Dear Friends,

In this issue of the newsletter we are taking a particular focus on trade reform.  The largest free trade agreement ever drafted – the Trans-Pacific Partnership – is scheduled to be finalized in October. Yet the public knows little about its contents since the negotiations have gone on in secrecy, with the exception of roughly 600 corporate advisors who have some access to draft texts.  Leaked texts indicate that the contents could influence the cost of medicines, food safety and give corporations the means to weaken government efforts to regulate environmental, public health and labor practices and even recent Wall Street reforms.  Please join your voice with our global community to help people understand that trade agreements like this one have huge implications for ministry.

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Trade Reform

Our Rights are Not Negotiable!

The Red Uniendo Manos Peru has joined forces with other organizations representing civil society in Peru to launch the “Not Negotiable” campaign against the ongoing negotiations of the TPP. There is a lack of transparency in these negotiations, which are considered by many to be the most secretive negotiations ever in the era of free trade agreements. Learn More

The Struggle for Transparency in Trade: Why it is an Issue for Ministry 

Religious and community leaders are the ones expected to reach out to help the most vulnerable with food and shelter, and offer compassion when disease strikes and health insurance falls short.  Yet what responsibility do they have to prevent these situations from occurring in the first place?  Learn More

Unexpected Trade Activists: Giddings-Lovejoy Takes on the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Giddings-Lovejoy engages in trade reform activism.  As bad as the consequences of lead poisoning are for people in La Oroya, Peru, there is also threat from unscrupulous trade agreements, both past and present.  Under the already existing Peru-US Trade Agreement, the Renco Group, owner of the lead smelting operation in LaOroya, is suing the Peruvian government for $800 million. Learn more

Murphy Signs for Transparency in Trade

Cathy Murphy is using her songwriting skills to bring attention to the lack of transparency in trade agreements like the TPP.  The verses in her song “Transparency in the TPP” call for public details of the agreement, transparency in the process and real skepticism about the corporate presence in the process.  Learn More

Food and Land

Land Grabbing Through Tourism: Boon or Bane in Kalpitiya

Land grabbing and hotel constructions in Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka have resulted in environmental destruction, cultural and livelihood disturbances, and blocked access to the beach seine (coast) point, docks, sea, lagoons, churches, mosques and homes.  Learn More

Herakles Farms: Suspension or Business as Usual?

The Cameroon Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife suspended the Herakles Farms palm oil plantation project only to lift the suspension a short time later.  Then on June 8, 2013, the Ministry requested that Herakles Farms downsize their palm oil plantation from the originally planned 73,000 hectares to 20,000. Learn More  

Awakening of Egypt to Harmful Effects of Chemical Pesticides and Fertilizers

Together for Development (TFD) shifts focus to the food system in Egypt.  The network has begun studying food policies in Egypt, the emerging small farmers’ movement in both Egypt and worldwide, consumer protection laws, and organizations engaging food issues.  Learn More

Snakes and Ladders: Small Farmers and Seed Sovereignty in India

The agrarian crisis in India worsens daily.  Access to land, safe agricultural inputs and income security are a dream for many of India’s 700 million rural citizens. Kavitha Kuruganti, a renowned activist in sustainable and holistic farming in India, lays out the problems in agriculture in India and calls on farmers to guard traditional seeds.   Watch Video  

Extractives and Water

Measuring Cameroon's Transparency in the Oil, Gas and Mining Sector

Poor use of extractive resources has exacerbated poverty and hunger and generated conflicts, social instability, and corruption.  The Revenue Watch Resource Governance Index seeks to raise global attention to the concerns of transparency in the extractives sector.  Learn More

The Campaign Continues: Results of the Parallel Audit of the Kori Kollo Mine

The extraction of natural resources through mining oftentimes results in the destruction of the ecosystems in those areas. This has been the case of the Kori Kollo open-pit mining operations of the Inti Raymi SA Company.  Learn More

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Resources and other news

Visit our Trade Reform Website to find posters for use in your church and in your community and, for preachers and Sunday School teachers, there is a three-part webinar on biblical texts that address the moral aspects of trade.  
Herakles Exposed: The Truth Behind Herakles Farms False Promises in Cameroon The Oakland Institute and Greenpeace
Peru launches the "Our Rights Are Non-Negotiable" campaign Public Citizen
Coup d’Etat to Trade Seen in Billionaire Toxic Lead Fight Bloomburg News