Dear friends,

I am proud to say that Seed the Commons is one of 80 US-based organizations who delivered a letter on April 29 to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai opposing the interference by U.S. government officials and agribusiness interests in Mexico’s planned phaseout of glyphosate and genetically modified corn. Over 6,900 petition signatures from concerned individuals were delivered as well.

Of the 80 signatories, Seed the Commons is the only vegan organization. For years, we challenged the food movement on its promotion of animal agriculture while we built alternative spaces and platforms in the movement in which veganism was normative and veganic farmers were leaders. We also spent years enjoining the animal rights movement to focus on solutions in agriculture and to help build the movement for veganic farming. 

And recently there has indeed been a shift in the animal rights movement, where organizations are starting to advocate for a transition to plant-based farming and food systems, discussing alternatives to animal-based agriculture, etc. But while we largely built the foundation for this new focus, an essential part of our vision is being ignored. Seed the Commons is not looking to create a vegan version of the corporate food system: one of our primary goals has always been to wrest our food system from corporate control.  

This is a common dynamic in social movements: grassroots organizations on shoestring budgets - like ours - do work that is foundational, but as this work is built upon by those who are more established and better funded, the radical elements of their vision are discarded. Years after we started, I have to say that the chasm between the vegan movement and those working towards the radical transformation of our food systems has not grown smaller. 

The way to bridge this divide is to directly support organizations that hold a vision for animal liberation while working towards a food system based on care for people and the planet, not shareholders' profits. Please read about my vision in my article in Counterpunch, Millions of Tiny Cows to Regenerate the Soil, and become a supporter today.   

Join Seed the Commons on May 14 for our webinar Lessons in Social Change for a Plant-Based Transition. We are excited to welcome two speakers from the leadership team at Animal Think Tank, a UK-based organization that seeded Animal Rebellion and that uses Social Movement Ecology Theory to inform their efforts to build a mass movement for animal freedom.    

Nassim