RE: Sustainable Eating Amidst Food Crisis

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

How the did food shortage happen??

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A modest proposal for sustainable eating
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San Francisco Chronicle
Katrina Heron
Sunday, August 17, 2008

http://www. sfgate. com/cgi-bin/article. cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/17/INCU...

No one knows less about food than us.
We, the American people, having inherited an extraordinary and unprecedented wealth of native and immigrant culinary traditions and knowledge - a kind of Alexandrian library of edible wisdom - no longer know how to feed ourselves

We love fast food, whether it's from a drive-through or a grocery aisle, and it's really bad for us. It's bad for our health, our culture, the environment.
In short, it's unsustainable

But our once-diverse food lore and skills have been scattered to the four winds. Our taste buds have been jammed on salt, sugar and every conceivable molecular permutation of corn.
We literally eat petroleum-derived substances, and ask for more

This is how we got here: Over the past couple of decades, processed food became more affordable, thanks to economies of scale, logistics and transportation developments, cheap oil and government crop subsidies, especially for corn, which quickly became the staple of our new national diet.
This, in turn, further centralized farm operations, threatening the markets for small farmers and the preservation of a diverse food supply

Essentially, the food economy was turned upside down, so that now, a cheeseburger and fries at a fast-food chain can cost less than a pound of sustainably and locally grown tomatoes

How do we kick our fast-food addiction and re-establish a relationship with what's good for us and good for the planet?

Most of us are stuck somewhere in the grief cycle Find your spot:

Denial: "There's nothing wrong with the food system"

Anger: "I don't have time for this"

Depression: "I can't do anything about it"

Bargaining: "What am I supposed to do?"

Acceptance: "We have to fix this"

More and more, people seem to be grouping at the last stage That's good news - but where do we go from here?

It's actually easier than it looks to start making a difference now. This was the impetus for Slow Food Nation, an expo and conference that we're modestly billing as the largest celebration of food in history.
We home in on celebration, because the pleasures of real food are the ultimate seduction, and because there's a little word in protective custody in California - fun

Staged over Labor Day weekend at Fort Mason and on Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco - where the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden is already flourishing - the event is part detox program and part renewal agenda.
Citizens, who are the heart of the event, will come away with a new awareness about food, ready to follow a 10-point checklist, shown on the preceding page, that makes the user-friendly South Beach diet look complicated

The 10-point checklist goes on, of course, and people can and should make priorities according to their personal means and interests

For example, a precious item on my list is: Teach children what you know.
In 2001, I started working with the restaurateur and food activist Alice Waters on her campaign to feed American kids healthy and delicious meals and reinvent the public-school lunch program

The Edible Schoolyard is a hands-on gardening and cooking program integrated into the public-school curriculum, teaching kids the principles of ecology, the origins of food and the cycles of all living things.
It also shows that we care to nurture our children and respect their future

Read The Rest HERE


Saad Hopkins, entering the University of Washington as a junior in the fall, gets groceries at the University District Food Bank in this July 15, 2008 file photo in Seattle In the past year, the price of groceries has jumped nearly 5 percent and the costs some staples like milk and bread--the core of a college diet--have shot up by more than 30 percent That's driving up demand at food banks and prompting some students to apply for food stamps

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Struggling College Students Turn to Food Banks
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Rising food prices bring new group to food banks: Struggling college students

Associated Press
By WHITNEY MALKIN
SEATTLE
July 25, 2008

http://abcnewsgocom/US/wireStory?id=5451082

Just blocks from the University of Washington, a line of people shuffle toward a food pantry, awaiting handouts such as milk and bread

For years, the small University District pantry has offered help to the working poor and single parents in this neighborhood of campus rentals Now rising food prices are bringing another group: Struggling college students

"Right now, with things the way they are, a lot of students just can't afford to eat," said Terry Capleton, who started a Facebook group called "I Ain't Afraid to be on Food Stamps" when he was a student at Benedict College in South Carolina

Some of the students are working their way through college with grants, loans and part-time jobs Others are just reluctant to ask parents for more money

"More and more, it's just the typical traditional student, about 18 to 22, that's feeling this crunch," said Larry Brickner-Wood, director of the Cornucopia Food Pantry at the University of New Hampshire

"There's definitely been an increase in usage and demand We're seeing more and more students that have never used the pantry before"

In the past year, the price of groceries has jumped nearly 5 percent, the highest increase in nearly two decades The cost of some staples has shot up by more than 30 percent

At the University District pantry in Seattle, demand has risen roughly 25 percent this year About 150 students visit each week during the school year

Membership in Capleton's Facebook group has steadily climbed, too, and sparked other online groups with names such as "I'm in College and I got on Food Stamps"

"A lot of students can't call their mom every day to ask for that extra fifty dollars," said Capleton, 24 "They're on their own"

Qualifying for aid at community food banks is usually easy Most of the charities just require users to show identification proving they live in the area

The Community College of Denver runs its own food-assistance program, which has seen demand double in the past year

"It's the highest I've ever seen," said Jerry Mason, the school's director of student life "Our assumption is it's because of the high price of food"

In response to demand, the school doubled the pantry's $3,000 annual budget

Food stamps are distributed through a Department of Agriculture program administered by the states But the agency does not track whether applicants are enrolled in college, so the number of students is unknown

Students generally are eligible for food stamps if they qualify for a state or federally funded work-study program; work at least 20 hours per week; have a child under the age of 12; or are taking employer-sponsored job training classes

Deirdre Wilson, a junior at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC, applied for food stamps in November because her paycheck from a work-study job didn't stretch far enough to cover her expanding grocery bill

"Before, when I lived in the dorms, I was on the meal plan," the 20-year-old said "Now that I'm in the apartment, I have to pay for food, and I have to pay my cell phone bill I don't make enough to pay for both"

John Camp, lead analyst for Washington state's food stamp program, said the requirements for assistance disqualify many students and dissuade others from applying People ages 18 to 25 make up roughly 8 percent of the state's food stamp users

In New Hampshire, some students are reluctant to apply for government aid

"There is a stereotype that well, if they're in college, they can afford to eat," said Brickner-Wood, the food pantry director "But there are some students who have hardly any disposable income, and because of that, the food budget suffers They either eat really badly, or they just don't eat enough"

Standing outside a campus market, University of Washington junior Doug McManaway wonders how he will afford to pay for groceries through the summer term

"I'm already really poor and on a really tight budget," he said "I have to pay rent, and after that there isn't much left over"

With just $100 left to last him through the end of the month, the 20-year-old said a food bank might be his best option

"It kind of grosses me out," McManaway said "But if my parents say, 'No, we're not going to give you any more money,' it may be a last resort"


Bulk food – soon to be a thing of the past?


CBS May 1, 2008 - For America's middle class, food prices are pinching a painful nerve, To combat inflation, thrifty shoppers are picking up staples in bulk


Reuters Jul 7, 2008- At a time when shopping bills are soaring, Britain has urged consumers to stop binning edible food worth millions of pounds Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called on people to cut down on needless waste in a bid to constrain runaway food prices

..WKRG. com Video..
Food Shortage in the USA - CBS April 23, 2008


Real News - Specter of food rationing hits US supermarkets 4-25-08


Food bank New York Emptied (April 2008)


Reuters May 6 - Skyrocketing food prices have sent people with jobs and homes to soup kitchens and food pantries in New York, The global food crisis is even gripping the world's richest nation



For Rebecca, browsing Dumpsters also is a way to protest the country’s rampant consumer culture She has salvaged furniture, clothes, art supplies and even appliances

For frugalists, bargain hunting is a lifestyle
For these extreme anti-consumers, your trash is their food, furniture
- June. 3, 2008 MSNBC


Learn how to eat for free - Dumpster dive, Get educated, Save money, Freecycle, SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE the Feds are destroying the dollar deliberately - Visit: www. dumpsterliberationfront. com


Food bank now serving lines of middle-class Americans - CNN April 2008


Food bank shortages CNN


Middle class New Yorkers lining up at food bank - May 6, 2008


Tim Fuller helps run Erehwon Farm, one of a growing number of community-sponsored farms in the United States

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Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy Slices of Farms
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New York Times
SUSAN SAULNY
Published: July 10, 2008

CAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Ill — In an environmentally conscious tweak on the typical way of getting food to the table, growing numbers of people are skipping out on grocery stores and even farmers markets and instead going right to the source by buying shares of farms

On one of the farms, here about 35 miles west of Chicago, Steve Trisko was weeding beets the other day and cutting back a shade tree so baby tomatoes could get sunlight.
Mr Trisko is a retired computer consultant who owns shares in the four-acre Erehwon Farm

“We decided that it’s in our interest to have a small farm succeed, and have them be able to have a sustainable farm producing good food,” Mr Trisko said

Part of a loose but growing network mostly mobilized on the Internet, Erehwon is participating in what is known as community-supported agriculture About 150 people have bought shares in Erehwon — in essence, hiring personal farmers and turning the old notion of sharecropping on its head

Read The Rest HERE