Resources for education and action on food/energy issues

February 2007

HUNGRY FOR MORE?

Further reading

“Locked Dumpsters Full of Mangoes: Hungry people, wasted food, and the politics of dumpster diving”

Moira Peters

The Dominion

December 4, 2006

Unappeasable customers, bitter bosses and deserted lunch shifts; it is no secret that restaurant work can be soul-crushing. However, the most painful moments in the food industry — ask anyone who has worked in a cafe�, restaurant, bar or food store — are moments spent throwing away good food.

“Food & Finance: Analysis for food activists”

Stan Goff

Insurgent American

January 2007

This essay is an attempt to explore the Green Revolution in its political dimension to provide a useful context for guiding future action. Insurgent American is, above everything else, designed to support a community of activists with a kind of strategic intelligence. This paper is not designed as the last word, as some yet-another-manifesto, but as the beginning of a conversation about praxis.

“Coming to Terms with Nature: Socialist Register 2007”

Edited by Leo Panitch and Colin Keys

Monthly Review Press

Coming to Terms with Nature: Socialist Register 2007 examines whether capitalism can come to terms with today’s ecological challenges and whether socialist thought has developed sufficiently to help us do so.

“Twelve Myths About World Hunger”

Updated by Holly Poole-Kavana based on World Hunger: Twelve Myths

Food First, Summer 2006

An incisive look at the causes of world hunger and the myths that keep us from tackling it.

“How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine”

By John Jeavons

Ten Speed, 2002

Using bio-intensive gardening techniques, this book shows readers how to produce high yields of food crops in very small spaces while nourishing the soil and reducing chemical usage.

“Eat Free or Die: On eating locally in winter”

By Umbra Fisk, Grist.org

November 20, 2006

Tools and tips for eating locally all winter long.

“Justice, Farms and Victory Gardens”

By Sharon Astyk, Energy Bulletin

January 11, 2007

Astyk argues that “we have the power to feed ourselves even in a future of resource depletion if we are willing to do the work of creating a subsistence economy.”

“For Hunger-Proof Cities: Sustainable Urban Food Systems”

Edited by Mustafa Koc et al.

International Development Research Centre, 2000

A comprehensive exploration of urban food security issues. (Available for free download at the above link.)

“Insurgent American”

IA is a practical strategic resource.

Practical: concerned with actual use or practice

Strategic: relating a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal

Resource: a source of aid or support that may be drawn upon when needed

Organizations working for change

Food Not Bombs

Beet the system! Squash the state! Direct-action food security at its best.

Food First

Research and analysis on the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation.

City Farmer (Canada�s Office of Urban Agriculture)

A non-profit society that promotes urban food production and environmental conservation.

Via Campesina

A global movement of small farmers, peasants, indigenous peoples and rural workers.

Food Secure Canada

Aims to unite people and organizations working for food security nationally and globally.

The National Farmers Union

The NFU works toward the development of economic and social policies that will maintain the family farm as the primary food-producing unit in Canada.

Innovative food solutions

“Freeganism”

Freeganism is the practice of rescuing perfectly good “waste” food from the dumpsters of restaurants, retailers and any place where food typically gets thrown away, and preparing that food for personal consumption and free distribution. Freegans vote with their stomachs, aiming to reduce or even eliminate their participation in the corporate food economy by taking freely what capitalism throws away.

www.freegan.info

www.freegankitchen.com

“The 100-mile diet”

100milediet.org chronicles the adventure of a Vancouver couple who ate “bioregionally” for a year, consuming only food produced within 100 miles. The website includes tips and tricks for putting a bioregional diet into practice—-regardless of your location.

Got resources to add to this list? Post them below!!

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