Israel Report Pt. 4: Tumbling Down

Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 4:00am - 5 comments

America is a country familiar with and accepting of transient lifestyles. It isn’t at all uncommon for our children to grow up and ‘move away.’ Many of us have moved so often in our careers that it’s almost expected that our kids will do the same. For a Palestinian family, however, this is rarely the case. Not only do the children remain at home, often after marriage they build their house on top of their parent’s home.

When Gwynne and I stayed with a Palestinian family last month, they proudly showed us the ‘factory’ on the first floor – the place where they produced the carvings that support their living – as well as their home on the second floor and then the home of one of their children on the third. When you’re ‘land-locked’ you build up, not beside or across town.

And this is why the home demolition program carried out by the Israelis is so devastating. It is not just the loss of property that Palestinians experience, but the loss of identity. Continue reading…



Israel Report Pt. 3 “In the Beginning”

Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 4:00am - 8 comments

Recently I visited with a young soldier who had just finished his tour of duty. When he discovered that I worked in the field of peace and reconciliation he said, “Can you help me understand what the Middle East conflict is really all about?”

Imagine that – he had been trained in weaponry, in tactical strategies for waging war, how to march and carry out orders, how to kill, shipped to a very unfamiliar part of the world and given his marching orders – but, other than vague statements about ‘terrorists’ and ‘enemy combatants,’ he was never taught anything about the source of the conflict he found himself thrust into. Continue reading…



Israel Report, Pt. 2: ‘Stuck In A Moment’

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 4:00am - 7 comments

The band U2 has a popular song entitled, “Stuck in A Moment.” It’s about those times when life is so difficult, so demanding of our attention that the present moment seems inescapable. For ten days, as I walked the streets of Israel and Palestine, that song was blaring in my mind: “…stuck in a moment and you can’t get out.”

That’s where the people in that part of our world find themselves. It’s where the Jews who choose to live in the Land find themselves (and it should be noted that the majority of Jewish people do not desire to live in the Land. They willfully and happily choose to live throughout the world). It’s where the Palestinians find themselves. It’s the land where the three Abrahamic faiths (Jews, Christians, Muslims) variously offer the best and worst of their traditions, as some admirably choose to die for their spirituality and a non-negotiable belief that God is a God of peace, and others choose to kill for their religion – a religion that says the ‘other’ is an infidel and – according to God’s law – needs to be driven out or killed. Continue reading…



Israel Report, Pt. 1: Ten Days, Twenty Heroes

Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 4:00am - 15 comments

My life does not lack for things to do. I’m a list kinda guy by nature – and my list is long and complicated and filled with large projects each making its case for top billing. And so when the invitation came to join with a small band of unfamiliar people to invest ten days in a land as problematic as any on earth (That is to say, Israel/Palestine) I had to ask: Do I really want to do this? Can I even afford the time away from all that is calling out to me here at home?

Prior to my first trip to the Middle East a decade ago, I’d been aware of the plight of Jews and Palestinians – both locked in a struggle that all-too-often appears as one without answers and maybe even fewer reasons to hold hope for a peaceful resolution.

In a world of conflict, the Israeli/Palestinian situation seemed as deep, complex and constant as any conflict on earth. Continue reading…



Signs of Life Part 6 – Changing ‘Food’ As We Know It

Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 10:30am - 1 comment

Food – it’s literally everywhere, we need it to survive, and yet we know less about it today than ever before. The way food is planted, cultivated, harvested, distributed, prepared and consumed holds the power of life and death for our planet, people, health, and resources. A growing, spontaneous movement is afoot to re-educate ourselves about food and truly celebrate our culinary traditions, rather than just feel confused and guilty about what we’re supposed to eat. What follows is a fairly comprehensive blog and website roundup of the Sustainable Food movement – here you will find diverse-but-complimentary perspectives on how to start an urban (or suburban) garden, how to support regional farmers, what national and international policy changes would support health and freedom, who to connect with to recover local food varieties and swap recipes with – and who to party with!

Bon Appetit!

To Orient

I recommend you begin by viewing Food Systems in Nine Minutes, a brief KedgeForward presentation by Frank Spencer & I

Articles

The Nation’s Food Issue – An excellent starting point (see this summary)

Eating Right – The American Conservative (anytime our flagship progressive & conservative intelligencia publications agree on something, you know it must be true!)

Christianity Today on Global Hunger Crisis

Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food – Time Magazine

The Power of Food – Yes! Magazine

The Ethics of Eating – NPR

Become an Urban Homesteader – Reality Sandwich

Blogs & Resources

100 Mile Diet

Abundant Nutrition with Brooke Evans

Agape Table

An Obsession with Food

Animal Vegetable Miracle the book! The movement! By Barbara Kingsolver

Bill McKibben

Bread For The World National & global food policy

Center for Rural America

Center for Urban Education and Sustainable Agriculture

Center for Rural Affairs

City Farmer News

Compost Maven

Chews Wise

Civil Eats

City Slicker Farms

Chow

Community Alliance with Family Farmers

Cricket Bread

Culinate Eat to Your Ideal

Daniel and Amanda’s Weblog

Don’t Eat Alone

Deconstructing Dinner Radio Show

Deep End Dining

Diamond-Cut Life

Dinner Service

Don’t Eat Alone

Eat Local Challenge

Eat-Ins!

Eat Well Guide

Eating Well A documentary film exploring Christian perspectives on factory farming

The Ecological Farming Association

Edible Communities

Eating in Raleigh

Eat Me Daily

Eat the View

Ecological Farming Association

The Ethicurean Chew the right thing.

Factory Farm

Farmers Can Be Heroes

Food Declaration

Farmer Veterans Coalition

Farm Folk/City Folk

Food Renegade

Food Politics

Food Independence Day

FoodiEvangelist

Food for the Hungry

Food Democracy Now!

Farm City

Food @ The Atlantic

Food First

Food Not Lawns

Field and Table

Farm Forward

Fertile Ground USA

Free Farmstand

Food Tidings

Feeding America Was Second Harvest; working within today’s corrupt food system to liberate excess so others might simply live

Finding Balance Eating, Image, and Life

The Food Pantry Peace on Earth & Food for All; helpful guidelines here

Food and Faith

Food First

Food Routes

Food for Thought

Foodshed Planet

Food & Water Watch

Getcha Grub On

GM Watch

Ghost Town Farm

Greed, Green & Grains

Grist on Food

Growing Power

Good Compost

HarvestMark

Homegrown.org

Homegrown Evolution

Honest Meat

Hyperlocavore Blog

Hyperlocavore – Yardsharing Community

Holma 35 – Integral farm!

Heifer International “Ending hunger, Caring for the earth”

Hungry For Change

Ideas for Change

Journey to Forever – A plethora of resources

Just Food

Locavores

Local Harvest Find fresh tasty local food close to you!

LA Farm Girl

Local Food Plus – Canada

Mission Street Food

The Meatrix

Michael Pollan

Mighty Foods

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

New American Dream

Navdanya

Not One Sparrow

Nourishing the Planet

Northwest Local Mandi: an exploration of local food and community in the Pacific Northwest

Oldways

Orangette

Organic Consumers Association

Organic.org

Organic A to Z

Organic Schmorganic “Debunking the Myth of Organic”

Organic Nation TV

Organic Working Group of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln (see also CropWatch)

Obama Foodorama

Organic Consumers Association

Organic Store Locator

Peace Garden Project

Path to Freedom

Polyface Farms

Queen City Farm

Real Food Markets

Raj Patel – see also his amazing three-year-long Stuffed & Starved blog

Roots of Change

Retrovore

R2T

Real Food Revival

The Revolution Starts at Home

Robyn O’ Brien

Seeds of Change

Slow Food Movement (See also Slow Food USA and the Slow Food Wikipedia article)

Slow Food Nation

Say No to GMOs

Sustainable Table

Shalom Farms

Serious Eats

Slow Money Alliance

Soul Food with the Ecclesia Collective

Stony Creek Farm

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

SD Food Not Lawns

Slow Movement

School Food Policy

Something In Season

Sustainable Table

Take This Bread by Sara Miles

The Making of a Natural Chef

The Chatelaine’s Keys

The Snail – publication of Slow Food USA

Those Awake

The Edible Schoolyard

The End of Food

The New Agrarian

The Revolution Starts at Home

True Food Network Calling attention to genetically modified foods

True Food

Urban Gardening Help

Urban Gardenshare

U.S. Food Policy

What Would Jesus Eat? with Lucas Land

Wild Fermentation

World Community Cookbooks from the Mennonites

World Hunger and Poverty Scott Hughes, Hartford, CT

World Hunger Relief Sustainable Agriculture & Hunger Relief

The World Institute of Slowness

White Flint Farm

World Hunger Relief, Inc

You Are What You Eat

Documentaries

Food, Inc.

Bad Seed: The Truth About Our Food

The Garden Movie

King Corn

The Future of Food

Symphony of Soil

The Greenhorns (see their blog)




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