Memo to: IATP/IFA Friends & Associates

From: Mark Ritchie, President, IATP; Chair, IFA

Re: Action Alert on Food and Farm Activities in Seattle

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you know, in November of this year trade ministers will gather in Seattle, Washington to assess the impacts of current trade and investment policies and to consider changes. Food and agriculture are among the most important topics under consideration.

The Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy (IATP), and the International Forum on Food & Agriculture (IFA), in conjunction with John Fawcett-Long of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, are helping to convene a regional steering committee to coordinate events and activities for Food & Agriculture Day. For more information on regional planning contact John Fawcett-Long at 206/935-8738 or jfawcett@eskimo.com.

There will be a large meeting of farmers, farm groups, farm workers and peasant networks from around the world on Wednesday, December 1, from 6:30pm - 9:00pm at the Best Western Executive Inn, 200 Taylor Avenue North. For more information, contact Niel Ritchie at 612/870-3405, nritchie@iatp.org or Kathy Ozer at 202/543-5675, kozer@nffc.net

A Call to Food and Agriculture Day

Entire days are being designated to highlight particular issues during the Ministerial. Thursday, December 2, 1999 has been tabbed Food and Agriculture Day. A local host committee has made facilities available for these activities and an international planning committee is working on the agenda. For more information on other activities during the Ministerial, contact Mike Dolan (Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch), at 202/421-4777 or 877/786-7986. Visit http://www.seattle99.org. Please note that registration is NOT necessary for any of these events!

Activities for the day include:

8:30am - 9:30am Farmers' Press Breakfast (United Methodist Church, 811 5th Avenue) -- Invited speakers include: Jose Bove, French Farmer's Union; Dena Hoff and John Kinsman, National Family Farm Coalition; Keith Dietrich, American Corn Growers Association; Rafael Mariano, Peasant Movement of the Philippines; Shinichiro Sakamoto, Japanese Independent Farmers Union; Kim In-Sik, Secretary General, Korean Farmers Association.

10:00am - 12:00pm Public Presentations/Panels of speakers at the United Methodist Church, including panels on:

"Naming the Problem: Corporate Control and the Industrialization of Agriculture" featuring Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South, the Philippines; Nelson Carrasquillo, el Comite de Accion de los Trabajadores Agricolas (the Farmworker Action Committee), Nettie Wiebe, the National Farmers Union, Canada and the Via Campesina, and Anuradha Mittal, Food First.

"What Are We Trading Away? Food Security and Food Safety" featuring Ruchi Tripathi, from ActionAid India; Farhad Mahzar, UBINIG, Bangladesh; and a representative from the Council for Responsible Genetics.

"Beyond Globalization: Toward a Socially Just Agriculture in the New Millennium" which will highlight local food systems and alternatives to industrial agriculture, featuring Ann Schwartz, regional farmer and Tilth producer; Peter Rosset, Food First; Jean Bakole from COASAD, Africa; and Jose Bove, French Farmers Union.

12:30pm - 1:30pm Support Family Farmers! Public Rally and News Conference at Victor Steinbruck Park, just North of Seattle's Pike Place Market, featuring Vandana Shiva, (author, researcher and leading advocate in India regarding farmers, feminism, ecology and politics); Jim Hightower (former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture and nationally recognized progressive commentator and author); Helen Waller, Northern Plains Resource Council; Roger Allison, Missouri Rural Crisis Center. Other invited speakers include: Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-OH; Minister of Agriculture, British Columbia, Corky Evans.

2:00pm - 4:30pm Strategy Sharing Workshops on a range of topics from local to global, addressing the critique of agriculture in the WTO, as well as highlighting solutions and alternative policy options. These facilitated discussions are designed to be interactive, roundtable exchanges.

"Food Security in a Global Economy?" lead by ActionAid and Food First. This session will take place at the Meeting Place at Pike Place Market, 93 Pike Street, Suite 307. The Meeting Place is located upstairs from the bronze statue of Rachel the Pig and the Flying Fish stand. For a more detailed idea of the layout of Pike Place Market, visit: http://pikeplacemarket.org

"The Impact of Globalization on Food Safety" lead by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the International Association of Consumer Food Organizations (IACFO). This session will also take place at the Meeting Place at Pike Place Market, 93 Pike Street, Suite 307.

"Farmer and Farmworker Strategy" lead by the National Family Farm Coalition, the Via Campesina and the Farmworker Action Committee. This session will take place at the Market Theatre in Pike Place Market, 1428 Post Alley. Find Rachel the Pig, go down the stairs that lie ten feet behind Rachel, and find yourself in the lower end of Post Alley. Look above your head, and you’ll find the marquee for the Market Theatre. The entrance is about thirty yards down the alley, across from the Alibi Room, behind the Bistro.

"Genetic Engineering and Agriculture: Where Do We Go From Here?" lead by Ronnie Cummins on behalf of the Genetic Engineering Action Network, US. This session will take place at the Seattle Art Museum, located at 100 University Street at 1st Avenue.

5:00pm - 6:00pm "Wrap Up and Beyond WTO": To conclude the WTO NGO Food and Agriculture Day in Seattle, representatives of major small farm, food security and land reform movements worldwide will sum up the day, including priority actions and benchmarks for civil society solidarity in the near future. Speakers will include representatives of the Third World Network, Via Campesina, Asian NGO Coalition/Popular Coalition to Eradicate Hunger and Poverty, the Global Forum on Sustainable Food and Nutritional Security, the International Indian Treaty Council, the International Forum on Food and Agriculture and the NGO Sustainable Agriculture/Food Systems (SAFS) Caucus of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). This wrap-up will take place at the Market Theatre at Pike Place Market (see above session on Farmer/Farmworker Strategy for address/directions). Fore more information, contact Thomas Forster, IPSA, SAFS Caucus, tforster@rockisland.com

6:30pm - 10:00pm "Tableau: 100 for 100" Tableau, the community table, is a concept developed by Chef Tom in Seattle and Katie French that brings together people from diverse interests to engage in meaningful dialogue that leads to actions strategies and positive results. Participants will be recruited and invited from a wide range of interests throughout the WTO meeting. There will be space for several hundred active listeners and witnesses to the conversation that will take place. The group of 100 will conduct an inquiry based on the question "What could 100 people who have the capacity to impact and generate a global conversation, DO in 100 days to alter, enhance, and bring powerful resource to active solutions for world hunger?" This event will take place at Town Hall at 8th and Seneca Streets, Seattle. For more information, email Chef Tom at cheftom@tableauinc.com.

Public sessions will be available as a live feed over the internet at http://www.wtowatch.org

For more information, contact the event Secretariat:

Renske van Staveren,

International Forum on Food and Agriculture & Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy

2105 First Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55404

612-870-3423 phone, 612-870-4846 fax, rvanstaveren@iatp.org