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GRAIN wins Right Livelihood Award

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The Right Livelihood Award, commonly described as the “alternative Nobel Prize,” has granted one of its 2011 awards to the international research group, GRAIN. GRAIN has been in the forefront of international efforts to protect traditional agricultures and access to seeds, and describes itself as “a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems.” Their focus is on independent research and analysis, networking and alliance-building, mainly in, Africa, Asia and Latin America. ISE MA program alum Nelson Alvarez is a former GRAIN staff member; his latest book is described here (scroll down to La Tierra Viva). ISE board members who are familiar with GRAIN are delighted to see this exceptionally worthwhile organization receiving this award.

More information on GRAIN’s award is at http://www.rightlivelihood.org/?id=2431. This year’s other recipients are Chinese solar energy developer Huang Ming, human rights advocate Jacqueline Moudeina from Chad, and the renowned natural childbirth advocate Ina May Gaskin, from the U.S.

GRAIN was also a contributor to Brian Tokar’s recent book (co-edited with Fred Magdoff), Agriculture and Food in Crisis: Conflict, Resistance and Renewal (Monthly Review Press, 2011). GRAIN’s outstanding new report on food and climate, evaluating the total contribution of the industrial food system to global climate disruptions, is available here.