This week brings a fourth post from Eleanor Baron’s Nourishing Words Blog out of Concord, New Hampshire, where a group is participating in NWEI’s Hungry for Change: Food, Ethics and Sustainability discussion course. This post addresses Session Four of the course: Just Food, where articles deal with food’s complicated world of ethics and justice.

It’s easy to turn our attention away from the disturbing, messy and sometimes horrific side of food production. We protect ourselves from this perspective; the industry protects us as well. Indeed, it would seem to be in everybody’s best interest not to talk about these things. We wouldn’t upset one another, and we wouldn’t have to face difficult decisions.

How animals are treated, the working conditions of many agricultural workers, forced labor and paltry wages are all topics not often covered by mainstream media. Due to powerful lobbies, even our politicians seem not to care. The fact that those winter tomatoes northerners so innocently buy at the grocery store are possibly the product of human slavery in Florida—that’s information that would shock most people, if they took the initiative to dig a little deeper into the story of their food.

This course does just that. It urges us to dig deeper, consider more thoughtfully and discuss more actively the stories our food can tell us. More importantly, it asks us each week what we are going to do to change those stories. Northwest Earth Institute courses are all about personal action. Reading is the first step on the path to action; discussion is the critical second step. Hearing my thoughts spoken out loud, and considering the thoughts of others, makes me realize each week how important it is to do something. Whether it’s the simple personal act of not buying something, now that we know its story, or a more public act like picketing or taking political action—it’s all important work.

Each of us has power to create change. (*Please click here to follow Eleanor’s blog and to read the full post).

This week brings another update from Eleanor Baron’s Nourishing Words Blog out of Concord, New Hampshire, where a group is participating in NWEI’s  Hungry for Change: Food, Ethics and Sustainability discussion course. This post offers up reflections from Session Three: A Healthy Appetite. To follow Eleanor’s blog, click here.

Each week, we begin with an “opener,” offered by one person who shares a thought, a memory, an object—anything relating to our work in this course. It gets us thinking and talking. Beth, as an opener for Week 3, brought a bag full of packaged foods from her home cupboards, most of which were labeled “organic.” What we passed around surprised us all. One by one, we read the labels, revealing marketing claims, additives, chemicals and trans fats lurking in the fine print. The exercise left us all feeling a bit humbled, wondering what’s in the shadows of our cabinets and cupboards at home.

Our readings had primed us for talking about how our food choices impact our health and how packaging and marketing affects our decisions. Already an arguably conscious group regarding food choices, one by one we realized our weak points—what could stand closer scrutiny. We talked about our go-to comfort foods, the foods we eat without much thought at all and foods we’ve long ago given up. We talked about how we make food choices in the first place.

It’s easy, in this world of food awareness, to feel a bit smug in our choices. After all, we’re gardening organically, shopping at farmers markets, joining CSAs and striving to fill the cupboard with unpackaged, real, whole foods. With a few exceptions that we’re prepared to chock up as minor, we’re doing the right things.

But why? … (*To read Eleanor’s full post, click here).

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. ~ Mary Oliver

It is that time of year again! Last year we encouraged the NWEI community to participate in the 350 Home & Garden Challenge, which saw over 1500 amazing actions registered in 226 cities and 37 states on a single weekend! This year it is called the ‘Transition Challenge’ and it encompasses the entire month of May. The focus is the same: during the month of May 2012, thousands of landscapes and homes will be transformed, retrofitted and revitalized as part of the Transition Challenge. Participants will grow food, conserve water, save energy and build community. It’s time for action, rooted in a shared vision and voice.

This month, thousands will take to the streets, the garden, schoolyard, home, apartment and city hall to take actions big and small. Please join!

For more information and to sign up, as well as for a host of ideas of how to get started: click here. You can choose actions related to growing food, saving water, conserving energy and building community.

We’ve been following author Eleanor Baron and her blog Nourishing Words out of Concord, New Hampshire, where a group is currently participating in NWEI’s Hungry for Change: Food, Ethics and Sustainability, which explores food policy issues and the effect of global politics on food systems. Read below for musings on Session Two: Politics of the Plate. To prepare for the discussion, the group read articles by Lester Brown, Danielle Nierenberg, Mara Schechter, Marion Nestle, Daniel Pauly, Sandra Steingraber, Guari Jain, Eric Holt-Gimenez and Lucy Bernardini. To follow this blog and read the full post, click here. 

A few paragraphs into this week’s readings, I realized how little consideration I give to global issues related to food. My personal focus is just that—personal. My interests are close to home and I choose grassroots activities that will make a difference here. I’m conceptually aware of broader, global issues, but I’m a little embarrassed to admit that they don’t touch my heart very often. The shifting sands of global politics and economics are not familiar territory to me.

I was not alone, I discovered. Most of us found these articles difficult to read: a bit tedious. We spoke of not feeling a personal connection to big issues like food insecurity on a national level. We were loosely aware of the resulting “land grabs” by wealthy countries, which buy up agricultural land in poorer countries to ensure their own country’s food far into the future. As a group, we realized our lack of knowledge of our country’s farm subsidies and how they relate to the real cost of food. We dived into the dizzying world of seafood, puzzling over what defines sustainable, and who defines it.

I was not alone in admitting that I look for simple rules; when a topic (like sustainable seafood) becomes overwhelmingly complex, I bow out. Skip the seafood. The more complex the topic, the more I look for the bottom line.

I was not alone in admitting that I look for simple rules; when a topic (like sustainable seafood) becomes overwhelmingly complex, I bow out. Skip the seafood. The more complex the topic, the more I look for the bottom line…(To read the rest of Eleanor’s post, click here).

“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.” ~Wendell Berry

For those of you following NWEI’s blog, you may recall that local food is a buzzing topic in Oregon and Washington’s Columbia River Gorge region, where nine groups recently met to participate in NWEI’s Menu for the Future discussion course. This week we have an update from Gorge News

Starting the week of Feb. 20, nine different groups of eight to 10 people met once a week for six weeks in towns across the gorge including Goldendale, The Dalles, Hood River, White Salmon-Bingen, Stevenson-Cascade Locks and Mosier.

On Sunday, April 29, at 5:30 p.m., the Mosier group (hosted) one big community potluck at the Mosier Grange with all 80 participants from each of the individual groups.

Using the Menu for the Future discussion course book (created by the Northwest Earth Institute), these groups of diverse citizens explored the confusing number of food choices and contradicting information around health, fair trade, industrial agriculture, organics, family farms, sustainable food systems, GMOs and other juicy topics related to the food system.

The Mosier group of around 10 volunteers facilitated and organized the Let’s Talk Food Discussion groups because of their enthusiasm for the Menu For the Future curriculum. After the Mosier Group participated in the discussion course last winter, they were inspired to take action. They started their own Farmers’ Market in downtown Mosier last summer and have now organized the food discussion groups this spring with hopes that other communities will also become active in their food system.

A number of local establishments helped by providing a place for the groups to meet including 10 Speed East in Mosier, JoLinda’s in Stevenson, Solstice Pizza in Bingen, Presbyterian Church in The Dalles, Grow Organic and Dog River Coffee in Hood River.

Scholarships for the course books were available from Gorge Grown Food Network, which made it possible for anyone to participate regardless of income.

For more information call Emily Reed of the Mosier group at 503-360-3532.

With its array of homemade goat cheese, pasta made with basil pesto grown onsite, chili with local venison and spicy collard greens, a local food potluck last night captures the difference a growing underground movement around local food is making in Cleveland.

The potluck’s location, Gardens Under Glass, is a story in itself. Situated in Cleveland’s downtown Galleria mall, the core of Gardens Under Glass is a demonstration greenhouse with food grown there now used in some of the food court businesses…Then there’s the fact the potluck was held at all.

Clevelanders talk local food.

Capping off six weeks of small group conversations around food, it was intended to be a celebration of what the more than 30 people engaged in these conversations have learned, and the new micro-communities they’re beginning to create.

Perhaps most powerful is how these conversations are sparking change at the citizen level, as people shared at last night’s event, says champion for the effort Nancy King Smith.

A young couple has been inspired to start growing some food even though they don’t have any garden space. So they put buckets of dirt on their balcony and have planted several vegetables.

Someone else has learned more about CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture), and now he and his family have joined one.

A woman noted that in spite of her busy schedule, she has a new commitment to put time into her food choices and preparation because that’s what’s important to her.

The owner of a local business  is now committing to become a City Fresh stop and provide fresh, local, sustainably-grown produce in the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood.

One urban farmer noted that through these conversations he could “see the light bulbs” of understanding going off for people.

Based on a curriculum developed by the Northwest Earth Institute, called Menu for the Future, the conversations spin out of handbook readings and a set of questions. They have been credited with changing the nature of the food conversation in the community of Port Townsend, Washington.

The goal for the budget-less Cleveland project, relaying entirely on word-of-mouth, is that 50 groups have met by the end of the year, with a farmers’ potluck in the fall to celebrate and share experiences.

“They had a fall potluck in Port Townsend, and people did share some pretty exciting things that they were motivated to do as a result,” says Nancy, noting she’s hoping for a similar experience in Cleveland.

The Menu for the Future movement was sparked at last year’s Sustainable Cleveland 2019 summit, an initiative to turn the city into a world-leader in sustainable practice.

For the initiative, a theme is chosen for each year, with events, education and activities all lifting it up. Local food is the 2012 theme.

The city’s chief sustainability officer, Jenita McGowan, who is the lead connection point on this citizen-driven project, points to Menu for the Future as a favourite example of several highlighting the growth of the local food ecology in Cleveland.

It certainly aligns with what she sees as the greatest possibilities for the local food movement in the city in 2012, which is “lots of unsolicited comments from regular Clevelanders around the fact that their city is a leader in local food, that they’re proud about it and know how to participate in it.”

For the full article, please click here.

This week we are sharing a letter written to fellow Unitarian Universalists from Bill Sinkford, Senior Pastor at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Portland. As many of you may know, Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth is one of NWEI’s 30 organizational partners. Thanks to Bill and the hundreds of congregations who are putting NWEI programs into action in their communities!

A recent Yale study highlights a significant gap between what we as citizens say we value and the actions we take.  For instance – “76 percent say it is important to buy locally grown food, but only 26 percent ‘often’ or  ‘always’ do.”

I’d like to think that, as Unitarian Universalists, our values and myriad food choices are much closer in alignment. Many of us engaged in the reflective process leading to the adoption of the Statement of Conscience on Ethical Eating last year. But even we have more work to do as we take this process deeper and broader.

How much thought have you given to the social justice implications of your food choices? Have you considered the environmental impacts of the food we waste? What are the real and potential impacts of our food system on wild lands here and abroad?

Shortly after I accepted the call as Senior Minister here at First Church in Portland, Oregon, I was introduced to the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI). Our church has used its discussion courses for several years and found them to be an invaluable resource. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you that I was so impressed that I agreed to serve on the NWEI’s Board of Directors.

Recently NWEI released a new discussion course on sustainable and ethical eating titled Hungry for Change: Food, Ethics and Sustainability. Many UUs have used NWEI’s previous curricula to create awareness, action and common purpose on these issues. Hungry for Change ties directly to our UU Ethical Eating Statement of Conscience by exploring the social justice, environmental and health components of a food system shaped by our individual and collective food choices.  

A recent UU participant had this to say, “The Hungry for Change course book and the dialog served up a huge dose of reality, but at the same time gave me the skills to take action for a healthier environment, a healthier humanity and a healthier me.” We used the course at First Church this winter.

I recommend Hungry for Change as a resource for your congregation in taking its next steps. More than 130,000 people have tested the self-facilitated process of shared discovery, personal reflection and action. It might also help to know that Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth (UUMFE) gains a bit of financial support with each course started. You can learn more about the course by contacting either NWEI or UUMFE.

Catamount Earth Institute director Barbara Duncan says “It was Northwest Earth Institute activists from Port Townsend, Washington that spurred me on to try organizing multiple groups of one program…” There are two more World of Health courses starting in April at the Richards Free Library in Newport, NH and the Canaan Town Library in Canaan, NH. The Catamount Earth Institute focuses outreach in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire.

-David Wann

Long time NWEI volunteer Betty Shelley will be offering her three-session “Reduce Your Waste, Reduce Your Impact” class at the Northwest Earth Institute office for three consecutive Tuesdays, beginning Tuesday April 17th from 6:30 to 8:30. The class will deal with solid waste/garbage, but will also touch on reducing water, energy, and other resource use.

The format is interactive with the goal of engaging participants through discussion and assignments to explore their actions and behaviors, and learn ways to make lasting changes. Learn Betty’s techniques and share your own.

The number of participants needed is a minimum of eight and a maximum of twelve. The $25 fee (cash only) is due in full at the first meeting. Please share this with anyone you know who is interested in making a commitment to reducing their impact.

*To register, contact Betty directly at  503-244-8044  or via email: greenhouseone@gmail.com

“It was great to talk to other people about their efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. Just going to the class made me feel great and inspired to take more action.”  Barbara

“Even knowing as much as I know, I still learned quite a bit that I take and use at home and in my business.”  Lane’

“The activities and lecture portions were just short enough to keep people interested. The small tips had the best impact for me.”  Jessica

NWEI’s New Mini-Course, Powering a Bright Future, is now available!

We hope you will consider participating in this new mini-course in honor of upcoming Earth Day, or in light of 2012 being the United Nations Year of Sustainable Energy for All. You can order your copy online here, or by calling us directly at 503.227.2807. We look forward to working with you in the weeks and months to come!