Ten Things to Foster Socially Responsible Corporations

Nation Magazine offers ways to encourage corporations to meet the interests of those that make their existence possible.  Check out the link to "Ten Things"

Forum on Global Land Grab and World Hunger

Here is an audio file of the QA period after her talk:

Michael Pollan observed just this week in the New York Review of Books that a large number of disparate discontents about the worldwide, and local, systems of producing and distributing food are currently coalescing into a popular Food Movement. Read the article

Anuradha Mittal has been consulting with the G24 about national policies intended to preserve and reestablish Food Sovereignty (the ability of a nation to produce sufficient food to feed its own people). The policies they will need include resisting or reshaping exploitative trade agreements and funding for internal development designed to promote the success of small farmers who mainly grow food for domestic use. At the level of nations, the Movement has already begun.

Many of us promised to explore these resources to find one action that we could take immediately. Here is just a taste, to get you started. You may want to book mark some of these pages.

1. Oakland Institute, a progressive think tank begun by Mittal in 2004:
   You can sign up for an email newsletter, The Reporter, to receive timely notices of events like the RALLY FOR NEW FAIR TRADE AGENDA in SF on June 14.
2. Presbyterian Hunger Program has supported the work of Oakland Institute, because of Anuradha's commitment to building advocacy and action movements:
   1. Spend a little time on the PCUSA Hunger Program site exploring the links to get a feel for all they do, and look for a current possible 'action' about to start - the Heaven on Earth Agrarian Road Trip to the U.S. Social Forum. Also read about the Urgent need for seeds in Haiti and the Joining Hands network FONDAMA's fund drive to purchase and distribute local seeds.
   2. Click the Take Action link and see a list of positive steps available to us all. You will be amazed at the reach of our own PHP. You might be inspired to take a leadership role in bringing one of the church programs to MPC.
   3. One of these is the Food and Faith blog
3. The Washinton Office of the Presbyerian Church USA, is asking for support of Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act (HR 3012 and S 2821). Urge your representatives to support the bills.
4. Slow Food has become an international movement in its own right, and is becoming a political force.
5. Local Harvest, a source of information about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)-- the fruit and vegetable 'boxes' many of get each week,
6. Food and Water Watch, an older institution, has some of the same goals as Oakland Institute
7. School Nutrition Association just released an article on how to decide whether a Farm-to-School Program would work where you are. Share what you learn, and what you are moved to do with it, with others. Let's build a Food Movement for Social Justice here at MPC.

Watch for an upcoming series of films on FOOD in the Adult Education Program.

RESPONDING TO THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

In 2009 we faced a worldwide economic crisis like none we have experienced in recent decades. But this is no surprise. For many years we have known that our global economy has not worked for millions, even billions of human beings. Extreme poverty is widespread. Our economic system works, to a limited degree, for the developed nations but hardly at all for the developing world.

Individually and as a church community, we focus on personal ways that we can become less bound to a materialist, consumer system. We support local economies such as farmers' markets. On a larger scale, we support efforts for a sustainable economy nationally and globally, and for a sustainable social community worldwide.

There is an excellent article on what we can do as individuals about our economy in The Nation:

Ten Things You Can Do to Stimulate a New Economy Find a "good bank," make responsible investments, save locally and more... Click to see the article

Back to Social Justice at Montclair Presbyterian Church

Doris Herrick

Updated 4/14/10