OSLO & LILLEHAMMER, NORWAY - DAY 9 - 11

OK, quick quiz on the defining characteristic of agriculture in the 21st century:

What do this John Deere tractor, pictured here on a family farm in Lillehammer, Norway,...

... and the transnational fast-food giant, Burger King, pictured here in Oslo, Norway, behind two members of the CIW delegation, have in common?

Answer: They are both leading examples of the handful of multi-billion dollar corporations gripping agricultural producers in a cost/price squeeze -- cost, in the case of John Deere, price in the case of Burger King -- and causing the farm crisis that is being felt everywhere in the world today, from the factory farms of Florida to the family farms of far away Norway.

The map above indicates the location of all the farms in Norway. According to Norway's leading family farm organization, 10-15 pins disappear from that map every day.

An excellent analysis of the market dynamics at work in agriculture today, entitled "The Farm Crisis and Corporate Power," (available at the Agribusiness Accountability Initiative website) puts it this way:

" Firms wielding immense market power squeeze farmers from both sides... This extreme concentration of market power enables these firms to extract extremely high profits. This is especially true when they transact with players several orders of magnitude smaller, such as farmers... The farm crisis is caused by these firms using their market power to take an ever larger share of the (retail food) dollar and, thus, choke off the flow of money to farmers... There is no shortage of money in the agrifood system, there is merely a maldistribution of money."

The painting on the wall at the Norwegian Farmers' Union offices, where the CIW delegation met with representatives of the Union and of the smaller Norwegian Farmers' Organization, says the same thing even more graphically: entitled, "Farmer's Funeral," the painting depicts corporate leaders outside a glass skyscraper playing golf over a family farmer's grave.

The domination of the modern agrifood industry by a relatively small number of multi-national corporations has brought small farmers and farmworkers together. This growing cooperation to address the common cause of their impoverishment was seen not only in the successful Taco Bell Boycott -- where family farmers marched, fasted, and protested with farmworkers across the US to redistribute a small portion of the money in the food industry to tomato pickers in Florida -- but in the CIW's current visit to Europe, where the final days of the delegation's stay were spent in large part building the foundations of a trans-Atlantic alliance of farmers, farmworkers, and other allied organizations dedicated to greater economic justice in the food industry.

If the success of the Taco Bell Boycott was any indication, this growing alliance will bring about a changing of the guard in the food industry in the years ahead... "changing of the guard".... that's a picture of the traditional changing of the guard in Oslo... that's, uh, something of a pun... OK, we liked the picture and couldn't figure out how else to put it in the report...

In any event... The CIW spent the rest of the morning with organizations housed at the Human Rights House in the center of Oslo. where the delegation discussed the role that responsible investment can play in rectifying human rights violations in different parts of the world.

The Oslo Human Rights House was established in 1989. It currently houses eight member organizations that work with various forms of human rights monitoring, reporting and advocacy, both nationally and internationally. It is part of a network of such houses throughout the world.

The day ended with a meeting at the Norwegian Development Fund, an organization devoted to a world free from hunger and poverty based on a sustainable environment. The Development Fund was excited by the prospect of joining the Campaign for Fair Food and promised to spread word of the campaign through its budding youth group.

The delegation began the next day in Oslo with two more meetings with important new allies, here with Norwegian Church Aid and the Ethical Trading Initiative, discussing ways their organizations could help advance the goals of the Campaign for Fair Food...

... and here, standing at the foot of a monument to Norway's workers, with a representative of Norway's central labor federation, the LO. Fully 55% of Norway's workers are unionized.

There the delegation met with a local farmer whose farm produces garden vegetables, dairy, grass, and wood. It has been in the family since 1620!
His hat commemorates the march from Norway to Geneva undertaken this spring by farmers to protest the WTO.

Next up: Oslo, Dublin, and the European Tour's a wrap!

Scroll down for the rest of the Daily Reports from the CIW's 2005 European Tour!

AMSTERDAM & OSLO - DAY 6 - 8

Oslo, Norway, home to Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (seen here in its street graffiti form while the whereabouts of the original remain unknown after its theft from the Munch Museum in Oslo last year), is also home to the CIW delegation for the next few days, as the 2005 European Tour reaches its final stop.

And on its first day in Oslo, the delegation was invited to address the audience at the "Food, Agriculture, and Trade Conference," a
gathering of European small farmers, peasant organizations from the Global South (including our old friends from the Landless Peasant Movement of Brazil, the MST), unions, and other allied organizations.

There were some heavy hitters at the conference from the world of small farmers fighting for a more equitable food industry, including Jose Bove of France (famous for his dismantling of a fast-food restaurant that will remain unamed... to protest unchecked globalization and to demand support for farmers).

... why the CIW, of course, represented at the conference by Lucas Benitez...

... whose speech drew enthusiastic applause from the audience of more than 200.

Earlier in the morning, the CIW delegation met with officials from the Norwegian Petroleum Fund, the world's largest pension fund, to discuss ethical concerns involved in food industry investments, given the reality that agricultural production in the US takes place in an environment of systematic violation of several fundamental human rights, including the right to organize and collectively bargain and the right to overtime (both rights are explicitly denied farmworkers under US law). Talks with the Fund will continue during the rest of the delegation's stay in Oslo.

Before reaching Norway, the delegation spent some time in Amsterdam, home of picturesque canals...

... the famous floating flower market...

... and, yes, of course, fast-food restaurants, even right there hovering just over the flower market, lest anyone have a craving for a hamburger while otherwise lost in the natural beauty of one of Amsterdam's most treasured destinations.

... thanks to the insightful questions of the participants whose on-the-ground experience in several fields -- including the areas of agriculture, organizing, and immigration issues -- helped shape one of the most exciting exchanges the delegation experienced during the entire two-week tour. Without a doubt, the evening gave rise to a number of connections that will continue to bear fruit well into the months and years ahead.

Next - More from Oslo, and an update from Dublin, Ireland, where members of the delegation will attend an international conference on human rights!

FRANCE - DAY 4 & 5

Ahhh, France... Romantic land of revolution... "Liberty, Equality, and... a Supersized McDonald's Iced Tea?"

Hold on a minute, is that Ronald McDonald smiling down from a billboard in the otherwise postcard perfect countryside of Southern France? Seems that the famous French national pride has made a little room for the smiling hamburger pitchman and his big ol' size 19 American clown shoes...

... a lot of room, in fact.

Of all the countries in Europe, France enjoys (if that's the correct word...) the highest penetration of McDonald's...

... and not just McDonald's. It seems that our Gallic cousins have developed quite the taste for fast-food these days.

Indeed, France, of all countries, has itself become something of a fast-food nation.

DAY 1 & 2 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

(SCROLL DOWN FOR DAY 3 & 4)

Ahhh, Europe... Romantic winding alleyways down timeless cobblestoned streets...

... breathtaking cityscapes...

... and the birthplace of the Fair Trade Movement.

Yes, from the British abolitionists of the 19th Century -- men and women like Thomas Foxwell Buxton (above), a leader in the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that ended slavery in Britain and its colonies -- who equated consuming sugar to murder, as it was produced by slaves, and employed highly successful boycotts to win their campaign (hmmmm, slavery in the supply chain, successful boycotts... sounds oddly familiar...)...

... to the creation of the Max Havelaar label (above) in 1988 in the Netherlands, certifying coffee grown by cooperatives in Oaxaca, Mexico, as officially "Fair Trade Coffee" for the first time, the citizens of Europe have pioneered efforts to address market imbalances and improve conditions for farmers and farmworkers suffering the effects of globalization.

DAY 3 & 4 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Agriculture in Immokalee is dominated by corporations -- corporations like WalMart that use their overwhelming market power to demand the lowest possible prices for the produce they buy, corporations like Monsanto that use their overwheling market power to demand the highest prices possible for the products they sell for agricultural production (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.), and corporations like the vegetable farms in Immokalee that have replaced family farmers and manage to survive this price/cost squeeze only by exploiting their workers within an inch of their lives.

There are alternatives, of course. On Day 3, the CIW delegation visited a farm cooperative just ten miles from Geneva, named "Affaire Tournereve" (roughly translated as "Sunflower Dream Affair"...), that, as the sign reads, is a collaboration of "Town and country working together to reinvent an agriculture that is inspired by our dreams."

But more on that later. First, Day 3 began with a series of meetings at the International Labor Organization (ILO), which functions as a sort of United Nations for labor issues, and is charged with monitoring and advocating for the respect of fundamental labor rights across the globe.

The delegation met with representatives from several branches of the ILO, including the Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV), the Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, the Programme on Promoting the International Labour Standards Department (NORMES), the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (DECLARATION), and the International Migration Programme. Once we made our way through all the formal titles and department names... the delegation got down to talking about the matter at hand -- protecting the fundamental human rights of farmworkers, workers who are excluded from the right to organize even under US law.

In ILO speak, the CIW delegation and the various ILO representatives enjoyed a frank and wide-ranging discussion and the CIW delegation left the meetings feeling cautiously optimistic about the possibility of future collaborations...

... or, in other words, we met them, they met us, and it seems like we might be able to work together to defend workers' rights in Immokalee one day.

As it made its way out of the ILO, the CIW delegation came upon these signs posted throughout the building advertising an employers' conference on social responsibility. We asked... none of the participants was from the fast-food industry.

Following nearly half a day of navigating the byzantine halls and bureaus of the ILO, we returned to more familiar ground, visiting friends at the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF). We discussed plans for solidarity wtihin the IUF's extenisve network of affiliated unions and allied organizations with the Campaign for Fair Food and organizing strategies within a increasingly global food industry. In short, we will be in much closer contact with the IUF in the years to come.

... to visit the bi-seasonal distribution point for a new agriculture/consumer initiative in Switzerland. Here you see bags of products fresh from the local contryside produced by local peasants ready to go directly into the hands of local population.

Here the delegation, with one of our kind and generous Swiss hosts, learns how the program in just one year has grown from 1 to 10 producers and from a handful to 1,200 consumers. The market for fair food in Switzerland is clearly booming.

Not only did the delegation hear about the production and distribution system, but also got to taste the delicious fare...

... and was sent home heavily laden with the fruit of this fine cooperative's labor. We doubt the apples and pears will make it back to Immokalee.

On its last morning in Geneva, the CIW delegation met with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), whose director is also the Secretary of the Workers' Group of the ILO, and again with Monique Cloutier of the ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV).

Immokalee is one of the poorest towns in the United States. Workers in Immokalee are taking on one of the richest industries in the world, the $120 billion fast-food industry. As the Campaign for Fair Food gathers steam in Europe, it will need to count on solid allies in this distant land to help spread the word and keep the momentum growing for fundamental change in the food industry. If our meeting on the last morning in Geneva with the fine people at the ICFTU is any indication,fast-food industry leaders might want to start thinking sooner, rather than later, about how they can make fast-food FAIR food, too.

Hey, that's a cute baby...