Tuesday October 14th, 2008
In this issue:
'Bailout the Hungry,' Activists Tell
World Bank
Bail Out the Hungry, demands ActionAid at
World Bank ?ActionAid USA via OneWorld.net, October 8, 2008 ?Straight
to the Source ?
Washington D.C.- - As developed economies scramble to stabilize their
financial markets through more vigorous regulation, the international
anti-poverty agency ActionAid is urging leaders at a World Bank summit
in Washington on Oct. 11-13 to take action to save the lives of people
who are dying because of the world food crisis, which has catapulted
another 100 million people into the ranks of the hungry. Nearly one
billion people - a sixth of the world's population - now face devastating
hunger. Shefali Sharma, Head of ActionAid's Food Crisis Taskforce,
said:
"We are witnessing an unprecedented effort to bail out the global
financial industry and an acknowledgement that for too long, lack
of government involvement and oversight has led to massive failures
in the market. A similar rethinking needs to take place on the food
crisis. At least $30 billion a year is needed now to invigorate environmentally
friendly small scale food production in developing countries and to
ensure that the poor and vulnerable are spared the brunt of the fuel
and food crisis. But for this investment to be effective, we need
a clear break from past Bank orthodoxy and prescriptions on agriculture
and for the institution to support the Right to Food Framework enshrined
at the UN."
The financial, fuel and food crises form the backdrop of the World
Bank and IMF annual meetings. Over the weekend, governments and the
Bank will discuss the three crises and potential responses. In its
new report, Rising Food And Fuel Prices: Addressing the Risks To Future
Generations which will be released on Oct. 12, the Bank acknowledges
that "For those already struggling to meet their daily food and
nutrient needs, the double shock of food and fuel price rises represents
a threat to basic survival. The poorest households are reducing the
quantity and/or quality of the food, schooling, and basic services
that they consume, leading to irreparable damage to the health and
education of millions of children." Women and girls will be the
hardest hit, the report warns, because "gender disparities in
the quantity and quality of food consumed increase during times of
shortage," compelling mothers and daughters to "skip entire
days of eating." Ironically, Women grow 60-80% of the world's
food.
Having acknowledged the food crisis and the immediate need for social
safety nets, the Bank continues to struggle with a bigger role for
the State in resolving these crises even as it supports the financial
bailout.
Commenting on the Bank's strategy ActionAid USA's Governance Policy
Analyst, Rick Rowden said:
"Today when countries' social protection mechanisms are being
stretched, the World Bank has noted that 'Many countries have inadequate
safety nets and some are realizing that they have underinvested in
these systems,' but countries are not just 'realizing' this now. In
fact, such chronic underinvestment has long been a result of the loan
conditions and policy advice of the Bank and the International Monetary
Fund over many years to cut back on spending and public investment
in order to achieve the IMF's overly-austere definition of 'macroeconomic
stability.' Even now, as the IMF announced emergency lending to 15
countries, it has kept in place its unnecessarily restrictive fiscal
and monetary policy targets that will continue to block countries
from being able to increase public investment. These contradictions
must be addressed."
Commenting on the report, Sharma said:
"ActionAid supports the need to address short-term safety nets
so that cash to buy food gets to the most vulnerable - women and children.
However, the report falls far short of supporting free and universal
provision of basic health care and education, pushing for reduction
in costs for the poor instead. While the Bank is finally waking up
to the need for government spending on essential services such as
health and education, it does not go far enough in acknowledging the
policy space that developing country governments need now more than
ever to be able to deal with the triple crises. If the US can spend
$700 billion dollars on bailing out Wall Street, surely a case can
be made that developing country governments need the investments and
the policy flexibility to use the best tools at their disposal in
protecting their poor."
ActionAid's report "Failing the Rural Poor".
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/failing_the_rural_poor_actionaid_report.pdf
details the Right To Food, problems in the current aid architecture
for agriculture and outlines recommendations for governments and donors
to steer investment to agriculture in the right direction.
Aftab Alam Khan, ActionAid's International Food Rights Coordinator,
said:
"The World Bank has been a promoter of free market ideology that
has brought the global food and financial structures to a collapse.
The Bank needs to acknowledge its own failures in order to change
the direction that is pushing millions more people into hunger .ActionAid
is presenting a ten-point plan to end hunger, and the most fundamental
solution that the Bank must recognize is every State's power to ensure
that every one of their citizens has the right to food."
ActionAid's ten-point plan is available at:
http://www.actionaid.org/assets/pdf/HF%20Manifesto%20FINAL.pdf
ActionAid's HungerFREE campaign to push for the right to food has
been launched in over 30 countries over the past 18 months. On 16
October 2008, World Food Day, protests and actions by women will present
how poor women farmers can help solve the food crisis in Africa, Asia
and Latin America.
But enshrining nutritious food as a human right, as ActionAid has
long encouraged, is no mean feat in Washington D.C.
or months, for example, journalists have pressed the U.S. presidential
and vice presidential candidates to single out just one spending item
they might have to cut given the nation's present economic crisis.
Only Joe Biden, in his debate with Sarah Palin last week, was specific,
suggesting that in such hard times his administration might have to
"slow down" the nation's commitments to increase foreign
assistance. Though Senator Biden's response may have eased the insecurities
of the American middle class, it was a reminder of the costly political
capital that leaders must spend to aid the poor.
On that point at least, the World Bank's report offers some reassurance.
"The costs to national treasuries and the development community
of responding to the crisis now," It says, "are many multiples
less than the potential costs of millions more undernourished children."
Back to top
How & Why To Buy Green & Organic
Textiles & Furniture
Furniture World Magazine,
October 8, 2008 Straight to the Source
1. Choose fabrics that are "organic fabrics" not simply
fabric made from organic fibers. There is a big difference between
an organic cotton T-shirt and an organic textile T-shirt. What is
the difference? The fiber, organic cotton, used to make the fabric
may have been raised with regard to health and safety of the planet
and people; but the production of the fabric from the cotton was not.
There are many steps in the production of fabric AFTER the raising
or extraction of the raw fiber material. Textile production steps
can include carding, retting, scouring, bleaching, spinning, weaving,
dyeing, printing, and finishing. These steps use a lot of two things:
chemicals and water.
Water is used at every stage in fabric manufacturing: to dissolve
chemicals to be used in one step,then to wash and rinse out those
same chemicals to be ready for the next step. Chemicals needed in
fabric production weigh between 10% to 100% of the weight of the fabric.
The production of the fabric covering your sofa required between 4
and 20 pounds of chemicals. The chemically infused effluent -saturated
with dyes, de-foamers, detergents, bleach, optical brighteners, equalizers
and many other chemicals - is often released into the local river,
where it enters the groundwater, drinking water, the habitat of flora
and fauna, and our food chain. As Gene Lisa has said, "There
is not a 'no peeing' part of the swimming pool." We're all downstream.
Many of these chemicals are known to cause profound health problems
in humans; when theyhave been tested for toxicity at all. The Toxics
Release Inventory of the US EPA reports that over 25,000,000 lbs.
of toxic chemicals were released by US textile mills in 1995: that's
25,000,000 lbs of just the chemicals classified as toxic by the not
very aggressive US government - and those are the toxic chemicals
produced in the US alone. The US textile industry is almost non-existent.
Imagine what the Chinese mills are doing.
2. Search for a fabric or product that is certified by any textile
certification agency. There are lots of different competing textile
certifications right now, so the scene is currently confusing. But
any of them -GOTS (The Global Organic Textile Standard), Blue Sign,
Cradle to Cradle, Green Guard, the EU
Eco-Label or Flower, Oeko-Tex - are a good choice right now. (Both
GOTS and Blue Sign include fair trade and workers' rights considerations.)
Any of them are a good choice because there are so few fabrics thatare
certified; and you're buying any one of the certifications lifts all
boats right now.
3. Buy "bast" or other more eco-friendly fibers. Do look
for organic textiles, but the certification is brand new, so don't
expect to find much in the very near future. In the absence of a GOTS
(GlobalOrganic Textile Standard) fabric as a practical choice, pay
attention to the fiber used in any textile you buy. Currently conventionally
raised cotton (versus organic cotton) and synthetic fibers (those
made from petroleum are the world's most popular fibers by far...
Full Story: http://www.furninfo.com/absolutenm/templates/NewsFeed?.asparticleid=9424
Back to top
Upcoming Events
World Hunger Year Event - Step up to the Plate: Ending the Food
Crisis
As U.S. food pantries face long lines and empty shelves while food
riots rock the globe, it is clear that we are in the midst of a food
crisis at home and abroad. The crisis is long in the making…
yet, even as it hits both headlines and wallets, it has been largely
ignored by the current administration and the presidential candidates.
In response, food, farm, labor, and justice organizations from across
the US are joining together to call on our leaders to address the
roots of the problem.
Join WHY and our partners at the historic Great Hall of Cooper Union
for the national launch of an urgent Call to Action to end the food
crisis. Learn about the real causes and solutions to the crisis from
special guests:
· Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and founder of Edible Schoolyard
in Berkeley, CA
· Frances Moore Lappé, best-selling author of Diet for
a Small Planet
· Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle
for the World Food System
· Ben Burkett, president of t the he National Family Farm Coalition
· LaDonna Redmond, president of the Institute for Community
Resource Development
· Pat Purcell of the United Food and Commercial Workers union
· Shari Rose of the Brooklyn Rescue Mission
· Leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
· Musical guests pending confirmation.
Be part of the solution! Join us in sending a strong message to the
presidential candidates and our current political leaders that they
need to step up to the plate to end the food crisis.
When: World Food Day-
Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 7 PM
Where: Great Hall of Cooper Union-
7 E. 7th Street (at 3rd Ave.), New York City
RSVP (encouraged): whyevents@whyhunger.org
David Wolfe at Organic Avenue
Date: Wednesday,15 October, 2008
Time: 12:30-2:30
Cost: $30
Reservations required-- Call (212) 334-4593
Location: Organic Avenue
101 Stanton Street, NYC 10002
David Wolfe is the author of the bestselling books Eating for Beauty,
The Sunfood Diet Success System, Naked Chocolate, and his newest release
Amazing Grace. He is supported in his nutrition mission by Sunfood
Nutrition™ (www.sunfood.com) the world's largest distributor
of books, juicers, audio/DVDs, organic beauty products, bulk organic
foods, and exotic raw foods to assist people in adopting, maintaining,
and enjoying plant-food-based lifestyles.
David conducts nearly 100 health lectures, seminars, and hosts at
least six raw adventure retreats each year in the United States, Canada,
Europe, the South Pacific, as well as in Central and South America.
We are thrilled to host his talk at Organic Avenue, October 14th and
15th, 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm. Space is limited to 30 confirmed reservations.
The fee is $30 for one day or $50 for both.
Back to top
Recipes
No-Time Bread
Makes 1 loaf
4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (two packets)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
In the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer put the yeast, sugar, and
water and let it sit.
Heat the oven to 450°F. Put a Dutch oven (or one of these alternatives)
in to warm as the oven heats. Get out your flour, salt, vinegar, spray
oil, and anything else you need.
Now that the yeast has had a few minutes to bubble up, add 3 cups
of the flour as well as the salt and vinegar and beat for several
minutes with the paddle. Add the last 1/2 cup of flour and switch
to the dough hook and beat for seven minutes. Alternately, knead vigorously
for five minutes, or until the dough becomes extremely elastic. This
will still be a wet dough, but not goopy. The dough will clear the
sides of the bowl but still stick to the bottom
Oil a microwave-safe bowl and transfer the bread dough to it, rolling
it in the oil. Cover the bowl with a very wet towel. Cover the whole
thing with a dry towel and put in the microwave for 25 seconds.
Let rest in the microwave for about five minutes.
Microwave for another 25 seconds, then remove.
Let rest and rise for another 15 minutes.
Shape into a ball and plop into the preheated pan. Quickly slash the
top with a knife. Cover and bake for about 30 minutes, then remove
the cover and bake for another 10 minutes, or until the crust is golden
brown and the internal temperature hits 210.
Back to top
