Ireland’s First Food Sovereignty Assembly

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Food Sovereignty AssemblyIreland’s First Food Sovereignty Assembly

Organised by Food Sovereignty Ireland and Afri

Castlebar, 16th May 2014 at 7.30pm

Gaining control of our food

A panel of distinguished speakers will lead discussions at Ireland’s first food sovereignty assembly in Castlebar, County Mayo this weekend. Food sovereignty practitioners from around Ireland will also attend and contribute to this important event which is organised to coincide with the annual Doolough Famine Walk which takes place the following day.

Contributors to the assembly will include Paul Nicholson of Via Campesina, Luis Jalandoni who has been involved with peasant settlers and sugar workers in the Philippines, John Brennan of Leitrim Organic Farmers Coop Rose Kelly of Afri, Fergal Anderson of Food Sovereignty Ireland and more. The Assembly will explore the critical issue of food, how it works, who benefits and who loses out and why.

Organisers believe that government and agribusinesses are obscuring the story of how the food system works in Ireland and internationally – and that it is time for some home truths

Stepping into your local supermarket is like going to the arrivals hall of an international airport. Apples from New Zealand, chickens from Thailand, cabbages from Holland and pork from god knows where. Almost all the meat or dairy you see, Irish or not, has been fed animal feeds (mostly GM soya) from Argentina and Brazil.

The reality is that this globalization of our food and agricultural system is failing consumers, the environment and farmers. Big retailers like Tesco are multi-national corporations, squeezing suppliers and eliminating local food providers. Much of the food they sell is produced mechanically, on industrial farms, in a multitude of countries using a cocktail of agrochemicals. The industrial food system then sells heavily processed foods with dubious labels to overwhelmed consumers, who eventually discard almost a third of the food they buy. Continue reading “Ireland’s First Food Sovereignty Assembly” →

Death of Ireland’s Good Food Sector

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Afri supported and participated in the recent mock ‘funeral procession’ which had been organised to mark the ‘death of the Ireland’s good food sector’, following the planting by Teagasc of genetically modified potatoes in County Carlow.

The ‘funeral’ proceeded to the Department of Agriculture where a letter and a spade were handed in calling on Minister Simon Coveney to ‘dig up the GM spuds’ and save Ireland’s reputation as a clean, green non-GM food producer.

To read an article in the Irish Times about this protest click here.

EU Aarhus Rights Trampled by High Court

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Press Release

29 August 2012

A blue-coloured bowler hat with 27 stars featured in Dublin’s High Court on Tuesday. The stars symbolised EU Member States while the hat starred as Exhibit A when ten EU citizens claimed their rights to affordable access to justice under the Aarhus Convention as copper-fastened by the Treaties of the European Union.

The ten EU citizens sought, in separate independent legal actions, a NPE Order, a Not Prohibitively Expensive Order, from High Court Judge Hogan. No2GM, a company limited, also sought an identical Order and all were refused. Judge Hogan’s ruling denied Access To Justice, demanding the applicants each risk hundreds of thousands of Euros in the most expensive legal system in the EU, by insisting on putting parties on notice. Continue reading “EU Aarhus Rights Trampled by High Court” →

Afri expresses dismay at the EPA decision to grant GM potato licence

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Press Release, 26th July 2012

The justice and human rights group Action from Ireland (Afri) has expressed dismay at the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency to grant a license to grow genetically modified potatoes in Ireland.

From left to right: Chef & TV presenter Clodagh McKenna, Clare O’Grady Walshe & Ruairi Quinn advocating a ‘GM-Free Ireland’ at an Afri press conference on the 21st February 2011 to alert the Irish public of an imminent decision by Minister Brendan Smith to allow GM products into Europe and Ireland. Photo Derek Speirs

Joe Murray of Afri described the move as short sighted and one that threatened Ireland’s economy by eroding its reputation as a ‘green, clean’ food producer. “The move by the EPA to grant approval for the GM potato trials by Teagasc is completely ill-advised. It will do serious reputational damage to Ireland’s flourishing organic industry at a time when there is an ever increasing demand for organic food. By contrast, there is little appetite for GM foods either in Ireland or in Europe” said Mr Murray.

“The argument that Ireland needs a blight resistant GM potato is ridiculous because there are already blight resistant potatoes in Ireland – and they are not genetically modified and therefore do not pose any risk of contamination to other crops,” Mr Murray continued.

Waylon (Gary) White Deer, Choctaw artist, whose ancestors sent a cash donation to Ireland during the Great Famine, also criticized the decision of the EPA calling it a “dangerous step”. Mr White Deer described the decision as having critical consequences for food sovereignty and biological diversity. “It is important that the Irish people don’t give up their food sovereignty. This is a risky experiment which, if unchecked, will eventually lead to the corporate control and manipulation of Irish food sources. Now that GM has gotten its tentacles into the Irish soil it is important that we don’t let them spread.”

Famine Walk 2012: Corporations, Crops and Control – Seeds of Life or Seeds of Strife

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Joe Murray, who was present at the first Famine Walk in Doolough in 1988, reflected, in his opening remarks, on the past twenty five years and how the Famine Walk remains relevant today.

Anita & Tommy Hayes from the Irish Seeds Savers Association planting a variety of potatoes called ‘Butes’, which were unaffected by blight during the 1845-1849 famine, as part of the 25th anniversary Afri Famine Walk. Photo: Derek Speirs

It’s hard to believe that the Doolough-Louisburgh Famine Walk has been on the road for 25 years! When Afri initiated this walk of remembrance and solidarity in 1988 the Great Famine was hardly commemorated at all and, if it was, the link with contemporary famine and hunger throughout the world was rarely made. Afri set out to ensure that the Great Famine would be commemorated because of its singular importance in our history. We also wanted to ensure, however, that it would be commemorated not in a self-indulgent or self-pitying way but rather in a way that links it to contemporary issues of hunger and famine throughout the world. We sought to ensure that the lessons learned from the Great Famine in Ireland would be applied to today’s world.

It is encouraging to see that the Great Famine is now being commemorated in Ireland and that the contemporary dimension is almost always included. However, in the ensuing 25 years the situation for the world’s poor has not improved, in fact things have gotten worse. The numbers now experiencing hunger in our world has increased to a staggering one billion. One billion people who experience hunger in our world of plenty! The Famine Walk focuses on the causes of hunger such as unjust economic structures; unfair trade; the war industry (costing in excess of $1600 billion in 2010); climate change and a relatively new cause of famine – the issue of genetic engineering. This year’s walk is in solidarity with those affected by the genetic engineering of food crops. This is not an academic argument as its impact is felt by millions of people throughout the world. Continue reading “Famine Walk 2012: Corporations, Crops and Control – Seeds of Life or Seeds of Strife” →

Hands off Our Genes!

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“We are the last frontier in a Europe that is looking for GM free food” Clare Keane.

A film about the dangers of allowing Teagasc to field test GM potatoes in Ireland. With contributions from Afri chairperson Andy Storey, Clare Keane, and former Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, Denis Halliday.

Film by Dave Donnellan.

Protesters Oppose Introduction of Genetically Modified Potatoes to Ireland

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The justice and human rights group Action from Ireland (Afri) held a protest action at the Department of the Environment on Easter Monday to express its opposition to the proposed introduction of genetically modified (GM) potatoes into Ireland.  Protesters wearing potato masks, and carrying a banner with the slogan “hands off our genes”, called on the Environmental Protection Agency to reject Teagasc’s recent application to introduce GM potatoes to County Carlow.

 

Afri spokesperson Lisa Patten described the Teagasc application as “contaminating” Ireland’s green reputation. Ms Patten said “this move would be a serious blow to our food sovereignty and undermine this indigenous and flourishing part of the Irish economy which is part of the fabric of our social and cultural heritage. Introducing genetically modified food into our food sector is a cul de sac for the Irish people and seriously damaging to our reputation as a green, clean island. Our government should be doing everything they can to develop our proven potential to become the hub for GM-free food which the European market in particular is demanding, as well as safeguarding the safety and food security of the Irish people.”

  Continue reading “Protesters Oppose Introduction of Genetically Modified Potatoes to Ireland” →

Food is Our Future

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Keep Ireland GM Free

Press Release, 21 February 2011

Clodagh McKenna, Clare O’Grady Walshe & Ruairi Quinn advocating a ‘GM-Free Ireland’

Leading chef and TV presenter Clodagh McKenna, joined people from the food, farming, conservation and human rights sectors in Dublin today to raise awareness about the inherent dangers of new moves to allow a relaxing of laws in relation to genetically modified food and feed. These major changes are occurring in the final days of the Fianna Fáil Government, as Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith heads to Brussels tomorrow Tuesday 22nd for a vote which will have far reaching implications for Ireland’s future in Food.

Continue reading “Food is Our Future” →

Famine Walk 2010 – ‘Hunger in a World of Plenty: Sowing Seeds of Hope’

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Afri would like to thank the hundreds of people who joined us on a wonderful sunny day for our 22nd Annual Famine Walk from Doolough to Louisburgh on Saturday, 22 May.

The walk leaders Justin Kilcullen of Trócaire, Felicity Lawrence, writer and journalist for the Guardian, and Jo Newton of the Irish Seed Savers Association opened the event with short reflections on the walk theme: Hunger in a World of Plenty: Sowing Seeds of Hope.

The various speakers outlined how the injustices that led to the Irish Great Famine continue today in terms of unequal global food distribution and the way in which multinational companies increasingly control agriculture and the food processing system, while small farmers and food producers struggle to survive. A linking thread was that food insecurity will continue and intensify today unless we tackle issues such as loss of biodiversity, global warming, corporate control of food production, and the patenting and aggressive marketing of genetically modified seeds.

Afri Famine Walk 2010 from Dave Donnellan on Vimeo.

Continue reading “Famine Walk 2010 – ‘Hunger in a World of Plenty: Sowing Seeds of Hope’” →