The following was written by Dr. Warren Chain, who recently led a trip during which participants learned about and reflected on ethical aspects of our food production systems and food choices.

From Thursday October 22 through Sunday, October 25 in Waco, TX, ELCA World Hunger gathered 20 campus and congregational leaders from Region 4 for a Leadership Training on the Ethics of Eating. The event was held at World Hunger Relief, a Christian organization which trains individuals in sustainable farming practices that are useful both in the United States and abroad. This event focused on three issues at the intersection of food and faith: justice issues affecting workers in food production, the intersection between agriculture and climate change, and hunger.

We engaged with a wide variety of speakers – Food Worker Activists Anita Grabowski and Sean Sellers, Theologian Shannon Jung, Waco Hunger Activists Shirley Langston and Kenneth Moerbe, and Climate Change speakers Dr. Travis Miller and Dr. Benjamin Champion. We also engaged in a number of activities. On Friday, we prepared one of our meals from live chickens and vegetables that we gleaned. On Saturday, we visited Farmer James Nors of Nors Dairy, a raw milk dairy farm. Through these speakers and activities, I gained a good deal of new information and had a number of personal revelations; I will share two of them.

On Saturday morning, Dr. Benjamin Champion provided an overview of some of the challenges associated with eating ethically, with a focus upon the impact of our food choices upon climate change. His research examined local food systems in the state of Kansas. There are a variety of ethical concerns to think about as one eats. For example, were the workers who produced and distributed this food paid a living wage? Was the food produced locally and sustainably, and with the intent to minimize its carbon impact? I was struck, in particular, by his data which examined the carbon impact of various aspects of the food system. Among those who are concerned about the carbon impact of their activity, much discussion has focused on eating locally. But, Ben’s data suggests that our own local transporation to and from the store where we buy our food, combined with the carbon impact of our food storage, can actually have a higher carbon impact than the carbon impact that stems from tranporting industrial food to our local store. This finding complicates the idea that eating locally is always better for the environment. If you would like to learn more, see Ben’s presentation (particularly slides 60 – 63) which is posted on the The Table, the World Hunger social networking site: http://elcaworldhunger.ning.com/group/region4ethicsofeating/forum/topics/benjamin-champions.

On Saturday evening, we screened the documentary film Mississippi Chicken, and afterwards had a dicussion with the producer Anita Grabowski and her husband, John Fiege, who was the film’s director. The movie chronicles Anita’s work to create a worker justice center in Mississippi to organize undocumented poultry workers in the summer of 2004. We began to hear about her work on Friday, as Anita participated on a panel that dealt with the justice issues faced by poultry workers and farm workers. We continued our learning with Mississippi Chicken, which highlights the multiples barriers poultry workers face as they seek to feed their families. While working in these poultry plants, workers face terrible conditions. Futhermore, workers are vulnerable to exploitation by plant managers while on the job, and by local police and criminals outside of work. These workers are vulnerable to exploitation because they often are either unclear about their rights, or are reticent to engage with the police due to their undocumented status. At the end of the documentary, our group was subdued and stunned by what we saw – it was not a graphic movie, but the social injustices faced by these workers are heartbreaking. Afterwards, John and Anita led a discussion about the film and how the individuals we met through the film have fared since it was produced. This film can be borrowed from ELCA World Hunger or it can be purchased from Amazon. I recommend it highly.

These are just two of the experiences that impacted me over the weekend. If you are interested in working on issues of food and faith, a number of ways to engage emerge from this event. I invite you to join our discussion on The Table (http://elcaworldhunger.ning.com/ & http://elcaworldhunger.ning.com/group/region4ethicsofeating). In addition, all of the participants will host an activity in their sending campus or congregation. So, if you see an activity on The Table that you would like to participate in or would like to sponsor in your area, feel free to connect with one of us to participate or to gain assistance.

Warren Chain, Ph.D.
ELCA World Hunger

Elena (seated) with Stephanie (Amextra staff)

One of the people we met in Lomas de San Isidro was a woman named Elena. Through a translator, she explained to us that during the spring swine flu outbreak, she and a group of women hand-sewed 5000 face masks in the space of a few days. Then they went door to door through the community handing them out, and providing information about the flu and how to prevent it. Collectively, it required hundreds of hours of work for which she and the other women received no pay. But in Lomas, no one got sick with the flu.

When asked why she did it, Elena said she wanted to help her neighbors. And she understood that success takes teamwork, and she wanted to be a model of how to do that. She wanted to encourage others to work for the community, too. She said the women’s strategy is to work together, even though it is not always easy, and some have to be convinced that it’s worth their time. But Elena believes that, together, they can improve life for everyone.

We visited Lomas because it is a community supported by Amextra, one of ELCA World Hunger’s long-standing partner organizations. It was ELCA World Hunger funds that provided the materials for the masks that Elena and her neighbors sewed, and that support the Amextra-sponsored community center where classes on health and disease prevention are taught. It was gratifying to see a first-hand example of the impact my donations are having, the good ways the money is being used, and to recognize my part in that greater whole.

But for me, far more profound was the example being set by Elena and the others we met. Relative to those living in Lomas, I am rich beyond imagination. I have lots of comforts and plenty to eat. But unlike Elena, I can’t tell you the names of the people who live three houses away from me. I’d like to say I’d stay up all night to make them face masks, but if the flu hits my neighborhood, I’m not so sure I’ll see those nameless, unknown people as my priority. Elena and the residents of Lomas de San Isidro have very little money, but they have a wealth of human connection and support that many of us Americans, for all our money, can’t buy and desperately want. In the community that the residents of Lomas de San Isidro have created, I saw God. And I felt hope.

There are lots of places in the world like Lomas de San Isidro (including here in the U.S.!), where people struggle daily to eat. To acquire needed healthcare services. To obtain information. To offer their children a hopeful future. And there are lots of places where people accomplish amazing things in the face of adversity every day. Our trip to Mexico gave a small group of us a renewed sense of hope and urgency in the fight to end hunger. May we find ways to sustain that sense of urgency and pass it on to others!

-Nancy Michaelis

During my last trip to Europe I really started thinking about the food, exercise and time usage differences between Americans and Western Europeans (in general). I don’t claim to be a nutritionist, sociologist or expert in really any field, just a regular person with an interest in healthy lifestyles. Based on food, exercise and time, here is what I have observed…

Food

• Healthy Food versus Nutritious Food

I have noticed that in US grocery stores we have lots of food that says “low fat”, “low calorie”, “no sugar”, etc. and we buy it because we think that it’s healthy. What I have found is that when I look at the ingredients in these foods I often put them back on the shelf and grab the normal ones. What I noticed in Europe was that it is so much more common to grab the normal one. Not only that, in the dairy section, American cheese singles are nearly impossible to find, instead you’re surrounded by real cheeses – the kind that I always grew up thinking were fancy, buy my boyfriend eats them for breakfast. This made me think about my time in Sweden and all the Europeans in my International House.  What I remember is real food and real meals…

• Meals versus Microwaves

Sure I saw microwaves in Europe and absolutely people use them, but what I found fascinating was the level of food quality that my fellow twenty-somethings were preparing. I lived in a dorm with about five kitchens and 100 people. As you might imagine, meal times were crazy! As one of two Americans in the house, my fellow American friend and I expected macaroni and lots of pizza. We were so surprised when we saw the beautiful and wonderful smelling meals that came out of the oven and off of the stove at every meal. I had friends who grocery shopped every day so that they could have fresh vegetables. We Americans had to step up our cooking – we emailed our moms for our favorite recipes from home.

• What is Fast Food?

In Belgium I had this realization: it’s not that people don’t eat fast food, I saw a busy McDonald’s whenever I went into town, what is more common however, is a different type of fast food. Bread shops which whip up cheese and meat baguette sandwiches in a minute, fry shops (well, those can’t be good for you) and kebabs on every corner. What’s different? No drive-thru windows. Imagine if we walked to McDonald’s whenever we ate it? And even more, if we decided to go to the scrumptious bread shop instead.

Exercise

• What is different about our daily 30 minutes of exercise?

After living in the Los Angeles suburbs for four years and Chicago for a summer, I have gotten used to lots of gyms all around. I had this realization during my last trip abroad…where are all the gyms? I know that people go to them, I had friends in Sweden who went daily, but the air around the idea was different. Instead of going to the gym for your daily dose of exercise, the gym was the place you went for that bit of extra. Toning, lifting, etc. because your daily exercise was riding your bike to class or walking to a friend’s apartment, it was walking to the town centre or playing soccer at the park with your buddies. Exercise had a whole different mentality around it – it was simply part of everyday life. And the interesting thing was how much difference that daily portion did make.

Time

• Vacations and Work

While every country is different, there are a couple of things that I noticed abroad. Swedes take the end of the work day seriously. They work really hard during the day and then go home and tune into their families. Their work/family line is quite clear.  Also, even the hardest working Europeans take time to go on vacation, and this reminds me that God built vacation into the world, the Sabbath.

• That Little Unknown…Le Je Ne Sais Quoi

The other thing that I continually notice is that when I return to American soil I feel stress right away. (Not because I just came back from vacation – the majority of my time abroad has been study experiences or I have been working remotely.) The US is a fast-paced and intense culture, and that’s okay. I just remember to walk places when I can, eat real food, and give myself a Sabbath.

The point of this blog is not to make one way better than another, but simply to put out there some observations that I have made during my journeys. As a young woman I have realized that simple changes make big differences. Things like bicycling instead of driving, eating foods with real ingredients, and taking time for myself make me feel so different. Every time I am in a new culture I try to pick out things to learn (even within the US!) and these are my findings. I hope that you will find them interesting too, and that they will help you to think about experiences that you have had, and ways to make your life healthier, happier and more wholistic.

Cheers,

Lana

“You’re going to have to buy a car.”

That’s what everyone told me when they heard I was returning to the west coast. Sure, they said–it’s easy to live without a car in Chicago, surrounded by trains, buses, taxis, and car-sharing companies. But how can you do it out west?

To compensate for the embarrassing carbon footprint I stamped by moving 2300 miles in a low-mileage UHaul, I’ve gotten around Seattle and Portland, from Seattle to the town of Mt. Vernon 60 miles away, and from Mt. Vernon all the way to Sacramento on a combination of city and county buses, streetcars, light rail, and Amtrak. Figuring out routes and prices took a lot of research and asking questions, which, as a traveler, I was happy to do. But for people who drive every day, public transportation is like a second language. Convincing someone to learn it is work!

We’re glad to do it in Europe or New York City, consulting guidebooks and websites that translate the mysteries into vocabulary and gestures we comprehend. In our own hometowns, we’re more suspicious: Where do buses go? Who rides them? Are they safe? Don’t they take longer?

Tom Hampson of Church World Service answered these questions in Modesto, California. Twice a week, he gets to his office by bus, only five minutes later than he would in his car. The two buses I took between Seattle and Mt. Vernon were crowded with commuters who had done the legwork required to leave their cars at home. In Portland, the mayor wants 25 percent of commuters to use bicycles and buses; the one-two punch of Portland’s fine public transportation system and enlightened populace will help him succeed.

Learning the language and practice of public transportation could narrow the gap between the carbon dioxide humans emit every year (7 billion tons) and the CO2 that the earth’s natural processes can absorb (about 4 billion tons). Roughly 1.5 billion tons come from transportation; changes in our behavior can be significant.

In Everything Belongs, Father Richard Rohr says “We do not think ourselves into new ways of living; we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” Take the bus, and see what happens!

Anne Basye

“Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal”

The staff at Crossways Camping Ministries in Wisconsin spent a lot of time this summer helping kids deepen their understanding of hunger and it’s causes. Below is a follow-up to their original post. It is written by Ben Koehler.

Every week we talked with campers about how to help solve hunger problems. In these discussions staff members were encouraged by how responsive the campers can be.  The catch is that most leave and quickly forget what they have discovered. We were awestruck in hearing about two campers who went home to their congregation and asked for the loose offering to go to the Crossways Mission Project, which in turn goes to Hunger Relief and Disaster Response in Zimbabwe. Of all of the voices calling their attention inside and outside of camp, the lessons of hunger stuck.

Some of our highlights this summer were…

Fresh Veggies from the Garden

Working in the Garden

Weighing Food Waste After Meals

 Teaming up on Hunger Issues

 And, of course, learning as much as we could.

Changes at Crossway’s Waypost on Mission Lake are making for a more environmentally friendly and sustainable camp community. To learn more, check out this video:

http://www.godsworkourhands.org/v/445,summer-of-hope-crossways-waypost-camp.html

Joyfully,

Ben Koehler

Last Tuesday’s Facebook TueSpot generated some great replies. What about? Songs that make a statement for CHANGE. As a blog reader, I’d like to share these clips of musical inspiration with you too! From 1980’s favorites that will never die to current European indie/pop stars and our favorite pew-side hymns, it seems that we can find a little inspiration wherever we look. As we head into the holiday season, a time where change is all around and love abounds, it seems that a bit of cheer is in order. Here’s a list of our ELCA World Hunger Facebook Cause members’ favorite notes that inspire change.

(listen @ www.YouTube.com)

1. On The Turning Away by Pink Floyd

2. Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid

3. Praise and Thanksgiving by Albert F. Bayly (hymn #689 ELW or #409 LBW)

4. Yell Fire by Michael Franti

5. Have a Little Faith by Michael Franti

6. Womanizer Cover by Timid Tiger

7. …Add your favorite song that makes a statement for change in the comment section below!

Cheers,

Lana

p.s. Help us win $500 – $50,000 for hunger and poverty relief through America’s Giving Challenge by donating to ELCA World Hunger between now and November 6^th – donations only count toward the Challenge when processed at www.causes.com/elcaworldhunger.  Even more, donate this Friday, October 16^th and be a part of our 1-day Call to Action – ELCA World Hunger could win $1000 in one day! The Cause which receives the most individual donations wins – it’s about lots of people, not lots of money.

I recently discovered an intriguing BBC report on Iceland. The report is about how the financial crisis has affected the food that Icelanders eat, but instead of turning to cheap fast food or low-cost-low-quality grocery shelves, they have turned back in time. This story provides a fascinating look into our relationship with food.

As an island, food imports are quite expensive, so Iceland has turned to home-grown goods, much of which means dishes that adults remember from their grandparents, dishes from Iceland’s history. In the report they talk about how the nutrition of the food is high (and it sure sounds hearty), and how buying “Icelandic” has become trendy. The report also highlights some of the cons of what returning to tradition means as it addresses international whaling concerns, and finally highlights the harnessing of the island’s natural resources to grow fruits and vegetables in greenhouses.

Personally, as the great-granddaughter of Nordic immigrants, I began to think of the food that I ate growing up, including recipes passed down from generations. Meat and potatoes are still a staple at my parents house, and with farms a few miles down the road offering organic beef and local potatoes, the cost of transport and sale is much lower – making me think about how simple, hearty, traditional dishes can be both better for the environment and cheaper to consume at the same time. When I think about other recipes of tradition, particularly scrumptious baked goods, I also realize how simple their ingredients can be. Perhaps Iceland’s return to traditional foods could serve as a little wake up call for the rest of us.

What fruits, vegetables, meats or grains are local to you? What are traditional dishes in your part of the country? As we begin to come out of this financial crisis, let us not forget its lessons…even if we learn them from half a world away.

~Lana

Listen to the  BBC report here.

When I decided to sell my home last winter, my stuff stopped being the pleasant backdrop to daily life and started demanding my attention. Beloved possessions became objects to sort, discard, bequeath, measure, and pack. Adding up self-storage fees, UHaul truck rental, and 8 miles per gallon of gas for 2300 miles, it cost quite a lot to move the five pieces of furniture and 67 boxes that survived this process of discernment from a dark self-storage unit in Chicago to a dark farm shed in Washington State.

From my extreme downsizing, I’ve learned exactly how much I have, and what it costs me. It’s left me with a sense that most of us North Americans have too much, and spend too much energy acquiring, caring for, and storing those things.

The doilies and antimacassars that cluttered our grandmothers’ homes have given way to gadgets, home electronics, and more contemporary gewgaws we think we can’t live without. Our garages are so stuffed with furniture, toys, sports equipment, and yard tools that cars can’t live in them anymore. We hold yard sales, but they don’t make a dent in our belongings because we fill our spaces with new bargains.

We do need tools for living, like the butter churn in the South Dakota sod house I visited on my road trip, or the laptop I’m typing on. And we cherish heirlooms that embody our family stories. But are there other, more creative and beneficial ways we could spend our energy than buying, selling, and tending stuff?

As a culture, we could produce less. According to the American Society of Interior Designers, 90 percent of everything manufactured in the U.S. ends up in a landfill in a year. No wonder Jared Diamond says much of American consumption is wasteful and contributes little or nothing to the quality of life.

As citizens and Christians (not consumers!), we could purchase more selectively, and free up space in our homes for hospitality to others or rest for ourselves.

We could have less individually, and share more things in common—a skill learned by young participants in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps and similar service projects.

And we could invest more energy in partnering with people in places that don’t have enough, so that together we can create a world in which we don’t suffer from too much and others don’t suffer from too little.

I’m looking forward to spending my energy on something besides my stuff. With everything in the shed, it’s just me and my suitcase. What will I learn next?

Anne Basye

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (fao.org) is planning a few key events this fall:

• World Food Day: October 16
• The State of Food Insecurity in the World report (October)
• World Summit on Food Security: Rome, Nov. 16–18

We recognize World Food Day on October 16, an event “designed to increase awareness, understanding, and informed year-around action to alleviate hunger.” (worldfooddayusa.org).  This event is observed on this date in recognition of the founding of the FAO in 1945.  It is an opportunity to bring hunger to the forefront as we learn and educate others about hunger in the context of today’s world and economy.

Also this month the FAO is to publish an updated “The State of Food Insecurity in the World” report based on its June predictions that the number of people who are hungry in the world has risen by 105 million in 2009, bringing the total to 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world.

Finally, in Rome, Nov. 16–18, FAO will host the World Summit on Food Security to determine a strategy to address the increased state of global food insecurity.  FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf proposed the summit, noting “The silent hunger crisis—affecting one sixth of all of humanity—poses a serious risk for world peace and security.  We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world.”

-Aaron Cooper is Writer-Editor for ELCA World Hunger

As I sit next to a window in Gent, Belgium, looking outside at the swaying trees and bicycle-filled back patios, I am thinking about languages. Last night I went to a dinner party where I was the only native English speaker. The party, filled with lovely people who were very kind, still only seemed half accessible to me. This, however, got me thinking about universal languages.

In music classes growing up I learned Latin, Italian and French terms without thinking. “Forte” and “fermata” could just as easily have been English in my mind, but they aren’t. Music, however, is universal and what is beautiful about that is the idea that musicians from around the world can come and sit together in a symphony, and without any words at all, they can speak to the audience. Through tones, phrases and beats they can communicate incredible joy, deep sorrow and expressions of greatest hope. That is the power of a universal language, the language of music. Some other universal languages that occur to me include art and nature.

But then there is another, a language so powerful that it brings nations together and pulls at our heartstrings. It is a language so global that we cannot keep ourselves from its imminence. It is the grumble of a stomach – the language of hunger. We have all felt hunger, that pang in our middle when we forget to eat lunch amidst our busy schedule, or the urge in our insides to refill the calories that we burned at soccer practice. Some of us, however, feel this hunger every day, and some of us may not even know what it is like to feel full. I believe that it is this universal language of hunger that keeps us working for a new day – it keeps donors writing checks and you reading this blog. It keeps staff members tuned into their projects and partner organizations in communication. It reminds us in a very real and physical way what it means to support the ELCA World Hunger program, what it feels like to be hungry, and encourages us to begin spreading a new universal language – the full stomach.

Spread a new language today.
Donate. Educate. Advocate.

-Lana Lile