Between canada and the European Union which gives corporations from the other countries the right to sue your government if they dont like what youre doing. And so these companies if ttip is signed between europe and the United States, any municipality in the United States that privatizes their water, well, they have a very hard time changing their minds because these companies can sue for compensation. Its called investor state. So anyone who wants to learn more about that, please, please go to Public Citizen trade campaign. And i have a whole bunch of stuff in my book on the implications of these trade agreements on the right to go back to a public system once its been privatized. So its another ongoing struggle. And i dont have a crystal ball to see where it will come out, but common sense tells people its better to keep democratic control. Water is needed for life, we better keep democratic control of it at all times. And well make this the last question. Good evening. Im wondering if you have any particular vision of how american policymakers can begin to tackle the problem with Meat Consumption in the United States . Meat consumption, yeah, is that what you asked . Yeah. Well, i mean, as you know meat is very water intensive. As well the way we intend to produce meat in north america is more and more in these factory far farms, these intensive livestock operations that in turn hurt the animals because its terrible treatment in turn destroy massive amounts of water. Again, i would send you to food and water watch. Food and water watch has a wonderful project, Wonderful Campaign on farming. I mean, people will choose or not choose to eat meat. And those are personal decisions. But on how these farms are run and the destruction that theyre doing both to animals and to local water. But again, the more we can learn about what were eating and the impact on nature, i think the more we can think through beyond just that looks good and that looks good. Where did it come from . And those questions i was talking about, what is the impact on water . When we start asking that question, i think were going to have some different answers in our personal lives. Okay. Please join me in thanking maude barlow again. [ applause ] tonight on American History tv, western history. At 8 00 p. M. Mexican california in the early 19th century. A look at the history of california during the 19th century and the role of wealthy businessm businessman, the governor of the california region while it was under mexican rule. Just before 9 25 p. M. The colonial west on lectures in history. William and mary professor paul map talks about the interactions between european colonial powers and native american tribes on the great plains in the 1700s. And at 10 35 p. M. Rocky Mountain National park. On january 26th, 1915, president Woodrow Wilson signed the rocky Mountain National park act designating an area which 100 years later spans 415 square miles in North Central colorado. Author James Pickering discusses enis mills and his involvement and its establishment. The cspan cities tour visits literary and Historic Sites across the nation to hear from local historians, authors and civic leaders. Every other weekend on cspan 2s book tv and American History tv on cspan 3. And this month with congress on its summer recess, the cities tour is on cspan each day at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Today is our second day in madison, wisconsin, where well look at the literary life of the state capitol. Two food justice advocates discuss the concept of access to healthy food as a basic human right in the u. S. And around the world. Theyre part of a conversation sponsored by harvard yufrlts Food Law Society and the food literacy project. Hi everyone. Just to start off, if you have a cell phone on you, would you please turn it off . We would really appreciate it. So as i hope you are all aware this is one of our keynote talks. The title of the talk is the human right to food. And we have two wonderful, amazing speakers with us today. So the first person is molly anderson. Shes currently at the college of the atlantic at the partridge chair. She teaches about hunger, Food Security and Food Sovereignty, system dynamics, food power and notably food justice. She anticipates moving to Middlebury College in vermont this summer where shell be starting a food studies program. She is especially interested in how communities can achieve the right to food and nutrition, sustainability metrics and how industrialized countries will move to a post petroleum food system. She is part of the International Panel of experts on Sustainable Food systems organized by olvier, the former u. N. Special rap toir to the right of food. He also prepared a film for the conference which well be showing tomorrow as part of the keynote talk and hopefully have it up online for all of you. We are also joined by Frances Moore lappe. She is the author and coauthor of 18 books including the 3 million copy diet for a small planet. She was named by gourmet magazine as one of the 25 people whose work has changed the way america eats. Her most recent work, ecomind, changing the way we think to create the world we want, won a silver medal from the independent Publisher Book awards. She is the cofounder of three organizations including oaklandbased think tank food first and the Small Planet Institute which she leads with her daughter anna. Frances and her daughter have also cofounded the Small Planet Fund which channels resources to democratic social movements worldwide. So please join me in welcoming both of our speakers and well get started with molly anderson. [ applause ] thank you. And good afternoon to all of you. Its a real honor to copresent with frankie. I see her as one of the pioneers of food justice. She brought our attention a long time ago to ways that policies and eating patterns in this country are effecting the prospects for justice of people in poor countries. And what we can learn from people in other countries. So im delighted to be here. I want to start with a few observations about why food justice seems to be rising to the fore right now. Why its on so many peoples minds. I think first is the growing awareness of racism in this country. Ferguson was certainly a flashpoint for that. But with ferguson came the realization for many of us that black youth were being massacred by state forces with virtual impunity. This had been going on for a long time. Continuing an ugly legacy of lynching in this country. I think food justice also is benefitting from the attention to global inequity and access to resources. At this point 80 people have the same wealth as the bottom 3. 5 billion in the world. In manyin carnations around the world has been raising awareness about the problems of global inequity. And doing a very good job. I think that the attention to food justice also reflects the maturation of efforts in this country to address multiple problems with food systems. And to a small extent its related to a global upsurge in demands for Food Sovereignty. Ill come back to Food Sovereignty at the end of my talk. I want to first talk about what do i mean by maturation of the conversation. How has the conversation about food justice changed over the last few decades . When i worked here in the boston area, local food was exploding on to the national scene. And many people saw localism and direct marketing, thats farmers markets, csas, they really saw it as a pathway to justice. Because finally farmers would stand a better chance of Getting Better economic returns. And customers would be reconnected with farmers. The conversation moved onto healthy food as people realized that local food isnt particularly accessible to many low Income Customers due to its cost and its availability. The interest in local food was based on the desire to improve the well being of low Income Customers. And i think it was it is quite well intentioned, but sometimes goes astray. From what those low Income Customers really want and need. Its a kind of color blind policy. Hardly anybody in the United States is eating enough fresh fruits and vegetables. Then people said wait a minute, its not just healthy food, its affordable food, green food, humane food, food raised with humane practices. And we saw the conversation moving onto real food and good food. And i think there will be a presentation that im not sure if anima is here yet, but talking about real food tomorrow. Then we started paying more systematic attention to the barriers and the underlying causes of food system problems. And these are some of the reports that were coming out in this time period over the last decade. We were looking at the root causes, not just the symptoms like lack of access to healthy food. And this shifted the conversation into issues of food power, the concentration of wealth and power in the food system nationally and why corporations have increasing control over what we eat as well as how they have greater control over let me try to escape from that, more control over the International Food system as well. And were seeing this playing out in free trade agreements now. With strands from Food Sovereignty, the discussion now i think is moving into issues of food governance, food democracy and who decides what people eat. This is a recent publication from the good people at the institute for agriculture and trade policy on deepening food democracy. So going back to my title, how is food justice connected with the right to food . And what does food justice really require of us . All of us sitting here. As i see it, food justice requires first of all attention to the history of structural violence and oppression in our country. These are the words of policy link. Slavery of africanamericans and native americans, the theft of land and water for native americans a long and sorted history of Racial Discrimination that continues to play out in substandard wages and working conditions for people of color. Thats the reality of our food system now. Current food systems have been shaped by historical practices and policies that systemically oppressed communities of color. Doing food justice also requires Greater Transparency about economic and social consequences of food system practices. Whos getting richer from these practices . Whos getting poorer . This goes back to those 80 people who will fit on one bus. And the 80 people include people who are making their money from food inputs and the sale of food. It also requires accountability to those who have not been well served by our food system. This accountability is demonstrated by first constant reflection and learning about the root causes of food injustice. Second, internal work by white people to understand the many ways in which we may be benefitting from oppression and pain and continuing to ignore those who are not well served in the food system. Third, it requires active work to ensure the right to food for everyone, especially those who are vulnerable and politically marginalized. Fourth, it means making opportunities for meaningful voice and engagement by those who havent been heard whove bourn the most costs of the food system and havent received full benefits. And finally it requires partnerships of mutuality and solidarity with low income communities and communities of color. Im not talking about Charitable Services or providing what we think they want. Im talking about engagement to truly learn from impoverished communities. And communities of color. And to support them. In 2008 i tried to envision an alternative to Market Based Solutions which seemed to be sucking all the air out of the room at that time and talk about food system alternatives. And to some extent continue to do so. These Market Based Solutions included direct marketing but also ecolabels, fair trade and new ways to give consumers even more choice so that they could, quote unquote, vote with their forks. It seemed obvious to me that the market was never going to deliver justice. As obvious as the local foods werent necessarily environmentally beneficial or fair. So i wrote a paper on rights based food systems. The basic idea of rights based food systems is that our Current System violates human rights on every front. Farmers, workers, citizens, hungry people. And food system reform means a transformation to the conditions under which all human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. Those of you who study human rights will recognize this language. Of course the rights of animals and the rights of nature are already being violated. But there isnt as clear an agreement about what these rights are. Human rights in contrast are agreed upon International Goals ever since 1948 and the universal declaration on human rights. Which our first lady at the time, eleanor roosevelt, was instrumental in helping to craft. Human rights are jus tishsable. For example, cases have been brought to National Courts to protect the right to food successfully. Human rights are indivisible. It seemed to me that rights based food systems might have the potential to be a unifying goal across different Food Movements, to bridge groups fighting each other, that were working in isolation for their own independent goals often fighting with each other for funding and for legislative attention. I wanted them to be working together better. But rights based food systems didnt get much traction in 2008. I have to say it was briefly considered revised around this concept, but otherwise it didnt even seem to ripple the water. Which got me thinking about why not . The first thing that i went to is the lack of comprehension in the United States of economic, social and cultural rights. The United States is horribly isolated from other countries in its failure to ratify the covenant on economic, social and cultural rights and the nine eight other major human rights treaties and conventions. This goes back to 1966 and the cold war when two covenants on human rights were developed. And the United States took the position that economic, social and cultural rights are best met by the market. The United States wanted to distinguish itself from the socialist countries over there. We endure civil and political rights, but not economic, social and cultural rights, which reflected i think a fundamental misunderstanding of the inseparability of human rights. You cant just cherry pick human rights. Weve retained this perspective despite abundant evidence that the market does not work in this way to provide these kinds of rights. It has to be directed by and reigned in by Public Policies. And unlike most other countries in the world, we lack basic Public Policies to ensure economic, social and cultural rights. For those of you in the back this map is showing the countries that have endorsed this covenant and the countries that havent. And youll see that the United States, bright blue, is the only industrialized country that has failed to ratify the covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. In terms of food, the United States still uses a charitable approach to address Food Insecurity. Primarily federal assistance programs, which are a wonderful stopgap, but these are doled out at the whim of congress. And congress is pretty mean spirited right now. Ngos have pioneered programs to increase access to food that range from bounty bucks in boston or other voucher systems that low income people can use in farmers markets to get fresh food, to Better School food options, to healthy food prescriptions underwritten by Health Insurance plans. Recently there seems to be a lot of interest in redirecting food that would otherwise be wasted on to the plates of low income people. These are decent programs. They are all well intentioned but this is not a right the based approach. Poor people need and want exactly the same food that rich people want. They really dont want our food waste. Poor children in particular [ applause ] they need guaranteed access to healthy food in order to grow into healthy adults. Yet according to the latest usda data thats available, this 2013, one in 12 children in the United States lives in a food insecure household that does not have guaranteed access to healthy food at all times. In half of these households children as well as adults are food insecure. Theyre going without the food they need. While local programs can definitely improve access to healthy food for limited populations, they will not result they will never result in the elimination of hunger and Food Insecurity. Other countries that have recognized the right to food at the