Global Hunger Alliance

[Guest guest]

The American holiday of Thanksgiving, which traditionally combines gluttony

and animal abuse, seems a particularly appropriate day for me to provide a

special report to those partners and supporters of the Global Hunger

Alliance who have a specific interest in animal welfare or animal

liberation.

 

1. Background

 

The Global Hunger Alliance was initiated by animal liberation organizations

in recognition of the emergent threat of the spread of industrial animal

agriculture into low-income food-deficit nations under the guise of " hunger

relief. " Intended from the beginning to be a coalition of environmental,

social justice, development, and animal liberation organizations, the

Alliance works to promote our shared interest in opposing the expansion of

factory farming and promoting more genuine and sustainable plant-based

solutions to hunger and malnutrition.

 

Founded specifically in order to influence the UN-FAO World Food Summit

(originally scheduled for November of this year but now postponed until June

of next year), the Alliance also aims to grow into a long-lasting network

which works jointly on matters of international food and agriculture policy

while serving as a conduit of resource and information sharing for Alliance

partners working on local and national projects. The latter goal will be

particularly important as the struggle over factory farming increasingly

shifts into the Asian and African nations into which the livestock

corporations intend to expand and transplant their operations.

 

From the perspective of its animal liberation members, the Alliance has

several additional strategic goals. These include integrating the animal

agenda into the concerns of anti-globalization activists and building the

animal liberation movement both by bringing in new activists from diverse

backgrounds and by increasing the scope and diversity of its coalitions.

These are critical tasks for the movement, which must grow beyond its base

of people of European descent if it hopes to influence more than a narrow

segment of the world population.

 

The stakes are very high. The livestock corporations, backed up by FAO and

the World Bank, fully intend to double meat production between now and 2020.

At the same time, they intend to relocate existing operations into

low-income nations in order to avoid increasing environmental and animal

welfare regulations in the US and Europe. If we are not able to stop them,

the result will be much greater suffering for a much greater number of

animals.

 

At the same time, there is reason for hope. If this project succeeds as

planned, we will block (or at least impede) the expansion of factory

farming. At the same time, we will come out of the process with a movement

which is larger and more diverse and which has a broad spectrum of allies

upon whom we may depend into the future.

 

2. Progress

 

After only a few months of organizing, the Alliance has grown to include 60

endorsing organizations from more than 20 nations. While we still have very

far to go in terms of geographic scope, the diversity of types of

organizations which have elected to endorse is already quite remarkable. As

far as I know, this is the first time that social justice and development

organizations in the global south have elected to work closely with animal

liberation organizations in the US and Europe.

 

Articles about the Alliance have appeared in media as diverse as The Animals

Agenda, SouthAsia Magazine, and the Italian journal

Capitalismo-Natura-Socialismo. During my recent trip to Italy, our

participation in the Rome Social Forum on trade globalization resulted in

newspaper and radio coverage in that nation. (Since FAO is based in Rome,

coverage in the Italian press is particularly important for us.)

 

The Alliance has already gained credibility as an international organization

with valid agricultural, environmental, and social justice concerns. We have

been invited to be a partner in organizing an important international water

conference to be held in Pakistan next year and also have been invited to

supply educational materials to a network of organizations serving hundreds

of thousands of young people in developing nations.

 

 

3. Assessment

 

The importance of the diversity of the organizations involved in the

Alliance cannot be overstated. Animal liberation or welfare organizations,

on their own, will never be granted credibility by hunger policy makers. The

only way to demonstrate that what we are saying is consistent with the

interests of hungry and malnourished people is to ensure that development

and social justice organizations from low-income nations are prominent among

the organizations in the Alliance. We have already done better than anyone

expected in obtaining endorsements from such organizations but we still have

far to go in order to demonstrate a truly global scope of representation.

 

In addition, we must be prepared to be true allies by backing up words of

solidarity with actions. Development and social justice activists in

developing nations understand the concept of solidarity very well and are

prepared to extend solidarity under the assumption that it will be returned

in kind. However, if they get the idea that the other organizations want

their name and their labor but are not willing to extend themselves in any

way, then we will have a very difficult time maintaining the Alliance. I do

not expect this to happen but feel the need to say it because working in

coalition may be new to some of the animal liberation organizations involved

in the Alliance.

 

Moving to the specific aim of influencing the World Food Summit, we are in a

very good position, thanks to the delay and to the outcomes of my recent

sojourn in Italy. We already had a strong team of activists in Italy but now

have additional contacts which will be very helpful in both lobbying within

the Summit process and organizing significant demonstrations in Rome during

the Summit. In addition, as we gain more organizational partners in more

locations, we will be able to stage a truly global series of events in the

week leading up to the Summit. All of this will ensure that our concerns

reach hunger policy makers and the general public.

 

Moving to the long-term aims of the Alliance, I am able again to express

optimism. The warm welcome which we have received from the growing

international network of activists concerned about various aspects of trade

globalizations suggests that we will succeed in audibly articulating our

concerns not only in relation to FAO but also in relation to WTO and other

transnational entities. At the same time, our growing network of endorsing

organizations in developing nations will allow us to be prepared to both

oppose new factory farms in those locations and promote the alternatives

which will make such operations seem less attractive to local populations.

 

Speaking to the issue of building the animal liberation movement, I also

have good news to report. The process of working in coalition always sparks

people to think and this has proved true here. For example, one of our

partners from a development agency in Pakistan has begun sending me articles

she finds about issues like antibiotics fed to farmed animals, showing that

she has begun to seek out information about a topic which was not previously

of interest to her. These are the kinds of small steps by which major

changes occur. I am also happy to report that what I have been saying all

along about the antiglobalization activists -- (1) that they include a large

segment of people concerned about animals who have simply not had the

opportunity to make the connections between those concerns and their

antiglobalization activism, and (2) that they include many young people who

are primed to make changes in their lives if provided with the motivation to

do so -- is proving to be true. I have repeatedly witnessed our materials

provoking young activists to explain to their friends why they are

vegetarian or vegan. Also, I have found a way to work solidarity with the

animals into every speech I have given and have consistently received

applause from a subset of the audience when doing so. It Italy, this

happened at both antiglobalization and peace events. This gives me hope in

relation to the goal of integrating the animal agenda into the

antiglobalization movement.

 

3. Prospects

 

Our prospects are excellent, provided that we continue along the same path

we have been pursuing and that we exercise due diligence in maintaining the

relationships which are at the heart of any coalition. The only real

question, and it is relatively urgent, is whether the fiscal resources will

be available to support the Alliance until it has been in existence long

enough to have a stable base of its own donors and grants. We will be

needing those organizations able to do so to consent to fund the Alliance as

a joint project for the next six months, at which point a more balanced

budget will be possible.

 

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