NLG Food Justice Guidelines

At the April 2015 National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, the NEC appointed a subcommittee to develop food justice guidelines for the national Law for the People Convention to address food justice issues intersectionally. The subcommittee created the guidelines below and were approved by the Guild’s Executive Council (EC). These guidelines currently only pertain to the National Convention, but local chapters are also encouraged to adopt them or use them as a guide.
See the guidelines below or Download as PDF. The article Intersectionality and Amimals by the founder of VINE Sanctuary, pattrice jones, is available here. Resources pertaining to veganism and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel are linked to at the bottom of the page.
NLG Food Justice Guidelines
Whereas the Guild recognizes the personal is political, and that each time we sit down to eat, we make not solely a personal choice, but also a political one;
Whereas food justice includes labor rights, racial justice, environmental issues, sustainability, affordable access to healthy food as a right and not a privilege, and animal liberation;
Whereas we as the Guild recognize and combat injustice in all its forms, regardless of the power or lack of power of those subjugated,
Whereas the Guild strives to be at the forefront of radical social justice and stand in solidarity with forward thinking social justice movements,
Whereas the Guild stands in solidarity with those facing violence and repression worldwide: the undocumented, the incarcerated, communities of color, the occupied, political dissidents, and those whose bodies are treated merely as reproductive machines, fabric, entertainment, food, and for scientific torture/ experimentation;
Whereas we have called for divestment from Israel both in 2004 and 2007 and boycott in 2007 based on Israel’s gross human rights violations until Israel complies with international law,Whereas the 2007 Boycott and Divest Resolution calls for and supports a boycott of Israeli goods (which would include Israeli food products produced in Israel),

Whereas the Guild has begun to recognize and include animals and animal rights within our larger anti-oppression and anti-violence framework,
In light of the resolutions already passed regarding divestment from Israel, the Guild expands the NLG’s food justice policy to be more just and consider animals, workers and the environment, the Guild recommits itself to anti-oppression and anti-violence by establishing the following guidelines:
That the food served at all of our National Conventions be BDS compliant and free of Israeli products including Israeli food products;
That all the food served at all of our National Conventions be entirely vegan, free of any animal products such as meat, dairy, including eggs and other animal byproducts;
Encouraging local chapters to apply these guidelines;
Encouraging the National Conventions strive to use locally sourced, organic food when possible and to purchase from businesses owned or run by marginalized communities and which have good labor practices;
Offering the Palestine Subcommittee, Animal Rights Activism Committee, and The United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) as sources of guidance and support for those organizing the National Conventions to help them comply with these guidelines should such help be necessary.
RESOURCES
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