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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Agricultural Justice Project
  • Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2017 12:12:25 -0500

Agricultural Justice Project
https://www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org/en/

What We Do
------------------------------

The Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) works to transform the existing
agricultural system. We seek empowerment, justice and fairness for all who
labor from farm to retail. Central to our mission are the principles that
all humans deserve respect, the freedom to live with dignity and nurture
community, and share responsibility for preserving the earth’s resources
for future generations.

Consolidation of power, an economy driven by profit, structural racism, and
the individualistic nature of our culture are among the root causes of the
severe injustices in our food system. These give rise to the advantage of
some people over others and invite corruption and lack of transparency
while silencing many voices. People are pitted against people, sector
against sector. Essential values are discredited and true costs
externalized as we ignore the interconnectedness of whole systems. Working
people who have the power to change the system remain disunited and in the
dark. The very same mechanisms that have led to the need for food justice
have given rise as well to the need for racial and environmental justice.
The negative impacts of climate change, failure to recycle society’s
wastes, and infrastructure deterioration fall most heavily on low income
neighborhoods and communities of color while threatening the present and
future health of all living beings. By focusing on the need for fair
trading in farm products and fair treatment of food workers, AJP
contributes to shifting the dominant system towards greater fairness and
equity. We believe that taking care of and engaging all the members of our
human family are necessary preconditions for the regeneration of a viable
biosphere. Farms and food businesses that function as cohesive, integrated,
aware social organisms have a special role to play in ensuring the health
of humans, cultures, animals, and our planet. Our work spans the U.S. and
Canada in the following main focus areas:

*Providing Certification and Technical Assistance Tools to Transform the
Food System.*

We provide farms and food businesses with technical tools to improve work
and trade practices from farm to retail, including extensive toolkits and
templates, one-on-one technical assistance, and a stakeholder-driven
certification program for high bar social justice standards -- Food Justice
Certification (FJC), the gold standard for labor and trade practices in
North America. We support and partner with third-party certifiers and
worker organizations that carry out the certification and inspection
process for the FJC program. Food Justice Certified products can be found
on grocery store shelves, farmers markets, CSAs and roadside stands. We
maintain a Social Justice Fund, through which five percent of all grants
received are set aside, and a portion is used to subsidize certification
fees through our cost share program for small family farms and independent
retailers and cooperatives that have excellent labor practices, but are
experiencing economic hardship.

*Raising Awareness of the Need for Transforming the Food System and Models
that Can Accomplish Change.*

We engage in outreach and education to raise awareness of the disparities
and injustice in the food system and the types of approaches needed to
realize real change for those marginalized by the current system. Our
awareness-raising work is done through social and public media, events and
presentations, networking and partnering, contributing comments on other
fair market claim programs and associations, providing tools for improving
working and trade practices, and promoting the Food Justice Certified (FJC)
label in the marketplace. The FJC label helps launch conversations about
why such a label is needed and what it means, the existence of inequities
and injustice in the food system, the need to address them, and actions
that can be taken.



  • [permaculture] Agricultural Justice Project, Lawrence London, 03/01/2017

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