Outrageous Gardens!

I have long agitated whenever given the chance, against any type of factory farming–animal or grain or vegetable or fruit. WHY? Because of the statistical probability of failure and disease.  Why are so many of us gravitating toward locally produced, organic food? We know that on so many levels it’s better for us. By the same token, if you believe you need to eat meat to be complete, you might want to reconsider where that meat comes from and at what price–not just on the sticker, but for the environment and for the future health of the land and water and our bodies and our children’s bodies. (more…)

…and produce 60-80% of the world’s food supply in Asia and Africa. Yet these same women–who also bear the children, tend the children, haul the water and wood and cook the food they grow–share few if any of the benefits and incentives their male counterparts receive. (more…)

[UPDATE: Thanks to the 37,693 other people who joined me in our fast on Feb. 1st. Stay tuned for Kumi Naidoo's report on the results of his appeal to African heads of state in Ethiopia.]

A protest!

From the amazing AVAAZ.org website, comes this invitation to joins tens of thousands of people on Sunday, Feb. 1st as we fast in solidarity with the starving and impoverished citizens of Zimbabwe.

The movement for democracy in Zimbabwe has just raised the stakes: hundreds of activists in Southern Africa, including Desmond Tutu, have begun a rolling hunger strike to press for justice. This regional demonstration of commitment is putting real and growing pressure on leaders to demand a fair settlement in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has descended to an almost unimaginable state of desperation. Most of Zimbabwe’s 11 million people eat one meal a day—or less. But as pressure rises at home, in the region, and around the world, Mugabe’s grip on power may be slipping.  That’s why this one day global solidarity fast -(from sun up to sun down)- is so important, for the more of us that fast, the stronger the call for justice and democracy.

And now watch Kumi Naidoo’s video appeal – he will deliver our global message of solidarity to African heads of state gathering in Ethiopia on Sunday, 1 February!

Each day in the world nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry, most of them women and children and the people of Zimbabwe are among the poorest. Please fast with us at Outrageous Gardens this Sunday as we stand with the people of Zimbabwe to eradicate poverty and hunger with every tool we can find.  They are counting on us and for some, this may be their last chance.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

The blogs will be overflowing today with intensely personal reflections on this historic date of January 20, 2009. And as tickled as I was to watch the former president fly away from Capitol Hill this morning (yes, I’ll admit I was screaming FASTER! FASTER! at the tv) there was something else that was mentioned several times by reporters and commentators that resonated even more profoundly for me.  It had nothing to do really with the color of skin of our new President, or his faith, or the long march to freedom long overdue people of color, or his promises to again live by the rule of law which sounded so delicious to my ears burned by 8 years of the Bush monarchy. No, what kept rolling over and over… (more…)

“The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.” Goethe

Another World AIDS Day come and gone December 1st. Another opportunity to shine some light on a disease whose origins are as murky as the various strategies for controlling it and ending its legacy of multi-generational suffering. According to an ALTERNET article, twenty-five years after HIV/AIDS was first identified, 33 million people are living with the virus. Most are in sub-Saharan Africa but the virus is spreading fast in Asia and Eastern Europe. (more…)

Former President Bill Clinton has it right: “Food is not a commodity like others,” Clinton said addressing a high-level event at the UN marking Oct. 16’s World Food Day. “We should go back to a policy of maximum food self-sufficiency. It is crazy for us to think we can develop countries around the world without increasing their ability to feed themselves.”

That was a gratifying thing to read today in the Organic Consumers Organization “Organic Bytes.” Clinton underscored what this website and many other NGO’s and organizations I’ve learned from have been teaching, preaching and supporting for a long time: “While the international community is focused on turmoil in the global economy, I am extremely concerned that not enough is being done to help those who are suffering most: the poorest of the poor,” Clinton said. (more…)

A recent article on hunger aid and humanitarian assistance in the Nov/Dec 08 Utne Reader reprinted from Foreign Policy magazine presented a very well-written argument supporting the rationale behind this website: “Humanitarian groups and well-meaning charities keep failing countries afloat. They also create a crippling cycle of dependence.” (more…)