Photo courtesy of Leonor Hurtado | Food First garden
Please describe Food First, and explain its mission: The Institute for Food and Development Policy, commonly known as Food First, has the mission of eliminating injustices that cause hunger. Food First shapes how people think by analyzing the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation and developing solutions in partnership with movements working for social change. We believe a world free of hunger is possible if farmers and communities take back control of the food systems presently dominated by transnational agri-foods industries. We carry out research, analysis, advocacy and education for informed citizen engagement with the institutions and policies that control production, distribution and access to food. Our work both informs and amplifies the voices of social movements fighting for food sovereignty: people’s right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture system at home and abroad. In an effort to integrate our work for food sovereignty across rural-urban and local-global arenas, nationally and internationally, Food First divides its work into three program areas: 1) Building Local Agri-Foods Systems, 2) Farmers Forging Food Sovereignty and 3) Democratizing Development: Land, Resources and Markets.
How are your programs helping the community? Here in Oakland, CA Food First is incubating the Oakland Food Policy Council with seed money from the city of Oakland, supplemented by grants from Bay Area foundations. The council hired a coordinator in October 2008 and following a systematic process aimed at involving a wide cross-section of community representatives. The members of the first Oakland Food Policy Council will be announced shortly. Citizens of Oakland interested in getting involved can learn more at the council's website and sign up for their listserv.
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Bare shelves at John Knox Presbyterian Church in September 2008
In it's short history, the Oakland Food Policy Council has already released two reports in cooperation with Public Health and Law, Food System Meta-Analysis for the San Francisco Bay Area and Oakland Food Retail Impact Study. A third study aimed at learning the lesson of success and failure of food policy councils in the U.S. and Canada, which is being conducted in cooperation with the Community Food Security Coalition, will be released this fall. This document will be of great help to the new members of the Oakland Food Policy Council as they begin to build a strong agenda based on shared goals and expectations.
Food First works collaboratively with local, national and international institutes and their research teams as they work toward the goal of obtaining the basic human right to food for all. Nationally Food First serves on the steering committee of a new coalition of some 60 advocacy, church, social service, and union organizations working to address rising poverty and hunger in a systematic way here in the U.S.
What makes Food First unique and sets you apart from other institutions? One of the most unique aspects of Food First is the unwavering commitment to building more equitable and environmentally friendly systems since founded in 1975. We were one of the first groups to combine environmental concerns with social justice. Today many organizations and organizers see this link as essential to both people and the planet. A second way in which we, as a think tank, are different is in the fact that the core of our funding is and has been provided by a loyal group of activists, professors, and concerned citizens, allowing the organization to focus on the core issues of exposing the inequities that are at the base of poverty. Food First collaborates extensively with organizations that share our mission of moving toward the day when all people have access to nutritious food embedding in culture and agriculture.
What do you enjoy most about being part of the Food First team? Working internally as part of a team of very talented and dedicated staff and interns, and then working with equally dedicated, talented coalition partners at all levels of society is most energizing and rewarding.
Is there anything you wish people knew about Food First that they probably don't know? One thing that North Americans do not realize is that Food First publications and programs have been instrumental in peeling away some of the deliberate obfuscation that hides the true motives of Northern elites and their equally elite partners in the global south. Dogeared and Xeroxed old favorites include the out of print Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity, from which the organization gets it's common name, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, and the newly released Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice, which was released in Europe and Africa and will soon be available in Spanish translation.
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Book: Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice
What is one of your favorite success stories of a community outreach that Food First has done? It is very hard to choose a favorite. One of my favorite success stories is a 2003 debate on hunger and biotechnology organized by Food First and Pesticide Action Network North America (1,000 people attended, plus it aired on public radio) at the time of an international ministerial hosted by the USDA, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. At another 2003 event Food First mobilized and fed several thousand Mexican farmers to take the message to the WTO meeting in Cancun that farmers want to keep the WTO out of agriculture. That WTO Ministerial in Cancun was declared a failure, in part due to our organizing and educational efforts both outside of the meeting and inside by working with delegates of Third World governments. More recently, Food First's involvement in Oakland has allowed the organization to be more grounded in community and work with a host of efforts and organizations including Pueblo and the HOPE Collaborative. This is the beginning of a productive process that should result in better access to nutritious food for all members of the Oakland community.
If people were interested in supporting Food First, then how would they go about donating or volunteering? Donations allow Food First to conduct independent analysis and take uncompromising positions. All donations are tax deductible. Checks should be written out to Food First and mailed to 398 60th St, Oakland, CA 94618. To donate on-line go to www.foodfirst.org and click on donate now in the upper right. To make a credit card donation, call 510-654-4400 ext 234. Prospective volunteers and interns can read more about our program and fill out the application form at www.foodfirst.org/en/intern.
For more info: Visit Food First website
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