All day, everyday, we do it without really thinking about it. Pull that coffee filter full of spent grounds out of the machine after your morning cuppa, and toss it into the kitchen trash. Grab a paper towel from the office pantry to serve as a napkin for your lunch break, wipe your mouth and [...]

The most striking aspect of my time in Israel with the group, Interfaith Peace-Builders, was in many ways the lack of compassion and the high levels of complicity, which brought to light just some of the ways that we as Americans are blinded by our own complicity and lack of compassion. It is easy to [...]

Israelis are setting up tents around the country in this newest phase of protest against the rising costs of living. That may be the only news of Israel you’ll see this week, aside from the gunfire exchanged between Israeli and Lebanon troops on the border Sunday, but you would be unlikely to see any other [...]

Last week, we talked a little about how to give a great presentation. But what if you’re not giving a talk, but hosting one? Maybe you have donors coming to speak about why they support your work, or students wanting to learn about careers in philanthropy. Maybe you’re throwing a book launch party for your [...]

Believe it or not, I recently heard a bad non-profit spokesperson. This individual spoke for forty minutes, and spent half his time either promoting himself, or being openly aggressive with members of the audience. “Devil’s advocate,” he called it. I have no recollection of what his organization did. But I hope never to be stuck [...]

Inhabitants of Philadelphia’s Crane Arts Building have a novel approach to the increasing cost of energy: make their own. To be fair, the inhabitants aren’t exactly strangers to solar energy. The building houses Solar States, which works to eliminate barriers to solar energy. When the company was looking for their first installation, they simply looked [...]

I had been working on a piece about Tunisia, Egypt, and the domino effect of people inspired to take action against dictators and despots throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East, but now it seems we have taken that push for real democracy to heart here in the United States. When decades-old regimes were pushed [...]

Today is the big V Day. Maybe you’re selecting flowers that benefit a charity. Maybe you’re still researching fair trade chocolates for cacao content and worker conditions. Maybe you’ve torn up the sixteenth draft of the sonnet you’ve written your sweetie. If you’re still stumped (or even if you’re all set), there’s one thing you can [...]

Today is Day 21 of 21 Days for World Hunger. For nearly three weeks I have had the indescribable honor of joining four Conducive Chronicle writers who have been diligently and persistently, passionately and assertively working to shed some light on the issue of world hunger. We’ve been researching, interviewing, writing and reducing our caloric [...]

Some are questioning as to whether the motives of Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity is a fun comedic event to unite folks or a step toward political activism.

Finding solutions to hunger is not easy, and as we continue on with our 21 Days for World Hunger series, it’s important to ask ourselves honestly if we’re ready and willing to be leaders in the fight.

Dr. Roba, one of my all-time favorite social justice activists, works endlessly to help deal with the issue of poverty and hunger in Ethiopia. He is focused on both human advocacy and animal advocacy

Today is Day 18 of 21 Days for World Hunger…and counting…according to the empty pit in my stomach.  Much like the last series, I am trying to eat like (as in as little as) the majority of the nearly one billion people who are living with hunger.  I am reminded that I don’t like being [...]

Today is Day 17 for World Hunger, and after more than two weeks of my fellow writers sharing their research, knowledge and talents on the ubiquitous issue of world hunger, I am rounding out this journey with the first of five articles focused on activism. According to the Free Online Dictionary, activism is defined “as [...]

As hunger is such a widespread problem, I cannot know or address every potential cause, but I can share with you some of the biggest, most widespread causes, those being poverty and high cost of living, a lack of access to good food, and an overall confusion about how to find help.

Under the guise of mass production to feed the world’s hungry, Big Agra has artificially and genetically altered staple crops like corn and soybeans. And while this seems to be a noble cause, the introduction of genetically modified organisms or GMOs into our food supply may have far-reaching negative consequences.

With such a high percentage of foods containing GMOs in some way, shape or form, you may be asking yourself how you can possibly avoid what I’ll call the GMO Bad Nasties. And with over 70% of the food in grocery stores today containing some sort of GMO, admittedly this is a tough one. Luckily, there is a way. One of the best ways to avoid GMOs is to go organic.

So, how do corporations and politics, food production and distribution tie in with world hunger? As previously mentioned, it’s complex. While there are many “experts” who point the finger at overpopulation for the reason that nearly one billion people in the world go hungry, I submit that the root cause lies within inherently flawed production and distribution systems.