MY TURN / WILLIAM KRAMER

Farm & labor leaders find solidarity in New Jersey

As communities around the world - from the Bronx to Bogota - struggle to feed themselves, farmers are also facing desperate times. Both of these crises are due in part to US agricultural trade policies. Some farmers have been driven to suicide (more than 100,000 in India), and others have migrated to cities or other countries in search of work.

But now, farmers and consumers alike are responding by building national and international movements to fight for food sovereignty: the right of all peoples to define their own food and agricultural policies. In essence, food sovereignty means good food for all and fairness for those who produce it.

During September the Farmer Solidarity Project (a Highland Park-based organization founded by Rutgers Adjunct Professor William Kramer), along with World Hunger Year (WHY) and many other groups in the northeast, have organized a "Campesino Leaders in Residence" tour featuring prominent farmer leaders from Latin America.

In Central New Jersey, a coalition of Honey Brook Organic Farm, Who Is My Neighbor?, Inc, Elijah's Promise, and Lazos America Unida has been planning events at Rutgers and Princeton University.

The farmer leaders will connect with students, NGOs, activists, and urban and rural farmers in the Northeast to speak about land reform, fair trade, and the movement for food sovereignty that is gaining momentum across the Americas and around the world. They will also lead discussions on how to build solidarity and action across borders.

The farmer tour follows a Rutgers Study Abroad trip to Venezuela in June that Professor Kramer launched along with Venezuelan-American activist William Camacaro of the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle in New York City and Christina Schiavoni of World Hunger Year. Tejas Kadia, a second year public policy student who went to Venezuela and has been working to plan the fall tour, noted that "this is a very exciting time at Rutgers. We are seeing several different student groups work together to support the Latin American farmers delegation."

Confirmed participants include national assembly members and labor leaders from Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, and a national leader of the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil (visa pending).

Public events will convene at various campuses of Rutgers-New Brunswick, each of September 12, 13, and 14. The circuit continues at Princeton University on Thursday the 13th, the U. of Vermont and Cornell University, wrapping up on Friday the 17th at Columbia University in NYC.

For more information on this week's tour of lectures and activism, or to learn about the Study Abroad program to Venezuela, visit www.farmersfightback.org.

-- Prof. William Kramer
Farmer Solidarity Project