Web Note: OCA mourns the death of a a dear friend and populist revolutionary, Al Krebs, in Washington state last week. Al was one of the greatest analysts of corporate agribusiness and a tireless activist for family farms and sustainable agriculture. Since OCA’s founding Al served on our Policy Board and provided invaluable news and commentary through his online newsletters, the Agribusiness Examiner and the Calamity Howler which we posted every week on our website. If you google “A.V. Krebs” you’ll find 770,000 citations–a tribute to his untiring intellectual labor and his vision for a 21st Century progressive populism that could unite the grassroots movements campaigning for health, justice, sustainability, peace, and justice.
OCA also mourns the death this week of an another friend and lifetime Native American activist and leader, Vernon Bellecourt, who died in Minneapolis on October 13. Vernon was a leader of the American Indian Movement and an international spokesperson for peace, solidarity, indigenous and civil rights. Vernon, among many other things, was an articulate critic of corporate agribusiness, genetic engineering, and biopiracy, and a proponent of integrating traditional indigenous knowledge into contemporary systems of organic food and farming.
OCA will remember these two elders in the struggle as we move forward to carry out their mission and ideals.
Ronnie Cummins
Oct. 15, 2007
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It is with saddened heart that I am writing today to let you know that my father, A.V. Krebs, passed away in his sleep on Tuesday, October 9, after an ongoing fight with liver failure.
I wanted to let all of you know that we made sure he got every letter, card and email that was sent, and that they always brought a grin to his face and it would light up every time he would read one. Thanks to each of you for being a part of my Dad’s life. He loved his readers, and got a real joy from doing his newsletter each week.
The following was eloquently written by one of his good friends, Barbara Ross, who said:
Friends:
Al Krebs passed to his eternal reward on Tuesday, October 9th, after a struggle with liver failure. Many of you knew Al Krebs; he perhaps was most well known as the author of the book, “The Corporate Reapers,” widely considered a stand-alone authority on the history of agriculture and ag. policy. For many years he put out a weekly e-mail publication entitled the “Agribusiness Examiner,” which was widely read. However, Al was not only a prolific writer, critic, and analyst of agriculture, but also on many other topics.
Al was an intellectual, who could more than hold his own in a discussion or debate on nearly any topic of culture, politics, economics or history. At the same time, he recognized the value of everyday folks and he was an unabashed champion of the marginalized, the left out, and downtrodden. Al aspired to nothing more than being party to the creation of a world of social and economic justice, but he lived a personally modest, uncomplicated. yes, sustainable lifestyle.
The world has lost a tremendous champion and articulate voice for all things good, right and just, I will miss his public voice, and the world will be less for his passing.
Barbara Ross
Social Concerns Office
Diocese of Jefferson City, MO
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Sincerely,
David and Leigh Arevalo
44804 SE 146th St. North Bend WA 98045
phone (425)888-2192
david.arevalo@electricarrow.com
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The Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them- the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free,
the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
-Psalm 146:6
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