Food Days 2011 - October 16 & 24
In support of the Ethical Eating Statement of Conscience, adopted at GA 2011, UU Ministry for Earth encourages congregations to take action this fall on issues related to food. Here are two independent Food Days to consider:
- October 16: World Food Day, the 31st Annual day of focus on alleviating hunger around the world and in our communities, sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- October 24: Food Day, a newly launched project of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, focused on healthy eating, sustainable agriculture and hunger.
Please send web-ready photos of your event to office@uuministryforearth.org.
World Food Day, October 16 
"Food Prices - From Crisis to Stability"
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945. The objectives of World Food Day are to:
- encourage attention to agricultural food production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental efforts to this end;
- encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries;
- encourage the participation of rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in decisions and activities influencing their living conditions;
- heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world;
- promote the transfer of technologies to the developing world; and
- strengthen international and national solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty and draw attention to achievements in food and agricultural development.
“FOOD PRICES – FROM CRISIS TO STABILITY” has been chosen as this year’s World Food Day theme to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable. On World Food Day 2011, let us look seriously at what causes swings in food prices, and do what needs to be done to reduce their impact on the weakest members of global society.
Go to www.fao.org/getinvolved/worldfoodday/en/ for more information.
Food Day, October 24
"Time to eat real."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has launched a new project that unites organizations and individuals around some basic tenets of healthy eating. Food Day’s goal is “nothing less than to transform the American diet” and encourages people to “eat real” by addressing these five aspects of food consumption and production:
• Reduce diet-related disease by promoting healthy food
• Support sustainable farms and cut subsidies to big agribusiness
• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
• Protect animals and the environment by reforming factory farms
• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
Modeled on Earth Day, organizers hope Food Day will inspire Americans to hold thousands of events in schools, college campuses, houses of worship, and private homes aimed at fixing America’s food system.
Go to www.foodday.org for more information.