Solutions for World Hunger Part III

Courtesy of Thom Quine/flickr

In Part I of Solutions for World Hunger, I suggested some ways to stay informed, as well as a list of movies to watch and books to read. For Part II, I focused on sustainable giving and various ways to take action including becoming a laptop advocate. With Part III, I ask you to consider an earth-centric lifestyle. Again, keep in mind this is not an all-inclusive list and I welcome your ideas.

Consider an Earth-Centric Diet

Okay, I made that up, earth-centric. But here are my thoughts, take them or leave them. If you truly care about your health, the health of your children, the earth or other people, then I am imploring you to consider some changes toward a plant-centric diet. I could burden you with more statistics and studies, but I don’t believe that’s necessary. Chances are you’ve seen it already, and some of the books I’ve listed are fabulous resources that offer information in much greater detail. There’s a reason your mother used to tell you to eat your vegetables. Unlike the millions of dollars pumped into marketing for the meat, dairy and agrochemical industries, her demands had nothing to do with being conditioned by false advertising. Intuitively, most humans know that eating nontoxic plant foods from the earth is the healthiest thing to do for our bodies. We are learning that this may be one of the only truly sustainable ways to feed the world.

Yet, still so many people believe they must eat animal products to be strong and healthy. They believe that animals can be the only source of certain amino acids or minerals. Perhaps they simply grew up on eating animals, it’s all they know and is a protected part of their culture. I used to be part of that tribe myself. I grew up in a culture that was so hunting-oriented that the first day of deer season was a school holiday – banks and post offices were closed. I saw firsthand from where my food came. While I refused to skin any animals and turned my head from watching a deer being bled-out, I was intimately familiar with my food – more than I cared to be. I ate ducks, deer and geese. Now more than ever I appreciate ducks, deer and geese – the live ones running through the forest or flying overhead.

Way back when…I used to think that vegetarians were self-righteous, and all the while I was behaving like a meat-righteous carnivore. This is what psychologists call in the business, projection. I used to be one of those folks who wanted nothing to do with someone spewing on about vegetarianism, even though I actually was quite fond of vegetables. Even if I ate vegetables at least twice a day because I knew they were good for me. I didn’t want to be told what to do. In retrospect, rarely was someone telling me what to do. My defenses got in the way of hearing the real message from those thriving on a plant-based lifestyle; the message that whole plant foods are really good for you and are the healthiest way to living fully. I would interpret those messages as commands or demands. They were neither. Having lived on both sides of this fence, I see others reacting with the same guardedness, defensiveness. From my perch and experience, that cautious self-protection has more to do with an internal conflict than it does with external messages. Contemplation is one of the first steps toward change. With contemplation comes strife, defenses and the spectrum of feelings – anger included. Here’s what I’m suggesting: If you feel conflicted, listen to all parts of that internal conflict. There’s a reason it exists.

Again, I’m not going to tell you what to do. This problem may be difficult to fully understand given the complexity of the situation and the marketing dollars that contribute to the brilliant campaigns of the meat, dairy (uh em, who do you think bought out the ADA with the original food pyramid putting meat at the top?) and agrochemical industries who play on a population too easily conformed by over-marketization and information overload. However, the reality remains that a plant-centric diet is one of the surest ways to live a long, healthy life, to share prosperity and to feed more people.

Our Behaviors Impact One Another

I’ve heard many times over how folks do not see the connection between their lifestyles/diets and the impact on world hunger. Humans are part of a whole – a small part of a larger organism. Until we begin to think holistically then surely it will be more difficult to understand the problem. We thrive on this earth despite large-scale egocentric thinking that the earth and her inhabitants are here for us. Long after humans are gone, the earth will still be here. Until we as a unit (not Americans, not Chinese, not Africans but we as humans), a collective consciousness, realize that our behaviors impact and are impacted by one other and until we actually do something to improve the situation, I fear we are headed to a catastrophic outcome…again for humans. The earth will still be here with or without us. I worry about starving children. I worry about biodiversity. I worry about the legacy we’re leaving our children, and the mess they’ll have in cleaning up a slew of sludgy decisions.

Human behaviors that negatively impact other humans is not new news. Even twelve years ago, The Worldwatch Institute wrote, In a world where one in every six people goes hungry every day, the politics of meat consumption are increasingly heated, since meat production is an inefficient use of grain – the grain is used more efficiently when consumed directly by humans. Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grains to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat eaters and the poor.

And sure, I get it – you don’t eat a lot of grain anyway. To me, this is more about meat consumption and industrial agriculture. The point is, large-scale agriculture growing mono-crops for the sake of feeding animals is preventing small-scale crop farmers from flourishing; is wreaking havoc on the earth, is not sustainable, is overfeeding those who can afford to buy meat, and is ultimately taking food out of hungry mouths. Just as a sidebar: If we Americans didn’t have socialized…I mean subsidized meat and dairy and actually had to pay the true cost, most of us would not be able to afford to eat animal flesh and drink animal secretions.

Small-scale and Organic Crop Farms

This brings me back to organic farming. By nature, organic farming employs the planting of diversified crops that support one another. It’s fascinating stuff. One crop may attract a certain insect, such as a ladybug that preys on the pest insects of another crop, like pests, aphids and mites.

Organic farming supports fertile soil through a number of methods including crop rotation and by not using synthetic toxins; it relies on biodiversity to keep crops healthy. Industrialized farming employs mono-cropping. Mono-cropping by nature (okay, not by nature…by man) is unstable, and it is not seen in nature. Nature doesn’t do it, because nature knows it’s not efficient or sustainable. It requires more inputs to work effectively. These inputs include pesticides, chemical fertilizers, fossil fuels, etc. These inputs also reduce biodiversity, in return harming nature’s chances of taking care of herself. Industrial agriculture relies on mono-crops; hence supporting any small-scale farmer (ideally organic or those farmers who are not using synthetic pesticides) is an important step in caring for humans and the earth.

In a recent VegNews article Feeding the Future, Mark Hawthorne quotes the Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) Director General, Jacques Diouf:

One-third of the world is made up of farmers owning and working a small piece of land, and supporting them would be ‘the most effective way to eliminate hunger from the face of the earth.’

In a recent article entitled Women Farmers Can Play a Big Role in Reducing World Hunger, says New Report, Voice of America discussed how women in developing countries are producing most of the food, up to 90 percent in some countries, yet investment in agriculture, support, tools and credit are not available for women farmers.

Peter O’Driscoll, executive director of ActionAid USA states:

There was an idea that if we simply got the government out of agriculture, and allow the private sector to come in, we’d have a more efficient and effective food system. Unfortunately, the results are that number of hungry people has actually dramatically increased over that time.

He adds:

There’s a tremendous body of evidence that investment in sustainable agricultural techniques – in multi-cropping, diversified cropping, in agro-ecological composting and various other forms of low cost, low external input agriculture – can actually be extremely productive.

Eat Local Act Global

As previously mentioned, every expert with whom I spoke during the course of this project – each and every one – said to eat locally grown produce as often as possible. Support your local small-scale farmers.

Regarding actions Americans can take to alleviate the problem of world hunger, Tom Cole, a Livelihoods Advisor for Save the Children shared,

I would say that Americans can eat locally or regionally, which means to eat seasonally. Understanding that tomatoes are not available year-round or peppers or melons at the local markets (though you go to large supermarket chains, even the Whole Foods, and you can get fruit and vegetables flown in from around the world) so that you should only eat fresh tomatoes when you start to see them in your local farmers markets. Also, if your children are in public schools, people can push to make the school lunch system in those schools or districts much more tied into local farmers and local production- and by using these fresher produce the schools should be serving meals made from scratch. Check out Edible Schoolyard in Oakland/Berkeley or S’cool Food Initiative in Santa Barbara county for some good ideas on that front.

If you don’t have access to locally grown food, use your imaginative mind. Find out how you can make it happen. Check to see if there’s a co-op (a cooperative is a business owned by a group of people for their shared benefit oftentimes related to food) in your area that can help support the process of bringing in/growing more local vegetables. Here is one example of a Co-op Directory Listing. You can also do a Google search to learn more and to see about your specific area. Hopefully there is a suggestion or two that you can glean from these solutions posts to help as well.

Corporate Control of Food...skipping all the way to the bank

I fear the corporate take-over of food. Our food is being radically changed by biotechnology. Biotech food is about profits. It’s a business. Let’s be clear about that. I’m not anti-business. I wholeheartedly support ethical for-profit entities. What’s shocking to me is how this lesson of failing quick fixes (for example, genetically modified crops grow more food faster), the proverbial silver bullet, the golden hammer, gets learned over and over in different capacities. I cannot think of any quick fixes that have not resulted in the need for long-term damage control. Any solid problem solving model with which I’m familiar (and this is part of my consulting business, so I’ve been exposed to numerous models) focuses on finding the root cause of the problem and solving from that point. Quick fixes are symptomatic fixes. While I agree with quick fixes in dire circumstances, urgent need for food during times of crisis and natural disaster, quick fixes in lieu of long-term solutions are not likely to work.

What works? Small-scale farmers having control over their production works. Organic farming works. Policy that protects the right to food works. Social justice in the form of fair trade works. Citizens having full disclosure about their food so they can make informed choices works. A corporate boardroom filled with presumably unethical deciders in St. Louis choosing the food production for people in Ethiopia (who are not involved in the decision) does not work regardless of how well or not-well intentioned they are. Again, I’m owning my opinion, yet my opinion is based on loads of research. Still it’s my opinion. I’m not a scientist. I only play one on tv…still – that cracks me up every time!

In a recent article by Natural News entitled Bayer admits GMO Contamination out of Control, Bayer admits there is no way to control the spread of genetically modified crops.

If this concerns you, rightfully so. But hopefully it doesn’t prevent you from moving forward. I don’t see resignation as a viable option at this point. Now more than ever we need to unite our consumer power and say No more! to the corporatization of food – to allowing Agrochemical companies making decisions about your health. Just the fact that companies dealing with genetically modified foods are called Agrochemical companies should be a clue into the problem. When purchasing food, ask relevant questions first. Ask your local grocers and restaurants if they know from where their food comes. Let them know you want non-GMO food – assuming this is your truth.

An article by Nature News entitled What it will take to feed the World shares an interview with Marion Guillou, the chief executive of France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research. There Guillou is quoted with some hopeful news regarding the first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development:

Developing countries at the conference also sent a strong message about the return in strength of family farms; that making these more productive is key to both alleviating poverty and meeting local and global food demand. It’s a new political message: count on and help small farms. The international focus has long been on large-scale industrial farming, so this changes quite a few things.

Industrial farming and even manufacturing are, in some places, wiping out small-scale farms. The westernization of countries causes meat consumption to rise. The Chinese consume nearly three times more meat than they did three decades ago. Naturally, they are experiencing more illnesses as a result.

More meat requires more water, more land for animal agriculture. More water, more land, and more grain for animals equates to more meat for the wealthy (as in people who can simply afford to buy meat regardless of where it is being sold) and less food for everyone else, and the everyone else is more than 1/6 of the world’s population.

Again, I’m not attempting to tell you what to do. I am, however, strongly suggesting – imploring even – that you consider an earth-centric lifestyle and to become intimately familiar with your food. Know your food. Build a relationship with it. Know where it comes from and take a stand against industrialized agriculture. Take a stand against the corporate control of your food. Take a hard look at the genetically modified ingredients in your food.

Agrochemical companies consider GMO’s to be sustainable. Sadly, the word sustainable is being abused by companies who do just the opposite. It’s become a loaded buzzword now and that stinks, because it’s a really really good word! Studies have been conducted all over the world with small organic farmers. Generations of organic farming craft have proven to be the most sustainable, yet because these small-scale farmers don’t have million dollar corporations backing them up; they could potentially crumble under the heavy-handed green (for money not for plants) thumb of corporate control. Some so-called experts (fueled by industrial agriculture) claim that organic farming will never work. It has worked and is working and will continue to work. Government subsidies are what help make industrial agriculture so affordable. Would it not make more sense to divert those tax dollars to small-scale farmers who are doing the hard work and reaping little benefit? To bolstering organic farmers who are positively impacting the earth and your health? I, personally, am extremely irked that my tax dollars go toward industrial agriculture. You can check out the Sustainable Table to learn more about the economic implications of both industrial and small-scale farming.

Organic Farmers Get a Boost

Well, there is some good news on the organic front. An April 15, 2010 SFGate article entitled Organic, local farms get a boost from USDA details how Obama officials outlined a broad array of efforts to elevate organic and local farming to a prominence never seen before at the sprawling U.S. Department of Agriculture. Turns out the conventional farmers are not too happy about this, but it’s good news for organic farmers. You can read more here.

If you’re like many folks who would like to buy organic but find it too expensive, check out Environmental Working Group’s Shoppers Guide to Pesticides. They have a downloadable guide of the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen to help determine which fruits and veggies are best to eat organic and which conventional fruits and veggies are okay to eat. Essentially, the guide helps the consumer to make choices that reduce harm while saving some money in the process.

Imagine wars over food. I feel safe in saying that I do not want to get into that kind of food fight. If you do anything, take a stand for your small-scale, local farmer. Oh and eat your vegetables. Your mother told me to tell you that.

Imagine if…

Imagine if greed could be transformed into giving. Indulgence into inspiration. Excess into progress. Choices into change. Eating into activism and calories into communal support. Imagine a world in which no small child had to feel the weakness and dis-ease of hunger and no mother the agony for her children’s suffering from starvation.

What would happen if every well-fed U.S. citizen were willing to donate one to five pounds of body weight in the form of calories to one starving person? This would equal 3,600 – 18,000 calories in the form of reducing meat consumption or of donating meals or through supporting local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). That list can go on.

Or what would happen if each American who cared about the issue of global hunger took one step toward eliminating the problem?

One courageous person with one inspired thought can start a movement. Perhaps it will be you.

Things You Can Do Right Now Starting Today or Tomorrow…

• Bypass your fast food stop on the way home from work. If you’re eating fast food, there is no doubt you are contributing to the perpetuation of industrial agriculture…and to your current or future health issues. One possible exception may be Subway Sandwiches. I have heard they are moving away from industrialized agriculture, but I don’t have enough information on that to state one way or the other. Anyone?
• You gotta have your soda? Sorry to say, but the U.S. Pepsi generation is the more like the Pepsi genetically modified generation. Same goes for Coke. High fructose corn syrup anyone? Not only that, but Coke has been involved in some nasty dealings with their bottled water; including the pollution and depletion of developing communities’ own water resources. Coke is no joke. Maybe you’re thinking, not to worry, because I drink Diet Coke. Again, sorry to burst your bubble. Aspartame, which has known health risks, is an ingredient derived from a risk-crop. As in, genetically modified. You can check out the NonGMO Shopping Guide to learn more. Of course, if you live in Europe, your Coke and Pepsi are non-genetically modified because the Europeans have said No Way! One stand you can take against corporatization of food is by standing up to Pepsi and Coke. I do believe these companies will change if enough people speak out about their unsustainable practices.
• Become a part of your local CSA– Community Supported Agriculture.
• Go to a farmer’s market and support the organic farmers or the conventional farmers who are not using synthetic toxins (some conventional farmers cannot call themselves organic even if they are not using synthetic pesticides).
• Discontinue your support for agrochemical companies including environmental toxins (pesticides, herbicides) and genetically modified foods. Does it not scare anyone that the same companies who produce toxins to kill things in your yard are also growing your food?! If it has high fructose corn syrup, canola oil, cottonseed oil, or soybean oil, it is likely genetically modified – unless is specifies otherwise. You can check out the Non-GMO Project to learn more about the ethical organizations who are taking a stand against GM foods, You can also check the Non-GMO Shopping Guide to learn more about at-risk ingredients. On the site Gather, the author discusses How to Decode Your Produce.

When looking at the PLU codes, these numbers may be helpful:

- a five digit number that starts with a 9 means the items is organic

- a four digit number that starts with 3 or 4 is conventionally grown

- a five digit number that starts with an 8 means the item is genetically modified, BUT there is no requirement for GM Foods to be labeled. So they may be labeled as conventionally grown. Until there is a law stating that GM foods must be identified, the consumer remains at risk. The Non-GMO Shopping Guide can help you understand which products to avoid.

• Eat for health..okay for fun too. Bring more whole foods into your life. Consider a plant-based diet? At the very least, try eliminating meat from your meals, even if it’s only for one-two days a week. Many studies have shown this could make a reasonable impact on the earth and world hunger. Who knows, you might just feel better while you’re at it.
• Grow Your Own or Support Your City to Grow a Garden!
  

Live in the city? No problem. Check out the site Urban Gardening Help to learn how to grow your own urban garden. I’m impressed with this organization, and they’ve been quite helpful in response to my questions. I highly encourage you to check them out. You can also learn how to compost in order to make the most fertile soil possible for your garden. While you’re at it, you can learn more about Clean Air Gardening and the eco-accessories available to help you plant with purpose.

How about supporting your city or town to grow an urban garden? There are many cities that are doing just that. Check out Community Garden to learn more and find the community gardens sprouting up all over the U.S. and Canada!

Elizabeth Maginnis recently wrote a post called Converting Urban Blight into Urban Farms. You can check it out and see what’s happening in Rochester, New York.

Even Michelle Obama is growing an organic garden on the South Lawn of the White House. This is the first vegetable garden planted since Eleanor Roosevelt planted her Victory Garden after WWII.

Organizations That Helped Me during the 21 Days for World Hunger Souljourn

Again, many thanks to the following experts and organizations who showed an outpouring of support during my 21 Days for World Hunger. Oh, and thanks to my amazingly wonderful husband who was subjected to reading many of the posts prior to publishing and who supports all my zany ideas.

Linda Cole of Community Action Fund for Women in Africa (CAFWA) This is an organization dedicated to helping women in Northern Uganda pull out of poverty. One doesn’t need a research study (even though there are many available) to know that by helping women, you build communities. Check out their compelling video, (password is oroko) with a voice over by Oprah telling the story of the plight of women and girls in Northern Uganda and how CAFWA is working hand-in-hand with many of them to rebuild after decades of conflict. CAFWA’s programs now involve 1400 women working in micro-financing, agricultural support work, natural resource management and adult literacy. The need is enormous and they could double the number of women and girls they work with if more funding became available.

Dr. Anteneh Roba with International Fund for Africa (IFA) is an organization that aims to support all Africans – humans and non-humans alike. IFA believes our human health, our treatment of each other and nonhuman animals, our relationships to Earth’s ecosystems and biosphere, our protection, management, and distribution of Earth’s wealth, and human relationships in a global community and economy are all directly connected to our fundamental attitudes about ourselves and how we fit in the natural world.

Dr. John McDougall, a physician and nutrition expert, whose website has loads of health information.

Peter Schweitzer, Lisa Wartinger, and Mark Miller from Plenty International is an organization that believes all life is connected and how we live affects the world. Plenty is committed to protecting and sharing the world’s abundance and knowledge for the benefit of all people.

Tim Galarneau of UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) upholding CASFS mission to research, develop, and advance sustainable food and agricultural systems that are environmentally sound, economically viable, socially responsible, nonexploitative, and that serve as a foundation for future generations.

Scott Killough and Erin Engelke of World Neighbors with a mission to inspire people and strengthen communities to find lasting solutions to hunger, poverty and disease and to promote a healthy environment.

Please share your triumphs and tribulations as you take a stand for your health, our earth and world hunger.

If we can get a dialogue started here, who knows what can transpire? In lieu of the original plan of starting a new Souljourn in April (21 Days of Rubbish), I intend to continue some leisurely research on the topic of world hunger including learning more about the connection between climate change and world hunger. I’ll see what I can pass along. For those who have been following along since the first Souljourn, I may combine 21 Days of Rubbish and 21 Days of Zero Consumerism into one experiment this summer. More on that as I figure it out.

I’m also planning to do another World Hunger Souljourn in October starting on or around World Food Day, October 16, 2010. Natasha (Tasha) Burge of Voracious Vegan is exploring her own World Hunger Souljourn the first week of May. I’m sure she would welcome any support, so please check out the Voracious Vegan. Tasha has also offered to join forces with me in October. I will pass along the details as I work them out. If you’re interested in joining us (for 1-3 weeks in October), you can subscribe to the RSS feed to check updates and/or follow me on Twitter (I’m a newbie so bear with me as I stumbletweet through it).

Many thoughts of gratitude to you for reading, for caring and for helping to make a difference.

Last but not least, some quotes to contemplate.

I understand, of course, that grain-fed meat is not the cause of the world hunger problem-and eating some of it doesn’t directly take food out of the mouths of starving people-but it is, to me, a symbol and a symptom of the basic irrationality of a food system that’s divorced from human needs. Therefore, using less meat can be an important way to take responsibility. Making conscious choices about what we eat, based on what the earth can sustain and what our bodies need, can help remind us that our whole society must begin to balance sustainable production with human need.
~ Frances Moore Lappé

Now I truly believe that we in this generation must come to terms with nature, and I think we’re challenged, as mankind has never been challenged before, to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature but of ourselves.”

~ Rachel Carson, author, Silent Spring

The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of “real food for real people” you’d better live real close to a real good hospital.

~ Dr. Neal Barnard

One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.

~ Henry David Thoreau

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

~ Anaïs Nin

To support the organizations I write about in the series, purchase a World Hunger: Be the Solution Tee. Proceeds from the shirt will go to the Small Planet Institute Fund and the International Fund for Africa. All tees are sweat free and available in organic cotton. To see the selection of World Hunger tees at Conducive’s Humanitarian & Human Rights Tee store, click here

To follow this series from the beginning, you can click the links below:

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 1

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 2

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 3

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 4

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 5

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 6

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 7

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 8

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 9

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 10

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 11

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 13

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 14

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 15

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 16

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 17

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 18

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 19

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 20

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 21

Solutions for World Hunger: Part I

Solutions for World Hunger: Part II