As a result of decades of misguided policies and the recent sharp rise in food prices, a billion people around the world face hunger and food insecurity. Dangerous volatility in the financial system puts these people at even greater risk. We, the undersigned, call on people across the United States to use our political power and actions to fight for food system changes that:
Stabilize prices for farmers and consumers globally
- Regulate the finance sector’s investment in food and energy commodities.
- Establish and strengthen publicly-owned domestic, regional, and international strategic food reserves.
- Suspend international trade and investments in industrial-scale biofuels (a.k.a. agrofuels).
- Reform food aid.
- Expand fair trade, not so-called free trade.
Rebalance power in the food system
- Reduce the political influence of agribusiness corporations on public policy.
- Strengthen antitrust enforcement in agribusiness.
- Convene multi-stakeholder, representative food policy councils at state and local levels.
Make sustainable agriculture the standard
- Support biodiverse, agroecological family farming in purchasing and procurement.
- Halt expansion of government supported biofuels programs, mandates, and tax incentives and other subsidies unless they only support sustainable, domestic production.
- Direct state and national farm policy, research and education, and investment toward biodiverse, agroecological farming and sustainable food businesses.
Guarantee the right to healthy food by building local and regional food systems and fostering social, ecological and economic justice
- Call on the US to join the community of nations supporting the human right to food.
- Support domestic food production and independent community-based food businesses in the United States and around the world.
- Establish living wages, so that everyone can afford healthy food.
- Implement full workers’ rights for farmworkers and other food system workers.
- Strengthen the social safety net for low-income people across the US.
- Create a solidarity economy that puts people before profit in the United States and around the world.
You can take action in many ways, in your community or across the country:
- Contact your elected officials to demand policies that support a fair food system. The first 100 days of the new administration will be an especially important time to set a new course.
- Write op-eds and letters to the editor of your newspaper.
- Host an event to educate and mobilize your community between World Food Day (October 16) and Thanksgiving.
- Join local or national organizations working for a fair food system.
- Get involved with the US Working Group on the Food Crisis.
