Justice Begins With Seeds: A People’s Movement

This is the third in a four-part series of posts recounting my experience at Justice Begins With Seeds, an anti-GMO conference held in San Francisco one month ago. See the first and second parts.

Jeffrey’s talk was a perfect transition to the last of our morning speakers, Mari Margil of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). She began by excusing herself for not having prepared a powerpoint slide. She would just have to try and be extra stimulating.

Stimulating? Her talk was scintillating. Revolutionary. She pulled our attention in from the collective core.

Traditionally, environmental activists take an oppositional role – they are always shouting No, No, NO! They protest nuclear power plants, factory farms, water extraction plants. But every time they win, corporations fill in the legal loopholes and push back even stronger. Eventually, activists lose.

Mari’s work is helping activists to start saying YES!

Instead of allowing corporations the will to set up hazardous operations anywhere they so please, how can local communities put a stop to all such operations?

Anything that threatens the health of the local community should simply not be allowed.

Why should corporate authority trump community authority?

This is the beginning of a grassroots civil rights movement. CELDF helped the city of Pittsburgh, PA pass a local ordinance called the Community Bill of Rights, specifically banning natural gas extraction (aka Fracking) within the region – the Marcellus Shale, a natural gas deposit spanning four states in the Northeast. Also included in the bill were stipulated the rights of the community to decide how their natural resources should be used, and language that strips away recognition of corporate personhood.

Pittsburgh is no progressive town.

How in the world did they manage to do this?

Community organizing.

The Marcellus Protest formed in June 2010, by a group of concerned residents who had come together over the anti-fracking film, Gasland. It was tiny at first, but they decided to reach out to their fellow neighbors to warn them of the on-coming fracking operation. As word spread about the hazards of natural gas drilling, Marcellus Protest began to grow.

Members lobbied all 9 council members relentlessly. In the end, hundreds of people called, emailed, and showed up to council meetings to voice their opinions.

Marcellus Protest staged a protest on November 3 to coincide with a convention held by the energy companies interested in fracking. This was one week before the council voted on the ordinance. Over 800 people came to the protest, sparking media coverage that spread like fire.

And so, Pittsburgh City Council voted unanimously to pass the ordinance. The Community Bill of Rights was born.

Following Pittsburgh’s example, towns and communities throughout Pennsylvania and New England have drafted and adopted similar ordinances protecting the rights of local people and natural resources, while stripping away rights to corporate personhood.

Bringing the issue back to GMO’s, Mari introduced a Food Bill of Rights, granting:

• Right to Water
• Rights of Natural Communities
• Right of Access to Sustainably Produced Food
• Right to a Sustainable Food System
• Right to Seed Heritage
• Right to GMO-free Food
• Right to Self-Government
• People as Sovereign

Her words stirred my soul – this was the concept my heart had been searching for.

Why should those affected by governing decisions have no say in the matter?

I explored green living to the furthest extent I could. But that didn’t stop fracking, GMO’s, or biodiversity loss.

Here, I discovered a new movement was building: a grassroots civil rights movement could transform culture at its core. Here lay the potential to truly stop the exploitation of people and planet once and for all.

I saw a role for myself here. If I wasn’t ready to jump in full force, at the very least I could spread the word about this new movement.

I took a chance at citizen journalism, investigating the story of Pittsburgh’s journey to passing a Community Bill of Rights to share with a larger community. I spoke with Ben Price, the CELDF local projects director who was instrumental in shaping the language of the ordinance and in lobbying the City Council to introduce this particular version of the ban. I spoke with a woman from Marcellus Protest, who told me that the people played an integral role in helping pass the ordinance.

I was simply driven by my belief in this idea – corporate personhood is a very good reason why social and ecological exploitation continues to happen every day, despite public opinion.

As the day continued, I heard from Gayle McLaughlin, a progressive local mayor who shared her story of success without a dime of help from corporations. Her authority and success rested entirely on community organizing. I learned about local groups involved in building a resilient community through gardening programs and workers’ organizing.

In essence, I was gifted a belief in local self-governance. The people is where the power lies. There is no need for external authority, when the people who are affected know very well the realities of governing theories developed abroad.