Dear Friends,

Last winter ICEJ presented a talk by Dr. Aaron Gross on industrial farming and pandemic risk.  This winter, Dr. Gross and his partner Jennifer Channin are part of a coalition advocating that the San Diego Board of Supervisors work with the non-profit Good Food Purchasing Program to create sustainable food policies as part of their climate action.  In Rev. Channin's own words--

"I've been working with Rev. John Millspaugh and our respective nonprofits—Farm Forward and the Better Food Foundation—to ensure that these new city and county climate plans incorporate food policies that address factory farming's impact on the environment, social justice, animal welfare, and our communities. Recently, and to our great joy, San Diego county received a grant of around $1million to switch to more sustainable food procurement practices!

 

However, the impact is in the implementation, and we, along with a coalition of San Diego labor, health, hunger and environmental organizations led by the San Diego Food System Alliance, are advocating that the county achieve this goal by working with a nonprofit called the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP), which we've evaluated to be the most rigorous, most experienced, and most inclusive organization that exists to help cities and counties adopt more ethical food procurement practices. This broad-based coalition has already been working with the GFPP in San Diego for years and succeeded in having the GFPP adopted by the Escondido and Oceanside school districts.

 

Our concern is that, if the county's policy does not explicitly name that it will work with GFPP, there is a risk that the funds will end up going to contractors who are far less rigorous or attentive to all the intersecting food justice issues (health, animal, labor, environment, economy) that we know the GFPP will include. It has been our experience that without a rigorous and multi-stakeholder policy like the GFPP's, the most vulnerable stakeholders tend to be excluded from the benefits of sustainable food policies."

So ICEJ is urging all clergy and leaders of faith organizations to sign this letter before the January 25th deadline when the letter must be submitted.  The Clergy Letter to the County, and a form to add Clergy signatures is here.

Thank you for taking action and making a difference!!

Phil Petrie

Coordinator, ICEJ