The Center for Food Safety (CFS) “is a non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy membership organization established in 1997 by its sister organization, International Center for Technology Assessment, for the purpose of challenging harmful food production technologies and promoting sustainable alternatives.” CFS has several campaigns going to help educate us about what to eat and what is just not safe. For example,
Recently, talking about the food crisis globally on our sister site Feel Good Style, I also thought about these same issues domestically, here in the United States, and rediscovered Feeding America (previously known as Second Harvest). Feeding America is a national supporter of local food-banks and kitchens, and they do all this through the use of grants. In their call for help they state that 35 million in the US don’t know where the next meal is coming from, stating that “one in eight Americans is struggling with hunger. Our goal is to fill their bowls with food, and their hearts and minds with hope.”
Not only is this cause to donate, but I am also reminded of how helping at a soup kitchen is one of those things that just feels really good. Their willingness to engage civil society to help care about starving citizens, shows how anyone can make changes to help the starving locally. Perhaps you own a farm, or a big garden and can donate something fresh? Or become a corporate sponsor? Feeding America states that “as a charity with national reach, we can engage the public and raise awareness of this critical issue on a national and local level.”
Another chef on my personal short list for the White House (Kitchen) Cabinet would be Bryant Terry. He cooks some amazing food as you can tell from his “Eco-Soul Kitchen” posts at TheRoot.com and the pages of his cookbooks, Grub and the forthcoming Vegan Soul Kitchen, but it is Terry’s work in the realm of food justice that makes me want him talking with our next president over dinner.
That work includes his projects such as b-healthy! (Build Healthy Eating and Lifestyles to Help Youth), a multi-year initiative with the objective of empowering youth to create a more just and sustainable food system. Other projects include People’s Grub Parties in cooperation with the People’s Grocery, the Black and Green Fund, and the Southern Organic Kitchen Project, a program that will help bring nutrition education and food justice to historically-excluded urban communities in the South. Along with his knives, Terry would bring to the White House a unique understanding of the negative impacts of our agricultural policy on our nation’s people.
Chef Terry gave me a moment of time to fill out his “application” for the job.
What would you bring to the table as White House Chef?
Originally recommended to me by Reenita when I was asking about a tummy healer, Tulsi tea has proven to be one of my favorite refreshments. Organic India makes a variety of chai, green, jasmine and more, and it is a known comfort in India. Called Holy Basil, this tea aids digestion, and overall internal health for a healthy external glow. My choice Tulsi tea now is Organic India, please see their admirable vision and mission:
“To be a vehicle of consciousness in the global market by creating a holistic sustainable business modality, which inspires, promotes and supports well-being and respect for all beings and for Mother Nature.”
The harvest season readily invokes an aura of gratitude for those of us who frequent our local farmers’ market. We feel appreciation as we wander between the overflowing piles of pumpkins, winter squash and root crops – thankful for the flavors of the past bountiful season.
Yet what can we do to express such thanks? How do we channel such inklings of gratitude? Here’s where a dash of out-of-the produce box thinking can stir up rewarding ways to contribute to your local food system in creative ways above and beyond shopping routines. Yes, you could join a committee or existing organization. But sometimes the volunteer path less traveled can be the route to go, coming up with your own vision and project.
Just ask Melinda and Dan Hemmelgarn, long-time supporters of their Columbia Farmers’ Market. Blending their photography and writing talents with their passion for local agriculture, the imaginative duo created a fund-raising calendar featuring area farmers: Farm Hands – a Tribute to the hands that feed us.
I’m a card carrying member of Slow Food USA and one of the founders of Slow Food Rogue Valley southern Oregon Convivium. I believe it’s my duty and privilege to pass along the follow information about the Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture. I encourage you to endorse it, sign it and comment on it, NOW.
Searching for that truly virtuous cup of coffee? If you’ve looked into the impact of your morning cup of joe recently, chances are you know that most coffees are their greenest when they’re still on the plantation, or maybe the tree.
Roasting, shipping, marketing, bagging and processing all take a lot of energy, and most coffee in the world travels a fair distance before it ends up in our french presses. Coffee is an equatorial crop, and we don’t all live on the equator.
Hershey’s, in an attempt to counter rising food costs, has replaced the cocoa butter in many of its candies with vegetable oil, effectively changing their product from “milk chocolate” to “chocolate candy”. Cocoa butter is the ingredient that gives milk chocolate it’s creamy mouthfeel, and it will be noticably absent from Whachamacalits, Mr. Goodbars, Milk Duds, and Krackels, although Hershey’s claims that Hershey Bars, Kisses, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups will remain unchanged.
Sigh. Why bother with any of them? Although Hershey’s has made attempts towards more fair tradepractices, they’re far from green or ethical. There’s several other ways to get your chocolate fix while supporting responsible companies. Find out how, after the jump…
Foodies love to forage for new discoveries at the farmers’ market, often finding fresh produce booty at the booth of a new immigrant farmer. From gai cho, an Asian mustard cabbage favored by the Hmong, to epazote, a pungent Mexican herb, new flavors and possibilities can increasingly be found as these immigrant farmers grow in number.
But supporting these new immigrant farmers can go beyond unique produce experimentation. We currently don’t grow nearly enough produce in the United States to meet dietary guidelines domestically. This country desperately needs more farmers to raise fruits and vegetables. With only 2 percent of Americans still farming, even the Census doesn’t count agriculture as a profession anymore. With each of us, aside from Native Americans, having immigrant roots of some sort, supporting new ethnic farmers draws on that American pioneer sprit that the land can gift you with a livelihood.
Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant and author Michael Pollan agree to disagree over the world’s food crisis…kinda.
In an unlikely pairing, both Michael Pollan and Monsanto’s CEO Hugh Grant sat down with Google.org and YouTube for a discussion on the world’s food crisis. The two had met and became friends upon visiting the Doomsday Seed Vault in Norway.
I know it’s over a month away, but with the cooler weather that has set in, my kids and their friends are suddenly all a buzz about Halloween.
I usually don’t buy my Halloween candy until Halloween morning. If I buy it any earlier, it doesn’t last until October 31st and I end up buying more that day anyway. But this year, I just ordered my first bunch of Halloween candy. This won’t be candy that I’ll be handing to the kids who knock on my door. It’s candy that my boys will be handing out as they go door to door.
They will be taking part in Reverse Trick-or-Treat, a program that Global Exchange is sponsoring. From their website:
This year, Trick-or-Treaters across the US will unite to help end poverty among cocoa farmers and promote Fair Trade as an alternative by giving Fair Trade chocolate back to adults while Trick-or-Treating door-to-door in their communities. Each chocolate is attached to a card with information about problems in the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade provides a solution.
What is so special about Fair Trade chocolate? For chocolate to be Fair Trade Certified, the farmers who grow the cocoa beans must be paid a fair wage for their crop. Some of the other criteria for Fair Trade Certification include using sustainable growing practices, providing workers with safe and healthy working conditions, and making sure that no abuse of child labor occurs.
