We are excited about this issue of the e-news. As you’ll see, it contains a new fact sheet about land grabbing, and many stories about people’s movements to preserve and protect their land, seeds, livelihoods and well-being.

Grow in your understanding of the root causes of hunger and poverty by taking a reflection/action trip to one of our Joining Hands’ countries. Go, Join, Act!

Please share this newsletter with your broader networks and encourage people to subscribe. If you are interested in reading past issues, visit our e-news archives.

On a personal note, we'd like to thank Alexa Smith, who worked with Joining Hands, organizing people in the US around global injustices for more than 7 years. We will miss a good networker, preacher, and someone with a lot of passion and heart for justice work.

Food and Land

PHP Land Grabbing Fact Sheet

Land grabbing threatens the poorest people and nations in the world, compromising food sovereignty and sustainable development. With 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide, the race to buy up land in impoverished nations could lead to food shortages and increased hunger. In response, global movements are organizing to restore people’s sovereignty and protect traditional lands, livelihoods and cultures. Download this useful fact sheet to learn more.

Watch our webinar: Global Perspectives on Land Grabbing

The Fight for Native Seeds Defies Free Trade Agreements in El Salvador

Over the last few years, as a result of the social and political advocacy carried out by countless community groups and social organizations, including RUMES, the Salvadoran Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) has increased its commitment to the promotion of native seeds. While the policies and programs of MAG have real benefits for smallholder farming families and farming cooperatives, they may violate the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
Learn more

International Day of Farmers' Struggles: In defense of peasants and farmers’ seeds

Farmers are the ones who feed the planet, but surprisingly, they are also amongst the poorest and hungriest people in the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around half of the world’s hungry people are from smallholder farming communities, surviving off marginal lands prone to natural disasters like drought or flood. Added to that, farmers have been witnessing for decades now strong attempts from large corporations to control, own and dominate their seeds. Learn more

International Day of Farmers' Struggles: What Haitian Farmers' Organizations are Fighting For

Haitian farmers struggle every day for the land. They retain native seeds themselves until the next season. They want to live a simple life, a supportive living in a healthy environment. That is why they are organizing to defend their human rights. FONDAMA accompanies them in the struggle for survival and a better life. Learn more

Resisting Land Grabbing: Local communities in South West Cameroon continue to pressure Herakles Farms despite intimidation

Since 2011, RELUFA and other national and international civil society organizations have supported local communities in their struggle against the Herakles Farms land grab. In response to the pressure, the president of the Republic of Cameroon signed three decrees in November 2013, reducing the scale of the project. However, despite the decrees, resistance against the project is still growing in some local communities that maintain their disapproval of the project and are not ready to cede their land. Learn more

The Unified Struggle for Land, Water and Seeds in Sri Lanka

Until now, there has been no coordinated, consistent, collaborated campaign organized to address the struggles of fisher people and farmers in Sri Lanka adequately. With a new wave of people deciding to “break the culture of silence” and come forward to put a stop to the injustices, a campaign to protect the land, sea, and seeds has emerged. Learn more

The Call for Agrarian Reform in Haiti Grows

Most Haitian peasants are susceptible to land grabbing because they lack official titles to the land on which they live and work. Every day, more and more Haitians are losing their land, homes and livelihoods to the projects of agribusiness corporations, wealthy nationals and the government. In response, peasants across rural Haiti are organizing and struggling for agrarian reform. Learn more

Extractives and Water

For the Right to Live

Since 2000, more than 80 rural communities from 3 indigenous groups have organized to take action against environmental contamination, principally from mining operations in Oruro, Bolivia. A Universal Period Review (UPR) document was submitted by UMAVIDA partner CORIDUP with the assistance of the Presbyteries of San Francisco and Cascades to hold the Bolivian government accountable for Human Rights violations related to the mining industry. Learn more

Resources and other news

Add your voice to the Our Land Our Business campaign against the World Bank’s “Doing Business” rankings which encourage land grabbing

Resources for Researchers: Land Tenure and Land Grabs by the Lugar Center

500 global groups push SEC on transparency rules Presbyterian Hunger Program partners lend voices to the extractives debate

Read the article Poverty amid mining riches in Katanga

Interactive visual aids Mapping ecological conflicts and spaces of resistance

EU and US pressed to drop dispute-settlement rule from trade deal by the Financial Times

Check out some very interesting graphics in Industry voices dominate the trade advisory system

Download the report “An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka 2009-2014”

Watch the shocking video Sri Lanka: new video evidence of government war crimes

Please consider giving a donation to the Presbyterian Hunger Fund. Together we can end hunger!