Toward 2017: A Note From Eric Holt-Giménez

Eric Holt-Giménez | 12.16.2016

Dear Friends,

2017 is going to be a pivotal year for our movement. Together, we’re up for the challenge.

This is the year we end the confusion between false solutions and transformative alternatives and opt for active resistance over passive disagreement. It is the year we distinguish between tactical and strategic alliances and stop choosing the “lesser of two evils.” 2017 is the year we boldly forge the sustainable and equitable food system we all desperately need.

Now, more than ever, we need to amplify the voices of frontline communities on the land, in the fields, the neighborhoods, and up and down the food chain. We need to organize and act decisively. To do this, we need to think clearly—we need trenchant and up to date information and analysis to cut through the political chaos of the rising global trend of reactionary populism.

Now, more than ever, we need organizations like Food First, the people’s think tank that has taken strong, independent stances on the issues food, communities and the environment for over 40 years. We were the first food think tank to identify injustice as the cause of hunger with our book Hunger 12 Myths; the first to ally ourselves with social movements like Vía Campesina when we found the resources to help them protest (and shut down) the World Trade Organization in Cancún, Mexico; the first to declare ourselves an anti-racist organization and stand with frontline communities as part of our theory of change; the first to combine action-research with on-the-ground alternatives like agroecology and farmer to farmer agricultural development; and the first to link the international movement for food sovereignty with the national struggles for food justice.

We’ve been able to do this transformative work because of people like you.

Your contributions have allowed us to set a radical, independent agenda, free of political influences from government or big corporations. In an age when everything—including funding—is becoming privatized, your popular support has kept us strong.

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Many of you who read our books and reports and who come to our events and lectures are active contributors. Some of you have been with us since our founding. Thank you! We appreciate you, still need you, and hope we will continue working together. Many more of you use our work to understand the food system and to change the world. Thank you for your work!

Please consider contributing what you can afford to Food First, the think-and-do-tank that produces the cutting-edge work you need for your struggles. We look forward to meeting the challenging times of 2017, together.

With hope and gratitude,

Eric