Food and Faith

Webinar on Earth Care Congregations and Energy Star

PC(USA) Congregations that are interested in working on earth care are invited to participate in a webinar from PC(USA) Environmental Ministries and ENERGY STAR for Congregations called “Earth Care Congregations and How ENERGY STAR Can Help” on Wednesday, October 6 from 3:00-4:00pm Eastern. 

via presbyterian.typepad.com

Don't miss this upcoming webinar from the Environmental Justice office!

For details and to sign up for the webinar, click on the link above.

Ha-Joon Chang uncovers what’s worked in agricultural policy

I vividly remember the impact of Ha-Joon Chang’s 2002 book ‘Kicking Away the Ladder’. At the time I was an NGO lobbyist on the WTO’s Doha round of trade talks, and Ha-Joon’s book showed how when they were still poor, today’s rich countries had systematically used the industrial policies and other forms of state management of the economy that they were now urging the WTO to outlaw. Within months the book’s expose of northern double standards was being quoted extensively by developing country delegates at the talks.

via www.oxfamblogs.org

Ha-Joon's analysis in "Kicking Away the Ladder" helped me to understand that the United States has been trying to push on developing countries a path of development based on myth, not on the actual history of how the U.S. and European countries developed. The very trade rules we are pushing into international policy via Free Trade Agreements and the WTO would likely have thwarted our development as a country.

Now Ha-Joon has done a similar analysis on our agricultural system. This summary shows how countries have successfully taken alternative approaches to the conventional ideologies pushed by U.S. institutions:

‘In the earlier stages of development, today’s rich countries had to grapple with the very problems that dog the agricultural sector of today’s developing countries – land tenure, land degradation, fragmentation of holdings, agricultural research, extension services, rural credit, irrigation, transport, fertilizers, seeds, price and income stabilities, trade shocks, agro-processing, marketing, and so on.

Many successful policy interventions have gone well beyond (or even against) the scope recommended by the New Conventional Wisdom (NCW), which has ruled agricultural (as well as other) policies in the last quarter of a century:

· Japan and other East Asian countries had a very successful comprehensive land reform that included strict land ownership ceilings.

· Virtually all of today’s rich countries used state-backed specialized rural banks and credit subsidies, state-subsidized agricultural insurance, public provision or subsidization of warehousing facilities, and input (e.g. fertilizers) quality control

· Denmark and some other European countries benefited from effective export marketing boards

· The USA and Japan successfully used price stabilization measures

‘History frees our “policy imagination” by showing that the range of policies and institutions that have produced positive outcomes for agricultural development has been much wider than any particular ideological position – be it the pre-1980s statist one or the pro-market NCW – would admit.’

Holy land or a commodity?

Since the food crisis of 2008, food justice activists have warned that governments in concert with multinational corporations have accelerated a worldwide "land grab" to buy up vast swaths of arable land in poor countries. According to The Economist magazine, between 37 to 49 million acres of farmland were put up for sale in deals involving foreign nationals between 2006 and mid-2009.

A friend pointed out how the land grabbing going on now is nothing new to what Native American, Hispanic and Black farmers and communities have faced for centuries. But, the current scale of the land grabs is tremendous. Take a look at what is happening in this interview of Anuradha Mittal -- executive director of the Oakland Institute and keynote speaker at past PC(USA) conferences -- by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

Community Food Conference 14

So you've heard about the Week of Action on Food, right? It's October 10-17, and the Hunger Program helped put together a resource guide for congregations to use at worship, Sunday School, bible study, etc... Taking a trip to New Orleans for the Community Food Security Coalition Annual Conference would be a great way to close the week of action.

The format for the conference is a little different this year. "This is not a conference to just stay in the hotel and never go outside." That's why they're offering a ton of trips at the beginning of the conference to get out into New Orleans and see what there is to see in the world of food, culture and justice.

Some of the more interesting looking trips include:

• Food Deserts, Food Swamps & Food Access in Urban Communities
• NOLA Urban Agriculture
• Cooperation is the Name of the Game: the Mississippi Farmers Co-op

If that's not enticing enough, they've invited First Lady Michelle Obama (who's been involved in the Let's Move campaign to raise a healthier generation of kids)

Regular registration for the conference ends October 1^st. You can register for an additional fee up until October 19^th. Visit www.communityfoodconference.org to learn more and register. Let us know if you're planning on going... we'll see you there.

And check out their awesome shrimp and spoon fleur de leis. Kudos to whoever designed that! 

Pay your library fine with food

I am in a place that the Lord has made. Sitting in a chair on my balcony, waiting patiently for a meteorite shower to commence, I spy the single light on top of the mountain in front of me. I am in Whistler, Canada, known in the summertime for its world class mountain biking and in the winter for its sought-after ski slopes. Having visited over 10 countries, this mountain town less than a day’s drive from home remains one of my very favorite places in the world. Life here seems idyllic, especially for the many mountain sport enthusiasts who inhabit this place. For me, Whistler is also special as I come here to enjoy nature, relax and recharge. The vibe in town is friendly, adventurous and open, plus God’s creation is always in full song. Just being here puts me at ease.

via blogs.elca.org

As I tooled around the Lutheran's website in search of better ways of doing our PHP website, I came across their blog, "Hunger Rumblings" and the reminder that hunger can be found almost everywhere--even in Whistler. Click here to read the rest of Lana Liles entry.

Flooding Pakistan

To date, over 1,600 people have died and around 14 million people have been affected by the floods in Pakistan which have followed the country’s worst monsoon rains in 80 years. Sir John Holmes, the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and the Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN, has stated that “if we don’t act fast enough, many more people could die of disease and food shortage”.

via foodcrisis.foreignpolicyblogs.com

I'm ashamed to say that the tragedy hitting Pakistan right now has barely registered for me. You too? Well, here is a short update on the flooding situation from the Global Food Security blog. Crops have been hit hard, so international aid is needed desperately. People can donate through the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance http://gamc.pcusa.org/donate/DR000038/

End hunger with corporate partnerships?

Has Feeding America - which used to be called America's Second Harvest - gone too far with their recent corporate partnership with Snickers? What do you think?

And these are Feeding America's other manufacturing partners.

Allens, Inc.
Barilla America, Inc.
Bush Brothers & Company
Campbell Soup Company
Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.
Coca-Cola North America
ConAgra Foods
Cott Corporation
CVS Corporation
Dean Foods Company
Del Monte Foods Company
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group
Farmland Foods
Frito-Lay
General Mills, Inc.
George Weston Bakeries
Heinz North America
J.R. Simplot Co.
Kellogg Company
Kraft Foods Inc.
McKee Foods Corporation
Nestle Nutrition
Nestle USA, Inc.
Nutrisystem
Pepperidge Farm, Inc.
Pepsi Bottling Group
Pepsi Cola North America
Perdue Farms, Inc.
Pilgrim's Pride Corp.
Quaker-Tropicana-Gatorade
Ralcorp Holdings, Inc.
S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Sara Lee Foods
Seashare
Smithfield Packing
SYSCO Corporation
The Clorox Company
The Dannon Company, Inc.
The Dial Corporation
The Hershey Company
The J.M. Smucker Company
The Procter & Gamble Company
Tropicana
Tyson Foods, Inc.
U.S. Foodservice, Inc.
Unilever
Walgreen Co.
Welch Foods Inc.
White Wave Foods
 
They also have a campaign called "Shop To End Hunger"...

So, we can end hunger by buying more products from Coca Cola? Nestle?

Are these companies fighting hunger or producing more of it? (Not to mention the health impact of their products.)

What means are justified by the end to end hunger?!

Ploy impoverishing communities of already impoverished Mexican communities

Jill Richardson, who I work with via the US Food Crisis Working Group (soon to be the US Food Sovereignty Alliance - check out the launching on Oct. 16 World Food Day!) went to Mexico to see how well the new Green Revolution was going for farmers there. You may or may not be surprised at what she found!

The Obama administration's Feed the Future initiative promises a second Green Revolution that will feed a planet of nine billion people by doubling crop yields by 2050. But considering that we produce enough food to feed the planet today and a billion people still go hungry, are yields really the problem? And if they are, are providing Green Revolution technologies like hybrid and genetically engineered seeds, chemical fertilizer and pesticides to subsistence farmers the best way to achieve them? I visited subsistence farmers in Mexico to find out.

via www.alternet.org

Mountaintop Removal Mining Education and Mobilization

Appalachia Rising is a mobilization to end mountaintop removal mining.  The event will take place September 25-27 in Washington D.C. 

A conference "Voices from the Mountains," will take place on September 25-26.  This will be a time of education and strategizing around mountaintop removal mining and justice in Appalachia.

The day of action will take place on September 27 when thousands unite to call for an end to mountaintop removal mining.

Learn more about the event through the Appalachia Rising website.

Learn more about mountaintop removal mining through  ilovemountains.org.

via presbyterian.typepad.com

Your guide to the Week of Action on Food

Prepare Ye the Churches Week of Action on Food!

It is now time to gear up for the Churches Week of Action on Food from 10-17 October. During the Week you will be connected to thousands of people, churches and communities around the world in a movement calling for change in the way food is grown, sold, distributed and shared. It is a time to lift up the voices of small-scale food producers, particularly women, to have choices on what crops to grow and how they can grow these crops.

The Week in October goes from October 10-17, Sunday to Sunday and is a key time for action:

12 October is Indigenous Peoples' Day
15 October is International Day for Rural Women
16 October is World Food Day
17 October is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Also, 11-16 October is Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Committee on Food Security (CFS) meeting, Rome, Italy and good time to advocate for FOOD for ALL! FOOD for LIFE!

The EAA, with help from PCUSA, has produced a Resource Guide for the Week of Action -- Download Food-week-guide2010. The guide offers action ideas, as well as worship resources, including a liturgy and a prayer card.

Hold a Sunday worship service (which is in Word, so you can download and modify it for your church) on food and gender on the Sunday at the beginning or end of the Week of Action or on both days. And you can also find many other resources here.

What can I do?

• Hold a worship service focused on food and gender on the Sunday at the beginning or end of the Week of Action or on both days.
• Use or adapt the liturgy found in the EAA resource guide.
• Encourage a national letter writing campaign calling national governments to safeguard communal land against land grabbing using the EAA Model Letter
• Adopt, adapt, collect signatures and send to the same people/institutions on the same day.
• Organize an Agape meal prepared with food produced by women or purchased from fair trade shops and invite guests (including local politicians, press, celebrities etc). Use the EAA prayer card before meals.
• Enter the EAA Food for Life competition by writing and submitting sermons on food and gender for promotion in 2011. Details of the competition will be available online during the Week of Action or you can write to [email protected]
• Let the media know about your events or write a letter to the editor to let more people know about the issues around food and gender.
• Tell us what you are doing! Inspire others and share your ideas by sending information on your events and actions to [email protected]

More action ideas are available in the Resource Guide! Download Food-week-guide2010

Like the Churches Food Week of Action facebook page and post what you are doing there!