| One of the recurring issues
rearing its head in our relationship with our companion synod is that of
poverty and hunger, and the challenges that creates for parishes in
subsistence communities. The urge to offer financial assistance in times
of crisis is balanced against the need to understand and appreciate how
communities function with little money. This page is created to provide a
place for links and resources helpful in increasing understanding.
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Policy
Statement Concerning Sustainable Development
Division of Global Mission of
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
http://www.elca.org/dgm/policy/develop.html
Ú When
Two Bikes Split a Church
by Chris Little writing for Mission
Frontiers
The powerful (& unintended) effect of an act of generosity - Good
intentions spark great controversy in Mozambique
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Seeds
of Hope in Rural Dodoma: Christian Efforts to Improve Life in Central
Tanzania
"In a world of billions of
people, experiencing global warming, HIV-AIDS, finite resources, and
increased international tension and violence, it is easy to forget that
real people are impacted. It is also easy to forget that people soldier on
as Christ directed: comforting, healing, helping neighbors thrive."
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A
Fine Balance - Cultivating smaller families and healthier farms in
Ecuador's highlands
"...the 93 families in Yumisaca’s village are beating the
statistics with an innovative program that links agriculture, health, and
family planning. They have learned to space the births of their children,
plant nutritional crops to keep them healthy, and maintain a fruitful and
sustainable balance between population and land."
Ú Poverty
and Globalization
by Vandana Shiva
"Recently, I was visiting Bhatinda in Punjab because
of an epidemic of farmers suicides. Punjab used to be the most prosperous
agricultural region in India. Today every farmer is in debt and despair.
Vast stretches of land have become water-logged desert. And as an old
farmer pointed out, even the trees have stopped bearing fruit because
heavy use of pesticides have killed the pollinators - the bees and
butterflies…"
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Organic Agriculture Can Feed the World
"Organic agriculture is the quickest, most efficient, most
cost-effective and fairest way to feed the world."
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The
High Cost of Cheap Food
by John Ikerd
" "[E]ating is a moral act."..… The food we choose has
an impact upon the lives of other people, upon the earth, and upon the
future of humanity. When all of the costs are counted, we simply cannot
afford the high costs of cheap food. "
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A New Vision for Development in America
The
Politics and Economics of Food
by Sally Fallon
How
to Keep The Value Added Down on the Farm -
Where It Belongs
by Sally Fallon
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Fair
Trade Resources
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Free
Trade - a Justice Issue
"...forcing people to pay for materials that the
earth gives freely: the salmon, bison, huckleberries and willows, for
example, that are central to the lives, cultures and communities not only
of indigenous peoples but of all of us (even if we make believe this
isn’t the case). To force people to pay for things they need for
survival is an atrocity a community- and nature-destroying atrocity. To
convince them to pay willingly is a scam. It also... causes people to
forget that communities are even possible...."
http://www.icrisat.org/web/index.asp
The International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics.
ICRISAT is a non-profit, apolitical, international organization devoted to
science-based agricultural development
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