Sixth Principle Resources: The World Food Crisis
As the media has been highlighting reports about the "World Food Crisis" and related increases in food costs, Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations are seeking effective responses. Please make use of this resource which offers suggestions for learning about the food crisis and responding to it. Included are information from Church World Service, the United Nations, New American Media, and an NPR program—Day to Day. And, please share the ways your congregation engages this issue with the international resources office.
Church World Service Response
(Church World Service (CWS) has provided a well respected, ecumenical, humanitarian ministry for more than 50 years. It has often been a reliable partner for Unitarian Universalist congregations, most commonly through their annual CROP walk.)
Read CWS Responds to Food Crisis by the Household.
- Background:
- CWS has focused much of its anti-poverty work on as basic a level as possible, by the household. In Cambodia, CWS and its partners are training families to produce food in places where they previously had not been producing it. Proper instruction in agricultural and production techniques mean more food can be grown, rather than purchased.
- In an effort to also look beyond the current crisis to long-term solutions, CWS this week co-sponsored a day-long Global Policy Forum in New York City that included discussion of ways to provide more food security for vulnerable people in future emergencies. One conclusion: governments, the United Nations and private lenders together must commit more money to rural farming programs that provide families some measure of security in the face of rising food prices caused in part by increasing use of crops for bio-fuels, not food.
United Nations
- World Food Crisis Documents:
New American Media
Read an interview with Raj Patel, Author of "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System".
National Public Radio’s Program "Day to Day" Reports on Increasing Food Prices and the World Food Crisis
Listen to NPR's "Day to Day" Reports.
Background:
- Food stocks are at very low levels at the same time that rising energy prices are increasing the cost of growing and transporting of food.
- Food prices are currently rising faster in the United States than in the past two decades.
- Many farmers in the Midwest are prospering because of new demand for creating biofuel (ethanol). However , the food supply naturally shrinks as more grain is diverted for creating fuel. An alternative view is that new technologies are making it possible to feed livestock with the portion of grain that is leftover after biofuel production.
Inspirational:
- Bethany Congregational Church in Greenland, New Hampshire purchased and delivered a total of 50 tons of food to 50 food pantries. They raised money and purchased the supplies that food pantries reported that they needed. The church "inspired people to sacrifice" and raised more than $265,000. Read a transcript of the report.
Last updated on Wednesday, May 21, 2008.
