A Bread Advocacy Summit in (Cyber) Space

During normal times, travel to Washington for Bread's national advocacy summit is costly and time-consuming. This means that only one or two (or in good years five) people attend the Bread event. But these are not normal times. The advocacy summit is taking place online on June 8-9, which means no need for air travel or lodging arrangements. So more of us can participate.

Lobby Day 2019

Sure, we'll miss interactions with Bread folks from California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New York and other states. That is a bummer! And there won't be a Lobby Day reception at the Rayburn building with delicious ors d'oeuvres and chance to connect directly with congressional representatives from both parties. And that visit to the Smithsonian museums will have to wait until other trips.

However, this year's advocacy summit offers some worthwhile features. Workshops are still on the agenda, including pre-recorded and livestreamed sessions, as well as select opportunities to chat in real-time with workshop moderators and engage in virtual advocacy actions.

For us in New Mexico, we hope to connect with the offices of Reps. Deb Haaland, Xochitl Torres-Small and Ben Ray Lujan and Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich. We's love to have participation from all three New Mexico congressional districts.

Here is the schedule.

Monday, June 8

10 a.m. - 10:40 a.m. (MT)
Opening Message
Introduction of Clergy
Reflection and Prayer

11 a.m. - 11:45 p.m. (MT)
Healing the Divide

12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. (MT)
Advocating Alone Together

1 p.m. - 2 p.m. (MT)
Latino Leaders Convening

5:30 p.m. - 6:28 p.m. (MT)
Pan African Consultation

6:30 p.m. (MT)
Closing Message

Tuesday, June 9

10 a.m. - 10:40 p.m. (MT)
Opening Message
Introduction of Clergy
Reflection and Prayer

11 a.m. - 12:45 a.m. (MT)
Legislative Briefing and Q&A

11:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)
Closing Message/Send Off

12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (MT)
Virtual Congressional Advocacy Action

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. (MT)
Rick Steves Documentary Screening

5:30 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. (MT)
Q&A with Rick Steves

Now that you have the schedule, I urge you to consider participating. As of Friday, May 29, only two of us had registered. Since then, I heard from three others who said they would participate. Would you join us so we can have at least a dozen New Mexicans at the advocacy summit?

 Register Here

Santa Fe Food Activist 'Disinvited' from Arizona Conference

The anti-hunger and community food security folks in New Mexico are quite familiar with author and activist Mark Winne. He speaks his mind, and he challenges us to look at the big picture (and sometimes urges us to examine our preconceived notions). He has spoken out on topics like food deserts, community food systems, class-related disparities in our approach to nutrition, and the incomplete and inadequate approach to addressing hunger in New Mexico.

Given his expertise in community food systems, it was a natural step for our neighbors in Arizona (specifically the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance) to invite Winne to address the Arizona Food Summit. (Sharon Thornberry, rural communities liaison for the Oregon Food Bank and a member of Bread for the World board directors, was also invited to speak at the summit).

A few weeks after the invitation was issued, Winne was disinvited from his speaking engagement. But it wasn't the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance that made this decision. It was the Arizona Department of Agriculture . He tells us why in a post in Mark's Food Policy Blog. Here is an excerpt followed by the link to the full post.

On February 23rd, I received an email from Tim Thomas of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance asking me to speak at the Arizona Food Summit on April 28th. I enthusiastically accepted the invitation and participated two weeks later in a lengthy planning call with other speakers and conference organizers. I even bought an airline ticket for Phoenix.

On April 12th, I got a call from Laura Oxley, a staff member at the Arizona Department of Agriculture, one of the Food Summit’s sponsors. Speaking in a trembling, but practiced bureaucratic voice, Ms. Oxley told me that I was officially disinvited from speaking at the summit. According to her, some of my website’s industrial agriculture and GMO references over the past few years had offended the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, the Arizona Farm Bureau, and her department’s director. She told me that one of the cattleman was a “third-generation rancher, and the department’s director is a fifth-generation rancher…and they think that your presence at the summit would be divisive and prevent some members of Arizona’s agriculture sector from attending.”

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