Indigenous Food Systems Network

By Patrick Oppmann, CNN
June 1, 2010 11:44 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Gulf oil spill threatens sacred burial ground of Louisiana's Point Aux Chenes Indian Tribe
* Most of the tribe's 700 members also rely on fishing and fear the spill could end their way of life
* Members say no federal or state officials have advised them on dealing with the disaster
* Native Americans from Alaska told the tribe how they dealt with the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill

The spill could have been so much worse, and at least it didn't happen in the remote Arctic. Maybe it will spur Americans to get serious about cutting consumption

Tuesday, 1 June 2010

Hollywood loves a villain with an English accent. After the Deepwater Horizon disaster, it was inevitable American commentators would deride BP as British Petroleum and its CEO as Tony Wayward. But even as residents of the Gulf Coast despair and BP fumbles from one seat-of-the-pants engineering "solution" to another, Americans should realise the company has done them a huge favour.

We the undersigned citizens of Canada stand against the biological and social threat and commerce of industrial marine net-cage feedlots using our global oceans. The science is clear: these operations risk wild salmon populations by intensifying disease and deplete world fishery resources to make the feed. They privatize ocean spaces and threaten our sovereign rights to food security.

We call on the Government of Canada to take the appropriate measures to get open-net aquaculture out of our federal waters:

RAVEN is a charitable organization that provides financial resources to assist Aboriginal Nations within Canada in lawfully forcing industrial development to be reconciled with their traditional ways of life, and in a manner that addresses global warming or other ecological sustainability challenges.

The concept of food sovereignty was developed by Via Campesina and brought to the public debate during the World Food Summit in 1996 and represents an alternative to neoliberal policies. Since then, that concept has become a major issue of the international agricultural debate, even within the United Nations bodies. It was the main theme of the NGO forum held in parallel to the FAO World Food Summit of June 2002.

Local lab to test for sea lice drug resistance. Published Feb 25, 2010

Testing to determine if sea lice are becoming resistant to a chemical product used by fish farmers is expected to begin this spring in Campbell River.

“We hope to begin in April. Some people may say that’s already too late, but you have to start some place,” said Dr. Sonja Saksida of the B.C. Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences.

Dozens of protesters held up signs on Highway 97 between McLeese Lake and MacAllister Thursday afternoon to show their opposition to the destruction of Fish Lake should Prosperity mine be built.

Among those protesting were Xeni Gwet’in Chief Marilyn Baptiste, ?Esdilagh Chief Bernie Elkins, Tl’esqox Chief Francis Laceese, Ulkatcho First Nation Chief Allen Louie, and Lhtako Dene Nation Chief Geronimo Squinas.

Are drug-resistant sea lice from Nootka Sound fish farms being introduced to Discovery Passage, posing an enormous threat to wild salmon and farmed fish throughout the Inside Passage?

That's a concern being raised by Alexandra Morton but rejected this week by the province and Grieg Seafoods.

The provincial government must be pressured through the courts and through direct action to put a stop to the very serious situation that is causing sea lice to drive the most important source of protein in Indigenous diets to near extinction.

First Nations chiefs are planning a 29-hour hunger strike leading up to the Olympic hockey game between Canada and Norway Tuesday, to protest Norwegian-owned fish farms.

Members of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs are fasting to support the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council's opposition to fish-farm tenures in the Broughton Archipelago.

Follow this link to visit 91.1 Secwepemc Radio website for a podcast that includes background information on colonization and how it relates to what the food sovereignty guru - Vandana Shiva says at her talk in Kelowna in 2009. Background information and recording done by Rebecca Kneen and Illona Trogub.