Webinar on Food Justice/Food Sovereignty

 Register here: https://www.united-in-learning.com/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=179

The United Church has been implementing a food justice/food sovereignty campaign entitled “Seeding Life: Breaking Ground for Food Justice.” The campaign has its roots in policy supporting the concept and principles of food sovereignty that was approved by the church in 2012. Visit http://www.united-church.ca/files/getinvolved/seeding-life/backgrounder.pdf for a short backgrounder on the Seeding Life campaign that includes its goals and objectives.

A focal point of the Seeding Life campaign is a Food Week of Action that occurred October 12-19, 2015 (and in 2014) and is planned again for October 2016. The Food Weeks of Action are timed to coincide with the annual United Nations World Food Day (October 16 each year) and World Food Sunday. A rich variety of resources will continue to be available on the General Council website that congregations can use to mark the weeks. They can also be used at any time to celebrate the gift of food and deepen awareness of the need for a world without hunger.

On Wednesday, November 18^th at 2:00 p.m. EDT, a one-hour webinar will take place to familiarize those interested in the concept and principles of food sovereignty and begin a process of planning and mobilization for Year Three of the campaign. The objectives of the webinar are:

·         To orient a select group of “food justice champions” on the principles of food sovereignty;
·         To enlist the support of champions in promoting the UCC’s Seeding Life campaign going forward.
 

We are delighted to announce that, featured in the webinar, will be Prof. Nettie Weibe. Nettie is a United Church member and prairie farmer who works at the international level of La Via Campesina, the global small-scale farmers’ movement that is credited with giving birth to the concept and principles of food sovereignty. She is also Professor of Church and Society at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatchewan, and played a key role in helping the United Church to develop its policy on food sovereignty. Also presenting will be one or two United Church youth who last summer visited a small mixed Ontario farm and used the occasion to reflect, at the grassroots level, on the principles of food sovereignty. The latter portion of the webinar will be used to discuss follow up which will include a teleconference to plan for Year Three of the Seeding Life campaign.