Posted: 12/20/2012 1:49 pm
1. Growing the Cities: Food production doesn't only happen in fields or factories. Nearly one billion people worldwide produce food in cities. In Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, farmers are growing seeds of indigenous vegetables and selling them to rural farmers. At Bell Book & Candle restaurant in New York, customers are served rosemary, cherry tomatoes, romaine, and other produce grown from the restaurant's rooftop garden.
2. Creating Better Access: People's Grocery in Oakland and Fresh Moves in Chicago bring mobile grocery stores to food deserts giving low-income consumers opportunities to make healthy food choices. Instead of chips and soda, they provide customers with affordable organic produce, not typically available in their communities.
3. Eaters Demanding Healthier Food: Food writer Michael Pollan advises not to eat anything that your grandparents wouldn't recognize. Try eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole foods without preservatives and other additives.
4. Cooking More: Home economics classes have declined in schools in the United Kingdom and the U.S. and young people lack basic cooking skills. Top Chefs Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, and Bill Telepan are working with schools to teach kids how to cook healthy, nutritious foods.
5. Creating Conviviality: According to the Hartman Group, nearly half of all adults in the U.S. eat meals alone. Sharing a meal with family and friends can foster community and conversation. Recent studies suggest that children who eat meals with their families are typically happier and more stable than those who do not.
6. Focus on Vegetables: Nearly two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies worldwide, leading to poor development. The World Vegetable Center, however, is helping farmers grow high-value, nutrient rich vegetables in Africa and Asia, improving health and increasing incomes.
7. Preventing Waste: Roughly one-third of all food is wasted--in fields, during transport, in storage, and in homes. But there are easy, inexpensive ways to prevent waste. Initiatives like Love Food, Hate Waste offer consumers tips about portion control and recipes for leftovers, while farmers in Bolivia are using solar-powered driers to preserve foods.
8. Engaging Youth: Making farming both intellectually and economically stimulating will help make the food system an attractive career option for youth. Across sub-Saharan Africa, cell phones and the internet are connecting farmers to information about weather and markets; in the U.S., Food Corps is teaching students how to grow and cook food, preparing them for a lifetime of healthy eating.
9. Protecting Workers: Farm and food workers across the world are fighting for better pay and working conditions. In Zimbabwe, the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), protects laborers from abuse. In the U.S., the Coalition of Immokalee Workers successfully persuaded Trader Joe's and Chipotle to pay the premium of a penny-per-pound to Florida tomato pickers.
10. Acknowledging the Importance of Farmers: Farmers aren't just farmers, they're business-women and men, stewards of the land, and educators, sharing knowledge in their communities. Slow Food International works with farmers all over the world, helping recognize their importance to preserve biodiversity and culture.
11. Recognizing the Role of Governments: Nations must implement policies that give everyone access to safe, affordable, healthy food. In Ghana and Brazil, government action, including national school feeding programs and increased support for sustainable agricultural production, greatly reduced the number of hungry people.
12. Changing the Metrics: Governments, NGOs, and funders have focused on increasing production and improving yields, rather than improving nutrition and protecting the environment. Changing the metrics, and focusing more on quality, will improve public and environmental health, and livelihoods.
13. Fixing the Broken Food System: Agriculture can be the solution to some of the world's most pressing challenges--including unemployment, obesity, and climate change. These innovations simply need more research, more investment, and ultimately more funding.
Showing posts with label food system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food system. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
MONSANTO
Monsanto’s GMO corn has been linked to weight gain and organ function disruption, while GMO crops and pesticides destroy our farmland and environment. According to the Alliance of Natural Health, the grandchildren of rats fed GMO corn were born sterile. GMO is just one of those things to avoid, but with our own government in bed with Monsanto, it’s not easily done. Monsanto has recently launched a proverbial war against the open labeling of genetically modified foods, and only through activism and awareness can it be overcome.
Leaders in the disinformation campaign launched against the labeling initiative cry out that it would be—like the infamous Proposition 65, “The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986”—a way for bounty-hunting trial lawyers to file suits against even natural food companies for supposedly selling products containing undisclosed GMOs. Of course, GMO’s ally StopCostlyFoodLabeling.com receives funding from the Council for Biotechnology Information. It should be no surprise that the likes of Monsanto and Dow count themselves members of the said organization.
It hasn’t been long since the Food and Drug Administration deleted 1 million signatures and comments from the “Just Label It” campaign calling for the labeling of GM foods, even after 55 politicians offered support for the initiative. It only shows that the fight against GMOs won’t be easy (or cheap).
Still, it’s worth fighting.
Reading the STOP the Costly Food Labeling Proposition:
THE BOTTOM LINE: THE PROPOSED FOOD LABELING INITIATIVE IS EXTREME, COSTLY AND MAKES NO SENSE.
Right... right.
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-launches-campaign-stop-gmo-labeling/#ixzz20R0HXAa5
Leaders in the disinformation campaign launched against the labeling initiative cry out that it would be—like the infamous Proposition 65, “The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986”—a way for bounty-hunting trial lawyers to file suits against even natural food companies for supposedly selling products containing undisclosed GMOs. Of course, GMO’s ally StopCostlyFoodLabeling.com receives funding from the Council for Biotechnology Information. It should be no surprise that the likes of Monsanto and Dow count themselves members of the said organization.
It hasn’t been long since the Food and Drug Administration deleted 1 million signatures and comments from the “Just Label It” campaign calling for the labeling of GM foods, even after 55 politicians offered support for the initiative. It only shows that the fight against GMOs won’t be easy (or cheap).
Still, it’s worth fighting.
Reading the STOP the Costly Food Labeling Proposition:
THE BOTTOM LINE: THE PROPOSED FOOD LABELING INITIATIVE IS EXTREME, COSTLY AND MAKES NO SENSE.
Right... right.
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-launches-campaign-stop-gmo-labeling/#ixzz20R0HXAa5
SENSIBLE FOOD POLICY
Between 2008 and 2010, the US Farm Bill gave nearly 8x more financial subsidies to genetically engineered corn and soy (most of which is for livestock feed and high fructose corn syrup) than to support fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Consumption of fruits and vegetables has been on the decline in the US, while medical costs associated with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes continue to rise.
With more than $500 billion at stake over the next 5 years, the Farm Bill has immense and far-reaching impacts on crop subsidies, conservation policies, fresh food programs, and SNAP (food stamps).
Time to act is running out. Under the draft House version, federal crop insurance subsidies would drastically increase to an unprecedented average of $10 billion/year — with no subsidy caps, no income limits, and not even minimal conservation requirements.
-Ocean Robbins
With more than $500 billion at stake over the next 5 years, the Farm Bill has immense and far-reaching impacts on crop subsidies, conservation policies, fresh food programs, and SNAP (food stamps).
Time to act is running out. Under the draft House version, federal crop insurance subsidies would drastically increase to an unprecedented average of $10 billion/year — with no subsidy caps, no income limits, and not even minimal conservation requirements.
-Ocean Robbins
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