Indigenous Food Systems Network

Dr Vandana Shiva at Mount Allison University in 2012

Members of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, joined by prominent environmental advocates, went out to Burrard Inlet today to participate in a prayer ceremony for the earth and protest against oil sands development, as well pipeline expansions and tanker traffic along the coast. Participants rowed their boats near the terminal of American pipeline giant Kinder Morgan, which intends to triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and potentially quadruple oil tanker traffic around Burrard Inlet.

The Haida recognize that nature and culture are intrinsically connected, and that the protection of the natural and cultural values on Haida Gwaii is essential to sustaining their culture. The Haida have always had Guardian Watchmen who protected the land and sea from harm. Guardians and Watchmen now work in fisheries, forestry, heritage and parks programs to support the Council of Haida Nations’ priority to protect the Aboriginal rights and title of Haida people.

Peruvian indigenous farmers have been angered by a government research
agency that has claimed it owns intellectual property (IP) rights over
more than fifty traditional varieties of potatoes bred in the Peruvian Andes.
The potatoes were bred not by government researchers but by indigenous farmers, who consider the claims to be an affront to their culture,knowledge and resources. In letters to the government, meetings, and a protest in the city of Cusco, the
farmers have insisted that the claims be dropped entirely.

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INIA final.pdf

Wild rice is a traditional food that has virtually disappeared from the diets of Ontarian First Nations peoples and the waterways where it once flourished in the "rice bowl" of Turtle Island.

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Vol 12 The Name of the Grain.pdf

Canada’s state and corporate wealth is largely based on subsidies gained from the theft of Indigenous lands and resources. Conquest in Canada was designed to ensure forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from their territories, the destruction of autonomy and self-determination in Indigenous self-governance and the assimilation of Indigenous peoples’ cultures and traditions.

Watch this book trailer video to hear author, activist and academic Raj Patel talk about his book The Value of Nothing. Opening with Oscar Wilde's observation that "nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing," Patel shows how our faith in prices as a way of valuing the world is misplaced. This short, timely and inspiring book reveals that we not only need to find a new economic model, but that the larger failure beneath the food, climate and economic crises is a political one. If economics is about choices, Patel writes, it isn't often said who gets to make them.

Hi Flora
PicI am writing you today to ask that you send off a quick letter before November 7th to the federal government about a trout-filled lake on BC's Chilcotin Plateau west of Williams Lake. If the feds take the action we are asking them to take, they will be saving the lake and whole lot of time and money as well.
The lake I am talking about is Fish Lake. If that name sounds familiar it should.

Wild Salmon People,

The Disease Hearings at the Cohen Inquiry have been riveting. Finally, we are getting a look behind the scenes at how much consideration the wild sockeye have been given by DFO. Dr. Kristi Miller has shown up daily in the audience shadowed by a very large government security guard wearing an earpiece. Salmon farm executives are there, Chief Bob Chamberlin, Dan Cody DFO, Policy Advisor and lots of wild salmon people are also witnessing this.

Our program to advocate for indigenous peoples affected by multilateral development banks is a cornerstone of the work at the Indian Law Resource Center. This project began in the late 1970s when the Center represented the Yanomami people of Brazil. The Yanomami lived a peaceful and self-sufficient life, with no ties to the global economy, until Brazil received money from the World Bank to build a road through their territory. The road unleashed chaos within the Yanomami communities. Road workers brought malaria and many Yanomami died because they had no resistance to the disease.