and so tonight i was going to start off and kind of try to set the table for this evening is going to come up after me and we're only going to speak for about ten minutes and then we're going to break into just a couple of groups and the whole point is this is around the syrian crisis now the latest if you i mean if you if you haven't heard you know and it hasn't gone away just because putin has intervened and you know we've got this opportunity on the table to have chemical weapons inspected and stored and maintained it's not gone away the latest unless you have something even later than this this thing changes moment by moment is as we gather tonight the crisis is still evolving the latest was assad's comment today that his government will put chemical weapons under international supervision within a month after it signs the u n chemical weapons ban but only if the u s stops its policy of threats and so you know it's not it's not a done deal by any means and we can only hope and in my neck of the woods pray that that will find a peaceful solution to set the table i wanted to start with this something i found somewhere on the internet and i wanted to read it simply because it really makes the point that this is no easy this is no easy issue so i'll read it slowly so you can just pick it up i read this and it's just you know my mind began and i realized why i'm a preacher and i'm not a military strategist syria is really a regional power play one russia once a pipeline to maintain its energy dominance in europe and the naval port of tartus five billion dollars in debt to maintain this port not to mention they sell about one point five billion dollars in weapons annually to syria to american leaders want to unseat assad for various reasons weakens iran weakens hezbollah it's a blow to the russian economy etc three all i'd like to change it up a little bit and i'm going to start asking if you're willing to do a quick survey with me everyone game for a quick survey rate so question one how many of you know someone living with ass mo or a respiratory condition just put your hand up if you do so that's about two thirds of the people in the room how many of you know someone living with cancer about the same my final question how many of you know someone living with heart disease ok probably about half so all of those conditions are caused by poor environmental conditions in fact according to the world health organization about half of all ask and respectfully conditions are caused by air pollution about twenty percent of all cancers are caused by environmental conditions and about fifteen percent of all heart disease that is an amazing burden of disease c poor quality environment a huge burden of disease in terms of economic costs and perhaps more importantly in terms of human suffering the tragedy of this is that most of it can be prevented most of it can be prevented by stopping pollution by burning toxic chemicals and by pruett improving the way that we live the social movement that i've been looking out for the last been part of for the last thirty five years and that i've just written about and published a book about is the environmental health movement which is a very loosely constituted network of groups and organizations all trying to protect environmental health whatever type of health problem you're looking at or whatever kind of environmental stress including pesticides that you're looking at and over the years that i've been part of this movement and it more particularly in the last four or five years i've been asking myself the question what makes this movement work what are its strategies why is that success why is it having the successes that it is and i think there are a number of strategies that we can point to that that signify why social movements and why this particular social movement is being as effect is being somewhat effective and certainly the first of those strateg has just been mentioned by ray and that is community organizing the heart of any social movement is community organizing its strength is in community organizing its feet its might is in the communities that it can organize in the feet that it can get on the street in the mobilizing that it can do around issues identified by and in communities not issues identified by people parachuting in from outside as ray said but by the people that live and work there twenty four seven they are the best position to take action on it so community mobilizing is an essential strategy for social change the second strategy that i think we see as a whole mark of many social movements is what i call mind the gap and that is how do we look at what type of we'll do we want to live in politicians don't generally ask that question what type of a society do we want to leave for our children and our grandchildren what is the dream that we have of a better world of a healthy just and sustainable world and then contrast that with the reality of the situation that we have today with the environmental injustice that we have today with the spread of the g m o's that we have today with the wars that we have today there is a huge gap between what we want and where we are and all successful social movements have drawn attention to that gap i think in particular of martin luther king's i have a dream speech which isn't just about a dream it's also about the reality of racism in this country in the one nine hundred sixty s and it's highlighting back gap that social movements makes for successful social movements environmental health movement and other successful movements also draw attention to human rights we've heard talk today already about the environmental justice movement environmental justice movement is really important because it makes the case that every single human being has the right to a healthy environment may seem self evident over sixty countries around the world already enshrined the right to a healthy environment in their constitutions or their national legislation not the u s of course it's been tried twice in this country both times failed civil rights movement use this strategy a lot making rights based arguments is really effective enough in a society that values or purports at least to about to value human rights as our society does another strategy that i would mention is making it personal how can we make this really personal how can we tell our stories and empower ourselves through telling our stories how can we create strategies and actions based on our own individual stories this is the lesson of some of the some of the social change lastly i'd mention confronting economics we need to confront the economic system that we are living in we know that for example the environmentally related diseases cost this country for childhood related environmental diseases for only in children costs this country about eighty billion dollars a year that's a huge amount of money in washington state alone we know i did a study about eight years ago washington state alone the costs of environmentally related diseases run about three point five billion dollars a year we need to be making economic arguments and a ttacking the economic system head on social movements before us have shown so in closing i just want to read one little poem from the end of my book because it's one of my favorites and it shows us that social we have had social movements they've been around for hundreds of years and we are we are literally standing on the shoulders of giants who have gone before us and this is what  county commissioners wrote a letter in support of our request to the washington state department of agriculture they had one hundred eighty days to race on the very last day they did they decided there wasn't enough evidence to render a decision so in august and september our club members have offered their hives for testing washington state university and dr steve shepard are going to be coming to test hives for a new nick a tonight presence they're to use that data to help make their determination but if you want to get involved you need to go to your county commissioners number one and you need to tell them to get on the bus because a bus is leaving the station and then they can also write a letter and if you need a copy of our letter and you need the w s j letter i come up and see me i want you mail it to you happy to do that and credible resource people hear them afterward thank you so much i wish we had more c was invited to help put together this conference which really is flavor locally in washington it's just that we've done a few of these and it's been really wonderful to be a part of the process because we believe in working locally and expanding and the interconnectedness of all these issues that are taking up so much of the airwaves and that we're all concerned about we all have you know o r passionate areas and we have to come together and see the interconnected and the this of it and strategize for better outcomes for us and our children and our planet arko inhabitants with that frame in mind we were also asked to begin to move the conference toward specific action now we don't know what that is i as heck don't but i'm here to see if she sees here to support whatever collectively the body chooses to do so that it won't end up being just another great conference but that we have our march marching out supporters coming out of here and those orders are whatever you we collectively define with that said and in that frame it like to introduce the panelist on less waters less b s let's take action sitting to my immediate left is laurie pine who is the president of the olympic washington state the keepers association and who has been solved in some calls and who i recognize has the big picture and is working very much locally here in olympia correct yeah and olympia washington next to her is katherine kate davies faculty in the center for creative the university seattle who prepared some remarks that she's not going to use because the exciting opportunity to talk more about social activism  and a little bit about the book that you just put out ray lay on sitting next to her is an old partner of mine well i'm old he's much younger but from the central valley of california that i've worked with for a couple of decades when he was a kid from huron and really specific he's going to share with you about collaboration coalition building activism in the little town of huron and expanding out through the silent central valley of california which you know you've read about the grapes of wrath and other places and then finally next to him adam scowl is with food and water watch he's the california campaign director just to share that adam did one of the coolest things that i've appreciated in my professional career when he took over in california and came to because he's also from the central valley from fresno i believe he came over to our shop and sat down with me and did a meet and greet and i was like that's a so cool you know if we all did this with one another we would actually know one another instead of just recognizing voices on conference calls so thank you adam for that so without the sort of the flavor we're going to do is we're going to go big picture global bring it down to local ok and then open it up for questions discussion either inter or intra panel whatever suits you all should nor would you want to start a new whatever you feel comfortable doing you just have to put that on ok i'm the can you hear me ok well thank you i'm i'm really excited about this conference i'm excited about bees i am a beekeeper b and  pollinator advocacy is i think a critical component of what every beekeeper needs to keep in the front of their mind bees right now and other pollinators but specifically honey bees i really had a very critical critical juncture colony death has increased dramatically over the last ten years when colony collapse disease came on line multiple years ago everybody looked for the smoking gun and unfortunately we haven't identified a smoking gun to put it in perspective  honeybees and other pollinators are responsible for one of every three mouthfuls of food that we eat last year there were not enough be available to pollinate the allman crop in california it was the first time it ever happened and typically for large crop pollination and all mines are an interesting case because all mins are exclusively pollinated by honeybees but  shipped from across the country into the orchards cetera to provide pollination services it's very alarming and it's an alarming trend and we need to intervene now it will threaten our food supply it will threaten how we exist and how we view the world if you consider that over eighty percent of floral shrubs spoke out and said we think it's not very hopeful but i would challenge that i think there is always always hope and there are lots and lots of things that we can do with respect to  local advocacy and the things that we can all do individually i do want to share something that our organization and the state beekeeping association are looking at very closely and are very at excuse me very actively involved  and that right now is requesting the washington state department of agriculture to restrict and limit the use of new unit gets annoyed pesticides for a mentally use and and because this is such a hot issue right now and because we are really in the throes of it in our particular club in the olympia beekeepers association and it is statewide it isn't just local used to be that your average colony lost over the winter because the winter is a challenging time for honeybees they are in their hives it's cold they have to rely on the stores that they've put up all summer in order to survive through the winter but our club experience a thirty five percent colony loss and that represented a a a record of frightening proportion it's being repeated all around the country now  the reason that our bees are dying probably not but there's a lot of things about them that we don't know what we do know is that they are a nicotine based chemical and so when a bee in just whether it is through pollen or nectar from a flower it acts on their nervous system essentially they may forget how to forage or find their way home it's really lethal to them it's lethal to the health of the hi these pesticides specifically the new unit gets annoyed they also may be responsible for synergistic effects that we don't even know yet we don't know the degree to which combined with other things and other chemicals what the lasting impacts are so we're very very vocal in in educating people about what they are the other really amazing fact about these chemicals is that in agricultural use there is a set spray rate and these chemicals can be applied via injection via spraying on the crops they can see they can be pulled on the ground in any way they're delivered they spell disaster for b s but in all the chemicals that you can buy over the counter in other words you go into the hardware store or home depot wherever you do your shopping the substances on the shelves first of all are not really clearly labeled in terms of the degree to which the harmful effects can be for these and also the application that's recommended is one hundred twenty times greater than what's applied for agricultural use and consider the average consumer probably doesn't read the label very closely anyway so god only knows what's being sprayed on people's rosebushes and on their other plants and by the same token in garden centers i mean many garden centers use chemicals to keep the plants that they're selling to the public healthy and insect free so what can we do i could talk forever about this topic but obviously i won't ask questions i mean we we are so connected to what happens to the honeybee these chemicals can get in the water supply they have long term effects we don't know how long the effects last the american bird conservancy just came out with a report on and birds and they have a fabulous researcher put this body of work together for them they found that one single grain of corn that's coated with these pesticide is that is enough to kill a songbird a small songbird and a small grain of wheat is also extremely lethal to these birds so imagine what the effects are to these tiny little insects that literally work themselves to death pollinating and producing honey they're the only insect that makes food for us what can we do a my ok wrap it up so the things that we can do number one ask questions ask questions when you go to a garden center and you go to buy plants ask them do you spray your plants here with anything that's harmful to pollinators ask your local hardware store your home depot anybody that carries pesticides and sprays there's always an alternative always ask them to please not carry these toxic substances there's enough science now that even though it's not as i said before the smoking gun it isn't the single thing that we can point in saying yes these pesticides are devastating rbs they are producing very lethal effects on them and they did something that we can take action on and remove it and and take that stress that stressor off to be populations talk to people tell them what you know tell them about organic food tell them about non g m o food you don't need to be a beekeeper to help but be aware and talk to other people about it they're critical they're part of the web of life and what happens to them ultimately really is what happens to us so thank you simon ok thank you for having me thank you for everybody who's working to make this happen i am with an organization and she sadly couldn't make it today she's been on touring over one hundred fifty cities across the country trying to help spur this growing food movement into political activity which has come straight here to washington with your well because there's a very big connection so for those of you who don't know food and water watch for a national public interest consumer advocacy group we're headquarters in d c we have got about fifteen field offices around the country closest one is one in portland and i'm out of our bay area office our state campaign direct their food and water watch is heavily invested and believes in organizing in with community groups and building coalitions in the field make change the policy change we are trained as community organizers to build change from the outside on the field pushing on the inside not from lobbying within because that's pretty much i think as we've all figured out the only way to make change the kind of change that we want to see in the food system and in other areas nobody's going to take care of a problem for us a couple thoughts about the food system and food awfully went on his book which i highly recommend when i was talking about consolidation of the food system which of course we are very familiar with with monsanto in the seed system and she chronicles this to the retail system w wal mart now where wal mart is the largest food retailer in the country one out of every three of our food dollars is now being spent at wal mart and it is growing for grocery retail companies control about fifty percent of all food retail sales in the country and this consolidation has forced a consolidation in the farming system where it is harder and harder for smaller and mid size farmers to make a living and as a result we've lost a lot of at the dairy industry just according to the national family farm coalition we had about two hundred thousand berries in this country and that's now down to fifty five thousand varies across the country  so the food system the consolidation of the food system is directly resulting in bigger environmental problems and there's almost always every time a water link and that isn't and of course  as we all know the pesticides the massive fertilizer use is also running off into our waterways it's going out into the ocean creating solidification and killing off a lot of the ecosystem and this is a big problem in our california waterways going right out into the san francisco bay delta where our last wild salmon run yeah we still have one in california is barely hanging on and is connected up the oregon to the washington coast so this is a big fight along with the big threats the water from the consolidation the food system we're seeing that in the consolidation of the energy system of food and water watch is spending a lot of time fighting fracking hydraulic fracturing one thing you probably know about fracking is that it uses a lot of water wealth and well being of both the young and the elderly and the reduction of economic opportunity i could list many more devastating effects in the new jim crow also reaches into every other low income community of color these communities must be the seed beds of a reimagined and recreated struggle for just emanating from the spiritual understanding of the primordial interdependence of all life on the planet growing equity from the ground to give a different meaning to the notion of stand your ground in the second half of the twentieth century as industrial capitalism consolidated its new global formation and increasingly move jobs abroad and abandon the cities that had built a house low wage workers immigrants and people of color the discarded portions of our city's blight vast neighborhoods and this land must be reclaimed and repurposed under the leadership of the very people who have been cast at the bottom of the social hierarchy and made to suffer the consequences of exploitation systems when we stand our ground and understand our connection to the ground of existence to our relationship with every being and every thing then we can begin to craft a strategic long term project that puts health at the forefront that puts the creation of sustainable an equitable institutions in ecosystems at the forefront of what we do this takes extra work to resist and dismantle unsustainable inequitable food social economic and political systems it also takes internal work to dismantle the racism sexism classism and other ideologies poisoning our knowledge our feelings the deepest reaches of our being growing equity from the ground and spiritually attuned stewards this new program will build on the forty five years of experience of the u c santa cruz organic gardening and farming apprenticeship program with its fifteen hundred graduates who have done so much to create the movement reflected in the organization's represented at this conference you will build on the experience of more than a dozen oakland community organizations that are engaged in the struggle for food and environmental it will build on the spiritual energies of the oakland religious community and it will build on the vibrancy of the urban youth who have refused to be defeated by the multiple systems that have tried to starve them into unconscious who hunger for an opportunity to live the fulfilling lives that they imagine for themselves growing equity from the ground up well experiment in building an alternative food system that is both ecologically sustainable and economically viable community empowerment must be willing to land reclamation and the restoration of fertility sustainable organic food production must be linked to new distribution networks and the formation of new eating habits and healthy lifestyle as healthy communities will provide the organizing foundation for transforming the injustices that have created the terrible fed by the struggle for justice and this is the ground from which we build each of us at every moment is actually creating history and culture even while history and culture create us all of us possess a constant power to transform ourselves and the world we are free to choose one way of life or another when we harness the power of our freedom and unified action and sustain that action over the long haul anything that's possible this is not just a matter of faith it's a matter of fact and on that faith and that fact growing equity from the ground  stands its ground and i thank you again for listening to me and i look forward to the continuing conversation the conference thank you