Contact:
FFD President, John Kinsman #608-986-3816
FFD Vice President, Joel Greeno #608-463-7634
FFD Exec. Director, John E. Peck #608-260-0900
Delivers Second Solidarity Shipment of Wisconsin Tractors to Gulf Coast Farmers
Wisconsin-based Family Farm Defenders will be receiving the second annual World Food Sovereignty Prize in New Orleans this coming weekend at the Community Food Security Coalition’s “Food, Culture, & Justice: The Gumbo That Unites Us All” conference.
“The seven principles of food sovereignty are the finest recipe for global food, social, and environmental justice that exists today. Food sovereignty can enhance the dignity of every person in the world, and these principles now inspire and guide Family Farm Defenders in all of our plans and actions. Thanks to our commitment to food sovereignty, we have also had the privilege of working in solidarity with Via Campesina and many other allies across the U.S. and around the world. We are profoundly honored to be chosen to receive the 2010 World Food Sovereignty Prize,” noted John Kinsman, a grass-based organic dairy farmer near Lime Ridge, WI, and president of Family Farm Defenders.
It is especially fitting that Family Farm Defenders receive this award in New Orleans four years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina since FFD was one of the first grassroots groups to respond, sending a busload of Wisconsin volunteers, food, medicine, and other relief supplies to the Gulf Coast. In order to help farmers struggling to recover from disaster, FFD also launched Project Tractor after Katrina. The brainchild of FFD vice president, Joel Greeno, this solidarity – not charity – effort just delivered its second shipment of five tractors and several implements to the Point Coupee Farmers Association near Lettsworth, LA, having already sent nine tractors and other equipment to the Indian Springs Farmers Association near Sheeplo, MS back in 2006.
“Much more work needs to be done to restore justice and dignity to agriculture across the globe,” noted John E. Peck, FFD’s executive director. “Congress has yet to address the Pigford Case and rectify decades of systemic discrimination endured by African American farmers in this country. The U.S. Dept. of Justice has yet to seriously enforce anti-trust legislation against the agribusiness giants who now control the U.S. food/farm system. Unchecked land grabbing by footloose financial speculators now threatens to make the current global food crisis even worse. Implementing food sovereignty would address all of these problems and more, which is why we are so excited and encouraged to receive this prestigious award.”
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John E. Peck
Executive Director
Family Farm Defenders,
P.O. Box 1772, Madison, WI 53701
tel./fax. 608-260-0900
