Today is Blog Action Day, and the topic this year is Food. I could write yet another article packed full of statistics on:
- our current and growing food crisis
- the important link between global warming and food insecurity or climate change and food safety
- the important link between peak oil and rising food prices (and starvation and political unrest and so on)
- the horrors of factory farming (and its relationship to climate change)
Or, I could write on simple ways you can green your food.
But, for some reason, I don’t feel enthusiastic about delving into those topics today. Maybe it is due to the global consciousness focusing more on this issue today. Maybe it is due to the overwhelming sadness that comes with thinking about all those starving children and adults around the world.
The fact of the matter is: people die every day because they don’t have enough food…
Can that change? Of course,.. in theory.
Will that change? Well, we can hope and do our best to keep one more person fed, but with the trajectory we’re on (with climate change, peak oil, agribusiness, monopoly of seeds, wealth distribution, and so on), I’m feeling a little less than hopeful today.
It is a sad matter, and there’s no way around that.
What’s Important?
Obviously, the above is all important. But it is also important that we do our best to help others, that we do our best to feed others who don’t have the means, who weren’t lucky enough to be born into a rich family or society.
Which organization out there do you recommend we support, give money to, volunteer with?
There are many, and this isn’t my area of expertise, so I’d love someone to chime in here.
And beyond the 5-minute task of donating money or the more involved task of volunteering, I guess it really should be emphasized what we can and should do in our daily lives to address global warming, peak oil, and world hunger:
- Use clean, green transportation
- Eat vegetarian or vegan
- Use clean power like solar and wind
- Don’t buy what we don’t need
More ideas? More thoughts?
Photo Credits: wallyg (on flickr) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Dr. Lyle Conrad (on Wikipedia)
Buy local produce, look for a farmers market near you at localharvest.org, and find a local humane supplier of meat if you don’t plan on going vegetarian or vegan, we are omnivorous after all, just eat it in moderation and don’t support factory farming.