Food, Inc.

Food, Inc., a new film documentary opening today, attempts to answer the question, "Where does your food come from?" You can watch the trailer here. It doesn't look like it will be showing anywhere near my corner of the world, so I'll let those who know more than I give there take on it.

From Crackpotpress:

They also explore the science of advanced growth in these animals. In recent years, chickens and cows have been genetically enhanced with steroids, growth hormone and corn. CORN? What's wrong with corn? Cows are herbivores and are only supposed to eat grass. Thanks to government subsidies carboload corn is cheaper than grass. The result is animals who grow three times as large in a fraction of the time. By slaughter time, their legs cannot even support them.

This begs a question, "Why are there congressional investigations of baseball players who use steroids and not investigations of chickens and cows who do?" In the big picture, a Barry Bonds or Manny Ramirez has little effect on my life outside of the occasional heartbreak. Chickens and cows using performance enhancing drugs do. The answer is simple Bush and Clinton both appointed Food Corporation lobbyists and insiders to the head of the FDA. In essence the wolves are guarding the hen house. Those who should be investigated lead the investigations.

And before your friends try to tell you that eating organic, sustainably produced food is too expensive, go over to Cook for Good and learn how you can eat for less than the food stamp allowance. They've got menus, recipes and cooking and food storage tips that will have you saving money and eating healthier.

And just in time for our Million Can March, via DKos, Cook for Good has a tutorial on how to throw a film fundraiser - make that foodraiser. Follow their simple steps, rake in the dough, and donate it to your local food pantry or shelter. And then don't forget to tell us all about it so we can count it towards our goal.

A million cans of food: Yes we can!

TAGS: Food Inc., hunger, Million Can March, sustainable agriculture

Million Can March: Yes We Can!

Welcome to the Unruly Mob and the launching of our Million Can March! This all started with a vague notion that we should do something more than just have a good laugh at the next round of tea parties scheduled for July 4th. I thought that if teabaggers are so afraid of socialism, maybe we could show 'em socialism on a national scale. And what is more socialistic than sharing our food with others. Food banks across the nation are struggling with shortages as increasing demands meet head on with decreasing donations. But bloggers also reach across the nation - and the world - and we could make a real difference for our neighbors and make this a memorable 4th of July.

THE CHALLENGE: To collect one million cans of food for our nation's food banks, food pantries and shelters by July 4, 2009.

WHO: Progressive bloggers with a special invite to conservative bloggers.

HOW: Act locally. Here are some examples:

• Take a bag of food to a local pantry
• Organize a food drive where you work or play, your church or motorcycle club, etc.
• Organize some friendly competition amongst a group of blogs
• Challenge your Facebook & Myspace friends and your twitter followers
• There's no one right way to get involved. Look around you, see the need and do something about it.

WHAT: Nonperishable food items. Note: We've already had a cash donation to a relief agency reported (and I know this is a good way for some folks to participate) so if you report your cash donations we'll run a tally of those as well.

SPECIAL CHALLENGE TO OUR CONSERVATIVE READERS: Bring the drinks! Ask your readers to donate cannisters of premixed tea, lemonade, koolaid, etc. You could even set up collection barrels at your next tea party. After all, it wouldn't be a party without the drinks. And it'd probably give you a little better publicity this time...just saying. Now aren't you wishing you thought of this first?

AND THEN WHAT: Blog about it and send us the link. We'll add your amounts to the totals and keep a running tally of the results. And we'll post all your links so folks can see what you did. (Hint, hint: We especially love posts with pictures! Yeah, we're simple like that.) But wait! There's more! If you want more than that warm fuzzy feeling from doing something good, we'll send you the script for an awesome button to adorn your blog to memorialize your participation in the 2009 Million Can March!

Here are some food suggestions:

• If in doubt, call the agency you plan to donate to and ask them what they need.

Here's a basic list:

• cereal, instant oatmeal
• Canned meats & fish (tuna, salmon, deviled ham, canned chicken, etc)
• Peanut butter, jelly, crackers
• fruits and vegetables
• Soups, stews, canned pasta dishes like beefaroni, lasagna, ravioli
• Boxed potatoes and rice and pasta mixes in a box or pouch
• "Just add water" cake, pancake, muffin mixes, etc.
• Canned and powdered milk
• Infant formula and baby foods

You can also think in terms of a meal:

• Spaghetti sauce and pasta
• Tuna and macaroni and cheese
• Beans & Rice

You get the idea, and then add a vegetable, a fruit, and a sweet treat.

Really, this isn't rocket science. Give what you like to eat!

Ok, let's get this started! Copy and paste the Million Can March button to your blog so your readers can join the party.


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Be sure to leave us a comment and tell us how you plan to get involved. Bloggers, please leave the URL of your post and we'll be sure to link to you.

And one other thing - don't forget to invite a tea-bagger to the party! It's going to be an unruly good time. Yes we can!

Come, all you who are thirsty…and you who have no money, come and eat!
(That Unruly Socialist Isaiah 55:1)

TAGS: Million Can March, Hunger, Hunger in America, activism

On Teabags and Bread

On July 4th, teabaggers will once again gather in crowds of ten and even twenty wearing their teabag hats and teabag earrings proclaiming their hatred for all things Obama. If it's anything like the April 15th events, it should be good for a laugh. But why stop there? I say we really piss 'em off and engage in a national act of socialism. And what would be more socialistic then sharing our food with those who have none?

The long summer months mean a drought at our nation's foodbanks and homeless shelters. It means children home from school may no longer have access to breakfast and lunch programs. National statistics about hunger in America are available only through 2007, but we need only look at the record unemployment rates and deduce that food will come in a long second to paying rent and utilities. And as this report notes,

In March 2009, SNAP/Food Stamp participation was 33,156,745 people, the highest participation level on record, and an increase of nearly 600,000 individuals from February 2009, the prior record level. Over the past twelve months, participation has grown by 5.2 million individuals.

I'd like to get a grassroots campaign going throughout the progressive blogosphere to counter the upcoming July 4th teabag protests with a food drive. And I know the Unrulies are just the ones who can make this happen. We have one month to make a plan and put it to action. I'm imagining folks across the blogosphere all giving locally, but let's use this thread to do some brainstorming. It's been my experience that two or more brains are way better than mine alone. Most important, I think, is we need a concerted effort to get the bigger blogs on board ala a blogswarm or like the blogs against theocracy campaign. Okay, maybe most important, is you telling me this is a good idea or a dumb idea. I'm willing to do the work on this, but I need your creativity, your ideas, your blog connections. Tell me what you think.

Let Them Eat Cake.

TAGS: hunger

Bush Policies At Work

But Not For You

CNN ran a segment yesterday about the decline in donations this years for food banks, while the need has increased. They didn't put it up on their website, so here's a typical story, from San Diego:

Donations are down for food banks and charities in San Diego County and across the country. Blame it on a bad economy, high gas prices and growing debt.

It seems like San Diegans are just tapped out at a time when donations are crucial.

Donations for the San Diego Food Bank's annual food drive have been minimal, even though the need is greater than ever.

"There are more people that will be affected by hunger this year than we're evacuated in the fires this past year," said Jim Jackson.

I'd like to juxtapose that headline with this one from the New York Times:

"The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher."

The poor are getting worse off, and so are the middle class. One can hardly blame the latter for donating less this year than last with Bush-induced uncertainties about mortgages, job security and the shaky dollar one imagines them all worrying more about how they are going to provide for their own families. And I guess the rich just don't give a damn about the misery their greed has caused. Have they ever? BTW, if there's a war on the giving spirit of Christmas, it is this Grinch class of capitalists who are fighting it. And they're doing all right, Jack.

Len Hart puts it succinctly over at The Existentialist Cowboy:

"Unless you are a GOP insider, a Wall Street co-conspirator, or a part of the endemically crooked Military/Industrial complex, the GOP has bent you over and screwed you. Anyone supporting the GOP is either a GOP insider, a crook or an idiot.

We haven't seen incompetence on this scale since Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan or Bush Sr."

The simple and sad fact is, as we approach Christmas there are too many who can't provide even a simple dinner for their families, let alone a lavish banquet. Then there are heating bills to worry about - it looks like this winter is going to be a cold one.

If YOU can spare it, I hope you will give to your local food bank. Or you can donate directly to Second Harvest, which supports over 200 food banks across the country.

And since you've all been nice unrulies this year:
(and from what I hear, some of you are nicest when you're being naughtie!)

John Lennon: So This is Christmas

TAGS: Food Banks, Hunger, Greed, Spirit of Christmas

Compassion in a Can

Yesterday, President Bush helped load boxes of fresh oranges, potatoes, and macaroni and cheese for distribution to the needy at a food bank in Charles City, Virginia. The food bank serves about 101,000 children, homeless, elderly, working poor, disabled, battered women, newly unemployed, victims of natural disasters, the mentally ill, and single-parent families each month, according to Faye Lohr, the food bank’s chief executive officer.

“I thank you for what you are doing,” Bush told Lohr.

But are food banks the answer to the problem of hunger?

Mark Winne tackled this question in his editorial, When Handouts Keep Coming, the Food Line Never Ends, in Sunday’s Washington Post. Winne writes:

Food banks are a dominant institution in this country, and they assert their power at the local and state levels by commanding the attention of people of good will who want to address hunger. Their ability to attract volunteers and to raise money approaches that of major hospitals and universities. While none of this is inherently wrong, it does distract the public and policymakers from the task of harnessing the political will needed to end hunger in the United States.

The risk is that the multibillion-dollar system of food banking has become such a pervasive force in the anti-hunger world, and so tied to its donors and its volunteers, that it cannot step back and ask if this is the best way to end hunger, food insecurity and their root cause, poverty.

During my tenure in Hartford, I often wondered what would happen if the collective energy that went into soliciting and distributing food were put into ending hunger and poverty instead. Surely it would have a sizable impact if 3,000 Hartford-area volunteers, led by some of Connecticut's most privileged and respected citizens, showed up one day at the state legislature, demanding enough resources to end hunger and poverty. Multiply those volunteers by three or four -- the number of volunteers in the state's other food banks and hundreds of emergency food sites -- and you would have enough people to dismantle the Connecticut state capitol brick by brick. Put all the emergency food volunteers and staff and board members from across the country on buses to Washington, to tell Congress to mandate a living wage, health care for all and adequate employment and child-care programs, and you would have a convoy that might stretch from New York City to our nation's capital.

I don’t write this to discourage you from giving to your local food bank or volunteering in a soup kitchen this Thanksgiving. They need your support as more and more of the working poor find themselves needing the help of their local pantry to make it through the end of the month. Some food banks are reporting increases in need of 10%, 20% and even 35% over last year. And with the prospect of skyrocketing home heating bills this winter, food banks that previously gave a week’s worth of food may only be able to provide for three or four days. So please be generous this Thanksgiving. But know this, the answer is not to build bigger food warehouses. As Winne concludes:

We know hunger's cause -- poverty. We know its solution -- end poverty. Let this Thanksgiving remind us of that task.

And we can count on our president to do his part…and pardon a couple of turkeys. At least they’ll eat well for the rest of their natural lives.

Now that just isn't natural...

For effortless feeding click on freerice and thehungersite.





TAGS: Hunger

Saturday Silly Scenario

Mmmmmmmmm......NICE BUD !!

Here's a scenario for you. You and some friends are celebrating the fact that a Toronto judge just ruled Canada's marijuana laws unconstitutional by having a few bong hits for Jesus, a few more for Buddha, and a goodly few for Maha Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of good crops and prosperity, when you get the munchies.

So next thing you know you're out roaming the streets of Newmarket, Ontario, just north of Toronto, looking for a sidewalk vendor to take the edge off your munchies. After thinking about Lakshmi, you've got a hankering for some somosas and chutney. Maybe some dahl to go with. I love Indian food.

Then, lo and behold, you encounter one of two escaped elephants who are celebrating their own unexpected freedom from a circus that's passing through town.

What's up, bud? Got any peanuts?

This of course sparks a lively conversation about whether these are Indian elephants or African elephants, and if the former, is this just a coincidence or a case of Jungian synchronicity. After the issue is settled (in favor of synchronicity, due to Lakshmi's mythic association with elephants)...
Do you?
a) - freak the hell out and swear you will never, ever smoke the devil's weed again?

b) - go looking for a bag of peanuts, hoping you can barter it for your first ever elephant ride?

or

c) - offer the elephants a hit off your bong?

If you have alternative answers d), e) or f), I'd love to hear them. If you've got a Bic lighter, mine just ran out of butane.

---

BTW, this is Lakshmi, who handily has four arms, meaning she can pass the current fatty around while rolling up the next one. One of her hands is always dispensing gold coins, which can come in mighty handy when the rent comes due. She's usually depicted on a lotus flower (you know what that represents), and is often accompanied by four elephants, representing the four directions north, south east and west, often showering her with water. All in all, a good candidate girlfriend for someone like Smoke.

UPDATE: All kidding aside, legalization is good policy, really. The negative consequences of the war on drugs far exceed any side effects of the drugs themselves. Take this story from AlterNet for example.

When Connecticut's Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed legislation last month that would have allowed citizens with debilitating medical conditions to use medical cannabis under their doctor's supervision, she alleged that there was no proof of pot's therapeutic effectiveness and that legal alternatives are available by prescription. Now, a just-released clinical trial by researchers at Columbia University in New York is making the governor's statements ring hollow.

Just another case of the reight wingers pushing their agenda by substituting their own paranoic delusions for the scientifically verifiable facts. Alternet has a fair number of such stories, BTW, conveniently grouped under the heading DrugReporter.

Further Reading:
IST: The (Illegal) Drug News
Skip From El Paso's Pro-Weed Blog

TAGS: Freedom, Bong Hits For Jesus, Humor, The Munchies

Farm Bill 2007 - Reality Check Part 3

(Read Part 1 yet?)

Public health organizations are asking some very good questions—do food and agricultural policies contribute to the proliferation of unhealthy foods in our stores and restaurants? And why are corn and soybeans, which provide a large percentage of U.S. sweeteners and oils, so much cheaper than healthier crops like fruits and vegetables? The answer is fairly simple—because food companies and the folks in Washington want it that way.

Every five years, Congress and the White House roll out a new Farm Bill amid grand rhetoric about uplifting "America's family farmers and ranchers." Meanwhile, the food industry consolidates, farm numbers drop as those remaining grow in size while rural economies wither. Cram the bill with enough disparate provisions, obfuscate corporate giveaways, and food-justice advocates and farmers alike are perplexed. That's a shame.

The Farm Bill's 10 titles exert a dramatic influence on the U.S. food system. Under Title I, the provision that is supposed to protect farmers from market swings, the federal government has been doling out an average of $11.3 billion annually propping up industrial agriculture between 1995 and 2004. More than 90 percent goes to producers of corn, cotton, wheat, rice, and soybeans, with just 10 percent of farms receiving 74 percent of these subsidies. These large-scale farms aren't producing food and fiber directly for U.S. consumers, but rather inputs in an industrialized global production chain. These five crops are dramatically overproduced and typically sell on global markets at below production cost, imposing hardships on farmers worldwide while enriching transnational food-industry giants. Fruit and vegetable growers-and the vast majority of small and mid-sized farms-get not a penny.

Government food pricing data clearly demonstrates the end result. Since 1985, the real price of fresh fruits and vegetables has increased nearly 40 percent, while the real price of sweets, fats and oils, and soft drinks has dropped. With these price signals, is it any wonder people are not eating enough produce and too many calorie-dense foods? We have made consuming junk food an economically smart choice, particularly for people with limited income.

Rural communities have been hit hard by U.S. agriculture policy, as we’ve steadily lost farmers and those who continue rely largely on off-farm income to keep farming. Our public health has suffered as well. The extensive use of cheap commodities in food products has resulted in added sugars and fats that fall into the very dietary categories linked to obesity. High fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated vegetable oils—products that did not even exist a few generations ago but now are hard to avoid—have proliferated thanks to artificially cheap corn and soybeans.

Fast food, an important lobby, has entered the fray. Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Long John Silver's, is leading a coalition of fast-food companies including McDonald's and Wendy's lobbying to make the Farm Bill "WTO-compliant." Most likely either the 2002 Farm Bill will be temporarily extended, after which time subsidy payments will eventually be phased out, with no additional safety net for farmers, save perhaps subsidies for ethanol feedstock crops which benefit large producers such as Archer Daniels Midland.

Policy emanating from Washington for decades-both domestically and through global institutions including the IMF, the World Bank, and the UN-has pressured farmers to scale up to produce for a vast global agricultural commodity market. Multinational food-processing giants like Archer Daniels Midland have thrived, while farm incomes have stagnated or dropped, and public health has languished even in the global north. Meanwhile, local food production has withered with people relying on food of dubious qual-ity, grown and processed at great distances. The agendas put forward by Daryll Ray and American Farmland Trust, broadly represent ideas coming from other progressive farming groups, and deserve the active support of food-justice activists. They would likely boost U.S. farm incomes without harming farmers in the global south. But at this point, the real hope for revitalizing local food production networks lies in grassroots organizing. Farm Bill entitlements could raise family farm incomes, support small rural and urban businesses in the food systems, and create more jobs through the growing and sales of local fresh fruit and vegetables.

From the USDAs Farm Bill website: "The 2007 farm bill proposals spend approximately $10 billion less than the cost of the 2002 farm bill over the past five years (excluding ad-hoc disaster aid) and uphold the President's plan to eliminate the deficit in five years. (ahem, bullshit.) These proposals authorize approximately $5 billion more than the projected spending if the 2002 farm bill were extended. "

Bottom line, the domestic food scene is another Iraq, and it's happening right now.

TAGS: Farm Bill, Hunger, Injustice, LDisaster

Farm Bill 2007 - Reality Check part 2

(Read Part 1 yet?)

Take a look around your neighborhood.

If you live anywhere urban or rural, chances are you see some hungry people on a daily basis. You may not know it right then and there, but sometime during your week you will have run across someone who themselves or their family is participating in the Food Stamp program, or is receiving aid from a Food Bank participating agency.



In my videos, I am just showing the slow and invisible problem in the heartland, and that problem is fairly large in rural farm areas. Larger than you'd think. When a disatser strikes, like Hurricane Katrina, the poor suffer even more. America's Second Harvest is STILL providing aid in overdrive to the Gulf region. 65.2 Million Meals to date.

Remember, all of this relief is private; not government funded in the least. So why am I harping on it? The Farm Bill will dictate how the private efforts go. And it's heating up. Next week, it's back in the House Committee on Agriculture. The Senate will talk about it too, and it's fortunate that Patrick Leahy (VT) is the chair on the sub committee for nutrition and food assistance.

Call and write these people. The food stamp program needs to be increased in eligibility requirements and overall spending, not decreased in any fashion.

Justice comes from the bottom, up.

Do you find it as odd as I do, that none of this is apparently newsworthy?

(On to Part 3)

TAGS: Farm Bill, Hunger, Justice

Farm Bill 2007, Reality Check Part1

Have you ever been to a foodbank?

This is part one of a multi part series. It's just about the scope and scale of the problem.

I was recently fortunate enough to have an inside tour of the foodbank in Lincoln Nebraska. Jennifer Bauman is the Agency coordinator there and took me through how the whole operation works.



In reviewing some of the written materials I received on that visit, some further facts:

-It was 2.79 million pounds of food that the Lincoln Foodbank distributed through agencies in 2006
-They're gearing up for over 3 million in 2007
-There has not been a year that the demand for services has ever gone down
-When several Directors of the larger distributing agencies were asked, none of them felt the total Community need was being met. If funding and space were not issues, they could grow their distribution double digits percentage-wise every year.

There are over 200 programs that serve the Lincoln area. Keep in mind now that the Lincoln Foodbank is one of the smallest in the country. You can now start extrapolating the problem. It's in the multiple millions, and the Hunger in America Study 2006 really drills down into the picture.

Why do I post this at this time? It's the Farm Bill. It's up for reauthorization this summer. It's the umbrella where we'll show resolve as a people for Hunger issues. Food Stamps are part of it, as well as a huge opportunity for Corporate Farming and Fast Food to try and put their hands in the trough. More on that in a further section of this series.

(On to Part 2)