I just love "occupy the pasture". Why not stage your own demo, reflecting your own economic justice values, in the case of the Larson family in Nebraska, growing their own food to take a stand against corporate agriculture.
http://www.grist.org/food/2011-10-21-occupy-the-pasture
Now, how about Occupy the Vineyard to protest mono-cropping here?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
World Food Day is Sunday
and today I am all about food.
I attended our local Food Policy Committee meeting this morning, am working on a sermon and some handouts for Sunday, and about to head out to buy some local cheese for coffee hour and a swing by the community garden, bringing in more tomatoes.
In my preoccupation I may forget to post something in the next few days. Here's a video from the Institute on the Environment, Global Land Initiative, University of Minnesota, that provides a good snapshot of the world's food system.
I attended our local Food Policy Committee meeting this morning, am working on a sermon and some handouts for Sunday, and about to head out to buy some local cheese for coffee hour and a swing by the community garden, bringing in more tomatoes.
In my preoccupation I may forget to post something in the next few days. Here's a video from the Institute on the Environment, Global Land Initiative, University of Minnesota, that provides a good snapshot of the world's food system.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
after much work
the product of the working group on food and environment of the Episcopal Committee on Science, Technology and Faith is finally up.
http://episcopalscience.org/resources/food-systems
A free downloadable booklet, just in time for Food Day.
http://episcopalscience.org/resources/food-systems
A free downloadable booklet, just in time for Food Day.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
but not to the South Pacific
I'm referring in the title for this post to the entry below - about moving.
Water supplies have run out in Tuvalu and Tokelau. The drought which precipitated (ouch!)this situation is the result of an El Nina effect in the Pacific. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15163543
But the situation is exacerbated by climate change. As sea levels rise, groundwater sources become saline. http://www.theworld.org/2011/10/an-island-nation-with-no-drinking-water/
Welcome to the world some people don't believe in and others think we can still head off.
While not strictly a food issue, the agriculture practiced in island nations is becoming threatened by the lack of fresh water.
Meanwhile, Samoa has begun rationing. And did you know that there are people in Fiji without access to potable water? Think about that when you see those square bottles on market and convenience store shelves.
What's the good news this St. Francis Day?
Water supplies have run out in Tuvalu and Tokelau. The drought which precipitated (ouch!)this situation is the result of an El Nina effect in the Pacific. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15163543
But the situation is exacerbated by climate change. As sea levels rise, groundwater sources become saline. http://www.theworld.org/2011/10/an-island-nation-with-no-drinking-water/
Welcome to the world some people don't believe in and others think we can still head off.
While not strictly a food issue, the agriculture practiced in island nations is becoming threatened by the lack of fresh water.
Meanwhile, Samoa has begun rationing. And did you know that there are people in Fiji without access to potable water? Think about that when you see those square bottles on market and convenience store shelves.
What's the good news this St. Francis Day?
Perhaps I'll move to Detroit...
but then I think about the cold, damp winters, and I wonder if that would be such a good idea. Still, this story on Sunday's weekend edition
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/02/140903516/the-gift-of-detroit-tilling-urban-terrain
about urban farming there warmed my heart.
Out of the ashes at the heart of America's notsogreat depression, comes the biggest boom in urban farming.
I do wonder what difference small scale farming in the city has made to the chronically poor and food insecure who live there, and would like to see more of the justice dimensions covered by the media - but still, this is hopeful.
And they have a pretty good ball team. Go Tigers!
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/02/140903516/the-gift-of-detroit-tilling-urban-terrain
about urban farming there warmed my heart.
Out of the ashes at the heart of America's notsogreat depression, comes the biggest boom in urban farming.
I do wonder what difference small scale farming in the city has made to the chronically poor and food insecure who live there, and would like to see more of the justice dimensions covered by the media - but still, this is hopeful.
And they have a pretty good ball team. Go Tigers!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
I'm still here...
but I've been so busy with food and food matters this month that I haven't had time to write anything for this blog.
Before Labor Day weekend I did an almost final edit of the copy for the Food Audit for Congregations which I've been coordinating for the Episcopal Committee on Science, Technology and Faith. It still has a few little things to be fixed up, but with some help from my fellow Committee members I think it will be up by October 1, available as a free pdf download.
I also wrote an article on how we can address environmental and economic issues at the same time through food system actions for the Association of Episcopal Deacons domestic poverty initiative. Unfortunately the AED web site does not have a link to that email blast - something I'll ask about.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to stimulate some activity in the churches around World Food Day, Sunday, October 16, and the new Food Day being developed here in the U.S. for October 24. Personally, I plan to celebrate World Food Day - I'll be preaching at my congregation - because I don't understand the provincialism of creating another one eight days later. But if you haven't read what I wrote about both for our diocesan email blast, picked up now by National Episcopal Health Ministries, here's the link: https://www.norcalepiscopal.org/foster-food-awareness-in-october
Here in Sonoma County we've had fall "back to business" meetings of the Policy Committee and the full Food System Alliance already this month, and I spent a good chunk of two days at last week's national - really international - Heirloom Expo - held at the Santa Rosa fairgrounds. An opportunity to see friends and make some, look at way too many varieties of pumpkin and winter squash, put in some volunteer time at the IGrow booth, hear a few speakers - and my favorite, beyond food, see some heirloom breeds of sheep - churro and shetland.
Organizing for gleaning in the Sonoma Valley is challenging - like managing a hydra - with the need to consider where and when to glean, who will glean, and when which organizations can take which kinds of produce. I was thrilled to learn all the Sonoma Valley Unified School District is doing with nutrition, school gardens and ag ed, and attended my first FFA fundraiser. I made some great contacts there! But I'm still chasing an opportunity for a first successful glean for which we can get some publicity this fall.
And, of course, there is my own garden, and the produce I attract from other people's gardens. I'm pretty tired of zucchini bread, even though I have three good and different recipes, and have been taking it to share at bible study, etc., and somehow I ended up with too many green beans. I have green beans in the freezer, some vegetable recipes, too, like ratatouille, and in jars zucchini pickle relish and dill beans. Now tomatoes are finally here in force and winter squash is on the horizon. I have more apples - 12 jars of sauce so far - and fragrant quinces from a friends mini-farm, too.
It's not over, either. This is a free weekend for me, so when I am not cooking - I'm thinking chutney which can go to the various church bazaars - I hope to catch the local seed savers' meeting, and maybe get to a few of the venues which I haven't visited on Sonoma County Farm Trails open farms weekend. October is looking like just one harvest feast after another, until the season wraps up - at least I hope it will - with the Community Garden Summit here on November 5.
Before Labor Day weekend I did an almost final edit of the copy for the Food Audit for Congregations which I've been coordinating for the Episcopal Committee on Science, Technology and Faith. It still has a few little things to be fixed up, but with some help from my fellow Committee members I think it will be up by October 1, available as a free pdf download.
I also wrote an article on how we can address environmental and economic issues at the same time through food system actions for the Association of Episcopal Deacons domestic poverty initiative. Unfortunately the AED web site does not have a link to that email blast - something I'll ask about.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to stimulate some activity in the churches around World Food Day, Sunday, October 16, and the new Food Day being developed here in the U.S. for October 24. Personally, I plan to celebrate World Food Day - I'll be preaching at my congregation - because I don't understand the provincialism of creating another one eight days later. But if you haven't read what I wrote about both for our diocesan email blast, picked up now by National Episcopal Health Ministries, here's the link: https://www.norcalepiscopal.org/foster-food-awareness-in-october
Here in Sonoma County we've had fall "back to business" meetings of the Policy Committee and the full Food System Alliance already this month, and I spent a good chunk of two days at last week's national - really international - Heirloom Expo - held at the Santa Rosa fairgrounds. An opportunity to see friends and make some, look at way too many varieties of pumpkin and winter squash, put in some volunteer time at the IGrow booth, hear a few speakers - and my favorite, beyond food, see some heirloom breeds of sheep - churro and shetland.
Organizing for gleaning in the Sonoma Valley is challenging - like managing a hydra - with the need to consider where and when to glean, who will glean, and when which organizations can take which kinds of produce. I was thrilled to learn all the Sonoma Valley Unified School District is doing with nutrition, school gardens and ag ed, and attended my first FFA fundraiser. I made some great contacts there! But I'm still chasing an opportunity for a first successful glean for which we can get some publicity this fall.
And, of course, there is my own garden, and the produce I attract from other people's gardens. I'm pretty tired of zucchini bread, even though I have three good and different recipes, and have been taking it to share at bible study, etc., and somehow I ended up with too many green beans. I have green beans in the freezer, some vegetable recipes, too, like ratatouille, and in jars zucchini pickle relish and dill beans. Now tomatoes are finally here in force and winter squash is on the horizon. I have more apples - 12 jars of sauce so far - and fragrant quinces from a friends mini-farm, too.
It's not over, either. This is a free weekend for me, so when I am not cooking - I'm thinking chutney which can go to the various church bazaars - I hope to catch the local seed savers' meeting, and maybe get to a few of the venues which I haven't visited on Sonoma County Farm Trails open farms weekend. October is looking like just one harvest feast after another, until the season wraps up - at least I hope it will - with the Community Garden Summit here on November 5.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Why we need SNAP
Speaking of NPR, yesterday on the way to church I listened to a story about Food Stamps.
How telling is it that this story was reported by a business reporter?
While she gave a good summary of the increase in the use of SNAP, as the program is now called, and all that in anticipation of more discouraging figures to be released this week, I found her analysis pretty ignorant.
It is not rising prices that necessitate the increased use of SNAP in the United States, but the high cost of everything else, high unemployment and sinking real wages, and the widening gap between rich and poor, including the working poor.
In our country working families spend as little as 9% of their income on food. The poor may spend a greater percentage, but nothing like the 50% or more that people in the poorest countries spend on nourishment.
Think about this: If the cost of grain, let's say corn, doubles, then for people in the two-thirds world, who are apt to buy the corn and grind it themselves as a staple food, for porridge or tortillas, the cost of food doubles. But for people in this country, who buy corn in the form of breakfast cereal, where only 10%, let's say, of the cost of a box of cereal actually goes for the corn in all its forms, then the cost of a $3 box of cereal becomes $3.30, only a 10% increase.
Our economic woes and inequities, not world food prices, are largely responsible for the need for supplements to people's incomes - which we give in the form of food assistance.
The reporter also opines that tax payers are not happy with putting food on other people's tables. Do those tax payers think about how they are supporting commodity crops (that corn again) which make their own grocery bill less expensive, and yield some of the foods which contribute to the ills driving up health care costs - also partially funded by their taxes. An ill nourished nation is a drain on all our pocketbooks in so many ways. Resenting helping some of our neighbors to eat a little bit better seems penny wise and pound foolish, nevermind mean spirited.
How telling is it that this story was reported by a business reporter?
While she gave a good summary of the increase in the use of SNAP, as the program is now called, and all that in anticipation of more discouraging figures to be released this week, I found her analysis pretty ignorant.
It is not rising prices that necessitate the increased use of SNAP in the United States, but the high cost of everything else, high unemployment and sinking real wages, and the widening gap between rich and poor, including the working poor.
In our country working families spend as little as 9% of their income on food. The poor may spend a greater percentage, but nothing like the 50% or more that people in the poorest countries spend on nourishment.
Think about this: If the cost of grain, let's say corn, doubles, then for people in the two-thirds world, who are apt to buy the corn and grind it themselves as a staple food, for porridge or tortillas, the cost of food doubles. But for people in this country, who buy corn in the form of breakfast cereal, where only 10%, let's say, of the cost of a box of cereal actually goes for the corn in all its forms, then the cost of a $3 box of cereal becomes $3.30, only a 10% increase.
Our economic woes and inequities, not world food prices, are largely responsible for the need for supplements to people's incomes - which we give in the form of food assistance.
The reporter also opines that tax payers are not happy with putting food on other people's tables. Do those tax payers think about how they are supporting commodity crops (that corn again) which make their own grocery bill less expensive, and yield some of the foods which contribute to the ills driving up health care costs - also partially funded by their taxes. An ill nourished nation is a drain on all our pocketbooks in so many ways. Resenting helping some of our neighbors to eat a little bit better seems penny wise and pound foolish, nevermind mean spirited.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)