The almost food finale…
Hi Fair Trade Helps friends! Liz here again. Finally – we are done with Christmas, New years, the winter trade shows, Valentine’s day – and so i am back! Maybe not quite if full swing yet, but back nonetheless. In fact, this post is prompted by the airport trip on my way home from NYC. You see, I saw this amazing looking ad. It was beautiful. It had native peoples in fields. It read “Improving agriculture, improving lives.” I thought “how wonderful” and looked for the website to learn more, www.improveagriculture.com. Cool. BUT THEN, in the far left corner of my eye, I saw who was running the show – Montsanto Corp.
Now for those of you who don’t know, I have a fierce dislike toward this company. Not because they are Montsanto so much as they are the biggest player in the food engineering hunger games. I would like to hope that they have no idea that what they are doing to farming is unsustainable and wreaking havok (article here as the most recent example) around the world, but I will willingly admit that they just might be money-hungry. In any case, Montsanto is a multinational agricultural biotech company responsible for a number of strong pesticides, bovine growth hormone, and about 90% of the genetically altered seeds sold in the US. Montsanto strongly advocates that the use of their GE seeds and pesticides are what will help poor farmers across the world to flourish.
Find T-shirt at www.bant-shirts.com/
But I have heard story after story that this is not the case. Here are a few cases i have heard: – Poor farmers burning GMO seed in protest. GMOs banned in many countries for being deemed unsafe. Native crops being wiped out. Farmers reducing variety of crops, making droughts, floods, and pests more dangerous (as they can wipe out everying instead of maybe just a few crops). Pesticide poisening. Farmer debt because they must buy seed every year. Farmer suicides. Food that is not as nutritious.
Courtesy Lymphomaacticist. blog
There are a number of good documentaries and articles on the GMO scene, like King Corn, the GMO Trilogy, Food Matters, The Future of Food, Food Inc to name a few. The Organic Consumers Association tracks all kinds of articles.
Granted people are still for it. But here, we support the farmers. the workers. the indigenous peoples. the environment. Therefore, we do not support GE foods. I encourage you to learn learn more and do the same.
On a long shot, I emailed the founder of the “Institute for Responsible Technology” who speaks abroad about GMO seeds to governments, lay people, & farmers. I’m hoping they’ll have a chance to provide us more insight specifically on how GMO crops are affecting 3rd world countries. Keep your fingers crossed.
And, final thought… remember, just like with all of your dollars… YOUR DOLLAR COUNTS! SO DOES YOUR VOICE! Learn more and ask questions, at gift stores, at grocers, wherever. Europe just recently had a victory against GMOs because consumers cared. Read the article here.
More on GMOs here.Cheers!
liz
You don’t have to go nuts…
Arpillera from Lucuma.com
Really, guys.. you dont’ have to go nuts for the holidays. Sure, you can….black friday did start on Thanksgiving day. There are BILLIONS of dollars being spent. People go in debt. People stress. There’s too much to do. Too many events to go to. BUT, you dont’ have too. I’m just sayin’. Christmas is about so many other things; these for example –
a) Christmas all started with the birth of baby Jesus. And the wise men brought HIM gifts.
b) We celebrate this joyous occasion by exchanging gifts.
c) We celebrate by gathering together with our friends and families, creating traditions and sharing our lives.
So let’s not forget! It is a celebration! Let’s not create traditions and culture promoting materialism. How can we rethink Christmas?
Here’s an idea: A friend was recently telling me their Christmas present philosphy for their kids. Each got only three gifts (because 3 were good enough for Jesus). The first gift was something their child wanted. The second gift was something their child needed. The third gift was something that the parent wanted their child to have.
WOAH.
Do you see the impact? Just think for a minute with me about fair trade, about what it teaches. What if each gift you gave had meaning because it wasn’t tossed in a heap with all the others. What if every dollar you spent taught your friends and family something good and helped somebody in the process? That would be a pretty great Christmas I think. Don’t you?
BUT if you’re bent on going nuts (fair trade style of course), you can at least munch on these fair trade ones from SERRV.
Until next time…. ~ Liz
Oh, and if you want a story to go along with Jesus’ birthday, I’d recommend this one: The King’s Christmas List
Arpillera Christmas Stockings from Peru
How you make a difference
Well, as you know, we’ve been following along the fair trade food path, discovering some great food products and companies supporting and benefiting artisans through fair trade. Today I want to share with you a little video on how you you make a difference. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We vote with our dollars. Make yours count!
Cheers and until next time!
Liz
