Dear friends,

I am leaving my role as director of Seed the Commons, and I am pleased that for my last newsletter I have the opportunity to share an important recent victory and invite you to an exciting panel.

Last week, Seed the Commons joined farming, food, Indigenous and other international activists at the Global Virtual Rally to Transform Corporate Food Systems, which was part of a week of mobilizations against the corporate capture of the UN Food Systems Summit. The surge of global grassroots activism is already having an impact. The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems has notably withdrawn from the summit, stating “The world urgently needed a food systems summit, but not this Summit”. We are proud to have played a part in this effort, and doubly so for bringing a vegan perspective to it.

Read my blog post: Seed the Commons joined an international mobilization against corporate food systems. We were the only vegans there.  Or watch our video intervention directly here. 


I would also like to invite you to the Soil Not Oil Conference this Friday for a panel titled The Role of Social Movements in Effecting Radical Change. 

I will be joined by Founder and Director of Local Futures and The International Alliance for Localization Helena Norberg-Hodge, Director of the Border Agricultural Workers Project and Coordinator of La Via Campesina North American Region Carlos Marentes, and independent activist Ashlesha Khadse who will speak about the Indian farmers protests. One of the focuses of the panel is to show how grassroots social movements - in particular those focused on land, food and farming - are at the forefront of the fight against colonialism, neoliberalism, climate change.... And that the radical changes that we urgently need can only come from the grassroots. 

This is the fifth panel that I organize for Soil Not Oil, and I am switching it up. Previous panels centered on veganic farming and the pro-animal agriculture bias of the eco-farming movement and broader food movement. It’s time to also talk about the animal rights movement. Soil Not Oil is largely funded and attended by a pro-grazing crowd. Since 2016, I have brought in a lone voice of critique: I’ve repeatedly unpacked the pro-grazing trend, highlighted the plight of the Tule elk and the bison, and put forth veganics as a better alternative. I will touch upon these issues again, but I will also share some reflections on the future of the veganic movement as it gains popularity and potentially becomes absorbed by the vegan and animal rights movements. 

As someone who has long been interested in understanding how change happens and how it doesn’t, I value these past years of interacting with the American animal rights movement. I have seen incredibly inspired and inspiring activism, and this movement has also been a sort of microcosm that has allowed me to better understand the dynamics between the grassroots and established non-profits and careerists, especially as these play out in the unique and influential American context.

Much of this can be useful to consider for the next steps of the veganic movement. The professionalization of the animal rights movement has been coupled with its deradicalization, and the joint focus on vegan capitalism and a warped version of intersectionality has resulted in neoliberal leanings, widening the chasm with social movements that challenge the corporate food system. American identity politics, a major facet of progressive activism, have morphed into something that entrenches the status quo. For example, Seed the Commons was founded, led, and mostly supported by people of color, and our cultural backgrounds have noticeably shaped some of the ideas that we’ve shared. Yet the fetishization of people of color in the animal rights movement has resulted not in support for our work or recognition of our contributions, but instead in appropriation and even plagiarism by those seeking to increase their “woke cred” in the pursuit of funding and career advancement.

My co-panelists this Friday are leaders in land-based, farmer, farmworker, Indigenous and women-led movements. Will the veganic farming movement join in their vision while taking the next steps for a compassionate and sustainable society? Or will the US-centric and pro-corporate biases of the vegan movement lead veganics in a different direction? 
 

Register for Soil Not Oil

While I have been its most visible member, Seed the Commons is the labor of love of many wonderful individuals and it is not going away.

And I will still be around and hope to connect with you at Friday’s panel and beyond. Please also feel free to reach out to me by email or on social media. This year marks thirty years since I stopped eating animals–I might even hold an online celebration!

All the best, bonne continuation,

Nassim