Fixing the Global Food System

[sygh]

In my wandering for information on renewable energy courses, I found an organization springing up out of the UK called the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, or OXfam. Well, well, well, as there really are no coincidences...

Anyway, I was so impressed the OXfam mission, I immediately thought to share it here, with all of you, on Avalon.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/


http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/emergencies/ivory-coast-audio-slideshow.html


peace,
sygh

[Steven]

Yes, I know them a little bit. I remember their fight with Starbuck some years ago, then they came to an agreement, but it wasn't popular in the african (ethiopian) community. Here you can have a small resume about it.

http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/open-forum/35988-campaign-against-oxfam-agreement-starbucks-boycott-israel-campaign.html

Namaste, Steven

[sygh]

Yes, I know them a little bit. I remember their fight with Starbuck some years ago, then they came to an agreement, but it wasn't popular in the african (ethiopian) community. Here you can have a small resume about it.

http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/open-forum/35988-campaign-against-oxfam-agreement-starbucks-boycott-israel-campaign.html

Namaste, Steven

I thank you for that bit of information. I took the time to read the whole article. From the sound of it, Oxfam stopped taking donations from Starbucks back in 2005 but their representitives were very slippery, when they sidetracked questions regarding the taking of donations from the owner of Starbucks, a man who is so openly aparthetic toward Israel. At any rate, looks like they changed their tune. And according to their site, they do a lot of relief work in Gaza. If this really is the case, and they are truely trying to be politically and religiously neutral in their attempt to help people from starving, I'm for them.

Of course, I could be completely naive. In all honesty, what won me over is the fact that I liked what I saw on their web site. Even after reading the above negative reports, as this has been addressed, one can only hope their efforts are actually reaching the needy without a political agenda. As there has been a rise in hunger and death from hunger in the last few years, this could be someone's saving grace.

[sygh]

Here's a very simple but effective video from Oxfam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gAyjP8h-08&feature=player_profilepage

I like the Granny aspect of it, it's so comforting.

[sygh]

Back in February, Charles/Atticus made a statement that women were the key. In the global effort to stop poverty in the poorest of places, it seems women are the key. In Harshin, Ethiopia, a women only co-op for livestock was started, and according to Oxfam, it has made all of the difference, when caring for the family. Up to this point, women had little to no say concerning financial matters of the house, or much of anything else, for that matter. In Libya, due to shortages, there has been enacted a women only line for gasoline. According to the United Nations, ...'two thirds of the world's 796 million illiterate adults are women.' One of the main UN global objectives for 2015 is to educate and focus on women, and women's issues.

[king anthony]

- regarding title-

I say, there is nothing to fix with the "Global Food System" - other then giving it back to the masses.

[Arrowwind]

Can't say I am too impressed with that green granny.

I will always prefer to purchase my beans from farmers of my nation
as all nations should shop local
and for a number of reasons.

Farmers of America, especially the small family owned farm have been going down for years and continues to do so
which leaves room for growth of corporate farms and their genetically modified products and nonsustainable agricultural practices.

also the cost of fuel fro sending the ethiopian beans to the US or UK for that matter certainly is not sustainable either.
How costly in terms of money and ecology is it to acquire that fuel, build the ship, pay the transport people, higher the truckers?

But in UK it may be different... as they have lost capacity to feed themselves... it is of benefit to them to make sure that other nations can develope to meet their growing need for food since they cannot do it themselves... truely a nonsustainable reality.

I am highly suspicious of organizations of Oxfam.

Consider the history of Oxfam. an offspring of Oxford University... set up by the Catholic church initially, with lots of Jesuit influence,
and currently producing NWO optimists like Clinton and his associates, who promote the NWO agenda without consideration for national unity and economy.... and the loss of jurisdiction of the laws of your own back yard to corporate and transnational trade agreements... think WTO

Of course they will not support violence in the Gaza strip. Violence might return the land to the people who by law and agreement between Palastine and Israel have determined it should belong to.. the Palistinians. They will not do anything to cross the zionists terrorists, who use terror and violence aganinst Palestine daily... yet those people are suppose to lay down and wave the peace sign and not fight for their freedom and truth whle Israeli guns aim down their throats?


I am not totally adverse to one world government and I do think that it will be upon us one day but will it come with repression and loss of local freedom for the "greater good" of people on the other side of the planet?

I always believed that the best people to regulate a land are the ones who live on it.
and the best people to support are your neighbors living next door
to perpetute a sustainable economy that one's children can thrive on

When our own children in the USA are entering prision in excellerating rates
cant find jobs
are in debt before they are out of high school
I have a hard time getting excited about other places
where kids are not doing well.

[nomadguy]

I think this is in line with this post - Food Foresting
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?21565-Food-Foresting&p=234604#post234604

[nomadguy]

http://vimeo.com/23244839

http://vimeo.com/22372542

http://vimeo.com/23246413

http://vimeo.com/22371097
ref - http://permaculture.org.au/2011/06/07/national-sustainable-food-summit-talks/

[sygh]

I think this is in line with this post - Food Foresting
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?21565-Food-Foresting&p=234604#post234604

Your link to Food Foresting was extremely good information, and I thank you.

I'm glad I posted this information about Oxfam. It has shed some political light on the organization, and served to promote alternative solutions to the problem of hunger. It has also focused a little bit of light as to what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

I am not extremely well read on the comings and goings of the United Nations but I've never been able give them a vote of confidence, as an adult, due to the fact that they have done more to support war as a solution to conflict, than they have spent supporting peaceful measures.

Is that true? Like I said, this is what I have thought, without much regard to actually finding out, as the UN is so far removed from my daily life. Just being truthful here. However, I do know that most conflicts actually revolve around a population's access to aquire for oneself, the necessities of life, and or, the profit for work done.

The Green Grannie actually shows us just how totally opposite our agendas can be with what stands as the NWO. Green Grannie is sweet, she is loving, and giving, and she is "up to date" because she is Green but she is still selling something to us, in the form of a solution. Would Green Grannie steer you wrong? When has it ever made financial sense to purchase staples from a country a world apart from your own? The waste of energy in transporting it is enough to turn me off of it, as a routine. And who really profits by it? OK, so the Green Grannie is not a good solution for world hunger, even though she supports fair trade.

This is not to say fair trade doesn't play a vital role, but it does seem best to grow and purchase as much as you can on a local basis, and to promote that which does grow locally by creating a food forest. Food foresting looks like one of the best ideas to come down the pike in years. It is entirely possible Eden was a food forest.

What about a solution for a more arid climate? Can places like Masdar, where a community is being built to sustain as many as 50,000 people, be successful for any length of time? Can Masdar be considered a modern Oasis? The UN is actually supporting this.

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1607894

[nomadguy]

I am glad you like the threads,
oddly enough I am studying the idea that ~arid climates are THE BEST for food foresting, I will start with the word - minerals.
In arid climates these important unpackable energy sources that we call minerals are ready to be unpacked using permaculture techniques.

To focus a little on arid climates, look at the positive sides of an arid climate, ~heat, minerals, lack of activity. All of these can be replaced by sustainable activity, some shading, and unpacking the minerals is beneficial to all living beings.
(All of which can be with clever use of natural systems like fungi, bacteria and plants/animals.)
AND
Water harvesting is actually easier than we may think,
~for example in the "driest place on Earth" in Chile, they get almost NO rain. And have figured out a brilliant way to capture condensation by mimicing the native cacti there. I am speaking of the Atacama Desert in Chile.
http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/FogQuest9s-600x450.jpg
ref - http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/03/07/the-fog-collectors-harvesting-water-from-thin-air/
and it seems people are already into permaculture in the atacama region
http://forums.permaculture.org.au/showthread.php?6751-Permaculture-Design-Course-Atacama-Chile

So in short we already have the techniques and resources we need to do this EVERYWHERE around us.

here is a very simple all around explanation of sustainable systems in the broader sense, (I recommend watching all parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni1Jat86jIM

Unfortunately this all comes a little late in the game or perhaps right on time, who knows...
Either way ~Facing up to this task at hand is a harsh reality at best...
The ice cold truth, we need to speed up this process immediately and with total sincerity,
what we see in the middle eastern states all the way to asia and in northern Africa is the tip of the iceberg,
the so called wealthy nations are set to to hit the wall... hard.
80% of the populace ~ in the US, I think is painfully behind as most people simply want to buy buy buy and get drunk then go water skiing.

Here in the west of the US, the water tables for Hundred of miles near places with good water resource are being destroy rapidly by mining and industry. So as things come about and we really need these areas to do Food Foresting and/or sustainability we first have to handle the worst ecological disasters we have ever seen. this is fact.

On need only to glance and see it, even in the eastern states where mtn top mining is still going at full speed.
I think that this travesty of industry remains our biggest hindrance as a species.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgGSUfpJcOQ
a total mismanagement of energy as we know it.

I look at my little one acre food forest as a mere example ~a small dent to make.
Right Now the laws in the US strangle any real expansive efforts to Bioremediate larger swaths of land. Or even to micro garden or be an at home farm etc. another travesty well in the works. While you all sleep the pirates of industry take your pillows insides out and you wake with an empty sheet under your heads.

time to get busy on all sides of the issue.

[Nasu]

Approximately we live on 25% of the available land, 75% being barren, wilderness, mountainous, etc, Hydroponic systems can be constructed in most of these places and uses far less water than conventional farming, one acre of conventional farming uses approximately the same water as 98 acres of Hydroponic farming, or 98x more crop for your water. Ad to this the miracle properties of highly diluted sea water as fertilizer, imbuing the crops with 90 elements rather than the current three, NPK and you have a recipe for healthy large organic production on minimal water on unusable land. We have the means and the knowledge but not the will. My two cents... N

[nomadguy]

Imperative information

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4499930634181592531&hl=en

[nomadguy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPqvhHZXZz0&feature=player_embedded

[GlassSteagallfan]

- regarding title-

I say, there is nothing to fix with the "Global Food System" - other then giving it back to the masses.

As Lyndon LaRouche said during an international webcast... "Send troops into Cargill"

¤=[Post Update]=¤


One of the main UN global objectives for 2015 is to educate and focus on women, and women's issues.

Yeah, right. The UN endorses Codex Alimentarius

[nomadguy]

The UN is behind everything we don't want. I think the more people begin to work with nature at home to Gain individual experience. The better off we will all be. In my view it starts at home. There is quite a lot to learn here, and people on Avalon have been very giving with good solid information, there are several posts on the matter of what to do about food. One is to learn what we can eat. In the above videos I posted one of the speakers gives some numbers to point out the fact that we are only eating 2-10% of the plants we could be eating from this planet. If we can rediscover what is "to eat" on this wonderful planet it would be a great start and this type of idea could really spread far and wide quickly.
I have seen only one guy on youtube going in the direction of educating about edible foods we don;t currently realize are edible, we need more pioneers to look at "what we can eat", in my view.
Here is his link
- http://www.youtube.com/user/feralkevin

[dddanieljjjamesss]

I have worked in food service my entire life. To see the huge amounts of food thrown away by grocery stores is disgusting.
We have plenty of food. We just charge people money for it.

To solve the problem, give give give. Never expect anything in return, but it will always come in abundance.