The Book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is written by a husband and wife team who are former journalists for the New York Times, and through their travels found an issue that had been missing from the headlines- the ongoing struggle for gender equality around the world, and what this inequality means for women in the global South.

Half the Sky focuses on four issues in which gender discrimination is hurting and killing women around the world. Here is a snapshot of the issues they discuss in detail, along with some statistics from the book about the scope of these issues around the globe.

Human Trafficking: 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year and 80% of them are women and girls. They are trafficked mainly for sexual exploitation. Millions more are trafficked within countries each year.

Rape and violence: In most countries between 30-60% of women have experienced sexual or physical violence from a partner. Many women don’t report rape for fear of being stigmatized.

Maternal Mortality: In the global South there is one maternal death per minute. The lifetime risk of maternal death is 1,000 times higher in a poorer country than in a more prosperous country.

Routine discrimination: Between 60 and 101 million women are missing from around the world today. They have died due to unequal care or feticide, and at least another 2 million die from discrimination each year.

In addition to discussing these horrific problems that come along with gender inequality, the authors also provide ways to, as their title states, turn “oppression into opportunity.” The two solutions they focus on the most are educating girls and women and providing them with microloans. By educating girls and women, the authors argue that they can receive the necessary tools to stand against injustice, and are given the opportunity to participate in the economy. By receiving microloans, the book suggests that it gives women more power in society while giving them the chance to get out of poverty.

One helpful tool that Half the Sky provides is ways in which you can get involved in the struggle for global gender equality. The book provides many inspiring success stories of how individuals have overcome oppression, and also provides specific actions anyone can take to make a difference in the lives of women worldwide.

If you are interested in obtaining a study guide for this book, check out The Table!

-Allie Stehlin

I recently watched the documentary Food Inc. and it blew my mind. This documentary goes deep into the United States food industry to show viewers where our food actually comes from. This movie aimed to show how the way food is grown and produced is hidden from consumers, and the realities of the origins of everything we eat shocked me.

One point the documentary argues was that our food comes from what we picture in our mind to be a typical American farm. The film states that much of our food does come from farms, but large corporations often own the animals on those farms, and thus have the power to control how our meat is grown and produced. The result of this is overpopulated farms, with animals living in unhealthy conditions (both for them and for us once we eat them!). Cows are fed corn when they are meant to eat grass, leading to a build up of E. coli in their system, which then is cleaned with ammonia. Chickens are grown in a manner that leaves them too large to walk. Also, many people who work in food producing factories are mistreated and underpaid, and the farmers who grow the food often end up with debt from standards that the corporations force them to uphold. Food Inc. argues that this system is harmful to our animals, our health, and the people who work hard to put food on our tables.

Another important topic the documentary discussed was the government’s relationship with the food industry. The government heavily subsidizes corn, wheat and soy, which can be harmful to our health, especially for those in poverty. Food Inc. points out that we can buy a double cheeseburger for 99 cents, but we cannot buy broccoli for this price. They argue that the reason for this is that calories in the double cheeseburger are cheaper due to heavy government subsidies.

The documentary goes in depth on many other issues related to the food industry, and toward the middle of the film I began to wonder if there was anything in the refrigerator that I would be able to make myself for dinner! Thankfully, they showed success stories of farmers and producers who grew their products organically and safely and still were profitable. They stressed the importance of buying foods grown locally to reduce your carbon footprint. They also discussed past successes in the food industry, such as the push from consumers that led Wal-Mart to stop selling milk products with rBST. They are confident that if consumers treat their dollars as votes, we will be able to tell the food industry what we expect from our food, and the system then will change to benefit our environment, our animals, our workers, and our health.

Food Inc. is an eye-opening documentary that depicts one point of view of the food industry, and I would recommend it to anyone. I learned a lot and now think about food in a different way. While it does give some suggestions about how you can have a positive impact on the food industry, I was still left with questions about how I should act on this issue, so if you watch it I suggest going to their Web site for more ideas. Also check out their blog.

So, I leave you all with some questions. Have you thought much about how your consumption affects your health, other human beings, animals and the earth? Has it changed how you eat? Do you have suggestions for those who wish to take action on these issues? I would love to hear ideas from all of you.

-Allie Stehlin

My name is Allie Stehlin and I am an intern at ELCA World Hunger this summer. I am a senior at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota and am studying Political Science, Peace Studies, and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies.

I first became interested in the issues of hunger and poverty worldwide when I took a mission trip to Tanzania with my congregation in high school. It was there that I met a boy with polio; a disease easily cured in the Western world, and saw a hospital without running water. The vast inequality in wealth and resources hit me hard, and I decided then that I wanted to devote my future career to making this gap between the rich and the poor, the hungry and the full, a little smaller.

In college, my classes focus around social justice issues that have continued fuel my passion for creating positive peace in our world. This past fall, I had the opportunity to spend the semester in India studying Social Justice, Peace and Development. This was a great chance for me to dig deeper into the topics of hunger, poverty, the environment, gender, caste, globalization and development and meet with those affected by these issues.

I am very excited for the work I will be doing this summer at ELCA World Hunger, and am looking forward to learning more about hunger and poverty. Stay tuned for more rumblings from the interns and the rest of the ELCA World Hunger staff!

-Allie Stehlin

My summer at the ELCA churchwide office has been a wonderful learning experience. The smiles and welcoming attitudes of staff made the office, and cube-life, a lot less intimidating. I really appreciated how I was engaged in the work of the World Hunger Program, not only in my assignments, but in the work and conversations of all of the staff.

As a nursing student interested in public health, I was very much in my comfort zone when I began the summer researching the intersection of disease and hunger, focusing on diarrheal disease, tuberculosis, pneumonia, malaria, HIV and AIDS.

Shortly after I started, my focus was expanded to start thinking about food production. I read In Defense of Food by Mark Pollan, and will never buy margarine again!  I was able to travel to Wapato, Washington for an “Ethics of Eating Event.” I have never truly considered where my food came from, or what it cost others and the environment to produce what I was eating. This event as well as further reading, has made me, and very soon all of my friends, family and twitter followers, a much more informed consumer. It is also something I will be able to take back to the hospital; obesity is a growing medical concern, and has very much to do with not only what we eat, but what’s available to us and how it’s produced. It’s not just a health issue, but also a social justice issue.

I truly began seeing the work of Church in Society when I traveled to New Orleans for the Youth Gathering as a part of the Justice Town team. I spent days talking to high school students about youth homelessness as well as criminal detention facilities, two subjects I did not know much about previously. Justice Town allowed me, as well as the visiting youth, to see how the ELCA is truly involved in all levels of social justice work, from the education we were doing on the spot – sharing stories of relief and development – to the advocacy postcards that we asked youth to fill out before they left. I continued to see the work of the church when I traveled to Domestic Hunger Grant recipient sites in Racine and Milwaukee. It was a beautiful reminder that the ELCA acts as God’s hands by facilitating even more of His work.

In August, I was able to bring my research on disease and hunger to the Toolkit Creative Retreat at Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center in New York. There I was able to work with an amazing group of people to develop education material focused on the malicious cycle of poverty, hunger and disease.

Throughout my journey this summer, I have made many friends, heard many stories, have had my eyes opened to the injustices in today’s world, and have seen how we, carrying out God’s work on earth, can be the change.

Rachel Zeman

How was Chicago?

This is the number one question I have gotten over the last 12 days since I made the long drive back to Florida, spent 4 days at home, and then drove back up to begin classes for the last time at the University of Florida this week.

Oh how I wish sometimes that the answer was a simple, “awesome”, but it was so much more. I’m still processing all of the experiences I had and things I learned and dealing with not being near those I grew so close to in the nearly 3 months I spent in the Windy City, but the short answer is that it truly was “awesome” and everything I could have dreamed of.

My heart was broken and torn apart for the injustices that are going on around the corner and around the world. I had days where I felt so small in the face of them, that there was nothing that could be done, the problems were just too big. And yet, here I was, interning for a program that doesn’t give up in the face of the big challenges. I worked on projects that matter. Things I wrote or planned were or will be used to spread the message of ELCA World Hunger and the everyday injustices that are sometimes so uncomfortable to face. I’m so thankful for the opportunities I had. To see the light bulb of a high school student go off as they realize the power they have to advocate or donate whatever change they have. To work with other 20-somethings who genuinely have a passion for being educated and making changes in this world a reality. To see funds in action as we visited with our Domestic Hunger Grantees. It all gave me such hope for what the future holds. To see people who are, everyday, in the their own ways sharing what they have with those in need, realizing that they are already richly blessed.

My time in Chicago was definitely that of growth and learning and new experiences. New city – a whole different culture than cities of the south. New people – I didn’t know a single person when I moved. New routine – 8am-4:30pm in an office is very different from the “routine” of college life where everyday is something else. But all of those were challenges to be faced and overcome to see the world in a new way.

Challenge yourself to try new things and change up the routine a bit. Maybe you too will have a whole new outlook on the world and it’s people. Seeing things from new perspectives is the only way we are going to appreciate where we all come from enough to make real changes together.

My life verse from the summer:

Psalm 82:3-4 –

Give justice to the weak and the orphan;

Maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.

Rescue the week and the needy;

Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Peace,

Jessie Fairfax

You see it in every grocery store, near the back in coolers: plastic-wrapped packages of ground beef. It looks even less appetizing on the front cover of TIME magazine. In the August 31, 2009 issue, article author Bryan Walsh confronts Americans and their demand for cheap food, asking us to truly consider the price we pay.

While it may not be a stretch to consider our food choices as one of the causes of the obesity epidemic, it is much harder for us to connect our food to the unsustainable practice that produces our food: conventional farming. Chemicals and other environmental abuses are now a part of conventional food production, as well as the abundant calories and little nutrients that are a part of the food that we receive. Many of us are so far removed from our food, that we never think about a cow’s living conditions before it ended up in the many packages distributed all over the country, nor the tree that produced the orange many thousands of miles away from the counter you picked the fruit from.

Just to elaborate on how little many of us do know, 1% of cattle are raised organically, free range, eating grass and fertilizing the grass fields with their own waste. The other 99% spend most of their lives crowded in an industrialized feedlot, eating corn grown with subsidies and chemicals, and producing 240 tons of waste per year per 1,000 cattle. Conventional cows take antibiotics for their diet and crowded conditions. This is what the majority of us purchase in the grocery store. Also, have you ever looked at the sticker that finds itself on your produce? The oranges I just bought were shipped all the way from New Zealand. How much gas and energy did that take?

We are challenged not only to think about what we’re eating, but the true cost to the environment and our bodies. We are challenged to be a part of the change. Currently, 99% of farming is done conventionally, and that because that’s where the market is. Vote with your dollar, buy organic, and whenever possible, buy local. While a bit pricer in appearance, try to think of the crop subsidies, ecological damage and health care cost that need to be factored into that cheaper, conventional price. Maybe organic isn’t so pricy after all.

To learn more, read Bryan Walsh’s article The Real Cost of Cheap Food, and he suggests even more sources to check out. The first step to change is to become informed.

Here’s the link to the article: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html

Enjoy!

     This being my last official day working for ELCA World Hunger, I thought it appropriate for me to offer a few words in this web dialogue.  We have read much in this space about the people who benefit from this ministry, the systems that bring about suffering, organizations that have received grants, and we have been pressed to consider lifestyle changes.  Please, take a moment to think about those who make this work possible, the ones who faithfully share what God has entrusted to them.  Lutherans who write checks, and give credit card numbers, all the while praying for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, and those who render care.

     Without any fear of over simplifying I will say they are saints!  They walk humbly with God as they do justice and love mercy.  Whether it is Edith in Seattle, Leo in northern Wisconsin, the dancing doctor and his wife in Tuscon, or now retired Jerry in the heartland, they all understand the concept of giving.  They wear housecoats and/or suit coats. They have hands that are grease stained or tremor from years of hard work.  Some go through life quietly (a recognizable Lutheran trait) doing whatever they can, while others stand on the steps of state capitals leading chants.  Common to them all is that they rise every day, pick up their crosses, and follow Jesus into the kingdom of God. 

      There are many effective humanitarian causes that do the same work as we do.  They have great networks and are able to raise, through donations or federal grants, huge sums of cash.  Our co-worker saints are different in that they believe that each act performed is incrementally advancing the spread of the kingdom of God.  They hear the words of Matt 6:33 (NRSV) “But strive first for the kingdom of God^* and his^* righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

     In that kingdom God’s justice, established in the creation event, orders all things.  (Thank you brother George)  Martin Luther speaks to this with his teaching on the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism, “Thy kingdom come. What does this mean?— The kingdom of God comes indeed without our prayer, of itself; but we pray in this petition that it may come unto us also. How is this done?–When our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead a godly life here in time and yonder in eternity.

      The faithful who give and give and give do so leading a godly life in this time. Their reward is not from what they do, but from what has been done on their behalf, and they then demonstrate their faith with actions.  They are modern day Macedonians (see 2 Cor: 8 & 9).  I pray we may all remember these who labor anonymously so that more may eat, have access to health care, sleep in dry places or simply find a little joy in life.

Peace

Pastor Rodger

Ok, so on occasion I’m one of those people who has to hear or see something more than once before it really clicks. This idea of “being the change” is one of those concepts that is being continually redefined in my mind. When I was a kid, I remember hearing Gandhi’s famous quote “Be the change you want to see in the world” and I’ve heard it a million times since.

Even just last semester at UF in my class on Urban and Rural Communities in Transition my professor showed this short video clip at the start of class to create discussion about our roles in the world and our ability to create change:

Lost Generation

I find it creative and thought provoking and inspiring on several levels, but additionally, I hear once again, at the end, that short phrase, “I can change the world.”

It should have been no surprise to me then, that this summer I would be challenged to make change happen while going about my daily tasks for my internship. I think these three words found me hardest while at the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans. Prior to the event we had challenged congregations and youth groups to collect “Change for Change” as a part of the Change the World: 2009 Lutheran Youth Challenge to raise $1 million for the World Hunger program and the projects we support. My goal in promoting this beforehand and there at the Gathering and even now post-Gathering is to convey this message: we each have the ability to change the world, right now in this moment, wherever you find yourself.

Not too long ago I was exactly where these most of these 37,000 high school students likely find themselves: wanting to do so much to change the world but feeling that circumstances like age, limited income, and limited mobility are making that task impossible. I watched though, in amazement as these kids, from literally all corners of the U.S. and even around the world, dug through their pockets to find whatever it was they could contribute and they asked questions about how their contribution could possibly make a difference. After just three and a half days of collecting, these kids who thought they were making such a small dent in our challenge goal with their 47 cents or whatever amount it was they had to give, had amassed over $130,000. How cool! We even made those three words a fashion statement at the Gathering, as every person who donated could get a “Be The Change” stamp on their hand or arm to proudly show how they were changing the world, even our staff t-shirts read “I can change the world”. Not only were these kids giving their spare change (and dollars) during this span, but in 3 days every single one of them participated in some form of service for the New Orleans community for a minimum of 4 hours. That’s over 148,000 hours and at $20.25 per hour (the estimated dollar value of one hour of volunteer work in 2008) we’re talking about another $2,997,000 these kids contributed to the world in just 3 days!

Just think how many opportunities we have on a daily basis to change the world. Where we shop and what products we buy. How much we drive as opposed to how often we could carpool or consolidate trips or take public transportation or ride our bikes or walk. How much stuff we buy for ourselves as compared to what we give to others in need. The list of little things we can do goes on and on.

I challenge you to choose one to start with. Stick with it. Then empower others to do the same. The world is ours for the changing. BE THE CHANGE!

~Jessie Fairfax

When you need to get a tune up on your car, you go to the mechanic, and talk with them about just what kind of work is going to be done on your vehicle. If you were going to a hospital for surgery, you may choose to check out the facility as well as meet your surgeon. The first time you sign a lease or take out a mortgage, there is a lot to learn about the whole process.

What about when you are deciding what kind of food to consume? Do you ever wonder where it came from? How do you know exactly what you’re eating? Who do you ask about the fine print?

Michael Pollan challenges many habits of the western culture when it comes to eating in his book In the Defense of Food. The first thing to strike me was that the majority of food in the supermarket was something Mr. Pollan referred to as “food-like substance.” One challenge is to actually take a look at the list of ingredients. Do you recognize everything, or are there some things on that list that you cannot even pronounce?

He picks apart so many aspects of our diets, from nutritionists’ recommendations to the regulations put in place by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The basis of these recommendations and regulations is challenged.

He says that nutritionists practice a thing called nutritionism, an ideology that believes the key to understanding foods is to understand individual nutrients. It is a science that tinkers with substances in order to have them imitate food and have the right nutrients. Take margarine as an example. When cholesterol and saturated fats were targeted as being bad for your health in the 1950’s, margarine emerged as a fantastic imitator, without the fat and cholesterol. Years later it was discovered that the trans fats in margarine was a ‘deadly’ ingredient, worse that the fat and cholesterol it replaced. One thing Mr. Pollan points out is that since the beginning of nutrition science, the overall trend has been unhealthier eating.

 In 1938 congress passed a bill regulating labeling of food. The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1983 read “if a food resembles a standardized food, but does not comply with the standard, that food must be labeled as ‘imitation’.”  With new substances, such as margarine lining the shelves, this helped consumers recognize what they were eating. Now, ‘imitation’ is a fairly negative label, so of course the food industry did not appreciate this act. In 1973, the act was repealed by the Food and Drug Administration, who decided that as long as the imitation had the same ‘nutritional value’ as the real thing; it did not have to be labeled as fake. Unfortunately, to meet nutritional standards, only the value of known nutrients must be met, and the ‘food-like substance’ is still an extremely processed and manufactured imposter the original food. It may be that industry takes priority, just above our health, when it comes to these types of regulations.

It makes you wonder, who should we be listening too when we make our food choices? Finding out where our food really comes from is a whole other matter. I definitely suggest reading In Defense of Food as one way to become a better informed consumer.

Recently, I attended the first regional “Ethics of Eating” Leadership Training in Region 1. The event took place at Campbell Farm, a 40 acre working farm also used as a retreat center. We flew into Seattle the night before and drove through green, pine covered mountains on our way to the farm. On the other side of those mountains we approached dull, brown mountains. Campbell Farm is in Yakima Valley, WA, a desert on the other side of those barren mountains. I was going to learn many, many things in this desert made fertile with irrigation waters.

We talked to both conventional and organic farmers, employers and employees, and observed the farming practices of the area. Our objective was to discuss the ethics of eating in a world where 1 in 6 people are hungry. We did this by educating ourselves on our own methods of food production and transportation, and exploring the conflict of the abundance of food and empty stomachs.

I’m still sorting through most of the information; however, I want to share with you the 10 things that stand out the most to me from this experience.

1)      The farm we stayed on was fairly small and had both an organic and conventional apple orchard. We asked Craig what was the difference between organic and conventional farming. He informed us that organic farmers ‘pull a heck of a lot more weeds.’ Herbicides are not allowed, making for a more labor intensive care of organic fields.

2)      We further questioned the differences between organic and conventional, knowing that pesticides were not used either. He explained that to keep pests away from organic foods they are coated, with fish oil. A vegetarian in the group was quick to question whether or not this information was required to be advertised on organic foods. I’ve never seen an organic food label announcing the use of fish oil, and it’s pretty common practice, along with the massive amounts of bug hormones used to keep moths from mating in organic fields.

3)      One reason the fish oil may not be considered a problem is that produce is rinsed in water and chlorine. While chlorine is not natural, the USDA has decided that it is necessary considering the manure used to fertilize the organic fields.

4)      Developing the composite is a lot of work, especially for organic fields; not only must it sit in the sun for weeks to get to a certain temperature, the manure used must come from organic animals. Ten thousand gallons of water are used on approximately one square mile of compost piled about a foot high. A lot of compost, but that’s a huge amount of water in a desert of all places!

5)      The amount of water used for irrigation is just phenomenal, enough to make a desert a fruitful place! In order to conserve water, some farmers received incentives to begin a ‘drip system,’ where a small hose lines the rows of crops and drips out water, as opposed to being doused by a sprinkler system. This greatly reduces the amount of water used; however, the water table level is greatly reduced as well. This means there is less water in local reservoirs, and more water will be needed out of the Yakima river, lowing river levels for fish, which is what was happening with out the drip system. What a cycle!

6)      You may think your kids are picky eaters, but we all, as consumers, are very picky eaters and because we are spoiled. An incorporated farm that we visited throws out 15,000-20,000 pounds of produce a day. Twenty thousand pounds of fresh food goes to waste every day during harvesting season because consumers like us don’t want to buy a yellow-bottomed cucumber. It doesn’t taste any different; it just grew on the ground the way cucumbers are supposed to grow!

7)      The greatest concern expressed by farmers was over production. Over production in a local and global community where some people do not get enough to eat does not sound like a problem to me. Both big and small farm owners admitted to letting produce rot in the field, which nourishes the soil, and keeps food prices from plummeting by not flooding the markets, however this keeps this food out of the food pantries that would distribute the produce to people in need. Yet another vicious cycle.

8)      Just down the road, Campbell Farms struggles to provide healthy meals to youth in the area whose parents are financially strained when it comes to groceries, buying limited, and often unhealthy, food. While our visit may have opened up the eyes of the incorporated farmer as to how these neighbors can help each other, how often is this happening in other communities, or in my own refrigerator?

9)      These kids who aren’t eating healthy food don’t look as though their not eating. That’s when I recognized the concept of nutritional starvation. Sure these kids eat, but they eat processed, fatty, high in calorie and low in nutrition foods. It’s all their families can afford, or know to eat, even with the abundance of fresh produce all around them.

10)  On top of nutritional concerns, farm workers are 70% more likely to get uterine cancer and 60% more likely to get leukemia. May be genetics, may be working conditions? The number one cause of death among farm workers is suicide.

To end on a better note, I’ll share another quick story. On a small 18 acre farm that we visited they were raising organic chickens. The pen they stayed in was a beautiful little piece of land, covered with apple and crab apple trees as well as tall grasses. Off in one corner we noticed a small circle enclosed by some fencing: chicken jail! Apparently, there is such a thing as a cannibalistic chicken; the three housed there ate eggs.

We obviously covered a wide variety of topics, specific to the region, but applicable nationally and globally. Enjoy the food for thought I’ve shared with you, and consider for yourself the “Ethics of Eating.”