Beans of Affliction: Demand Fair Trade Chocolate for Pesach!

Cocoa bean pods
Photo credit: Fair Trade Judaica

Ilana Schatz, who taught a workshop on fair trade chocolate that I attended at last year's Hazon Food Conference, has posted a petition on her website, Fair Trade Judaica, demanding that Barton's, the world's largest supplier of kosher-for-Pesach sweets, sell fair trade chocolate for Pesach.

This is a pretty clear no-brainer to me. I mean, how can we possibly celebrate our deliverance from slavery in Egypt by eating chocolate produced with child (and sometimes slave) labor?

Sign the petition here and tell all your friends.

I've got good news and bad news...

I wanted to give a shout out to those members of Congress who signed the bicameral letter requiring the FDA to label genetically engineered foods.

Here's the full news release from the Center for Food Safety.

Particular kudos to Pete DeFazio for taking the lead on this issue, along with Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici. Let's hear it for Oregon's congressional delegation!

What's particularly impressive is the amount of public interest in this issue; in just six months, the FDA has received over 850,000 signatures demanding GE labeling.

And now, the bad news:

Not that this should come as a surprise to anybody, but megacorporations are co-opting the work of anti-hunger organizations. You can read more about it here. My favorite (ironic) part of this article:

"Tres Bailey, Walmart’s Senior Manager of Agriculture and Food, listed off the accomplishments the company has made in its first year of its $2 billion commitment to supporting anti-hunger efforts: 250 million pounds of food donated to food banks; $67 million in grants made; with another $13 million of nutrition education grants in the works.

This sounds impressive until one considers what Mr. Bailey did not mention: the fact that the average Walmart worker, of which there are 1.4 million in the US, earns $8.81 per hour. At this pay rate, a single parent with one child working full time would qualify for food stamps."

Tikkun Olam Service about Food

Join Havurah Shalom, one of Portland Tuv Ha'Aretz's partner synagogues, for a special Tikkun Olam (repair of the world) service about ethical food choices on Friday, March 23. The service will feature Tuv's partner farmer, Shari Raider, of Sauvie Island Organics, and other Havurah members working in the area of sustainable, ethical food choices (note: this is not a discussion of kashrut). This service is open to the entire community.

If you'd like to sign up for the 6:30pm soup and salad vegetarian dinner that precedes the service, (registration ends March 16), click here for more info. If you'd like to just come to the service, which begins at 7:30, you don't need to register, but you can also find more info on the link above. Dinner is catered by Maize, which sources local ingredients from Oregon farmers. There are gluten-free and dairy-free options available.

Limited scholarships for the dinner registration are available, as is childcare. Please contact Havurah Shalom for registration and childcare information.

Chag Purim sameach

A great message from American Jewish World Service:

Hate to say I told you so, but...

Photo credit: itbeganinAfrica.com

Awhile back, I wrote a post about why the Gates Foundation worries me. At the time, some folks suggested I was anti-technology and showing my Luddite side a bit too obviously. Others suggested the analogy I made, between the Gates Foundation's work eliminating malaria and its interest in promoting GMO crops as a solution to food production problems in Africa and India, wasn't valid.

Well, to all those doubters out there...

I TOLD YOU SO!!!

Remember you heard it here first, but check out this editorial from the Seattle Times:

Bill Gates' Support of GM Crops is Wrong Approach for Africa

Did you know that smoking causes cancer?

Photo credit: Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA)

Photo credit: prttynpink1120

File this under "Whodathunkit?" or "You don't say," or "Doh!!!" whatever expression you use to convey the total obviousness of any given comment.

Another good title for this piece would be Malcolm X's quote about chickens coming home to roost, which is perhaps more apropos, since this is the result of the industrial food system's insistence on raising animals on factory farms.

In any event, I still think it's good to publicize the results of our unnatural and unhealthy and unethical and unjust factory farming practices, however obvious one thinks the inevitable outcomes of such practices are.

Of particular interest might be the one comment posted on the Globe and Mail's site, which I totally disagree with. If I were a conspiracy-minded person, I'd say it was written by a representative of the industrial food system masquerading as a private citizen, but you can draw your own conclusions...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/paul-taylor/agricultural-folly-spawns-superbugs/article2348184/

Occupy the Food Movement

Anna Lappé

Check out this  interesting and thought-provoking post from Eric Holt-Giménez of Food First about how the Occupy Movement and the Food Movement could combine in a significant intersection that could really make concrete differences in the control of our food system:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-holt-gimenez/occupy-the-food-supply-co_b_1299421.html

Also this post from Anna Lappé and Willie Nelson (yes, that Willie Nelson) about occupying the food system:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willie-nelson/occupy-food_b_1299401.html

and lastly a link to the Rainforest Action Network, which is promoting Global Occupy the Food System Day (which happens to be today):

http://www.ran.org/occupy-our-food-supply