Food Security

The Joy of Raw Food
EList, October 7, 2006 (Pat Newson, EcoNews) - I turned vegan 10 years ago, just before turning 50, because I knew that what animals went through to become food was wrong. This was a huge turnaround for me. My health improved and my consciousness changed. Denial lifted and I was able to see how eating animals underlies much of the harm we do to the planet.As I approach 60, I have evolved to a raw vegan diet. It makes sense – eating food as Nature designed it, rather than changing it through heat and chemicals. My health has improved dramatically, along with another shift in consciousness. I am closer to Nature, and I trust my body as a miracle that is perfectly able to maintain balance and heal itself so long as I feed it the nutrients it needs. I am bypassing the pharmaceutical tyranny and I know I am contributing to the healing of my great mother, the Earth. See http://www.rawbc.org

Urban Agriculture / Local Living Economies

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Havana, Cuba. February 24 2006, (Megan Quinn, Permaculture Activist)- At the Organico de Alamar, a neighborhood agriculture project, a workers' collective runs a large urban farm, a produce market and a restaurant. Hand tools and human labor replace oil-driven machinery. Worm cultivation and composting create productive soil. Drip irrigation conserves water, and the diverse, multi-hued produce provides the community with a rainbow of healthy foods. In other Havana neighborhoods, lacking enough land for such large projects, residents have installed raised garden beds on parking lots and planted vegetable gardens on their patios and rooftops. http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/657

Rural Agricultural Rejuvenation / Food Security

Reclaiming Rural Culture
WEB Reference, October 4, 2006, (E.F. Schumacher Society) - The only energy source that we have complete control over is that of the human. Our ability to work, to draw sustenance from the lands around us comes from the tools we carry with us every day. The food we rely on comes from the accumulated knowledge of multiple generations, access to arable plots of land, and the strength of our backs. Only in the past five to six decades have we made a conscious effort to neglect our accumulated knowledge, sell our farms and watch the muscles whither from our shoulders. We have made this decision based on ease, and based on the assumption that the agricultural industry has our best interests in mind. In order to reclaim control over our food production, to remove ourselves from a food supply chain stretched thinner and thinner by increased productive centralization, we need to relearn our lost knowledge, reclaim our lost farms and reform our lost muscles. Farmers, especially young farmers, who are given the space and the support necessary will see that farming can be profitable for the individual, the community and the environment. By giving these farmers the opportunity to use the land as a teaching tool, we are investing in our security. http://www.schumachersociety.org/newsletters/06oct04.html

Local Living Economies / Green Sourcing

Avoid E. coli, buy Lo coli.
CALIFORNIA, USA, September 22, 2006 Alana Herro (Worldwatch Institute) - According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the most important thing consumers can do to respond to the current E. coli outbreak in the United States is to avoid eating spinach, the suspected source of the contamination. But Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer with the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, acknowledges that buying spinach that is locally-grown may be a safe alternative. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4540