Posted: May 29, 2009

Pontifical Academy of Sciences

BACKGROUND:

In Rome on the 15^th to the 19^th of May, 2009, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences will present a study week on genetically modified organisms with the title, "Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development".   Although Cardinal Renato Martino (President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace) said earlier this year in January that genetically modified foods are not the answer to the food crisis, the study week will present information only about GMOs. There will be no input from Catholic development organizations such as Caritas International or Catholic Relief Services. Neither will there be any input from scientists and organizations who question the value of GMOs. The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) a collaborative effort of the United Nations, World Health Organization, many other organizations and  400 scientists found that small-scale farmers and ecologically sensitive methods of farming are the way forward and that GMOs require further study. The Academy should not be sponsoring a conference with a one-sided view of a still controversial issue. (For more information about GMOs see the Ecology issues page of our website, http://www.columban.org/content/view/72/63/#genetic).

ACTION REQUESTED

Please write to Cardinal Martino, the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and to Bishop Sanchez of the Pontifical Academy. Ask them to postpone the conference until other voices can be added to the program. Below is a sample letter. Personalize the letter and send it to the 2 addresses listed below.

SAMPLE LETTER

Your Eminence (Cardinal Martino) OR Your Excellency (Bishop Sanchez),

I wish to call your attention to the forthcoming Study-Week which is being organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome from May 15^th to 19^th 2009.  The title of the Study Week is ‘Transgenic Plants for Food Security.'  Most of the speakers at this event are proponents of genetically modified crops (GMOs).  The stated aim is to minimize further the current regulatory regime for GMOs in countries across the world.  Many of the speakers are presenting GMOs as a solution to world hunger.

As a supporter of the Missionary Society of St. Columban with missionaries working in many countries in Asia, I question the claim that GMOs will have any substantive role in tackling world hunger.  In 2008, two independent international studies were published on meeting the food needs of the world.  In April, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) issued a report which involved collaboration between the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Program, the World Health Organization and representatives from governments, civil society and scientific bodies. This report does not endorse the position of the biotech industry that GMOs will feed the world.  It argues that the most pressing agricultural need is to support small-scale farmers who operate in diverse ecosystems.  In October 2008, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) produced a document entitled, Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa. The researchers found that, contrary to argument that the only way to increase agricultural output is through modernizing agriculture, organic farming holds the key to food security in Africa.

I am concerned and disappointed that none of the people involved in these studies or personnel from Aid and Development organizations such as Caritas Internationalis or missionary organizations have been invited to make presentations at the Study-Week.

Columban missionaries and others, who work  with rural people in various parts of the world, see GM crops as a way of giving control of the seeds of the staple crops of the world to five North American and European transnational corporations. This view will not be represented at the Roman Study-Week.  I suggest that the Study-Week be postponed. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences should  design a Study-Week involving experts from Aid and Development agencies both within and outside the Church, appropriate United Nations agencies, and representatives from civil society organizations. I believe that the outcome of such a Study-Week would benefit those who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition.  As currently constituted the outcome of the advertised Study-Week will only benefit biotech corporations.

Sincerely yours in Christ,     

CONTACT INFORMATION                    

Cardinal Renato Martino,
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
1-00120 Vatican City
Rome, Italy

 Bishop Marcello Sanchez Sorondo
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Casina Pius IV
V- 00120 Vatican City
Rome, Italy

Posted: May 29, 2008

Dear Jubilee Friends,

Your Senators are in a key position to achieve debt cancellation for the world’s most impoverished countries.  But they need to hear from you first.  Read on to find out how you can help!

On April 16, 2008, the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation passed the US House of Representatives by a bipartisan vote of 285 – 132.

Now it’s on to the Senate!  The Senate version of the Jubilee Act (S. 2166) is currently under consideration by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which held a hearing on the Jubilee Act on April 24^th.  A mark-up and vote in committee is likely in early June, then the full Senate will consider the bill

Please call your Senator today and urge him/her to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (S. 2166). (Background information on the Jubilee Act is at the bottom of this message). 

Please take these 6 simple steps to make your call today!

1. Find out who your Senator is by selecting your state from the drop down menu at www.senate.gov (upper right corner).

2. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

3. Ask to be connected to your Senator's office. The receptionist will answer. Introduce yourself as (your name), a constituent from (city, state).

4. You will be connected with the staff person (or their voicemail). Say: 

“I am calling to urge Senator ________ to support the Jubilee Act (S. 2166), which was passed by the House and had a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, April 24. The Jubilee Act has bipartisan support and would expand debt cancellation for 24 additional impoverished countries, provided they meet criteria to ensure that the money is used for poverty reduction. Do you know Senator  _________'s position on the Jubilee Act?”

(You can stop there, or add an additional sentence about why this issue is important to you).

5. Be sure to thank the receptionist when you are finished.

6. Email Policy Fellow Danielle Pals at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the results of your call. This will enable us to register your Senator’s support/opposition and follow up with the office if necessary. 

Please let us know if you have any questions!  Call us at 202-783-0214 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

**Want to do more?** 

Write a letter to the editor to your local paper discussing the current global food crisis and the impact of debt cancellation on impoverished countries. Your LTE sends a message to your Senators that the Jubilee Act (S 2166) is a bill that’s important to constituents in their districts and they should consider it seriously. You can send a letter in response to an article that appears in your newspaper, or link it to another related issue that is covered. Use the pre-written LTE or you can write your own.

Background Information:

Today, the world’s most impoverished countries spend more than $100 million each day in debt payments to wealthy governments and financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF.  In countries where the majority of the population lives on less than $1 per day, this money should be spent on clean water, basic health care, and education, not sent to the world’s wealthiest financial institutions. 

In 2000 and again in 2005 world leaders came together to cancel billions of dollars of debt in dozens of impoverished countries around the world.  The money freed by debt cancellation so far has been used to fight global AIDS, enroll children in school, provide clean water, improve rural infrastructure and more.  But there is still much more that needs to be done – dozens of impoverished countries around the world are still waiting for debt justice!   

The most important and prophetic debt legislation in 7 years, the Jubilee Act will expand access to debt cancellation to all the countries that need it to fight extreme poverty.  Without debt cancellation, it will be nearly impossible for many countries to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. 

The Jubilee Act also requires that debt cancellation be provided without harmful economic policy conditions attached, calls for the initiation of a responsible lending framework, and requires a debt audit in countries like South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo which have a heavy burden of odious debt. 

Posted: March 19, 2008

Act Now To Stop Ineffective Immigration Legislation

Although the issue of immigration has largely faded from U.S. presidential debates and the media, immigrant families and communities continue to be under attack.

According to FBI statistics released in December, there has been a 35-percent increase in hate crimes against the Latino community since 2003. State and local initiatives seek to deny immigrants services, punishing not only immigrants but also those who offer them comfort and support. Raids, deportations and militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border continue apace.

Meanwhile, anti-immigrant legislators in the House of Representatives are attempting to force an up-or-down vote on the enforcement-only Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act (H.R. 4088). Your voice is urgently needed to encourage those who represent us to oppose this bill, and, instead, seek a fair and comprehensive solution to our broken immigration system.

The SAVE Act will further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border, allotting more money to ineffective but showy solutions, such as additional border fencing and other infrastructure. It will force local police to act as immigration agents.

The SAVE Act also calls for an under-funded, unrealistic attempt at an employer verification system, based upon the Social Security Administration’s “no-match” letters, which have frequently been found faulty and unreliable. The legislation does nothing to address the reasons why many immigrants come to the United States without documents, and serves only to push them farther into the society’s shadows.

As Columban missionaries, we feel a deep solidarity with the migrant experience. We see firsthand the positive contributions that migrants make to our local communities, parishes, economy and to our nation’s future.

Yet we are saddened to find that xenophobia, fear and hate are the increasingly dominant motifs of the national dialogue on migration, and that the communities we accompany are under attack. We uphold that the starting point for any immigration policy should be respect for the basic human dignity and rights of the migrant as a child of God.

To reach your representative, call (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to their office. Contact information can be found at www.house.gov/zip/ZIP2Rep.html. Tell the appropriate staff member who handles immigration issues the following:

• You oppose all “enforcement-only” legislation, including the SAVE Act, which spread fears, wastes taxpayer money on new detention facilities and ineffective fences, and ultimately pushes migrants further into the shadows. 

• Urge them to focus on a comprehensive solution for our broken immigration system that unites families, provides an earned path to citizenship for undocumented migrants already living here, protects human rights and border ecology, and respects the concerns of border communities. 

Thank you for your solidarity and concern!

Posted: February 13, 2008

Time to Reform Outdated Federal Mining Law

Current U.S. hard-rock mining law is outdated and passes the heavy costs of mineral extraction onto local communities and ecosystems. The law, passed in 1872, contains no environmental protections or cleanup standards, prioritizes mining over all other uses of public lands and practically gives such land away to corporations at a rock-bottom price of $5 an acre.

In the absence of an appropriate and comprehensive mining law, mining activities have contaminated more than 40 percent of the headwaters of Western watersheds and released billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment each year. Moreover, the approximately 500,000 mines now abandoned will take billions of taxpayer dollars to clean up. Yet companies pay no royalties on what they extract and continue to purchase land for next to nothing.

This past November, the House of Representatives passed the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (HR 2262), which provides a strong template for reform. Now it is the Senate’s turn to take up the legislation, although many fear that the Senate version will leave out critical issues that will render the legislation largely useless.

Reform is urgently needed to protect communities’ health and well-being in the United States and generate pressure for improvements in mining standards around the world.

In many countries where Columbans missionaries are present, mining activities have led to environmental devastation, community displacement, harm to human health and even violence, particularly in Peru, Chile and the Philippines. Yet mining companies are rarely held accountable for their actions or the damage they create.

Legislative reform would provide a valuable platform for communities in these countries as they work as advocates for their rights against multinational companies, often based or financed in the United States.

Take a moment to write U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and encourage him to work for real and meaningful reform. A sample letter, which you can adapt, is copied below. Fax your letter to the committee office at (202) 224-6163 or send it using the electronic form at energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home.

For more information, please visit www.earthworksaction.org/us_program.cfm

Letter template: 

Dear Senator Bingaman,

I write to you as a concerned citizen and a person of faith to urge you to work for real and meaningful reform of the 1872 Mining Law during the current congressional session. The outdated 1872 law externalizes the heavy costs of mineral extraction onto local communities and ecosystems. Protecting the environment is a task given all of us by God, and reform will be positive for environmental standards and sustainability in the United States and around the world.

The lack of effective environmental provisions and reclamation standards, mechanisms for community input and local control, and sensible fiscal and land-use policies in regards to public lands within the 1872 Mining Law are becoming an increasing threat to the health, well-being and ways of life of those who live within the shadow of existing mines, as well as for surrounding ecosystems.

Establish Environmental and Reclamation Standards. The 1872 Mining Law contains no environmental provisions, allowing hard-rock mines to wreak havoc on Western water supplies, wildlife and landscape. Strong standards are needed to make sure damage to land and water is prevented. Perpetual pollution should be banned and mines should be required to reclaim public lands to sustain post-mining uses.  

Implement Fiscal Reforms. Under current law, mining companies, both foreign and domestic, have been able to purchase public lands for $5 an acre and take valuable minerals from public lands for free. The sale of public lands to corporate interests should be permanently ended, and mining companies should pay a gross royalty similar to what other extractive industries pay for what they extract from public lands. 

Create Funds to Clean Up Abandoned Mines. Money generated by this new royalty should go to clean up the more than 500,000 abandoned mines scattered across the West.

Give Local Communities a Voice in Land-Use Decisions. State, local and tribal governments should be able to put lands important to their community off limits to mining.

Allow Mining to be Balanced with Other Land Uses. The federal government currently interprets the 1872 Mining Law as mandating that mining is the highest and best use for public lands, above clean water, fragile ecosystems or recreational uses. Land managers should be able to balance mining with other valuable land uses, and have the authority to deny mining permits when necessary.

Protect Special Places from Mining. Treasured areas, such as Wild and Scenic Rivers, Roadless Areas, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and Wilderness Study Areas, are not appropriate places for open-pit mines and should be put off limits to new claims.

Thank you for your leadership on this issue and your efforts to ensure a meaningful and effective reform of the 1872 Mining Law that will be fiscally responsible and will protect local communities and ecosystems.

Sincerely,

[NAME]

[Congregation, if appropriate]

[City, State]

ACTION ALERT: OPPOSE ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE BORDER WALL

Construction of the physical fence on the border between Mexico and the United States has been ongoing for years. Residents and businesses on both sides of the border face continued property damage and destruction as the wall is built. Migrants in search of a better life are increasingly funneled into remote areas where they are likely to die from dehydration and exposure.  

Recently the Department of Homeland Security reported overruns in the cost of completing the fence. DHS is asking the government to provide additional money to complete the project. The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations sub-committee on Homeland Security, David E. Price, is considering approving an additional $400 million to the construction of the Border Wall physical fence. The fence has already caused significant disruption to the lives of the people in border communities as well as environmental damage. Knowing that respect for the dignity of every person and care for God’s creation are integral to our faith, please take action today to stop additional funding for the ill-conceived border fence.

Please write to your Representative and Senators using the letter template below. In addition you can call your Representative/Senators and tell them to OPPOSE additional funding for the Border Wall. Members of Congress are interested in the opinions and needs of their constituents. To reach your Representative/Senators, call (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to their office.  (Find your representative here: http://www.house.gov/zip/ZIP2Rep.html and your senator here: http://www.senate.gov.) Ask to speak to the staffer who handles immigration issues, and once connected:
•    Tell them that you oppose any additional funding for the Border Wall.
•    Urge them to focus on a comprehensive solution for our broken immigration system that unites families, provides an earned path to citizenship for undocumented migrants already living here, protects human rights and Border ecology and respects the concerns of Border communities.

        
Dear Senator/Representative [enter Senator or Representative’s name]:

I write to you as a concerned citizen and a person of faith to advocate for a more reasoned approach to the Border Fence now being constructed along the U.S.-Mexican border. It has been proposed by the Department of Homeland Security that an additional $400 million be added to the budget for the construction of the fence. I am opposed to the addition of this money to the fence budget and I am asking you to oppose any efforts to augment the current budget.

The border fence will have multiple negative social and environmental impacts on border communities. I am most concerned about the poor and minority (migrant or non-migrant) residents whose lives have already been disrupted.  The fence has resulted in the deaths of migrants crossing the border in search of the security which eludes them in their own country. As walls are built in populated areas, desperation drives more people to risk their lives in the desert. In addition, fragile ecosystems are threatened and fragmented by construction of the fence.  

The additional spending proposed by DHS is unwise in these difficult economic times. The national debt is near $9 trillion and will increase with a federal bailout package for the nation’s financial system. Spending an additional $400 million on a project that has already cost billions of dollars will not deter immigrants, will harm our environment, jeopardizes our relationship with Mexico, and will increase our budget deficit.

The joint U.S.-Mexico Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on Migration states that ours “…is a faith that transcends borders and bids us to overcome all forms of discrimination and violence so that we may build relationships that are just and loving." Oppose the additional spending on the border fence and work towards building relationships, not walls.

Thank you for your time and attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

[NAME]
[Congregation, if appropriate]
[City, State]