Archives for economic justice

RadioActive 9/19/13

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association et al vs. Monsanto; Maine’s GMO labeling bill

Key Discussion Points:
a) On March 29th, 2011 OSGATA, et al vs. Monsanto was filed in federal district court. 60 family farms, seed businesses and agricultural organizations were seeking protection from Monsanto’s heavy handed tactics of investigating and suing farmers for patent right infringement, if they claimed their genetically modified seeds had spread to the fields of farmers who had not purchased the GE seed.
b) In January 2012, the case was dismissed. This June, the US Court of Appeals First Circuit found that the plaintiffs did have standing, but that the case could not go forth, “because Monsanto has made binding assurances that it will ‘not take legal action against growers whose crops might inadvertently contain traces of Monsanto’s biotech genes (because, for example, some transgenic seed or pollen blew onto the grower’s land’”. OSGATA, et al, still looks for their day in court. They have asked the Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals’ decision.
c) Jim Gerritsen also discusses Maine’s GMO labeling bill, poised to take effect.

Guest:
Jim Gerritsen, president of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association; Co-owner and operator of Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine

www.osgata.org/
archive.constantcontact.com/fs122/1104248386985/archive/1113747008645.html
www.pubpat.org/assets/files/seed/OrganicSeedSCTPetition.pdf
www.woodprairie.com/

RadioActive 8/1/13

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Key Discussion Points:
a) This week thousands of fast food workers across the US went on strike for better wages, calling for a $15 per an hour wage and the right to unionize. The Fast Food Forward campaign began in NYC and has spread across the country. Fast food workers also went on strike in NYC this past November and April,
b) In June, The Left Forum in NYC hosted a panel titled “Foundations of Economic Justice: Low Wage Workers Forward”. It was organized, moderated and recorded by Richard Hill of WPKEN, Bridgeport, CT and Between the Lines producer Scott Harris.
(www.btlonline.org)
c) Two of the panelist were current KFC workers. They gave their perspectives as fast food workers active in a movement for better wages. Two other panelists gave academic analysis on the current state of an economy based on low wage workers.

Guests:
A) Michael Zweig, professor of Economics at Stony Brook University; director of the Center for the Study of Working Class Life; author of book The Working Class Majority (Cornell).
B) Shanita Simon, KFC worker; NY Communities for Change
www.nycommunities.org/
C) Catherine Ruetschlin, policy analyst at Demos; author of November, 2012 report: Retail’s Hidden Potential — How Raising Wages Would Benefit Workers, the Industry and the Overall Economy
www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/RetailsHiddenPotential_Demos.pdf
www.demos.org/about-demos
D)Joseph Barrera, KFC worker; New York Communities for Change

www.btlonline.org/leftforumcoop.html
www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/29/fast-food-workers-strike-wages