmanaged. Of course large corporations and politicians that represent them try to manage national and international laws, regulations, and markets in such ways that it becomes easier for them to make more money. But with individual corporations and other private capital making decisions which consider only their own interests, the system as a whole alternates between periods of growth (that nowadays are pretty lackluster) and periods of recession. Addressing individual symptoms alone is not sufficient for the tasks we need to undertake—either to create healthy soils or to create an ecologically based and humane society.

One of the neglected issues regarding thinking and acting about the environment—perhaps the most critical of all—is, to borrow a phrase from the first President Bush, the vision thing. The environmental movement is lacking any kind of meaningful vision as to what a truly ecologically sound and socially just society would look like and how it might operate. I am not talking about a blueprint with all sorts of details, but rather an agreement on essential characteristics of such a system. Without a vision—including some conception of the essential parts of such a system, the chances of actually getting to such a society are essentially zero. Or, as James Baldwin put it in a commonly cited but still very appropriate passage, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” It is my contention that we are not facing the root cause of our problems, and until we do, there is no hope of solving the social and ecological problems confronting the world.

By Margaret Gray - Jacobin, August 21, 2016

We live in the shadows,” explained Javier, a Hudson Valley farmworker, while describing his life to me. “We are treated like unknown people . . . We are not paid well and cannot ask for more.” A worker on another farm said, “They treat us like nothing; they only want the work . . . Whether we like it or not, we have to like it.”

Some of today’s liveliest political conversations concern agricultural production and distribution. But these discussions are also among the most confused.

Exploitative conditions on factory farms have rightly drawn the attention of academics, activists, and journalists. Indeed, the vast majority of research on farmworkers focuses on the largest farming sites. Consumers are offered countless reasons to avoid produce from them — but few alternatives other than to “buy local.”

Much contemporary food writing argues that when we buy locally grown food directly from farms, we not only secure fresher, more seasonal produce, but we also create an intimate, trusting relationship with the farmer. This supposed bond reinforces the common understanding that the local food production process is more wholesome than the industrial agricultural system.

Food writers and scholars have highlighted the many positive aspects of local food systems: economic and social justice, the sense of community facilitated by face-to-face interactions with food producers, and the civic engagement and democracy promoted by alternative agri-systems.

For example, as Barbara Kingsolver argues in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, “‘locally grown’ is a denomination whose meaning in incorruptible.” Later in the book she addresses the poor pay and conditions of workers on factory farms, citing their average annual income of $7,500. Clearly, she intends readers to feel grateful that local farms offer a more just and well-paid alternative.

Or take another prominent example: in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a landmark in the new food literature, Michael Pollan describes two types of farming — industrial and pastoral — and offers no in-between.

In promoting local diets as healthy and righteous alternatives to the capitalist-industrial monoculture food system, such writers have sold us an idea premised on a false dichotomy.

On one hand, they demonize factory farms for poisoning the land and local waterways, for confining and mistreating animals, and for exploiting their workers in the name of earning profits. On the other hand, they promote local agriculture as the antidote to the factory farms’ corporate ills.

By shopping at the farmers market or joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, consumers support smaller (though not necessarily small) farmers, keep food dollars local, encourage limited pesticide use, and ensure animals are treated humanely.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, July 6, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• How Oakland Defeated Coal - By Brentin Mock, CityLab, July 1, 2016
• The Remaking of the Global Working Class - By Beverly Silver, ROARMag, July 1, 2016
• From Livelihoods to Deadlihoods - By Ashish Kothari, Local Futures, June 30, 2016
• Gulf Coast Activists Tell 'Big Green' to Quit Exploiting Their Disasters for Financial Gain - By Yessenia Funes, Colorlines, June 30, 2016; [related]: An open letter demanding respect and solidarity - By Alicia Cooke, et. al., Radical Arts & Healing (RAHC) Collective, June 27, 2016
• Stopping a Climate Change and Pollution Nightmare in the East Bay - By Will Parrish, East Bay Express, June 28, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• In Defense of Mother Earth and Land - Oaxaca, MX: July 21-22, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• Power Shift Southeast - Orlando, FL: September 9-11, 2016
• International Resistance Gathering Against Extractivism - July 28-30, Mexico
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Record-Breaking Opposition to Coal - By Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky, Columbia Riverkeeper, July 1, 2016
• Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline bites the dust - By Gregory Smith, EcoJustice, June 30, 2016; [related]: Northern Gateway Ruling Puts Tar Sands "At Risk" - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, July 4, 2016 | Victory for First Nations in Northern Gateway Fight - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, July 1, 2016 | Federal court overturns Northern Gateway pipeline approval - By Sophia Reuss, Rabble.Ca, June 30, 2016 | Northern Gateway pipeline approval overturned - By Jason Proctor, CBC News, June 30, 2016
• Oakland City Council Votes to Ban Coal Exports in Big Win for Local Advocates - By Zoe Loftus-Farren, Earth Island Journal, June 28, 2016; [related]: In our opinion: 2 initiatives mark Utah's energy upheaval - Editorial, Deseret News, June 30, 2016 | Oakland City Council unanimously supports ban on coal exports - By staff, Sierra Club Yodeler, June 29, 2016 | Oakland says no thanks to coal exports - By Katie Herzog, Grist, June 29, 2016 | Oakland council bans coal - By Erin Baldassari, San Jose Mercury News, June 28, 2016 | Oakland council bans coal shipments, citing health risks - By staff, Associated Press, June 28, 2016

Just Transition:

• Oil Sands Worker Inspires Calgarians to Embrace Renewables - By staff, Iron and Earth, July 5, 2016
• ISEA: Solar Energy Can Generate 7,300 Jobs & Slash EU Fines €300 Million A Year - By James Ayre, CleanTechnica, July 4, 2016
• The Stupid Thing About Politics & Jobs - By Zachary Shahan, CleanTechnica, July 1, 2016
• Swollen solar pipeline could make Texas 2nd largest utility-scale market in US - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, June 30, 2016
• Teleseminar: Just Transition with Mateo Nube of Movement Generation [seminar] - By Mateo Nube, Resilience, June 30, 2016
• A new danger descends on Canada - By the Leap Manifesto, Rabble.Ca, June 28, 2016
• Alberta Coal Communities Worry For Their Future - By Ian Bickis, Huffington Post, June 22, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• North Carolina: "We will keep fighting until Publix comes on board!" - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, July 5, 2016
• Mother-of-Three Sues Monsanto Claiming Roundup Caused Her Cancer - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, July 1, 2016
• New Film about the Boycott of Driscoll’s & Familias Unidas por la Justicia - By staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, July 1, 2016
• Opinion: Traditional crops keep our culture alive - By Elizabeth Mpofu, La Via Campesina, July 1, 2016
• "We aren’t asking you to create the solution; The solution already exists…" - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, June 29, 2016
• More rain, less freshwater: Why the government of Ghana needs to stop coal expansion - By lerato, 350.org, June 28, 2016
• Herbicide, chemical fertilizer use doubled on Vermont dairy farms in a decade - By Anne Galloway, VTDigger, June 27, 2016
• The Fight Isn’t Over for Farm Worker Overtime - By David Bacon, Capital and Main, June 16, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 29, 2016

Image, right: Alameda County AFL-CIO Central Labor Council president, Josie Camacho, flanked by dozens of Bay Area union leaders and members, representing 21 Bay Area unions (including the Bay Area IWW), join in with Oakland residents to oppose coal handling, storage, shipment, and exports in the Port of Oakland at a special City Council hearing, held June 27, 2016. At the conclusion of the meeting, the City Council voted unanimously, 7-0 with one member absent, in support of the coal ban. Image by Brooke Anderson.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Oakland bans coal shipments in a blow to planned export facility - By William Yardley and Natalie Kitroeff, Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2016; [related]: Oakland's Anti-Coal Activists Decry ‘Deceptive’ Mailer - By Arielle Swedback, East Bay Express, June 27, 2016 | Coal: Economic opportunity or environmental risk for poor neighborood? - By Associated Press, FuelFix, June 27, 2016 | Oakland Just Banned Coal! Coal Processing, Loading and Unloading Banned in Oakland - By J P Masser, Daily Kos, June 27, 2016
• As Britain exits, the need for a strong climate movement remains - By Kate Aronoff, Waging Nonviolence, June 24, 2016
• Mega Corporation Gobbles Up Slightly Less-Mega Corporation; Chops Jobs to Increase Profits; Blames Enviros. Film at 11 - By Matthew Koehler, CounterPunch, June 24, 2016
• Zimbabwe: Trade Unions Embrace Climate Change - By staff, All Africa, June 23, 2016 
• Meet the McDonald’s Cashier Taking on Her CEO for Climate Change - By Brooke Anderson, Yes!, June 17, 2016
• The War on Workers’ Comp - By Stephen Franklin, In These Times, June 13, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• International Resistance Gathering Against Extractivism - July 28-30, Mexico
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• First Day of Hearings on Vancouver, WA Oil Terminal Begins with Broad Opposition - By staff, Stand Up to Oil, June 27, 2016
• Environmentalists, politicians call for shutdown of coal leases in Seattle - By Hal Bernton, Seattle Times, June 21, 2016

Just Transition:

• Oilsands workers know how to lead the way on climate change - By Lliam Hildebrand, Iron and Earth, June 27, 2016; [related]: Iron And Earth: Oilsands Workers Call For Training In Renewable Energy - By David Dodge and Dylan Thompson, Huffington Post, June 24, 2016
• Ontario’s Green Energy Act: A job creation success - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, June 27, 2016; [related]: Clean Energy Investment Slows in Canada; Canada ranks 11th in Clean Energy Jobs - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, June 26, 2016
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution at the DNC With Breast Cancer Action - By Alyssa Figueroa, EcoWatch, June 26, 2016
• Coal To Solar: Retraining Our Energy Workforce - By Glenn Meyers, Planetsave, June 25, 2016
• After Decades of Protest, Last California Nuclear Plant to Close & Be Replaced by Renewable Energy - Damon Moglen interviewed by Juan González and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, June 22, 2016 [related]: Nuclear Shutdown in California includes Transition provisions for Workers - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, June 27, 2016 | Cost to Replace California Nuclear With Solar: $15 Billion - By Jim Polson and Mark Chediak, Bloomberg, June 23, 2016 | Diablo Shutdown Marks End of Atomic Era - By Harvey Wasserman, EcoWatch, June 23, 2016 | California Goes Nuclear Free As Diablo Canyon Closes In Favor Of Renewables - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, June 22, 2016 | Honey I shrunk the utility: California's final nuclear plant closure attributed to CCA - By staff, Local Power, June 22, 2016 | PG&E to Replace Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant With 100% Carbon-Free Resources - By Jeff St. John, GreenTech Media, June 21, 2016 | PG&E to close Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, replace it with renewables, efficiency, storage - By Gavin Bade, Utility Dive, June 21, 2016
• Beyond Extreme Energy Too Extreme? Not At All - By Jlstewct, Beyond Extreme Energy, June 21, 2016
• Canada can transition to renewable energy in just a few decades, says Stanford University professor - By Monique Muise, Global News, June 12, 2016

By Emile A. Frison - International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems - June 2016

Today’s food and farming systems have succeeded in supplying large volumes of foods to global markets, but are generating negative outcomes on multiple fronts: widespread degradation of land, water and ecosystems; high GHG emissions; biodiversity losses; persistent hunger and micro-nutrient deficiencies alongside the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related diseases; and livelihood stresses for farmers around the world.

Many of these problems are linked specifically to ‘industrial agriculture’: the input-intensive crop monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots that now dominate farming landscapes. The uniformity at the heart of these systems, and their reliance on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and preventive use of antibiotics, leads systematically to negative outcomes and vulnerabilities.

Industrial agriculture and the ‘industrial food systems’ that have developed around it are locked in place by a series of vicious cycles. For example, the way food systems are currently structured allows value to accrue to a limited number of actors, reinforcing their economic and political power, and thus their ability to influence the governance of food systems.

Tweaking practices can improve some of the specific outcomes of industrial agriculture, but will not provide long-term solutions to the multiple problems it generates.

What is required is a fundamentally different model of agriculture based on diversifying farms and farming landscapes, replacing chemical inputs, optimizing biodiversity and stimulating interactions between different species, as part of holistic strategies to build long-term fertility, healthy agro-ecosystems and secure livelihoods, i.e. ‘diversified agroecological systems’.

There is growing evidence that these systems keep carbon in the ground, support biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility and sustain yields over time, providing a basis for secure farm livelihoods.

Data shows that these systems can compete with industrial agriculture in terms of total outputs, performing particularly strongly under environmental stress, and delivering production increases in the places where additional food is desperately needed. Diversified agroecological systems can also pave the way for diverse diets and improved health.

Change is already happening. Industrial food systems are being challenged on multiple fronts, from new forms of cooperation and knowledge-creation to the development of new market relationships that bypass conventional retail circuits.

Political incentives must be shifted in order for these alternatives to emerge beyond the margins. A series of modest steps can collectively shift the centre of gravity in food systems.

Read the report (PDF).

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, May 25, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Breaking Free: A Rising Tide of Climate Resistance - By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan, Common Dreams, May 19, 2016
• Explaining the Anthropocene: An interview with Ian Angus - By Socialist Review, Climate and Capitalism, May 18, 2016
• NUMSA statement on silicosis and Aurora judgements - By Irvin Jim, NUMSA, May 17, 2016
• The Hidden Workforce Expanding Tesla’s Factory - By Louis Hansen, San Jose Mercury News, May 15, 2016; [related]: The Slovenian Who Fell 3 Stories Illegally Working On Tesla Paint Shop, and Tesla’s Response - By James Ayre, Clean Technica, May 17, 2016; [and]: Tesla’s labor controversy shows that a green job isn’t always a good job - By Heather Smith, Grist, May 17, 2016
• Iron and Earth: oilsands workers call for training in renewable energy - By David Dodge and Dylan Thompson, Green Energy Futures, May 15, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Concerned Health Professionals Ireland call for frac ban - By Concerned Health Professionals of Ireland, Fracking Free Ireland, May 19, 2016 
  

Just Transition:

• #klimajobber: update on climate jobs in Norway - By Jonathan Neale, Global Climate Jobs, May 20, 2016
• Lançamento da campanha: Empregos para o Clima (Launch of climate jobs at 1 May in Portugal) - By Jonathan Neale, Global Climate Jobs, May 19, 2016
• Bay Area cities can lead the way to 100% clean energy - By Nathan Duran, Sierra Club Yodeler, May 18, 2016
• Film review: 'This Changes Everything' - By Rob Hopkins, Transition Network, May 18, 2016
• Some Say Alameda County's New Green Energy Plan Isn't Green Enough - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, May 18, 2016
• Cracks in Capitalism, Part II: Publicly Owned Energy Comes to London - By Steve Rushton, Occupy.Com, May 16, 2016
• Americans Don’t Miss Manufacturing: They Miss Unions - By Ben Casselman, Five Thirty Eight, May 13, 2016
• From Coal To Code: A New Path For Laid-Off Miners In Kentucky - By Erica Peterson, NPR, May 6, 2016
• The energy fix - By Ruth Nyambura, New Internationalist, May 2016
• 100% Clean Energy Economy Is Much Closer Than You Think - By Marc Gunther, Sierra, May 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Activists, Farmers, Indigenous People Rise Up to March Against Monsanto - By Nika Knight, Common Dreams, May 21, 2016
• How Carbon Farming Can Reverse Climate Change - By Andrea Basche, EcoWatch, May 21, 2016
• Article 19-Right to Land and Other Natural Resources- absolutely unnegotiable - By David Jelinek, La Via Campesina, May 19, 2016
• Mobilisation Call: 2nd NYÉLÉNI Europe Forum For Food Sovereignty - By staff, La Via Campesina, May 19, 2016
• 1.4 million reasons why Publix should join the Fair Food Program… - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, May 19, 2016
• Chile’s ‘Worst Ever’ Red Tide Kills 20 Million Fish, Prompts Investigation of Salmon Farms - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, May 18, 2016
• What is at stake in the negotiations for a peasant rights' declaration - By Vincent Delobel, La Via Campesina, May 18, 2016
• Blueberry farm workers are striking this morning in protest of wages - By Jeanne Pastore, Kern Golden Empire, May 17, 2016
• How corporate rights protections are threatening farmers' right to seed - By Lois Ross, Rabble.Ca, May 17, 2016
• Signed, sealed, delivered! 300+ Jewish leaders endorse Wendy’s boycott in stinging letter to Nelson Peltz… - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, May 17, 2016
• ECVC pushes for a united front in defense of Seeds - By staff, La Via Campesina, May 16, 2016
• MST Statement on the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff - By MST National Coordination, La Via Campesina, May 16, 2016
• Nebraska Farmers Sue Monsanto Alleging Roundup Gave Them Cancer - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, May 16, 2016
• Via Campesina and allies in Geneva for next round negotiations on Peasant Rights - By Mohammed Ikhwan and Sandra Moreno Cadena, La Via Campesina, May 16, 2016
• Farmers sue Monsanto over alleged Roundup cancer link - By Nicholas Bergin, Lincoln Journal-Star, May 15, 2016
• Cuomo Decides To Support State Farmworkers After They Sue Him - By Scott Heins, Gothamist, May 11, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, May 17, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• LIVE BLOG: Climate Resistance Breaks Free from Fossil Fuels - By staff, Rising Tide North America, May 14, 2016; [related]: Climate Resistance Escalates Against the Fossil Fuel Empire - By staff, Rising Tide North America, May 14, 2016
• Break Free or Burn in Hell: a Message From the Canadian Tar Sands - By Paul Street, CounterPunch, May 9, 2016
• Exxon scrambles to contain climate crusade - By Andrew Restuccia and Elana Schor, Politico, May 9, 2016
• Is a Fear of Death at the Heart of Capitalism? - By James K. Rowe, The Arrow, April 28, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• It’s Time For the Rubber Stamp Rebellion - May 15-22, 2016 | #NoNewPermits #NoPipelines #NoLNG
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Editorial: If coal is too dirty for the U.S., why would Oakland build a dock to export it to Asia? - By The Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2016
• Demonstrators rally in South Philly against refinery expansion - By Dustin Slaughter, Billypenn, May 8, 2016 
  

Just Transition:

• Responding to economic critiques of the Leap Manifesto - By The Redeye Collective, Rabble.Ca, May 11, 2016
• World’s vulnerable must be at the heart of a low carbon transition - By Teresa Ribera and Michael Zammit Cutajar, Climate Change News, May 11, 2016
• Denmark Is Kicking Its Fossil Fuel Habit. Can the Rest of the World Follow? - By Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News, May 10, 2016
• Geothermal Could Put Thousands from Alberta’s Oil and Gas Sector Back to Work - By Carol Linnitt, DeSmog Canada, May 3, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), representing millions, becomes the first major Christian denomination to endorse the Wendy’s boycott! - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, May 13, 2016; [related]: Official new Wendy’s Boycott website up and running, including a call for endorsements! - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, May 11, 2016
• Nebraska farmer leaders in Keystone XL battle call for 100% clean energy for all - By Mark Hefflinger, Bold Nebraska, May 12, 2016
• Day of Action in Support of Familias Unidas and San Quintin, MX Farmworkers - By staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, May 11, 2016; [related]: Driscoll's Workers Call for Global Boycott over Alleged Abuses at World's Biggest Berry Distributor - By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, May 6, 2016
• Children in Farm Communities Pay a Steep Price for the Food We Eat - By Elizabeth Grossman, Civil Eats, May 10, 2016
• Brexit or Bremain: Collected Opinions and Resources - By Lynne Davis, Landworkers Alliance, May 9, 2016
• Vietnam police break up protest over fish deaths - By staff and wire, Al Jazeera, May 9, 2016
• Industry benefits but does not pay its dues; Patents are an assault on genetic resources - By Guy Kastler, Agricultures, May 6, 2016
• What Killed Jack McCall? A California Farmer Dies and a Case Against Monsanto Takes Root - By Carey Gillam, Huffington Post, May 6, 2016
• After a Century In Decline, Black Farmers Are Back And On the Rise - By Leah Penniman, Yes!, May 5, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Federal Toxics Law Still Protecting the Chemical Industry’s Dirty Secrets - By Melanie Benesh, EcoWatch, May 13, 2016
• ‘Indescribable injustice’ - By Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette-Mail, May 13, 2016
• Revision of European legislation on occupational cancers: only a small step forward - By staff, European Trade Union Institute, May 13, 2016
• Worker Killed at Exxon Refinery - By Meagan Parrish, Chem.Info, May 12, 2016
• Don't let the Fort Mac fire turn into feel-good boosterism for the extractive industry; They knew this was coming - By Nora Loreto and Sarah Beuhler, Rabble.Ca, May 9, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• Is the EPA Being Pressured? Environmental Concerns About Syngenta Chemical Removed From EPA Site - By Lisa Graves, PR Watch, May 11, 2016
• Whistleblower Fired for Exposing Flint Mayor’s Plan to Take Water Donations - By Llowell Williams, Care2, May 11, 2016

By Edgar Franks - Front and Centered, April 21, 2016

We at Community to Community (C2C) have been in solidarity with the Boycott Driscoll’s campaign led by Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ) since 2013. We believe that movements are most successful when led by the most affected. It’s not often, if at all, we see a union that is led by indigenous people, FUJ union members are Mixteco and Triqui people and they are dramatically shifting the ways in which we think about farm worker organizing. We have learned from Cesar Chavez and the California farm workers’ strategies on winning contracts using the boycott and in WA State we are continuing that legacy.

FUJ is making history not only in taking on a corporate giant but in the ways they have been able to educate people on the complexities of the food system. Through the boycott of Driscoll’s we are now able to see the dramatic shift that agriculture has been going through. Driscoll’s is an example of why we need a new food system. Apart from the tremendous amount of labor exploitation the fight against Driscoll’s is also about climate and environmental justice.

We can’t call corporate businesses farms or say that they are practicing agriculture. Our campesino way of food production and feeding our people is at odds with the profit/commodity market. Through the industrial agriculture model we see an intensifying use of pesticides and fertilizers, most of which are petroleum based and contribute to ozone depletion. The water that is extracted is drying up our rivers and reservoirs. For example, California is currently going through a historic water shortage mostly due to the amount of water that is used in industrial agriculture.

So when farm workers are calling for a boycott of Driscoll’s berries, it is a much deeper call to action. It is a challenge to all of us to fight for a better way of living and build the food system and economy that we need to thrive in harmony with Mother Earth. We at C2C are working to create a local solidarity economy where profit is not the motive, but living well is the driving factor of our labor. We want food sovereignty for all communities, where communities can decide how to feed their people in an equitable, participatory manner. We want agroecology as the way to build the new food system and to end the corporate industrial model of food production. By doing this we can raise the political consciousness of our people and build solidarity across movements.

By Frances Moore Lappé - Great Transition Initiative, April 2016