For a quick understanding of lots of statistics, I find this page on BBC News interesting. It contains graphs from the UN’s 2008 Global Environment Outlook report, highlighting a variety of trends at the intersection of humans and the environment. In particular, the map of the world’s access to drinking water got my attention (you have to scroll down a bit). I knew parts of Africa have significant water issues; I didn’t realize that very nearly all of Africa had insufficient drinking water. Nor did I realize how much of Asia and South America are similarly troubled. The other graphs are interesting, too. A picture really does say a thousand words.

This year the ELCA is beginning a concerted effort to address these diseases that disproportionately affect those who are poor and marginalized. More than two million people die from AIDS every year, over one million die from Malaria. In sub-Sahara Africa, where AIDS is the leading cause of death and the Malaria epidemic is particularly acute, these diseases perpetuate the cycle of poverty, decimating those of working age and leaving countless children orphaned. ELCA World Hunger will play a key role in this church wide initiative to eradicate these so-called “diseases of poverty.”

– David Creech

In recent years it has become increasingly clear that global warming is a reality that calls the church to action. We can no longer look the other way and pretend that climate change is not happening. Within the last century, temperatures have risen nearly one degree. Through it may not seem like much, this increase correlates to environmental problems such as floods and droughts, more frequent and severe natural disasters, and rising sea levels.

The environmental problems that have been linked to global warming are especially devastating to those who are the poorest and, therefore also hungriest, in the world. In other words, climate change does not simply raise issues of stewardship and care for the earth. It is also fundamentally a justice issue. This year, ELCA World Hunger will be making a concerted effort to raise awareness of the ways in which global climate change impacts those who are hungry and to mobilize the church to act on behalf of the most vulnerable.

In an effort to better understand the impact of climate change, I will be traveling down to Nicaragua with an ELCA delegation from January 19-29. Be sure to watch the blog for updates (and pictures!) of my experiences down there.

– David Creech

Leading a rich life, one totally worthy of SIMPLE.

Hear author and poet Anne Basye share more about her life and book Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal on a recent segment of 30 Good Minutes.

For more information about Sustaining Simplicity and simple living visit:
www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Responding-to-the-World/ELCA-World-Hunger/Resources/Simple-Living.aspx

Happy reading, happy living!
Christopher

As an organization that defines hunger broadly, ELCA World Hunger is concerned with the many root causes of hunger. One of these root causes is, of course, war. And the current situation is Gaza is especially poignant for anyone who wants to explain how war causes hunger. It is demonstrating so many of the effects in such a short period of time.

In perusing the news coverage, I found this page today on the BBC Web site. It provides a summary of several of the problems in just one page. Getting food is the most direct hunger issue. People are running out of food in their homes, warehouses that store food are too dangerous to access, distribution paths are disrupted, bakeries lack cooking gas to make food, outside food can’t cross the borders in sufficient quantities, and the price of the food that is available continues to rise.

Beyond the food itself, energy supplies have been interrupted, which means that people don’t have the electricity or gas to cook, even if they have the food. More problematic, water is running short as the pumps at wells run out of fuel to lift the water from the ground. In addition, lack of power has halted the pumps at wastewater treatment plants, causing sewage to flood neighborhoods, farmland, and sea.

Those are just some of the immediate problems caused by war. The longer-term issues are just as grave. On this page, a woman mentions that local farmers have not been able to harvest their crops for two weeks. Depending how long the fighting continues and how much damage is done to the crops, war can destroy food supplies for a whole season as well as the livelihoods of those who are employed in the local food system. Damage to the fields and soil can destroy that chain for longer than a season. In addition, damage to other infrastructure – roads, businesses, government buildings – can interrupt livelihoods and basic services in many sectors, and for a place like Gaza that doesn’t have a lot of wealth and assets to start with, recovery can be a long road even in the best of circumstances. And none of this even addresses the loss of life – often working age men who provide income for their families.

Gaza is the location grabbing headlines at the moment, but the factors are similar in every war. So until war ends everywhere, as people engaged in the fight against hunger, the trick is to not grow weary of long-lasting wars, or to forget them as soon as they’re over, but to keep on fighting for those affected and for a different future. Ironic, the wording, no?

With the Christmas season winding down and the routine of the new year slowly settling in, I thought it would be a good time to introduce some of the issues that ELCA World Hunger will be especially focused upon in 2009. Over the next couple of weeks, I will briefly highlight in four posts each of our focus areas: Food, Fuel, and Finances; Climate Change and Hunger; HIV/AIDS and the Lutheran Malaria Initiative; and Intentional Living: Food Practices. I invite you to offer your own reflections and/or resources you have found particularly helpful in thinking about these topics.

Food, Fuel, and Finances

The three F’s are deeply intertwined and of late extremely volatile. In 2008, the price of many staple foods (such as wheat, rice, and corn) rose globally as much as 130% (http://www.bread.org/). The spike in food prices culminated in riots in about 30 countries. This spike in food prices is related to (among other things) a sharp rise in gas prices, which peaked nationally in June and July at about $4.15 a gallon (http://www.eia.doe.gov/). The rise in gas prices affects the price of food because modern production and distribution of food is heavily dependent upon petroleum. Moreover, in the quest to find alternatives to gasoline, farms previously used to grow food now are used for the production of biofuels. As 2008 drew to a close, global financial markets tumbled as the subprime lending mess reverberated throughout many financial sectors.

Each of these hardships is particularly devastating to those who are poorest. This year we will engage the food, fuel, and finance crises from their perspective, raising awareness and advocating on behalf of those who are most vulnerable.

-David Creech

Will President Obama start a farm on the White House lawn? Local food advocates like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan think he should. When Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden at the White House during World War II, 20 million Americans followed her lead. Soon, the United States was producing 40% of the domestic food supply in these gardens.

Today, we spend $30 billion annually on lawn care. (That’s 50,000 square miles of grass.)

Right after Thanksgiving, the PBS show Bill Moyers Journal focused on the links between what we eat, how we grow that food, and the some of issues President-elect Obama placed at the center of his campaign: improving our health care system, reducing our dependence on oil, and job creation.

Check out Moyers’ interview with Michael Pollan, a feature on an urban farming organization called Growing Power, an analysis of the issues at stake in the U.S. Farm Bill, and a guide to “voting with your fork.“

–Jennifer Barger

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about a happiness study. The premise is that happiness is contagious up to three degrees of separation. So if you are my friend and you become happy, I’m more likely to become happy, too. What’s more, my friend Mary is more likely to become happy even if Mary doesn’t know you. And even Mary’s friend John is more likely to become happy – 3 people removed from you, the source of all that happiness.

In addition to studying happiness, the authors have previously studied the impact of social networks on obesity and smoking rates. Apparently obesity has been spreading through social networks, and smoking has been declining. There are some interesting animations charting the progressions on this page.

If these social influences are real, what hopeful news for those of us fighting hunger! It suggests that our attitudes and behaviors can have larger impact than we ever knew. If happiness, obesity, and smoking are trackably influenced by a single person through their chain of friends, why not charitable giving or concern for those who are living in poverty? When I speak passionately and regularly about hunger, perhaps it will influence not only my immediate audience, but, through them, people I’ve never seen or met. And what happens when a whole web of us do it?

There are, of course, people criticizing the happiness study. One of the complaints is that the authors have proven correlation, but not causation. Still, the whole idea feels commonsensical to me. Doesn’t peer pressure work in a similar way? Aren’t we influenced by people we know? Aren’t they influenced by people they know? Why would it not carry through? So right or wrong, I’m going to approach the new year as if I matter more than I thought I did. May 2009 see our individual anti-hunger efforts spread far and wide!

In the season of Advent we wait expectantly for the promised light. During the twelve days of Christmas, we celebrate the light revealed in the incarnation. This Sunday, many will celebrate Epiphany, the revelation of Christ’s light to the nations. The Christ event in the Christian tradition represents the fulfillment of God’s promises, the dawn of a new era.

In our current context, however, this neat and tidy summation of God’s activity can be explored more deeply. In spite of the fulfillment language found throughout the New Testament, we nonetheless still live in a liminal stage (what George Eldon Ladd called the “already and not yet”). Yes, the light has come in the Christ event; yet we still await the final fulfillment (Romans 8:18-25 expresses this idea well).

Although Christ has come and we have a taste of God’s promises, we still live in very uncertain times. The current financial crisis threatens the livelihood of millions (one estimate I’ve read is that by the time we emerge from the recession, nearly 50 million in the US will be living below the poverty line [see the report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, available at http://www.cbpp.org/11-24-08pov.pdf]; already the crisis has plunged more than 115 million people into poverty worldwide [see www.bread.org]). Wars, famine, and disease persist throughout the world. In this way, I find this next Sunday’s Psalm (72) to be a beautiful prayer for our times—that God would empower rulers (in our cities, states, nations, and world) to govern justly and defend the cause of the poor. May the church, empowered by the gracious Holy Spirit, lead by example!