Newsletter November 2011 - Friends of the Earth Europe

Newsletter November 2011

Young Friends of the Earth Europe is a grassroots network of young people and youth organisations in Europe, who are also part of the Friends of the Earth International network. If you want to find out if there’s a group or active young people in your country, or how you can get involved, please get in touch! In September YFoEE has launched a brand sparkly new facebook page. Please join and advertise it your friends and fellow YFoE's to keep up with what we're doing! YFoEE on facebook https://www.facebook.com/YoungFoEE YFoEE website http://www.foeeurope.org/youngfoee/index.htmYFoEE YFoEE Photo Gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngfoee YFoEE movies on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/YFriendsOfTheEarth

Contents:

News from YFoEE 24 Upcoming YFoEE Activities 4 YFoEE at International Events 5 News from Member Groups 69 OpiniON 1011 YFoEE Network Members 12 Calendar 13

2 Young Friends of the Earth Europe: Newsletter November 2011 2

News from YFoEE

This years summer camp took place in the little town of Ónod in north west Hungary, hosted by our Young FoE group in Hungary. 50 people from the YFoEE network came representing 20 different countries and spent five days together learning and sharing the campaigning work we all do, and getting some great ideas, plans and skills for the campaigns YFoEE will be running in the near fu-ture. Being in Ónod this year was particularly special. It's a village that over recent years has experi-enced devastating floods and increasingly hot summers, making the effects of climate change well known to the local community. We had the great pleasure to be hosted and looked after by the local community and in particular the local young people and local mayor, who joined many of our sessions and took part in a joint intercul-tural evening between YFoEE and Ónod. We hope to have struck up a long and lasting friendship be-tween Friends of the Earth and Ónod!

Summer Camp 2011

Photos and a movie from the summer camp can be found from the Young FoEE website which gives you an impression of the activities we did, the people who came and the fun that we had! Visit: http://www.foeeurope.org/youngfoee/

Aleksandra Cisek (27), environmental biologist (working on environmental education), Polish Ecological Club, branch in świętokrzyskie region (Poland) Was it worth coming to YFoEE summer camp 2011 and why? Of course it was worth to participate in YFoEE summer camp 2011 for many reasons, for me mainly: what I learned, people whom I met and great atmosphere. Atmosphere was a big merit of local peo-ple, who showed us they care and that we are very welcome in Ónod. This was great feeling, I hope they also felt like that :)

Martina Domenová, (22), student, Priatelia Zeme – CEPA (Slovakia)

What were three best things for you at YFoEE summer camp 2011? Inspiration, new friendships, fun! So many ideas packed into just 6 days, so much to

take away with me, think about and put into action. Fantastic camp! Truly moti-

Daniels Truksans (25), environmental education programme coordinator at FoE Latvia (Latvia) Why did you decide to come to YFoEE summer camp 2011? I joined the camp because I wanted to know more about YFoEE and their actions. Summer camp was a great place to learn about organization, youth groups in Europe, exchange experience, get new skills and knowledge for my activities in Latvia. Of course I wanted to met nice people all around of Europe. I can truly say: "All my expectations came true!"

>>> Photo: Participants at the Summer Camp 2011

3

Young Friends of the Earth Europe: Newsletter November 2011

Update: Steering Group and Working Groups

‘One Cent’ actions all over Europe, August October 2011

One cent alone is not very much. But if thousands of cents are transferred to the account of your national treasury it becomes a powerful sign of protest. Each cent has to be properly managed and cannot just be ignored. That turns the account statement of your government into a long petition for a different climate policy.

Europe-wide young people demand that their government take responsibility for the coming generations. If we take action now we strengthen our economy in a meaningful way, create new jobs and save billions of Euros in the fu-ture.

YFoEE, the United Kingdom Youth Climate Coalition and BUNDjugend (YFoE Germany) started the “Push Europe” campaign to take action and lobby our politicians. To-gether we are connecting young people and organisations across Europe and form a strong Youth Climate Move-ment. We want the EU to invest into climate action in-stead of letting young people pay for the effects of global warming in 20 or 30 years.

Therefore we have been asking young people all around Europe to transfer 1 Cent to their national government. This is a sign for our concern about the effects and costs that we will endure in the future if we don't agree on am-bitious climate targets NOW. We consider this as a down payment into a sustainable low-carbon future.

By Leonie Tuitjer, BUNDjugend (YFoE Germany)

Several countries participate in the campaign so far: UK, Bel-gium, Ireland, Netherlands, Aus-tria, Slovakia, Poland, Denmark, Germany.

After only two weeks of cam-paigning in the Netherlands the Environmental minister tweet-ted that he has already received 57 cents.

In Austria the Global 2000 group has planned a "media-action" for the end of Septem-ber when they will produce a giant earth ball and go an the streets asking people to glue their cents to its surface.

Take part in the Push Europe campaign. Transfer a cent, involve your friends, organise an action! Take your cent on a trip around the most important, recognisable or symbolic places, take a picture and then share the ex-perience with everyone by posting it to your facebook profile as well as uploading it to the Push Europe wall. One symbolic cent to show our politicians that we won't wait till we have to pay for the consequences of climate change. One cent for a climatefriendly future. More info: http://www.pusheurope.eu

Update: Push Europe Campaign

YFoEE Steering Group members met face to face at the end of September in Belgium for the first time since their elec-tion in March 2011. We had three intensive days of discus-sions on topics such as how we would organize the upcom-ing Durban in Brussels event and our training event in Den-mark (see page 4), how we could improve the Steering Groups internal work and online meetings, as well as the next steps before the AGM in 2012 in Switzerland.

We stayed in a lovely Belgian working farm, and were kindly shown how the cows are milked using modern techniques. Also, we would like to say a big thank you to Andy Ver-maut from FoE Flanders for his amazing help in helping to organize the meeting!

How YFoEE Working Groups are doing since March? Climate Justice: Have been working on Push Europe campaign, planning Durban in Brussels activities and preparing for COP17 in Durban. Food & Agriculture: So far, the team has worked on creating a Manifesto, the YFoEE network’s perspective on sustain-able food and agriculture, as well as attended the NYELENI forum (see report, page 5). Communications: Have been working on the newsletters to share information about the YFoEE network. As well as this, we have been working on promoting Crabgrass, the still in development webpage and facebook (check it www.facebook.com/YoungFoEE).

There is much more coming from the working groups, so check http://www.youngfoee.org/!

4 Young Friends of the Earth Europe: Newsletter November 2011 4

Marika Fiedler, YFoE Germany, YFoEE Climate Justice Working Group Youth Convergence on Climate Justice, Brussels, Belgium 210 December 2011

Last year in December, during the 16th UN climate con-ference in Cancun, youth from all over Europe met during the two weeks in Brussels for the climate justice conver-gence Cancun in Brussels. We followed the negotiations, learnt and discussed about the different climate justice topics and we did actions in the city of Brussels to support our campaigners in Cancun. This year we will meet again for one week in December, parallel to the UN climate negotiations in Durban. We want to bring at least 100 young European climate activ-

ists together in or-der to follow the negotiations as well as stay in regular contact with the climate campaigners in Durban and dis-cuss the political developments.

Join us in Brussels, as hundreds of Youth from all across Europe demand climate justice and real action from the UN Climate Talks in Durban! So take your calendar, mark the date and take part in a great international climate justice movement! You will have the chance to learn about issues related to climate change and climate justice, build up closer contacts to other inspiring people and organizations, and you will be able to give your own workshops on topics you are working on and help creating a program which works best for you!

For more information visit:

www.durban-in-brussels.org

CALL for Participants:

“Durban in Brussels”

Summer Camp 2012, As Corcerizas, Galicia, Spain, July 2012

Every year Young FoEE organises the summer camp as our major annual event to get to know other young people from YFoE and FoE groups in Europe, learn about the issues and campaigns we work on, and share and build our skills. Next year we're already excited to announce that it will be taking place at the As Corcerizas environmental education centre in Galicia, Spain.

We are now working with FoE Spain on the planning of this event and would love extra volunteers and your any ideas and input on the discussion of the theme and content of this event.

Please email [email protected] if you think you've got ideas or would like to get involved.

Summer Camp 2012

When? December 2nd to 10th Where? Brussels

Who? You!

YFoEE Training on Campaign Effectiveness, Copenhagen, Denmark 27 30th October 2011.

This October YFoEE ran a special four- day training on how to plan and run effective and strategic campaigns, for a group of young activists from the YFoEE network. It took place in Copenhagen with help from our great hosts and friends at NOAH (FoE Denmark).

A total of 18 participants from 15 countries took part in the training, which has also led to the development of exciting new plans on how to continue the Push Europe campaign (YFoEE’s current climate campaign) and a Food and Agricul-ture campaign, due for launch in 2012, targeting reforms to the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy and against factory farming. Following feedback from the event we hope to run follow-up activities to give the chance to more people from YFoEE groups to get involved and learn campaigning skills in 2012. Watch for more news this year!

YFoEE Campaign Training Event

Upcoming YFoEE Activities

5


UNFCCC climate negotiations in Bonn 617th June 2011

YFoEE at International Events

NYELENI Forum 1621st August 2011

By Susi Hammel, YFoE Germany

In June, where else would YFoEE be than in Bonn? Since 2009, YFoEE activists have been attending the two week mid-year round of UNFCCC climate negotiations in Bonn, always in preparation for the big UN climate change con-ferences at the end of the year. In December 2011, this big meeting will take place in Durban, South Africa.

During the talks in Bonn, YFoEE was mainly putting pres-sure on the EU to raise its ambition in tackling climate change by strengthening its GHG emission reduction tar-get and to show real leadership in the international cli-mate negotiations in line with our Push Europe campaign (see article about Push Europe, page 3).

We organised two colourful actions. One of them featured 27 young people representing each EU Member State queuing in front of an EU official’s desk presenting their CVs asking for more opportunities for green jobs (a study of the Potsdam Institute has shown that a 30% EU emis-sion reduction target could create 6 million additional jobs in Europe). The other action was a spoof street party in front of the UNFCCC conference venue (see Climate Jus-tice Seminar article, page 9).

YFoEE also co-organised a side event with BUNDjugend (YFoE Germany) and the UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) under the title “Moving the EU - Moving the World: youth led campaigns for climate justice” to discuss the EU’s responsibility and how to pressure the EU to show more ambition in tackling climate change by raising its emission reduction target.

Two YFoEE activists were interviewed by FoE Interna-tional’s Real World Radio. They talked about the role of young people in the UNFCCC negotiations and their de-mands to political decision makers. They also spoke about the Push Europe campaign. Link to the interview: http://www.realworldradio.fm/Here,4211?lang=es More pictures on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngfoee/sets/72157626850101485/ Following the Bonn meeting, YFoEE is now getting ready for our activities around the UN climate talks in Durban and we are busy organising our “Durban in Brussels” youth convergence (see article about Durban in Brussels, page 4).

>>> Photo: Push Europe CV action

By Mario la Rosa, Italy

“Nyeleni” is the name of a woman who showed how farming with respect for the land and the traditions can be a way to get out of poverty and modern slavery. With her job she found freedom for her family and inspired her whole village. “Food sovereignty” is the idea that people should be free to choose what they are going to grow as farmers and to eat as consum-ers.

Following the iconic example of Nyeleni, in August more than 400 people from Europe met in Krems, Austria, to share experiences, teach and learn stories, build links and create the platform for an European movement for Food Sover-eignty. Farmers, consumers, workers and NGOs coming from different places but (amazing!), all with the same thought that sustainability in agriculture and food consumption are keys for changing the World, starting from the Land. YFoEE was also present at Nyeleni with activists from Norway, Hungary, Lithuania and Italy. Food Sovereignty NOW! More info in the Nyeleni website http://www.nyelenieurope.net/.

6 Young Friends of the Earth Europe: Newsletter November 2011

6

Every Fallen One Is a Brother And a Friend

“YFoE Norway will remain YFoE Norway. But suddenly we are all the more aware of the

magnitude of our work.”

YFoE Norway: In Memoriam

It’s the most difficult language we use, when we try to describe our thoughts and feelings after what hap-pened on July 22nd. It’s helpful to borrow wise words from others, such as Norwegian poet Nordahl Grieg who during the Second World War wrote: “We are so few in this country, every fallen one is a brother and a friend.” We are still few in this country. Even fewer in the youth political community in Norway, be it in Oslo or in towns and cities around the country. Many of us in YFoE Norway had a brother or a friend at Utøya. In the end, there is so much more that unites than di-vides the youth political community. We all put the highest value possible on debate, commitment and a vibrant democracy. The brutal attacks on the Labour Party Youth at Utøya and the government offices in Oslo were an attack on all of us, and on the lifeblood of our democracy. What can one do in the face of such twisted and absolute evil? The Labour Party Youth themselves gave the best answer: “If one man can show so much hate, imagine how much love we as a togetherness can show." On the very same day as the fateful attacks, Norwegian Prime Min-ister Jens Stoltenberg firmly stated that our response to terror will be “more democracy, more openness and more humanity”. This is how we will retali-ate, and show the ter-rorist that he has lost.

It’s difficult to say whether Norwegian political life will ever be the same again. Right now, we are in the mid-dle of municipal elections, and an ordinary political debate in which differences are discussed, is slowly returning. But all those who experienced the tragedy on July 22nd have shared a unique experience that will never be forgotten. Paradoxically, it is faced with the most gruesome of events that society mobilizes our very best of unity, solidarity and compassion. On July 25th, hundreds of thousands of Norwegians from all over the country marched, meeting terror with roses and love. After this, our democracy can seem safer than ever. But the work for democracy and justice will and must continue every day. We are prepared to do our part. YFoE Norway will con-tinue to be YFoE Norway. Yet we are suddenly all the more aware of the magnitude of the work we do. When we work to cut Norwegian greenhouse gas emis-sions, we do it in solidarity with the worlds poorest and with future generations. But perhaps equally impor-tant: through our work, every single day, we contribute to the defence of a vibrant democracy. Never before has our commitment and our work been more impor-tant. Never before has it been more important that we

continue to get more youth in-volved, in Norway, in Europe, and the rest of the world. I strongly believe that the best days of youth political or-ganizations and of Young Friends of the Earth are still ahead.

By Ola Skaalvik Elvevold, Chair of Natur og Ungdom - YFoE Norway, www.nu.no

News from Member Groups

7


By Marco Cadena from YFoE England, Wales & Northern Ireland (EWNI)

When you see the lush green rolling hills of the Eng-lish countryside, hear the river right next to you and meet the inspiring people from all across the country – you know that you’re in the right place: the Push Europe UK camp. We at Young Friends of the Earth joined forces in the UK and decided to put on a camp in mid August at Ogden Moor wind farm. The action camp helped us to build capacity and supports the Europe-wide campaign for climate action by the EU.

We consciously planned the activities around the cam-paign but we had also time to talk about the network in the UK and to come up with some great ideas for the future.

Although we generated some local media interest with our press release, our aim was to support the other groups working on Push Europe with stunning images – so the project was really for activists by activ-ists.

We’ve also discussed upcoming campaign actions – so we have now an online action running on FoE Scotland’s web-site and hopefully we’ll have one on FoE EWNI’s website as well soon.

Our next big focus is the Friends of the Earth confer-ence here in the UK – where we’ll get together with UKYCC and YFoE from all over the place and plan to-gether for the autumn (also see details how to join the campaign on page 3). So watch this space, there is more to come! Email [email protected] to sign up for the latest news and follow the campaign. Check out all the Push Europe camp images: http://bit.ly/pBzU22 Read our press release to learn more about our cam-paign demands: http://youngfoeuk.tumblr.com/post/9673067453/press-release-young-people-call-for-european-climate Take action on FoE Scotland’s website: http://www.bit.ly/push1penny Push Europe links: http://www.pusheurope.eu http://www.facebook.com/pusheurope

YFoE UK: Push Europe Action Camp

21st May 2011 – Great success for the first open day of the groups Youth & Nature Pro Natura.

Pro Natura Youth manages 44 groups “Youth & Nature” local groups from across the whole Switzerland. Lead by vol-untary counsellors, these local groups offer thematic outings in nature and camps for young adults and children. On the 21st of May, the first open day across Switzerland took place: 24 groups from 15 Swiss counties participated in this event set under the topic forest.

The open days were very popular since several groups had more participants than usual. Group leader’s goals and mo-tivation were clear: by strolling along forest paths, children learn to respect this world. However education was not the only goal of this day in the forest; pleasure and delight also took up a choice place. What did participants prefer? - “Games in the forest and the building of huts!” - “To uproot brambles around the small oaks so that they can have enough light to grow” - “When the lumberjack cut down a tree… even if I was a little scared when it fell down!”

Thanks to games, expert’s lectures, tales & legends, marshmallows on the grill and animals watching, kids could let off steam in nature and thus LIVE THE NATURE.

YFoE Switzerland: ProNatura Open Day By Stéphanie Chouleur, ProNatura, Switzerland


Latvia: Greening the Playground

By Zane Ruģēna-Bojāre, GMO activist at FoE Latvia

A couple of years ago, as recently shown by Wikileaks, the Latvian government was carrying on with business as usual – civil servants were regular suspects in the USA embassy promising pro-GMO votes in Parliament. Within a couple of years the playingfield was changing rapidly. And it coincided with FoE Latvia putting GMO issues at the top of campaigning work since 2009. What has changed since then? Municipalities free to establish GM bans With plenty of participation and lobbying from civil society groups with FoE Latvia as flagman, new, groundbreaking GMO Circulation Law was passed by national government in the second half of 2009. The Law established rights of municipalities to ban GM cultivation in their territories. In 2010 the process of establishing GM Free zones took miraculous pace with FoE organising and involving hundreds of grassroots activities and events all around Latvia, explaining the importance of the initiative and mobilising the citizens to promote the GM Free Zone idea in their municipalities. As a result today almost all municipalities have announced GM Free zone status. GMO labelled products identified in shops According to the new national regulations, shops must label GM products so that they are easily identified. With regards to the implementation of this regulation there are many things yet to be done. Unfortunately, the regulation was contested by large supermarket chains. Businesses join FoE Latvia voluntary scheme – GMO Free In the spring of 2010 FoE Latvia laid another milestone in

GMO campaigning – we established a voluntary scheme for businesses and institutions that are willing to exclude

GMO’s from use in their products. Among the partners that joined to help to develop the scheme are very well known organisations and institutions - Ministry of Environment and Regional Development, Latvian Hotel & Restaurant Association and the Latvian Biological Agriculture Association. In the first

year we have also gathered a wide range of participants, including celebrity chefs, high-end dining places, breweries, kindergardens, shops, etc. Parliament stands steady against GMO lobby With active participation in the official working groups , succesfull media work, proactive networking with other

organisations and direct information activities FoE Latvia manages to ensure that the GMO debate within Latvia leads to a clear stance in EU voting.

With heated debates in 2010 in the Latvian Parliament, the national position in the meetings of the European Council is negative both to cultivation and market distribution voting. FoE Latvia have managed also to reverse a number of votes and positions in matters linked to GMO issues, i.e. the zero tolerance issue, where the Ministry of Agriculture were actively supporting opinion of European Commission, but responsible Parliamentary committee in series of repeated votes gave preference to the views of NGO’s – FoE Latvia and Biological Farming association.

9


By Paul Daly & Natascha Deininger, YFoE Scotland Over the summer, Young FoE Scotland has been working hard to spread the word by attending many festivals to do outreach, and when back in the office to produce the Scottish version of the ‘One Cent’ part of the Push Europe Cam-paign. This is particularly significant for us as it is the first campaign that YFoE Scotland has produced! We have produced a step-by-step guide to transferring One Penny to the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) which is included in the Cyber Action we created. This allows activists to email to explain why they are donat-ing One Penny. See some of our work here: http://tinyurl.com/3fpn8m3 We are heavily promoting the One Penny campaign via our Facebook page and Twitter account – and getting some much appreciated support from the FoE Scotland and other strategic partners. Recently activists from Young FoE Scot-land joined with Young FoE England, Wales & Northern Ireland in Yorkshire for a weekend of campaign planning and banner making – and ended up at a photo shoot on a wind farm (also see the story from UK, page 7). Arriving on Friday night, people pitched their tents next to a river in a quiet valley not far from Hebden Bridge, getting up the next day to discuss Push Europe – a campaign aimed at brining young activists across the continent together to demand the EU commit to ambitious greenhouse gas reductions targets. Issues around climate justice, the Kyoto Pro-tocol and EU policy were explained, talked about and discussed. On Sunday activists hiked out to a nearby wind farm, carrying banners and getting ready to do some turbine-hugging. The result: excellent evidence of young people getting excited about a lowcarbon future (see details how to join the campaign on page 3). Join our online community: http://tinyurl.com/4yco2td

YFoE Scotland: Joining Push Europe

By Max Ramezani, BUNDjugend (YFoE Germany)

“Come to the party this December in Durban where the EU will commit to 40% emission reduc-tions domestically by 2020.” In this manner, activists tried to discuss with the UN delegates in front of the UNFCCC climate talks in Bonn. With music, singing, dancing and a 40-percent cake, young people celebrated the an-nouncement of the EU’s critical pledge of 40% do-mestic GHG emission reductions by 2020. The spoof pre-party was made up by the 40 participants of the international seminar “Climate Justice - More than Words” which took place from 10th to 18th June 2011 close to Bonn, Germany, in parallel to the UN climate talks in Bonn. The aim of this event was youth capacity-building, training, networking and education on climate justice is-sues. Besides direct action the seminar had a programme full of interesting speakers and interactive workshops, for exam-ple, on the history of the UNFCCC process and EU climate policy as well as on the equitable sharing of remaining carbon budgets or real solutions for the climate crisis. Par-ticipants also exchanged their knowledge on national cli-mate change and energy policies, trained themselves in organising effective campaigns and shared plans for youth

activism in 2011, including the Push Europe campaign. Due to the nearby negotiations in Bonn, we also had the chance to meet delegates from the Global South at the seminar; and it was inspiring to think about and discuss the concept of climate justice with them and to hear testi-monies from those most affected by climate change. To get a broader image of the seminar activities check out the photo gallery on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/youngfoee/sets/72157626850101485/ Link to the press release about the spoof party action: http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2011Jun17_YFoEE_Hooray_for_Europe.html

YFoE Germany: UNFCCC meeting in Bonn

>>> Photo: Spoof party action at UNFCCC negotiations


By Laura Grainger, Australia, member of YFoEE Steering Group 2009-2010 My name's Laura and I'm currently living in a treehouse I built, 17m high in a pine tree. Along with a small group of other wonderfully passionate people, we are occupying the forest which is the site of a future air-port near Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France. We are building a campaign to stop the Grand Ouest airport– along with it's highway, TGV train line and metropolis expansion. It's being green-washed as an “ecological” project, and like so many massive construc-tions, it's being undemocratically bulldozed into people's lives. Vinci, the world's biggest construction company has been handed the project on a ready-prepared platter. But there's more than a hundred organiza-tions banded together now to say no to the unnecessary and destruc-tive expansion of the concrete jungle, and for two years now there's been an occupation of the site of the airport. Both the proponents and opponents of the project call this place "La ZAD". It's been continuously growing and now there's over a hundred occupying more than 20 spots on the site at all times. So I find myself in a forest - a beautiful forest - constructing defenses against any eviction, growing vegetables in a field, having meetings and organising demonstrations, occupations, awareness-raising propaganda for this fight and others around the continent, such as the Khimki strug-gle in Russia. These projects are just too crazy to happen in a world with climate change, peak oil and social injustice happening left, right and centre. We are growing a lot of our own food here, we dumpster-dive a lot of our food too, cycling and walking are our main ways of getting around, we recycle building materials for our own constructions, there are skill-shares happening daily, workshops and freeshops and anything that someone has energy for is created... in fact, a whole little post-capitalist anarchist community has sprung up! Links with the other campaigning groups have never been so strong, and even though eviction is likely within the next month, I'd still say it's going well! I've increasingly become a full-time campaigner, activist, dreamer, whatever you call it, since I first got in-volved with YFoEE. It's partly thanks to the energy of the group I was a part of in Germany in June 2009 really switched on my radical-button. Increasingly I've become aware and experienced in the way that we can put all our energy into changing things to the way we really want them to be. Even if I'm 5000km away from you, I want to wish you good luck with your local campaigns! I'm in solidarity with the issues you work on - it's all interlinking. And of course, you're very welcome to come and visit us here at la ZAD, do a local action or to join our struggle here.

OpiniON

>>> Photo: Laura under her treehouse

A word from the treetops


“What do you feel when you buy food?” – was what Mario la Rosa (29), from Sicily, Italy, asked me. I have known him for several years and I am still impressed by his devotion to the topic of food and agriculture in his everyday life and the changes he creates by his work everyday. He opened my eyes that buying a car and food is not the same and I started to wonder where my food comes from and what values I support when I buy it.

Mario graduated food biology at university and works as a food manager. He is deeply concerned about Food and Agri-culture issues and is an active member in YFoEE Food and Agriculture Working Group. He went to NYELENI food sov-ereignty forum in Austria (see page 5) and is working on the YFoEE Food and Agriculture Manifesto. What obstacles do you see in Food and Agriculture nowadays? absence of direct relationship between producer and con-

sumer, which stimulates mistrust and lose of knowledge in farming

capitalism, which seeks only for profit, and which brain-washed people saying that the most important thing is to possess.

food distribution intermediaries, which make food price inadequate

large scale monocultures, which abuse the soil, require large use of fertilizers and force lost of biodiversity

globalization, which makes the food to travel around the world and accumulates hidden costs

lack of sustainable agriculture, which sums to environ-mental problems

Following, how would you describe sustainability? Sustainability is an inner consciousness that some-thing is wrong or right when you think about conse-quences that your actions might have. Sustainable thinking is what you are do-ing now will have impact in the future. Sustainability is when you respect land, peo-ple and yourself. So if you are feeding system which is not sustainable, then we need a step back. Are there solutions for more sustainable Food and agri-culture? Yes, the only way - thinking out of the box! Community sup-ported agriculture (CSA) is an alternative for conventional market. In CSA system every person gets involved in all the steps of consumption.

CSA eliminates retailers and supermarkets in food chain which makes the price fair, direct connection and builds trust. In a long term perspective, CSA intends to wash a sense of greedy. How CSA works? I am in one consortium of 15 farmers in Sicily that sell or-

ganic oranges, jams, almonds, and fish. I joined it three years ago thought it was established 15 years ago. A Con-sortium manages finances, logistics and promotion in col-laboration. A Consortium aims to sell good products and main value is people it is dealing with and what we grow. The most important I would say: The consortium is not only selling sustainable products but also a message and promotes main values – trust and sharing. Some might say that this system is expensive but opposite, the prices are the same as in a market. Every group has its own model of work, but the main common things to CSA groups are food and connection: organic products, direct contact with a farmer and getting rid of intermediaries. De-spite obstacles with bureaucracy and labelling standards, the number of groups around Italy is growing fast.

What changes CSA makes? Fortunately, this system is building trust which has dis-appeared due to big food supply chains. In CSA trust is built by hand shaking as we call. A person can visit a farm and a farmer, see how the he grows the food and also who is a farmer. This system is growing very fast in Italy. Now there are 115 small groups of CSA I the network. Together they or-

ganize meetings, forums, food stands; people collaborate and do voluntary work together. One such group managed to develop to solar panels organization, some of them are thinking of schools and kindergartens. In such network the price does not have a big matter, people are aware of sus-tainability. Moreover, they become active and propose things to change. The future of these groups is to have a wider market in collaborating and involve more devoted people.

Community Supported Agriculture


Education: Conservation engineering, St. Stephen University, Faculty of Agricultural

and Environmental Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary Place you live: Szolnok (100km from Budapest on the east side and next to the Tisza

which is the second biggest river in the country) Your core topic in environmental field: Environmental and social justice One amazing thing you have done: I’ve lived with about 40 different people from all

over the world during 8 months I’ve spent in London Your belief or motto: Just do what you are interested in, you are not crazy. Name of your organisation:

National Society of Conservationists (Friends of the Earth Hungary) http://www.mtvsz.hu

What are the main activities of FoE Hungary, and how does the organisation/group work? The Friends of the Earth Hungary hasn’t got a Youth organisation but young volunteers can join us who are willing to work for environmental protection. We help with campaigns, actions and the general work of the organisation, and have regular actions, not just in Budapest but in the countryside as well. The young volunteers have the opportunity to take part in festivals, lectures, panel discussions and conferences. We have a Volunteer Club and this year organising the YFoEE summer camp provided a great opportunity to meet and get to know each other better. How did you get involved in this organization and what is your role? I participated in some actions such as Sustainability Day and Car-Free Day and then I had a 3 ½-month internship with FoE Hungary, so I worked in the office and gained lots of experience. Nowadays I do some translating work and I also started to write my thesis about YFoEE! Actually I just decided to use this topic after the summer camp. What was the biggest success for you since you started? I think the best thing is that I’ve met lots of people who are working all around the country and also they helped me to understand how I can put into use what I learned at university. How did you get involved with YFoE Europe? This July with the summer camp was the first time I got in touch with YFoE Europe as I helped with organisation. Al-though it was a little bit tiring, it gave me loads of motivation as well; so I definitely want to continue the work. Has working in YFoE Europe network changed you personally? Meeting these inspiring people has reassured me that I am not alone and this is a wonderful feeling. It made me more confident. Something to tell to young people from the network...? Don't lose sight of your goal! Big thanks!

YFoEE Network Members

Get to know

us better! She is young, responsible and a friend of the Earth. I met her at YFoEE Summer Camp 2011 in Hungary where she was helping for the FoE Hungary team to organise the summer camp. Besides her wonderful help, she created an amazing movie of the summer camp in Ónod! (find it at http://www.foeeurope.org/youngfoee/summercamp2011.html).

This time get to know Zsuzsa Foldes (age 23), FoE Hungary


2-10 December 2011 - “Durban in Brussels” in Brussels, Belgium 22-26 March 2012 - YFoEE Annual General Meeting, Switzerland July 2012 - YFoEE Summer Camp, Spain

Calendar

Young Friends of the Earth Europe Rue d’Edimbourg 26 1050 Brussels Belgium

Phone: +32 2 893 1009 Email: [email protected] www.youngfoee.org

Newsletter’s Contact section: Editor: Jolanta Uktverytė, [email protected] Subeditors: Duncan MacKenzie, Paul Daly, Sophie Manson

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the au-thor, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Documents

Newsletter November 2011 - Friends of the Earth Europe