CIP Writers' Bureau

Earth Elders for Elder Earth

Who are Earth Elders? And what is Elder Earth?

We Elders - 50 years old and older - are the traditional leaders of human communities. Human communities are part of the Earth. Elder Earth is the natural state of the Earth, without degradation from human activity, in all the splendor of its natural, life-giving vitality and processes.

Earth Elders are united by four principles and actions:

1. As Earth Elders, we use our collective experience, wisdom, heart and resources to focus on locally determined, powerful strategies and tactics towards the goals of preserving, restoring and expanding the overall vitality of Elder Earth into endless time.

2. Peace and Justice for Elder Earth go hand-in-hand with Peace and Justice for humans and all other species.

3. Earth Elders create and support various environmental and peace and justice organizations, in addition to taking independent actions for Elder Earth.

4. As Earth Elders, we will set healthy and effective examples of community activism, leadership and training for the younger members of our communities, meeting weekly to carry forth our responsibilities.

· In Humboldt County, one of our projects will be to provide on-going support for the Redwood Peace and Justice Centers in Arcata and Redway.

If you are 50 years old or older and want to serve the Humboldt County Community and the Earth, please join us on Monday, Sept. 6th and 20th at 7:00 p.m. for potluck get-togethers at the Redwood Peace and Justice Center at 1040 H street in Arcata to determine our future course. Contact Fhyre Phoenix at 826-7367 or e-mail fhyre@resist.ca for more information.

A Model from Abroad: The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies

Sometimes it helps to expand our horizons, and look beyond our continent to find examples of environmental sustainability and community involvement that can inspire and teach us. One such example is the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (Institute) in Israel.

The Institute is a regional center for environmental leadership located on the public Kibbutz Ketura in Arava Valley. This valley is a desert ecosystem near the Jordanian and Egyptian borders. By encouraging environmental cooperation between diverse peoples, the Arava Institute is working towards peace and sustainable development on a regional, and a global scale.

The Institute is home to academic programs, research and public involvement:

The academic programs emphasize the interdisciplinary, team-oriented and place-based philosophy of the Institute. Students and practitioners within the environmental field need to understand the complex context within which environmental decision-making takes place. This program teaches students to consider the ecological, cultural, moral and political issues involved in the decisions they make.

And, since in any field, leadership is most successful when teams of individuals join together, bringing various perspectives to light, this program encourages group projects, as well as dialogue. And finally, a sense of place is developed by considering environmental issues within their particular contexts. The Institutes’ students and instructors, as environmentalists, learn and come to understand the particular context of a kibbutz in the Arava Desert.

Students often best learn from doing, and the Institute’s students thus demonstrate the practical focus of the academic program as well. There is a strong emphasis on internships designed to deepen the students' knowledge of their particular specialization, while enlarging their understanding of the many concerns that can affect their chosen field. By becoming reflective practitioners, students gain the tools needed to be innovative environmental leaders.

The Institute’s mission goes beyond training and teaching to include contributing to the state of knowledge about environmental issues through research. Projects are often interdisciplinary in nature, involving the social and natural sciences that can have an effect on environmental issues. While faculty and students have freedom about their research agenda, the Institute encourages applied projects that will improve the quality of decision-making in environmental matters.

Research is divided into self-supporting centers that are headed by a faculty member with teams of research fellows providing critical support in a number of areas. When possible, students are encouraged to participate in ongoing research initiatives. Three research centers are currently operational:

• The Center for Research in Sustainable Agriculture
• The Center for Research in Environmental Policy
• The Center for Research in Biodiversity

Since the research program was initiated in 1999, the Arava Institute has received grants in excess of 6 million shekels (just a little over $6 million, using 8/12/04 exchange rates) from a range of local and international funding institutions. Two new centers are presently in the planning phase:

• The Center for Research in Archaeology and Human Ecology
• The Center for Research in Air Quality and Human Health

The Institute also demonstrates strong public involvement: A branch of the Institute, the Center for a Healthy Environment in the Arava, deals with environmental problems in the region. This center addresses different issues through involvement of local residents and NGO’s. The agenda is managed by representatives from the different communities and organizations in the southern desert.

The Center has brought together a coalition of environmental organizations that are involved in the region under a single "Center for Activism." Just a few of the partners in the consortium represented on the board of directors are the:

• Society for Protection of Nature
• Eilat Environmental Forum
• Kibbutz Lotan
• Friends of the Earth Middle East

The Center’s mission is threefold: 1.) to identify the key environmental issues in the Southern Arava; 2.) coordinating the environmental movement’s work in the Arava; and 3.) initiating eco-activism among local residents as well as national groups.

The specific challenges that the Center is working on right now include monitoring the transfer of IDF firing ranges to the region, monitoring of development projects, improvement of sewage treatment, preservation of natural sand dunes, promotion of integrated pest management in agriculture, declaration of new nature reserves, waste reduction initiatives and joint environmental work with Jordanian organizations.

As Israel becomes a more populated country, its open, natural spaces are disappearing. The desert that the Institute is located in makes up 30% of the country’s lands and constitutes its last major stretch of preserved country. It contains breath-taking vistas, as well as a refuge for humans and nature. However, development pressures are increasing and thus so are threats to this region’s environment. Up until recently, there was no sustained effort to conserve this last great stretch of Israeli wilderness. The Institute is trying to fill this void as best it can, mainly through the activities of its students and faculty. They are certainly an inspiration to all of us!
To learn more about the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, go to their website:
http://www.arava.org/

Carol Brodie
Galt, CA

Food Wars
The Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets
By Tim Lang and Michael Heasman

Additional Information...

Lang and Heasman argue that:

• UN bodies such as the WHO, FAO and UNICEF are too segmented, weak and divided from the more powerful, finance-led institutions such as the World Bank or World Trade Organization.
  
• Regional bodies such as the EU or NAFTA are dominated by an economic growth agenda that sees health as something that economies pay for when they have grown, rather than as something that enables an economy to give dignity to its people.
• 
  National bodies are focused on healthcare rather than the needed preventive ‘population’ approach. Politicians are too quiet before powerful commercial interests.
  
• Local bodies are weakened by the centralization of states and budgetary control.
  

Food Wars is a major overview of food policy that links:

• Human / public health, such as the co-incidence of obesity alongside hunger.
  
• Environmental degradation, such as the coming crisis of water shortage (on which agriculture depends).
  
• Consumer issues, such as marketing and food quality.
  
• Social justice challenges, such as inequalities of access and consumption.
  
• Governance issues, such as the lack of trusted institutions and nimble decision-making.
  

Food Wars is a wake-up call to decision-makers, arguing that the incremental reforms that have emerged during the last decade have been mainly driven by crisis management rather than evidence-led forward thinking.

Food Wars calls for:

• New thinking about food supply security – what planning is there for when oil supplies run down?
  
• New priority for non-communicable diseases within the development agenda, which is currently dominated by important issues such as access to medicines and healthcare availability, but is silent about creeping obesity, or the destruction of local food systems by highly marketed foreign foods.

Eating at Home: Focusing on Food Production & Food Security

The BC Food Systems Network Gathering is to be held September 16-19th at the Sorrento Centre. The title is Eating At Home, focusing on food production and food security. "Eating At Home" means eating what is produced here. As a result of the Cheap Food Policy, we find that many people cannot afford to buy healthy food -- the food that is affordable is 'cheap' in terms of nutrition -- while at the same time farmers are struggling to make ends meet. We are able to produce magnificent food here in BC. How can we ensure that it is available to everyone?


Similkameen vegetable farmer Lee McFadyen has agreed to work with us to search for strategies and policies to address these questions. Our understanding of "food security" has always included the need for viable local agriculture and food production, but our focus for the past several years has been on building awareness and policy on the link between food security and public health. We have also worked hard to develop awareness of the need for food policy in schools and in municipalities. The Sorrento Gathering will highlight some of the successes in these areas, the strategies and tactics used to achieve these successes, and the ways in which we as a Network can move this work forward in the next year.

• We will have a report from the BC Public Health Alliance on Food Security -- a joint committee of the provincial councils for Community Nutritionists, Environmental Health Officers, Medical Health Officers and Public Health Nurses
• We will receive the Community Nutritionists' report "Making the Connection - Food Security and Public Health and discuss the best ways of using it
• We will hear from the new Vancouver Food Policy Council and (I hope) the Saskatchewan Food Charter movement and discuss strategies to achieve food policy in municipalities
• We will hear about successful school food policies

An important element of the Sorrento Gatherings has been the leadership from First Nations. This year local elder Mary Thomas has agreed to talk about traditional foods and medicines and will also share her expertise in making birchbark baskets (for which she is justly famous). Dawn Morrison from the Shuswap Nation in Chase will lead a workshop on traditional knowledge and the issues relating to privatisation. And Trudy Jack will again provide leadership in the area of Food and Spirit.

Registration is $260 per person for the weekend, including program, food, and accommodation in the cabanas at the Sorrento Centre. Semi-private and private rooms are available at an extra cost. There is a limited amount of scholarship funds available. For more information, see our website, http://www.fooddemocracy.org/ or call Cathleen at 250-675-4866, email cathleen@ramshorn.ca.

Cathleen Kneen
S-6, C-27, R.R. #1Sorrento,
BC Canada, V0E 2W0
phone/fax: (250) 675-4866