I was invited to attend a press conference this afternoon so I will be including that in my coverage!
My invitation came from a company, or at least a staffer in Norway so Takk you very much and I'm happy to join the rest of the conference attendees and press in learning about all that these companies and this industry has to offer.
The conference program shows an awards ceremony tonight so I'll be looking forward to that as well.
Without any form of exploitation;promoting a standard of humanity and dignity,valuing and promoting independent self actualization
This is the first year that I have been aware of National Freedom Day. I'm always interested in the relationship between commerce and social responsibility so I thought to put together a round up of information related to entrepreneurship and social justice.
* All names, content etc... below are credited to the organization or company respectively
American Sustainable Business Council
http://asbcouncil.org/
In light of today being the 3rd Twitterversary of The Fifty Co-Op, I decided to take a look back at what I was doing around this time last year.
I went back to the post I did about California based MWBE Whole Vine and will share parts of that review below.
I celebrate having joined The SITS Girls blogging community and I have much appreciation for the viewers that have stopped by The Fifty Co-Op from all over the world. To be able to use the phrase, " from all over the world, " literally, is pretty cool in my book.
This past year saw an addition to the blog of more multimedia features as well as the first photo exhibit. I am glad that my interest in art has now become a part of The Fifty Co-Op and, even better, it connected me with the great Blogger ofeverymoment.com.
After that first exhibit, I did another exhibit of photography from Love146.org with the goal of inspiring action on the issue of human trafficking.
I don't really think in terms of disappointments, I just think in terms of each event or interaction and what I took from it.
I look forward to finishing off my to do list of finished reviews to post here and I also look forward to completing the features I have in progress.
I have to thank some people from the Blogging community who have inspired me and/or encouraged me in some way or have been a part of the growth of the blog.
Field Negro
33@33
Oneikathetraveller
Mr. and Mrs. Globe Trot
ofeverymoment.com
Mothering from scratch
Tara Dara Made It
Highlights from the Whole Vine post are below.
Whole Vine products are created by California based SonomaCeuticals. Cheers to the founders for maintaining 100% ownership of their company. This company is profitable with a purpose as it was founded, "to become a sustainable wellspring of funding," for philanthropic organizations. * Grape skin flour helps to stabilize egg whites * Make flavored salts and rubs * Use to emulsify salad dressings * Make juicier, more flavorful burgers and meatloaves * Grape seed flour keeps baked goods fresher longer * Use grape seed and grape skin flour "Notably, the raw materials we harvest were the ones typically cast aside until now. We conceive of a time when everything in the vineyard is harvested for its highest best use, something we call Optimum Harvesting." Whole Vine Theatre offers several videos:
http://www.wholevine.com
A few days ago, it hit me that although, I log in and see the statistics on my audience, I haven't really been fully taking in what it means to have readership from various different places.
So, thinking more about that, when I first started this I wanted to write about community based resources and it grew from there.
From The Fifty Co-Op straight to you I offer a huge Thank You to you all.
Cambodia United States Germany Canada Australia
The Ukraine France Poland Italy
“Because we want you to know that you’re never alone, and that someone
is always awake and there for you, even if you don’t need them.”
LGBTQ Interfamilial 100,000 CSEC
"...“trauma bonding” an
abuser forms or fosters an emotional attachment (“friendship,” “love,”
etc…) in the life of a victim."
"...a classic tactic abusers use
to maintain their position of exploitation."
"We’ve encountered children
who are not happy to leave their abuser because they’ve grown attached
to them. Be aware of this potential complexity as you approach a piece."
"It’s
more accurate and dignifying to victims to simply say what happened in
the past instead of framing your language in a way that carries that
event into a stationary identity for the person. Instead of “Trafficking
survivor, Jessica, ….” say “Jessica, who escaped trafficking in 2010…”
It has been a while since I did a post related to food assistance. The North American branch of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is participating in a really interesting event coming up that I myself would like to live stream.
Based in Washington, DC FAO North America is participating in the upcoming 1st Annual Food Tank Summit which will be held at the George Washington University on January 21st. You can sign up to watch the live stream and check out the participants such as the National Young Farmers Coalition,Harvard Law School and the GWU Institute for Sustainability on the Food Tank website.
Q How did you come to develop an interest in agriculture and social justice?
The
organization I work for, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
is a specialized agency of the United Nations with headquarters in Rome,
Italy, and 5 Regional Offices which are in Africa, the Near East, Asia,
Latin America, and Europe. FAO also has more than 80 country offices in
those regions, where we advise governments directly and conduct project
operations. The FAO is a key player in the global community’s fight to
end hunger and poverty and I’ve been privileged to work for FAO for over
25 years in several roles, the latest as director of the FAO’s North
America office in Washington, DC.
Q What was the impetus for the creation of FAO and specifically, the priority of Investment in Agriculture?
The
founders of FAO over 60 years ago had the foresight to understand the
central role of agriculture for human development and the duty of the
international community to tackle the problem of hunger and
malnutrition. They realized the need for an international organization
with equal representation by all nations in the world which could
coordinate agricultural policies and global interventions and give a
voice to millions of people living in poor countries and who are
unheard. FAO has been able to adapt to the demands of a constantly
changing world and help countries respond to new challenges that have
emerged: climate change, degraded land and water resources, wide-scale
animal epidemics, food crises and natural disasters, and in recent years
soaring food prices and market instability.
As
to the priority of investment in agriculture, it’s been demonstrated
over the last two decades that investment in agriculture is one of the
most effective ways to reduce hunger and poverty, especially in rural
areas.
Many countries that have consistently invested in agriculture are
on track to achieve the UN’s first Millennium Development Goal which is
to reduce by half the proportion of hungry people in the world. FAO’s
recently published State of Food and Agriculture (2012)* (2014 publication is at the link below) provided
comprehensive data on the relative sizes of investment and expenditure
flows by farmers, governments, donors and private foreign investors in
low- and middle-income countries.
What emerged is that in these 76 low-
and middle-income countries, farmers themselves are by far the largest
investors in agriculture, but face all kinds of risks because of poor
access to resources, lack of infrastructure, political instability and
lots of other challenges.
Recognizing that investing in agriculture
raises productivity and incomes and reduces hunger, FAO has drawn up
guidelines for countries to improve their governance of land and
resource rights, and principles for responsible investment as a basis
for determining long-term benefits and choosing the best investment
options.
Q Is it possible to end hunger and/or poverty?
Measuring
the different dimensions of food security is very complex; one
standalone indicator that most people are familiar with is the number of
people in the world suffering from chronic hunger, which is defined as
suffering for at least one year without enough food for an active and
healthy life. While this number has dropped from 1 billion people in
1990 to 842 million as most recently reported in 2012, the rate of
progress is too slow to reach the international goals for hunger
reduction set by the United Nations (part of the UN’s Millennium
Development Goals), often because of high rates of population growth in
many hunger-affected countries. Still, it shows that real progress can
be achieved when countries and communities take action to address the
various dimensions of food security which are: food availability,
economic and physical access to food, food utilization and stability
(vulnerability and shocks) over time.
Some
countries, notably Brazil and others just a few years ago, set much
more demanding targets of eradicating hunger, and in 2012 the UN took up
that theme with its own “Zero Hunger Challenge” with the goal of
eliminating hunger in our lifetimes. The global community is putting
much more effort into addressing the burdens of malnutrition: hunger,
under-nutrition, micro nutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity.
Q Are these conditions reflections of the worst parts of human nature?
Most
people are unaware that the quantity of food produced on a global
basis is more than enough for everyone, and yet chronic hunger persists
on such a scale whereby one person in eight around the world cannot get
enough food to live an active and healthy life.
There are severe and
lasting consequences to this problem because hunger is accompanied by
under-nutrition: one in four children in the world under five years of
age is stunted; this means 165 million children are so malnourished they
will never reach their full physical and cognitive potential; about two
billion people lack the nutrition they need to grow and develop into
healthy human beings.
Q Is
the role of government to (1) recognize the value in preventing poverty
and hunger, (2) recognize that this requires constant effort and (3) be
responsible for creating and enforcing legislation that establishes a
standard quality of life for all?
Well,
returning to the theme of investment in agriculture, and that farmers
must be central to any investment strategy, a good investment climate
depends on markets and governments. Markets generate price incentives
that signal to farmers and other private businesses when and where
opportunities exist for making profitable investments.
Governments are
responsible for creating the legal, policy and institutional environment
that enables private investors, both smallholder farmers and larger
enterprises, to respond to market opportunities in socially responsible
ways. Without this enabling environment and market incentives, farmers
will not invest enough in agriculture or achieve socially optimal
results.
Q In
a world where all governments were responsible (according to the
standards set by international social justice organizations), would non
profit organizations and non governmental organizations solely exist to
conduct scholarly research and advise political representatives during
the process of creating legislation?
A
world facing a major challenge such as eradicating hunger needs all
possible resources and entities involved in food security to be
committed to action: no single entity or sector can achieve such a goal
alone. Over the last several years the UN system, built on a traditional
constituency of member nations, has become much more inclusive in its
formulation of policy and thematic challenges to be addressed by the
world community.
The FAO, among others, has greatly expanded its
dialogue beyond governments in order to get full involvement of civil
society organizations and NGOs in the analysis of issues, exchange of
concrete on-the-ground experience in all areas affecting food security.
The challenges of hunger are vast and multi-dimensional; no government
can confront these issues alone. Partnerships with CSO, NGO, academia
and the private sector is the only way to achieve progress and lasting
results.
Q From the perspective of the young person living in poverty in a rural area
what kinds of current programs, initiatives and opportunities exist to
improve their life in the immediate future as well as over the long
term?
On
a global scale, many factors justify a strong focus on better enabling
smallholder farmers to invest in agriculture, starting with their sheer
numbers and economic importance and relative productivity. About 85
percent of 525 million farms worldwide are operated by smallholders on
plots measuring less than 2 hectares. Sampling in developing countries
showed that smallholder farms generate 60 to 70 percent of total rural
income through farm and non-farm activity; they have high potential to
be engines of growth and poverty reduction.
Compared to large-scale
farmers, smallholders can have significant advantages in terms of land
productivity. At the same time smallholders face disadvantages such as
access to land, markets, inputs, credit insurance and technology and
sometimes government polices work against them. Many smallholders are
women, for whom these constraints are, almost everywhere, even more
severe. Closing the gender gap and ensuring equal access by women to
resources and assets is needed to accelerate agricultural and rural
development and reduce poverty.
Q Are
under served communities, both rural and urban, in the United States
and other developed counties, included in the conversations and
investment priorities of FAO and other partner organizations? If not,
what steps are necessary to move this outcome?
While
developed nations are the main financial sources for the FAO and other
humanitarian and development organizations, the governance, the
definition of objectives and priority setting is decided and agreed
together as a community of member nations, with most of the work
directed to support developing countries in the challenges of food
security.
The developed nations also provide vast technical expertise,
goods and services which are deployed in developing countries under FAO
programs and projects. The experience of developed nations in addressing
their own challenges of poverty, hunger and rural development, or
confronting animal, crop and plant diseases, is also a factor in
determining priorities and action plans.
I found out about the Liebster Award-winning blogger ofeverymoment.com through the blogging community The SITS Girls and noticed that her blog included food photography. In support of The SITS Girls as well as Of Every Moment, I welcome you to view the following exhibit featuring her food photography.
Enjoy!
* All photos and recipe/dish titles are directly credited to http://www.ofeverymoment.com/
* I added on stylized captions for each photograph
"Roasted Butternut-Apple Soup"
gorgeous.comfort.vino.fresh.charm
"These apple crisp jars are a cute gift, even if the ribbons were rather hastily tied!"
cute.create.sweet.tart.craft
"I know there is a rooster on these linens, but the turkeys are all packed away until next Thanksgiving!"
soul.warmth.sunday afternoon.relax
"The most - - of Every Moment Caramel Apple Cookies"
yummy.tradition.flavor.diamond.chewy
"Maple Walnut Cake with Maple Icing"
unique.presentation.the human touch
"Fresh Berry Parfait"
nature.quietude.pleasant.mingling flavors
"Made in a Few Moments Flatbread Pizza" complimentary.preparation.sizzle.sautee.crisp
"Easter cookie cutters can be used to make cut-outs in the top crust to make this pie even more seasonal!"
picnic.summertime.ice cream.holiday
"Ample Apples for Amazing Recipes"
cast iron pots.flora.simple.
"Canoe-Trip Banana Butterscotch Brownies and Ultimate Chocolate Brownies."
baking.after work.weekends.treats
"Chocolate Banana muffins - MMmmm!"
triptych.cool!.lagom.abundance.enjoy.
* Lagom is a swedish word that means, 'enough for everyone'.
"Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies - packed and ready to be shared!"
the simple pleasures in life
"Image: Are there practically empty containers in your fridge, also?"
this gave me a chuckle
"This trifle desert is so easy to make and assemble."
homemade.artistic.enjoy.color.kitchen
Disclaimer from ofeverymoment.com:
"Use of This Blog:Unless otherwise
stated, the content, photos and opinions presented on this blog are
entirely my own. Unless stated, no requests were made or compensation
accepted for the content provided. While accuracy is a priority, I
apologize for any typos and inaccuracies that may occur. Please use all
of the information and instructions provided at your own risk. No
professional medical or legal advice is provided here. Content may be
edited, changed or deleted without notice."
My invitation came from a company, or at least a staffer in Norway so Takk you very much and I'm happy to join the rest of the conference attendees and press in learning about all that these companies and this industry has to offer.
