food sovereignty

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Southeast Alaska Traditional Plants Summit and Celebration goes online on Oct. 1-3

The Southeast Alaska Traditional Plants Summit and Celebration will take place on Oct. 1-3 using Zoom online meetings. There will be presentations from 1-4 p.m. each day, a plant talk meet-and greet from 4-5 p.m., and interactive discussions from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

This event is open to elders, youth, harvesters, and interested community members. It is a virtual gathering to bring together Alaska Native plant harvesters from around Southeast Alaska to learn, appreciate, and network with each other to celebrate traditional edible and medicinal plants, and to discuss and share respectful harvesting guidelines, protocols, and best practices to share with their communities. The summit will also feature plant videos and a food sovereignty showcase of projects from around Southeast Alaska.

The event will use Zoom, but people can call in by telephone, if desired. Registration is required. There is no cost to join. Here is the link to register, https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrdeqoqDorGNGTDAXMAApAttDZdC99S-c0. To access a draft schedule, click this link.

This event is being organized by the Sustainable Southeast Partnership, the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, Spruce Root, Kaasei Training and Consulting, and Planet Alaska, with support from the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF). Special thanks to Haa Tóo Yéi Yatee culture camp and Huna Heritage Foundation.

We are thankful to our respectful harvesting working group for helping plan this event and draft a white paper of respectful harvesting guidelines for Southeast Alaska, based on the work of the Kayaaní Commission and harvesters from around Southeast Alaska. These guidelines will be sent to all registered participants to be discussed at the last evening session. For questions, please contact Jennifer Nu at jennifer@sawcak.org

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• Former Sitka resident publishes book about food sovereignty

FoodVoicesCover

Andrianna Natsoulas, who lived in Sitka from 2011-13 and also commercial fished in Southeast Alaska before that, recently published the book on food sovereignty, “Food Voices: Stories from the People Who Feed Us.”

In producing the book, Andrianna traveled to five countries where she interviewed more than 70 small-scale farmers and fishermen (including some from Sitka). During these interviews she learned about the struggles and solutions faced by small-scale food producers within the scope of food sovereignty. Food sovereignty asserts the rights of the people to define their own food systems, and says those who produce, distribute and consume food must be at the center of decisions on food systems and policies, rather than the corporations and market institutions that have come to dominate global food trade.

“It is essential that those who are in the trenches are heard,” Andrianna said. “They are the closest to the earth and hold the responsibility in their hands to provide healthy, wholesome, culturally relevant food to their communities now and into the future. They are the roots of the food sovereignty movement.”

To learn more about the project and to order books, go to the Food Voices website.

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• Food advocate Andrianna Natsoulas to discuss the food sovereignty movement on Sunday, March 18

Food advocate Andrianna Natsoulas will give a free presentation about the food sovereignty movement at 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 18, at the Kettleson Memorial Library in Sitka.

Andrianna is a longtime advocate for food and environmental issues. She operates the Food Voices website, which features people from around the world (including Sitka) discussing the importance of developing a sustainable and sovereign food system. She also is writing the book, “Food Voices: Stories of the Food Sovereignty Movement.”

The food sovereignty movement is based on community-based agriculture and fishing, rather than industrial food production. More people are becoming concerned about where their food comes from and how it was produced. They are starting to recognize how local food is fresher, tastes better, puts more money back into the local economy, uses less fuel for transportation, and has fewer chemicals and pesticides.

To learn more about the food sovereignty movement, go to Andrianna’s Food Voices website or e-mail her at andrianna@foodvoices.org.