Donate | Grassroots International

US Working Group on the Food Crisis: Call to Action

As a member of the US Working Group on the Food Crisis, Grassroots International is hosting the group's Call to Action to adopt comprehensive food system reforms. Sign on now to add your name to the petition and stay updated on our work.

*Note: Only fill in the ‘Organization’ and ‘Title’ boxes if you are signing-on for your organization and have authority to do so. Otherwise just fill in your own details and leave those boxes blank.

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:

1) 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.

2) 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.

3) Make agriculture environmentally sustainable:

*Support family farming with agroecological practices through 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 agroecological farming and sustainable food businesses.  

4) 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.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email*

Street*

City*

State/Province*

Zip/Postal Code*

Organization

Position

Comments: