Food Justice Conference Highlights Efforts that Reform the Food System

Media contact:

Community Food Security Coalition: Margaret Eickmann 503-954-2970 or Young Kim 414-426-6568

For Immediate Release

Food Justice Conference Highlights Efforts that Reform the Food System

On November 5-8, 2011 a thousand citizens from across the U.S. and Canada and five continents will gather in Oakland, CA for the “Food Justice: Honoring Our Roots, Growing the Movement” the 15th annual conference of the national Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC). What they all have in common is the goal of creating a more equitable and fair food system; what they represent is almost every sector of the food system.

CFSC’s first conference was held in Los Angeles 15 years ago and this year marks a recommitment to considering food justice as key to food system reform. “Several sectors have made progress over the past 15 years but food justice needs to be the mantle that drives the movement and CFSC into its next phase.” Stated Young Kim, CFSC’s Board President. “We need to attend to the injustices that exist in our food system and not be afraid to tackle them head on.”

CFSC’s local hosts work on food justice issues at the international and local level. The California Food and Justice Coalition and Food First have teamed up with many Bay Area organizations to help put on the groundbreaking conference. The conference begins with two days of pre-conference short courses and food justice tours throughout the Bay Area. The food justice tours allow participants to see how local organizations, such as the People’s Grocery, Berkeley Food Policy Council, and the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, incorporate food justice into their work. "There is incredible energy around food justice in our region, which the conference and tours will showcase. Response to our call to action--Taking Back Our Food System--visible in the work of local organizations, is also part of a larger national rising," said Y. Armando Nieto, executive director of the California Food and Justice Coalition.

The main conference begins Sunday morning and runs through Tuesday afternoon featuring 66 skill-building and educational workshops, 20 networking sessions, CFSC Member committee meetings, and a poster session. Throughout the conference, plenary sessions will review the roots of the food movement, discuss the Food & Farm Bill, and examine where the movement is heading.  The third annual Food Sovereignty Prize will be awarded and attendees will have the opportunity to meet Food Sovereignty and Food Justice advocates from the Bay Area and beyond at a Food Sovereignty Fair.

If the recent protest that started in NYC and is spreading across the country is any indication of citizen’s dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the U.S., the notion of food justice is a concept whose time has come. Food Justice: Honoring Our Roots, Growing the Movement conference promises conference-goers the opportunity to challenge and change themselves and their work.

The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is a non-profit, North American organization with 500 organizational members in 45 states, 4 Canadian provinces and the District of Columbia. CFSC is dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food to all people at all times. CFSC achieves its goals through a blend of training, networking, and advocacy with grassroots groups to create effective solutions from the ground up.

The California Food and Justice Coalition (CFJC) is a California based coalition comprised of individuals, nonprofit organizations and others committed to rebuilding a food system that works for all who work in the food system or eat. CFJC promotes the basic human right to healthy food while advancing social, agricultural, environmental and economic justice priorities.

Founded in 1975, Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy, works to eliminate the injustices that cause hunger. Food First conducts research, analysis, advocacy and education with communities and social movements for informed citizen engagement with the institutions and policies that control production, distribution and access to food.

For more information:

http://www.communityfoodconference.org Community Food Security Coalition: http:// www.foodsecurity.org