Beshpin, i would be surprised if the poster is a spambot. 

#1.  The name is actually a real name.

#2.  the information about the person is legitimate

#3.  the post is related to what wondercafe talks about, and is in the appropriate area

#4.  there is confirmation on  a legitimate organization's site.  www.foodgrainsbank.ca

I suspect Emily is more a victim of a bad post, from say, a blog.

Welcome Emily..don't be scared away by your first response.

I just reviewed your material...on first glance...well done!

I am printing it out now for review later.  Thanks for sharing it.

In particular I loved the easy registration, availability of information online, and user friendly material .  Given your background, I am sure the content is good..or at least the intent.  I also appreciate it is Canadian....

**********Pause for education on spam bot....

Beshpin -- only in the largest possible spam definition.

Forum spam is the creating of messages that are advertisements, abusive, or otherwise unwanted on Internet forums.  A bot is something that is automated.

I am thankful for this post...it is information sharing.  It is a welcome addition, just as RichardBotts information on the new united church sharing resource site that he had.

Canadian FoodGrains Bank is regularly associated with United Church of Canada congregations, and other denominations.  They are a valued partner.    It is good to have them post on this site.

****************

End of distreaction from topic

Folks, don't be scared away by this reference to money.  I followed the inks, got some great resources, including a youth program and a 7day fast / prayer resource and a program to run wiht it.  Good quality.  Worth investigating.

Actually, Elaine, if you are following. Check out Richard Bott's site, and get him to put a link there.

Welcome Emily. You bring up some very valid points. I'm sorry that Beshpin is being as @$$. Even worse, he halfway has a point. Distribution is very much a factor in the issue. He's oversimplifying, but it is very relevant.

Hunter-gatherers went out and picked berries in a land probably called Eden and there was enough for all.  Then someone came along and put a fence around the berry bushes and said "mine!  I'll sell them to you though."  With no money, people began to get hungry.  We made our brothers hungry.  We need to learn to share. 

Welcome to the Cafe, and thank you for posting this information.  Hunger has a multitude of causes, the main one possibly being greed as in a recent lectionary reading:  a rich man has more than enough so he decides that the best thing he can do is build bigger barns for storage so that some time in the future he can eat, drink and be merry and relax with all that he has acquired.  He may have been considered wise / Jesus called him a fool.

Hello Emily, thanx for the info.

And as has been said, don't pay Beshpin any mind. He's a self-admitted troll and a jerk. He craves attention and gets snarky when he doesn't get it.

Hello Emily Cain and welcome to the WonderCafe,

It does more than imply.  It screams.

Small changes make differences.  The question is whether or not those changes lead to the desired differences.

Living mindfully does have the power to transform.  Other minds can be transformed.  Other practices can be transformed.  Climate and compatibility cannot be transformed simply by living mindfully.

I agree.  What we do here by way of composting has immediate benefits for here.  Here, however; is where the abundance is and very little additional benefit is needed.  It doesn't provide immediate benefits for where the poverty actually exists.

Thanks for the link Emily.  Currently I am a big fan of the Canada Foodgrains bank and the work that agency is doing to alleviate world hunger.

Grace and peace to you.

John

 Hi Emily

 Food is certainly one of our benighted society’s more screwed up sectors. and it IS something most of us COULD do something about (for our own good as well as for others):

For example:

The average Canadian consumes about 3180 kcal of food a day (compared with an American’s  3747 kcal per day) compared to the 2000 to 2500 kcal per day recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration and 1,710 kcal in, say, Upper Volta.

The American 3747 kcal per day figure does not include any junk food consumed.

In North America, we could halve energy consumption by eating more sensibly and moderately... and enjoyably (eating for flavour, freshnessand diversity... instead of wolfing down mountains of taste-offensive rubbish).  

In the U.S. case, producing daily calorie surpluses uses the equivalent to 2000 litres of oil per person each year. That accounts for about 19% of US total energy use.

BUT, at least 25 per cent of food is wasted each year in the U.S. (and we’re certainly not far behind).

Food that never gets to anyone's mouth is worth more than $45 billion to the U.S. and represents about 2150 trillion kilojoules of energy lost each year: more than could be gained from many of popularly promoted strategies to improve energy efficiency.

 Then, when we look at the food that is actually eaten, we find that, throughout the Western World, we OVER-consume.

 Obese people consume 18% more food energy than lean people, researchers have calculated.

"It's just due to being fatter," said Phil Edwards of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He and his colleague Phil Roberts say that the way to reduce calorie demands is simple: more exercise. They calculated the hypothetical difference in food consumption between 1 billion obese and 1 billion lean people. There were two main components: how much food people need to eat simply to keep their bodies ticking over, even if they don't do any exercise; and how much people consume in typical activities of daily living.

They calculated consumption for lean people with a body-mass-index (BMI) of 24.5 and compared it with the consumption for overweight people with a BMI of 29, just short of the definition of obese, which is marked by a BMI of 30 or more. Theyfound that lean people consumed a total of 2500 calories per person per day on average, 18% less than the 2960 calories consumed by obese people.

Broken down into "resting" and "active" components, the data showed that obese people consumed 1680 calories per person per day just to tick over, compared with 1550 calories for leaner people. They also need more energy to shift their extra bulk from A to B. So, daily consumption for routine activities, such as 30 minutes of walking and 7 hours in the office, worked out at 1280 calories for per obese person and 950 calories for each lean person.

In the U.K., for example, one quarter of adults are obese. Over 60 per cent of Canadians are “overweight” or obese.

Hi everyone, 

As all these responses have reflected the causes of hunger are complicated. 

I often stuggle with how to engage with a problem that is as large and as complicated as say 'world hunger'.  How do I, in my everyday life live out my values - especially intangible values such as justice, and compassion, and stewardship? 

Contradictions in my own life abound - I work for an organization whose vision is a world without hunger, but I so often see parts of my life that contribute to the imbalance that creates a world where some are hungry and others are overfed.  

Unjust structures that deny people access to enough nutritious food, I would argue, are one of the biggest hurdles for people who are hungry.  Conflict, changing weather patterns, and social injustice are just some of the things that contribute to people not having enough to eat.  But next to these problems I feel pretty small.  I guess doing small things in my daily life is a way of answering the call to live justly where I am.  I think in additon to these small things we need to advocate for changes to unjust structures.  

Emily

p.s. Sorry about the weird formatting on the first post - I made the rookie mistake of writing the post in word and then pasting it into this forum. 

We have probably all seen bumper stickers that say "think globally act locally". There is something to that. You can study and learn about global issues like world hunger and take action by making a donation to your local food bank or soup kitchen. If enough people did that the impact could be great.

Jon, I think also, if we went back to having small gardens, it would be good, especially if we didn't want perfection and were willing to not use a ton of pesticides, etc.  (note: i know many do that are on this site, including you maybe, Jon. )

I know that our family has gotten lazy or busy or preoccupied. Regardless of cause, our food is often prepared and we eat more meat than necessary.  I do not do most of the cooking; however, there is no reason I couldn't help by prepping casseroles the night before or other items. 

something to ponder

I just read an article in Macleans about how many countries are buying up land in Africa to create hihg eficiency ag operations to secure their food supply.  Japan, Korea and the Arabian penisula are on the top of the list due to their natural food deficit.  This really ramped up when china and india halted food exports last year due to domestic shortages.  There is a description of a truck loaded with tonnes of vegetables driving down a road in Ethiopia to be shipped to the UAE by passing poverty stricken villages and the bodies of cattle that starved to death.

Peace

Joel