Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Food
I'm having a hard time enjoying my food these days. Have you heard about the food crisis in other parts of the world? If you're like me, you're not always up on the latest news, so someone else had to tell me about it. It makes me feel sick. To think a mother isn't able to feed her hungry child! I was trying to explain this to my kids this morning as they were eating breakfast. I know me not eating isn't going to help things, but want can we do? I know I can pray, and I do, but I'd also like to do something tangible. I need to ask the Lord what He wants me to do. Would you pray with me about mine and your involvement in making sure the plentiful resources that are available get into the hands of those who need them most? I was reading on another friend's blog about the irony of this and the fact that obesity is a growing problem here in the states. Makes my heart hurt! If you want to read more about it, check out this website: http://www.one.org/worldhungercrisis/
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3 comments:
This is something that I've been thinking about a lot too. Basic commodities here in Kenya have gone up in price since the post-election violence. Some of the rise in prices is due to the violence, but some is due to other factors as well. It is humbling, because we don't even notice price changes ($0.15 extra for a bag of flour? No biggie). But for people who live so close to the edge of their incomes it can be a serious hardhip.
Joshua and I have been talking a lot about what the causes of the world food crisis are and, from what we've read and seen, it seems to be the combination of: less farming being done, rapidly rising fuel prices (not only does it take energy to produce food, but shipping it relies heavily on fossil fuels) and an increase in biofuel usage.
This last one is really tricky, because, on one hand, we're trying to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but at the same time it is turning food into fuel. If farmers are able to make more money selling their corn for ethanol than for food, they're going to do it. (Corn, btw, is not the most effective crop to use for ethanol production - sucarcane is). The real solution is to encourage people to use less fuel, but many people in the West don't want to hear that.
The best ways to help that I can see are: buying food locally whenever possible, drastically reducing fuel usage and funneling the money saved into an NGO/charity that is trying to address the crisis and/or promote sustainable farming (I know that World Vision does some food relief and farming work).
I hope we can keep up this dialogue because I think it's really important - maybe we can think of more ways to help and can encourage our friends to join us :)
(p.s. it's great to see your blog! I enjoyed catching up on the archives - thanks for giving us the link)
~Megan
I definitely wish it were possible for us to walk more places or use public transportation more often. It is hard to cut down on fuel usage. I'm hoping we can get a non-fuel powered mower (not sure what they are called) since we're in the market for one, anyway. Steve suggested the same thing, giving the saved money to an organization trying to help. I was looking on the ONE website today. I'm not sure I'm up for organizing an event, but I could start small. I'm sure there are more like World Vision, as well. I'll be researching and praying about where the Lord would have us give. It's so hard to make something like this even tangible for our kids to understand. I was just reading today how a child dies every 5 SECONDS due to hunger-related issues! Tragic!
Hi Alison, here's one small way that we can help: http://www.friendsofwfp.org/site/pp.asp?c=7oIJLSOsGpF&b=2048389
I found it through the friends of the world food program website. Just a phone call to show support for the McGovern-Dole Internatioanl Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program which feeds children all over the world in schools. (it also has the added benefit of increasing school attendance)
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