SOCLA-NA update

April 25, 2016

Dear colleagues:

Many of you already expressed interest in joining SOCLA-North America (USA-Canada) which is intended to strengthen collaboration on agroecology between researchers, NGO people, students and farmers working in NA but that ties with Latin America and/or are interested in estabilishing collabartive links with Universities, NGOs and farmers organizations in Latin America.

As you know SOCLA (www.socla.co) is comprised of about 800 active members from 14 Latin American countries, most of them researchers, professors, agricultural extentionists and students, involved in research, teaching, advocacy and the diffusion of agroecology in all its scientific dimensions throughout the region. By linking the hundreds of researchers and practitioners of agroecology in North America with the SOCLA network we can scale up in an organized manner the flow of people, information, ideas and political projects such as food justice and food sovereignty move back and forth across the North and South American continents, enriching and building a far-flung network for agroecology.

Among the initial activities that we envision for SOCLA-NA include:

*Organization of a North American webinar, meeting or congress. In this regard SOCLA NA has offered to participate in the organization and implementation of a North American agroecology conference that other actors (Center for Food Safety, etc) are trying to organize.

* Organize seminars or short courses at the state, regional or national level;

* Coordinate exchanges, cross visits,   internships, grant proposals,  collaborative research projects, publications, documentaries, etc., with colleagues linked to SOCLA-LA;

*Reach out to the newly launched Agroecology-Europe network to share ideas and establish collaborating linkages (http://www.isofar.org/isofar/index.php/2-uncategorised/94-press-release-agroecology-europe-is-launched)

*Organize a SOCLA-NA round table or symposium in the 2017 SOCLA  VI Congress in Brasilia on September 2017 so that colleagues in Latin America learn about the agroecological initiatives in NA.

* Take advantage of the opportunity in Brasil 2017 to hold a meeting with key members of SOCLA LA, SOCLA NA and Agroecology Europe to discuss themes of common interest but more importantly to arrive at an action agenda. An ítem of such agenda could be exploring the potential to organize a world conference on agroecology, but also regional exchanges and if funding available collaborative global research projects with a set of publications, videos and a common website.

In addition to those that have already expressed interest, we invite all people interested in joining the North American Chapter of SOCLA to send an email to Ana Galvis agalvis@foodfirst.org expressing your interest and briefly describing your affiliation and activities in agroecology in the Americas.

For those ready to register please send a $40 check payable to Food First (write in the memo SOCLA NA) and mail to: Food First, 398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618, USA. Alternatively you can make your payment on line at https://www.socla.co/membresia/

Cordially,

Clara I. Nicholls

President of SOCLA

Eric Holt-Gimenez

Executive Director, Food First