Check them out at http://www.sembradoresurbanos.org/ (spanish) or http://concretegardenproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=29 (english).

The new study found that Michigan leads the nation in terms of the disparity between the percentages of people of color living within 1.8 miles of a hazardous waste facility compared to the percentage of minorities outside that radius — 66 percent versus 19 percent. In other words, more than two-thirds of the people living near these sites are people of color, while fewer than 20 percent of those living outside the 3-kilometer radii are minorities. By comparison, the national numbers are 56 percent minorities in so-called “host” communities versus 30 percent in non-host communities.

Call it the arc of environmental justice.

Although its origins may be diffuse, a primary starting point can be traced to North Carolina, circa 1982, when the state opened a landfill for soil contaminated by the highly toxic compound PCB in rural Warren County. Area residents, predominantly African-American, organized in protest.

That resistance attracted the attention of the United Church of Christ (UCC). Inspired by the struggle taking place in Warren County, the UCC in 1987 released “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States,” the first national study to show a correlation between the location of hazardous waste facilities and race. Its findings that race is “the most potent variable in predicting where commercial hazardous waste facilities were located in the United States …” served as a catalyst.

The term “environmental racism” started to become part of our political vocabulary. Academics began to study the issue in greater numbers. Activists were inspired to mobilize, leading to another landmark — the first People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, convened in Washington, D.C., in 1991 by the UCC. With the environmental justice movement still defining itself, more than 1,000 grassroots activists worked to create a list of guiding principles.

“I was blessed to be part of that,” says Donele Wilkins, now executive director of the group Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice. Having previously focused on workplace health issues, Wilkins says that attending the summit “sparked what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”

It was a heady time, recalls Kathryn Savoie, environmental program director for the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn.

“Coming out of that summit, there was incredible energy and a lot of movement,” says Savoie, who also participated in the historic gathering.

In 1992 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a report in which, for the first time, the federal government acknowledged that some population groups suffer greater environmental health risks than others. The following year, the EPA established the 25-member National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Then, in 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, which mandated that every federal agency “shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies and activities on minority populations and low-income populations in the United States.”

That order was a “high-water mark,” says University of Michigan Professor Paul Mohai, an environmental sociologist in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, and one of the nation’s leading experts on environmental justice issues.

That was then …

Jump ahead to 2007. A follow-up to the original 1987 report is produced. Titled “Toxic Wastes and Races at Twenty,” the new study — co-authored by Mohai with colleages Robert D. Bullard, Robin Saha and Beverly Wright — concludes, “People of color are found to be more concentrated around hazardous waste facilities than previously shown.”

According to the new study — which utilizes improved methods of analysis developed over the two decades since the initial report was produced — “people of color make up the majority of those living in host neighborhoods within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of the nation’s hazardous waste facilities. Racial and ethnic disparities are prevalent throughout the country.”

The problem is particularly acute in Michigan, especially in Detroit.

The new study found that Michigan leads the nation in terms of the disparity between the percentages of people of color living within 1.8 miles of a hazardous waste facility compared to the percentage of minorities outside that radius — 66 percent versus 19 percent. In other words, more than two-thirds of the people living near these sites are people of color, while fewer than 20 percent of those living outside the 3-kilometer radii are minorities. By comparison, the national numbers are 56 percent minorities in so-called “host” communities versus 30 percent in non-host communities.

Compounding the problem here is the number of such facilities located in Detroit, which is home to 12 hazardous waste sites. Of large metropolitan areas, only Los Angeles, with 17, has more.

As the Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo of the UCC writes: “It is ironic that 20 years after the original ‘Toxic Wastes and Race’ report, many of our communities face not only the same problems they did back then, but now they face new ones because of government cutbacks in enforcement, weakening health protection and dismantling the environmental justice regulatory apparatus.”

What happened?

There’s no single answer to that question. But one key factor has been the ability of corporate America to flex its political muscle and eat away at the movement’s initial progress.

“I think there was a backlash from corporations that began in the early ’90s,” says Savoie. “They began projecting the message that environmental justice was a job-killer.”

For there to be economic progress, there had to be what came to be known as “sacrifice zones,” the argument went, areas where polluting and hazardous industries would be located at the expense of local communities for the greater economic good.

Savoie sees that jobs versus the environment debate as a false dichotomy. As time goes on it is becoming more and more apparent that sustainable industry that promotes a healthy environment and healthy communities is a component of economic growth, not an impediment. Without that, the costs of long-term environmental cleanup and the health consequences of pollution create a drag on the economy.

“We’re beginning to see the enormous costs of environmental damage, whether it’s in terms of global warming or damage to communities,” she says.

There’s also a bigger picture that is coming into better focus. The idea of community being a “sacrifice zone” is fundamentally flawed, says Savoie. “There are some people who will be hurt first, and hurt the most,” she explains, “but those toxins are getting into the air, the soil, the water and our bodies. Eventually, everybody begins to be affected.”

There is another issue as well, says Rhonda Anderson, environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club in Detroit. It has to do with the nature of bigotry itself.

“You don’t have racism in compartments,” she says. “Environmental racism is a continuation of a problem that exists in society at large.”

If one group of people is considered inferior and of less consequence, then, she says, “it’s just too damn easy to put a polluting industry in their community.”

She points to the recent debate regarding location of a second river crossing between Detroit and Windsor. When the group studying the issue initially suggested a bridge could be located in such upscale communities as Grosse Ile and Grosse Pointe, those communities quickly mounted protests and those plans were discarded. Consequently, the focus of a new crossing is the poorer, heavily minority community of southwest Detroit.

But, as Wilkins points out, there have been some recent victories as well. Most notable was the 2004 closure of a controversial medical waste incinerator operated by Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Another medical waste incinerator, after heavy pressure was brought to bear by community activists in Hamtramck, was shut down by the state last year.

Mohai, who describes himself as a glass-half-full kind of guy, sees hope in last year’s congressional elections, and the fact that key committees are now chaired by Democrats “more sympathetic” to the issue than their Republican predecessors.

Moreover, the new report he helped produce could — as the one 20 years ago did — put a spotlight on the issue and create renewed momentum.

Despite the stalled progress, Savoie and Wilkins are buoyed by the fact that, even though the number of minority communities being affected by polluters remains excessive, the movement itself has continued to grow.

Twenty years ago, the term “environmental justice” was alien to most people. Now, it is part of our vocabulary, and that in itself is a major step forward.

“People now know what we are talking about,” says Wilkins. “People on a policy level are aware of the issue. Things are incrementally changing, and we’ve made small steps forward, and we are poised to grow more.”

And that knowledge is crucial. Change is attainable, but it won’t come easily. It will take effort and organization and community commitment.

“This really needs to be said,” insists Wilkins. “We’re not just victims at this table. And the more people know, the more able we are to fight these things.”

Read the report: “Toxic Wastes and Races at Twenty” (PDF format)

Curt Guyette is Metro Times news editor. Contact him at 313-202-8004 or cguyette@metrotimes.com.

Companheras/os in the Struggle for Human Rights:

Savor a sliver of time
in which to feel jubilant
over a small victory ...
before the next struggle begins.

During this precious moment,
cleanse our hearts,
smudge our surroundings momentarily
of lingering bad airs of hate and violence
with the powers of a feather,
a song, a dance, and a drum.

    --Norberto

FORT COLLINS – The city council killed an ordinance Tuesday that would have essentially directed the city to enforce state and federal employment laws.

A 4-3 vote against the measure, which would have allowed the city to punish contractors and subcontractors working on city projects that knowingly hire and continue to employ unauthorized workers, means it won’t come up for a second reading.

Ben Manvel, Karen Weitkunat, Doug Hutchinson and David Roy voted against the ordinance. Kurt Kastein, Diggs Brown and Kelly Ohlson, who led the effort to bring the measure to council, voted for the ordinance.

“Do we belong in the business of strengthening state and national laws through our system?” Weitkunat said.

The issue drew a heavy crowd, including 20 people who spoke publicly against the ordinance and five who spoke in support of it. Dozens of opponents of the ordinance wore fluorescent yellow stickers reading: “Immigration is a National Issue.”

“I don’t want the Choice City to become the Show Me Your Papers City,” said city resident Paul Bame.

The ordinance sought to assure the city that contractors on its major projects followed federal law, said City Attorney Steve Roy.

Ohlson said city tax dollars and city jobs should go to legal workers. He called state laws a “joke” and said federal laws had “failed.”

Under the ordinance, contractors or subcontractors that allowed unauthorized workers because of improper screening and documentation could have had their city contracts terminated and been banned from city projects for five years. Employers that falsely identified workers or falsely certified them could have faced penalties of $1,000 per offense.

The ordinance would have applied to construction contracts of at least $500,000 and service contracts worth at least $100,000.

The city would have enforced the rule by investigating written and signed complaints.

Federal law prohibits the hiring of unauthorized workers. Last summer, state legislators passed House Bill 1343, which requires contractors to certify that they haven’t hired unauthorized workers.

The city ordinance would have been stricter than state law in that it would have allowed for civil or criminal penalties.

Weitkunat said the city should give the eight-month-old state law a chance to work.

“We don’t even know what impacts and repercussions are coming from it,” Weitkunat said.

The council peppered its attorney and staffers with questions about the ordinance, how it would be enforced and what current laws require.

Mayor Doug Hutchinson said the city wasn’t “equipped” to enforce state and federal laws and shouldn’t “take on something our staff really can’t even understand.”

But killing the ordinance would send the wrong message, Ohlson said.

“We are saying it’s OK for city contracts to go to people who are not legal workers,” Ohlson said.

Added Ohlson: “We cannot be the sponge for the rest of the world. That’s what drives me on this issue.”

(Copyright Fort Collins Coloradoan, All Rights Reserved)

By Jenna Bacolor, Natasha Blakeney Wilson, and Michelle Glowa

It’s well established that eating fresh fruits and vegetables has many health benefits, including protecting against heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. But what do you do if the closest source of fresh produce is several miles away, and you don’t have a car, or your limited income only allows for a grocery trip once a month? Some residents of Ypsilanti face this exact dilemma every day.

The community’s food insecurity is compounded by the absence of a supermarket within the city, lack of transportation by low-income individuals to healthy food sources, and the declining auto industry (final plant pending closure), which limits employment opportunities. Ypsilanti, only 15 minuets away from Ann Arbor, is a small city of approximately 22,400 residents. While the county median income is $62,513, in Ypsilanti the median income is $34,401 and in the Southside neighborhoods, predominantly African American neighborhoods, the median income is $17,866. Overall, more than 25% of residents in Ypsilanti are below the poverty level. Ypsilanti is also considered a more diverse community than many other Washtenaw County communities. In Ypsilanti, Caucasians make up 61% of the overall population, 31% of residents are of African descent, while in Washtenaw County overall, 75% of residents are Caucasian and only12 % are of African descent.

In the summer of 2005, the Ypsilanti Health Coalition decided to assess the amount of healthy food available in Ypsilanti’s food stores. The committee worked with a group of EMU students to visit 37 food stores within the Ypsilanti city limits and observe the type of foods available at each location. Food stores were defined as any store that sell food (excluding restaurants) such as grocery stores, ethnic or specialty markets, convenience stores, corner stores, as well as gas stations and pharmacies that sell food.

The vast majority of food stores in Ypsilanti (27 of 37) were convenience stores selling primarily alcohol or snack food. Of the 6 “grocery” stores, only one, Value Foods, was a full-service supermarket. It is located on the other side of I-94 away from the rest of the city. Three specialty (ethnic) markets were available for those seeking Arab, Asian, and African foods. A small amount of fresh produce was available at these locations. The Ypsilanti Food Co-op stocked a variety of healthy foods and is convenient for walking and biking for the nearby neighborhoods on the northeast side of the city, although the Co-op’s higher prices make it inaccessible for many Ypsi residents.

The remaining 31 food stores, including party/convenience stores, gas stations that sell food, and pharmacies selling food, did not stock enough fresh produce, low fat dairy, and other healthy foods to make healthy meals. Some store owners appeared to be “making an effort” by offering a bowl or fresh fruit for sale at the checkout counter, or stocking several different kinds of canned vegetables. However, these foods were not usually promoted within stores as healthier options, or offered at “sale” prices. Frequently, fresh items were of lesser quality. As a local resident was quoted, “There is never fresh milk in this neighborhood. You buy it from the corner store and it goes bad the next day.” Thus, several neighborhoods within Ypsilanti did not have a healthy food store within the half-mile distance that is convenient for walking or biking to a store.

Such limited food access is not isolated to Ypsilanti. The increased prevalence of urban and suburban areas abandoned by food stores seeking better markets is affecting residents across the country. These urban and suburban zones, labeled “food deserts”, are forcing local residents to rely on convenience stores for basic food needs or take the extra time, money and effort to leave their neighborhoods to buy healthy foods.

Hunger and food insecurity in these communities, caused by a lack of economic resources, unemployment, too little time to buy or prepare foods, and cuts in social service funding among other social factors, is exacerbated by the continued trend of food desertification of neighborhoods. Some have dubbed this trend as “food redlining”. Stores move out of “economically depressed” areas, new stores refuse to move in, claiming there are not enough profits to be made. But the data simply shows otherwise. In a national study done by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, data showed that inner cities have an annual buying power of over 85 million dollars. Community food projects continue to find that population numbers in low income communities are well within the sizes necessary to support local grocery stores. Many believe that economic and racial discrimination act as motivating factors for supermarkets moving out of these areas just as banks have used redlining to discriminate against communities of color or low-income communities in mortgage banking.

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables helps prevent serious health issues such as type II diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. Lack of accessibility can have a real impact on people’s diets and so their long-term health. According to the 2005 Health Improvement Plan (HIP) survey, produced by Washtenaw County Public Health, Ypsilanti residents eat fewer servings of fruits and vegetables per day compared to their county county-parts. In the county overall over 25% of residents ate five or more fruits or vegetables a day, as where in Ypsilanti only 12% of residents ate the same diet. As a local resident said, “It is difficult to find fruits, vegetables, yogurts, if you are a vegetarian. You can’t really get those things at a gas station, except bananas sometimes.”

In mid-2006, the Ypsilanti Healthy Food Access Initiative (YHFAI) was developed to respond to the dramatic results of the nutrition environmental assessment conducted by the Ypsilanti Health Coalition. The YHFAI is a collaborative effort between local government, nonprofit organizations and residents that has come together to improve access to healthy food in the City of Ypsilanti. During the past ten months, the YHFAI hosted six focus groups, speaking with almost 80 Ypsilanti residents about their views related to food access and healthy eating in Ypsi. Many participants reported shopping outside of their neighborhood to find affordable and quality foods. Some reported driving to Ann Arbor and even as far away as Canton, Taylor and Detroit to find affordable fresh food. Many of the participants noted that there is a lack of fresh meat and seafood in Ypsilanti.

Residents talked about the time and financial problems that arise from having to travel farther to find healthy foods, but they also discussed the personal hurt that results from this local food desert. “It hurts mentally to know that you can’t provide what you want to provide. It hurts me when I can’t provide my daughter what she needs, like I had rice with butter on it one night.” Older residents discussed how they remember the days of a local meat market and downtown grocer.

The YHFAI is working with other community members to find solutions to Ypsilanti’s food access problems. While recognizing that food access cannot be addressed without confronting our social systems that ignore or create poverty, YHFAI tries to create workable solutions for local residents.

In addition to conducting the community focus group sessions, the YHFAI contracted MapInfo -a locally-based market research firm- to evaluate the potential for a grocer or similar food-related operator to serve lower-income residents in the city. MapInfo concluded that the “primary trade area” of the south side of Ypsilanti is too small to attract a large grocer, but may support a small grocer, changes to existing convenience stores, or a mobile market. The YHFAI Steering Committee recently decided to recommend recruiting a small grocery store to a downtown location; this recommendation will be shared with the community in a series of feedback sessions this winter. In the meantime, the YHFAI partners are working to encourage current stores to carry healthy foods and to develop incentives for grocers to open stores within the city limits.

One promising new addition to the Ypsilanti food scene began last summer: a new farmers market located in downtown Ypsilanti, just off Michigan Avenue. Over 20 vendors offered locally grown produce, prepared foods, and crafts to an enthusiastic group of shoppers from all over the city. Residents of Towne Center, a low income senior high-rise directly across from the market, were especially happy about the weekly market. The new farmers market was so successful, with over 2,500 customer visits in a relatively short season, that lead agency Growing Hope agreed to provide organizational leadership to the market for at least one more season.

Growing Hope, an Ypsilanti-based nonprofit organization that seeks to “educate, inspire, and empower through gardening”, has also headed up the community effort to increase the number of community gardens in Ypsilanti. There are over fifteen community gardens in Ypsilanti located near schools, neighborhoods, or community organizations. Community gardens can contribute a significant amount of additional produce to people’s diets.

Also improving diets in Ypsilanti, Body & Soul, a nation wide campaign working locally in Washtenaw County, is actively engaging residents in the conversation about the need for healthy foods. Body & Soul: A Celebration of Healthy Eating & Living, is a health and wellness program tailored for African-Americans churches, empowering congregations to engage in healthy eating. The church provides a critical social network within the African American community, providing guidance to enhance one’s spiritual health, and increasingly, tending to the physical health of its members as well. Body & Soul is clear example of how this trend is taking shape in Michigan.

Now promoted and disseminated nationally, the program is reaching out to churches across Michigan. Locally, partners including the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University of Michigan Health System Program for Multicultural Health and the American Cancer Society are working with church leaders to provide educational materials and information on local resources encouraging members to eat more fruits and vegetables and to be more active. Currently 8 churches participate in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.

Issues surrounds a community’s access to healthy food are complex – no one single initiative or campaign will completely solve the challenges faced by residents in Ypsilanti. Combined however, the efforts of the YHFAI, Growing Hope, and Body and Soul combined with other efforts to address the root causes of poverty and inequality in our communities are affecting change in Ypsilanti. These efforts are attempting to address the issue at all levels-individual, community and via social policy, with the common thread of raising awareness and building community capacity to catalyze change.

For more information about the Ypsilanti Healthy Food Access Initiative, please contact Jenna Bacolor at bacolorj@ewashtenaw.org

For more information about Growing Hope, please contact Michelle Glowa at michelle@growinghope.net or check us out online at www.growinghope.net

For more information about Body & Soul activities locally, please call (734) 647-5780. Information is also available online at www.bodyandsoul.nih.gov

By DAN FROSCH

Published: March 4, 2007, New York Times

DENVER, March 3 — As migrant laborers flee Colorado because of tough new immigration restrictions, worried farmers are looking to prisoners to fill their places in the fields.

Joe Pisciotta Jr., a farmer in Pueblo County, is concerned about finding enough migrant workers under Colorado’s tougher immigration laws.

In a pilot program run by the state Corrections Department, supervised teams of low-risk inmates beginning this month will be available to harvest the swaths of sweet corn, peppers and melons that sweep the southeastern portion of the state.

Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said.

Concerned about the possible shortage of field labor, Dorothy B. Butcher, a state representative from Pueblo and a supporter of the program, said, “The workers on these farms do the weeding, the harvesting, the storing, everything that comes with growing crops for the market.”

“If we can’t sustain our work force, we’re going to be in trouble,” said Ms. Butcher, a Democrat.

The program will make its debut in Pueblo County, where farmers have been hit hard by the labor shortage. Frank Sobolik, director of a Colorado State University extension program that works with farmers in Pueblo County, said he expected that about half of the 300 migrant workers employed by area farms might not return this season.

“There’s a feeling, a perception that these laborers won’t be back because it’s safer for them to find work in other states,” Mr. Sobolik said. “The farmers are really concerned. These are high-value crops we’re talking about here with a high labor requirement.”

Last year, the Colorado General Assembly passed tough legislation that included giving local law enforcement broader powers to check immigration status and restricting access to social services for workers without proper documentation.

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition estimates that there are 150,000 illegal immigrants in Colorado, many of them involved in agriculture. Migrant workers typically travel here from Mexico, Texas and New Mexico for the crop season, where their labor can last from May through the late fall, before returning home to their families. But those numbers could soon be reduced drastically, as workers who are in the country illegally are unwilling to risk exposing their status.

Joe Pisciotta Jr., who owns a 700-acre produce farm in Pueblo County, said he had about 20 workers and expected to lose half of them. Mr. Pisciotta, a third-generation farmer, worried that such a reduction would undercut his ability to supply buyers with the watermelons, onions and pumpkins he grows.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I’m definitely going to lose customers. We’ve never had an issue like this. With all of us trying to get enough workers on our farms, I’m worried this is going to turn into farmer against farmer.”

Although chain gangs and prison farms have long been staples of American correctional culture, the concept of inmates working on private farms is unusual. But there are signs that other states are following suit. The Iowa Department of Corrections is considering a similar program because of a migrant labor shortage in that state.

Several Iowa farmers called recently to request inmates in lieu of migrant workers, said Roger Baysden, the director of the state’s prison industries program. One farmer asked for as many as 200 inmates, Mr. Baysden said.

In Colorado, Ms. Butcher said she hoped that the program, which could send up to 100 inmates to Pueblo County farmers, would remedy a situation that might otherwise turn into an economic disaster.

Immigrant rights group, however, said the Colorado program was myopic.

“Many immigrants are leaving Colorado for other states that will actually embrace their contributions as good citizens and hard workers,” said Julien Ross, state coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “This exodus from Colorado has profound negative consequences on our economy and the very fabric of our society.”

Mr. Ross said his group was organizing a weeklong boycott of Colorado businesses beginning March 25 to demonstrate the workers’ impact on the regional economy.

A group calling for changes in sentencing, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, is also uneasy about the program. The group views the inmates’ pay as problematic.

“This feels like the re-invention of the plantation,” said Christie Donner, the group’s executive director. “You have a captive labor force essentially working for their room and board in order to benefit the employer. This isn’t a job training program. It’s an exploitative program.”

But Ari Zavaras, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, said the merit of a hard day’s work outdoors was invaluable to an inmate.

“They won’t be paid big bucks, but we’re hoping this will help our inmates pick up significant and valuable job skills,” Mr. Zavaras said. “We’re also assisting farmers who, if they don’t get help, are facing an inability to harvest their crops.”

With the start of the farming season looming, Colorado’s farmers are scrambling to figure out which crops to sow and in what quantity. Some are considering turning to field corn, which is mechanically harvested. And they are considering whether they want to pay for an urban inmate who could not single out a ripe watermelon or discern between a weed and an onion plant.

“This is not a cure-all,” Mr. Pisciotta said. “What our farm laborers do is a skill. They’re born with it, and they’re good at it. It’s not an easy job.”

We care about your safety! Plan to walk, bus, or bike, or choose your designated driver in advance!

A Food Aid Program that Builds Self-reliance, Not Dependence

Interview with Ahmed Sourani, PARC-Gaza – http://www.pal-arc.org/first.html
September 13, 2006

By Jennifer Lemire

The political and military crisis in the Middle East is having devastating humanitarian consequences for the people of Gaza in Palestine. Unfortunately, emergency humanitarian responses can also inadvertently have devastating effects on local economies, when imported food aid hurts already struggling local farmers.

I spoke by phone to Ahmed Sourani of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) about the situation in Gaza and PARC’s Farm to Table alternative food aid program.

excerpt -

How is PARC’s Food to Table project different from traditional food aid?

PARC is implementing the only project where families receive a basket of fresh food. It is a very good initiative. Care International came to PARC asking about the project and now they have developed a project based on our model.

As I said, the idea came from the farmers. For the past 2-3 years, PARC was working with the World Food Programme to distribute food aid. With no access to markets, the farmers were struggling. They asked why we didn’t take their products?

“You help us at the same time as you help poor families,” they said.

Based on the farmers’ suggestion we designed and implemented the first stage of the project. There have been three stages – each stage has benefited 1,500 families and benefited about 200 farmers and women’s cooperatives. We buy through the farmers associations—we have contracts with the farmers–and this provides them some level of security. Each project has a steering committee that helps implement it. We’ve been trying to target refugee camps with the project because the need there is so great.

Normally, farmers shoulder all of the costs of production, work the land themselves, and then get low prices for their goods. Many don’t make enough money to cover their own production costs, which eventually makes it impossible to keep farming. We solve this problem by buying goods at their real cost from farmers. Then, through a local network of community based organizations and committees, we distribute the food baskets to the community.

One of the problems with traditional food aid (like flour, olive oil, and canned food) is that it is not fresh. PARC baskets include honey, jam, vegetables, eggs, dates, couscous, and cheese. We try to meet international standards of nutrition and at the same time, our project supports farmers–we help them stay on their land and produce and at the same time we help poor families.

On a related note, beautiful Gaza gardens: Gardens Against the Wall As the Wall snakes through the West Bank, traditional family plots are cut in half. Not only is arable land lost to make room for the Wall itself, but farmers are also physically separated from their land and livelihoods. The struggle to survive and remain on their lands depends on Israeli issued permits, which are often only given on a short term basis to one member of the family. Such restrictions make it impossible to make the orphaned fields productive.

Everyday we hear news of the impending crisis in Gaza. What is the situation on the ground right now?

Gaza, with a population of 1.5 million people, is like a big jail. It is a very difficult situation and everything and everybody in Gaza is affected. All the borders are closed, tightly restricting the movement of people and goods. The sea is also closed – fishermen have been prohibited from fishing at sea these last few months. They have been forced to only fish from the shores, and using only hand nets.

Frankly, the people here are starving. The majority depend on food handouts from international agencies like UNRWA, the World Food Programme and some local NGOs. And also on PARC’s Farm to Table project.

For the last few years PARC worked with the World Food Programme to distribute food aid. Local farmers came to us and asked, “Why don’t you take our products? You could help us at the same time as you help poor families,” so we launched our Farm to Table program. We pay local farmers and producers a fair price for their goods and provide fresh, healthy food to needy families. It builds up the community, instead of building dependence.

In addition to dealing with the everyday violence of hunger, many people have been killed or wounded during the latest Israeli incursions, since June 25th. About 265 people have been killed, 1,200 wounded, including 60 who have had arms or legs amputated. Sixty-four have been children and 26 were women.

Two thirds of people in Gaza are living below the poverty line on less than $2 a day. Over 1000 dunums of agricultural land have been destroyed these last few months, along the eastern border, near Khan Younis, Rafah and Gaza City, and a thousand beehives belonging to farmers have been destroyed during this period.

The eastern quarter of Gaza City–mainly the Shajaeya and Sha’af agricultural areas–were exposed to repeated Israeli attacks during June and July, 2006.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture statistics, 460 dunums cultivated with fruit trees were destroyed due to those attacks in that period. According to those statistics, two greenhouses, six dunums of field crops, three poultry farms, six agricultural water wells, and two agricultural water reservoirs and 2500 meters of water pipes were also destroyed.

Gaza is surrounded by a “buffer or security zone-.” The zone is elastic. Depending upon Israel this zone can be 300 meters or one kilometer. The Israelis have indirectly confiscated about 20-25% of Palestinian land for this zone. Farmers do not have the right to reach their land. They want to get to the land to farm it but they can’t get to it because of the shelling. It’s just too dangerous.

Hundreds of families aren’t able to reach their lands. Their right to work their land and to produce food has been confiscated by the Israeli occupation. Ten farmers have been killed along this border.

In the West Bank we hear a lot about the cement Separation Wall. In Gaza we have two walls – the electric wall and the electronic wall. These to walls run parallel to each other and fence Gaza in.

Things are even worse in the refugee camps–there are eight in Gaza–unemployment and poverty rates are higher than in other parts of Gaza, the living conditions are even worse. About 40% of Gaza’s population are refugees.

(In the middle of this phone call Ahmed was told that the electricity was going to go out and that they needed to use the generator. Right now they are getting between 6-7 hours of electricity per day. He said that this was much better – they had been getting 2-3 per day. Rafah has been receiving some electricity from Egypt)

What is the mood of the people?

The people are very frustrated. The people do not have dreams, they do not talk about the future. They don’t have dreams to travel, to go to university. Many students have had to leave school because their parents do not have the money to pay their fees. Even primary schools are affected by the general strike and government officials have not received their salaries in months as a result of the collective punishment against the Palestinian people during this time.

All of this is having a bad psychological impact. Because there is not money to cover basic needs there is always tension and conflict within families. They are human beings who are greatly affected by what is happening.

Are goods and materials getting in an out of Gaza at the moment?

Movement is totally restricted – the borders are closed. These past few days the Israelis have allowed the borders to open for a short time in order to let in the basics we need for survival – mostly food aid and some food stuffs for the shops but that is it. And the borders were only open for a few hours each day, not nearly long enough to get in everything we need. We have not been able to import or export agricultural goods — and this hurts the farmers.

How are families surviving given the near total closure of Gaza?

Around 60% are dependent upon food aid coming in from different sources, like the UN, and the World Food Programme. Most families are eating only very basic foods like falafel and beans, and only the cheapest vegetables.

Families and farmers are struggling. Each box of cucumbers costs 4-5 shekels in the market, but it costs 8-9 shekels to produce. In July and August, in the off season, the price of tomatoes and cucumbers would normally be higher, but now most families cannot afford to them, so the farmers need to sell their goods below cost in order to get rid of them. Farmers are feeding the population of Gaza from their empty pockets.

Also, some families, 5-10%, are dependent on their household gardens. These play a particularly important role during these moments of crisis. Families, extended families and neighbors all benefit. PARC supports some of these household gardening projects. We need to expand this program and to establish new household gardens.

How is PARC’s Food to Table project different from traditional food aid?

PARC is implementing the only project where families receive a basket of fresh food. It is a very good initiative. Care International came to PARC asking about the project and now they have developed a project based on our model.

As I said, the idea came from the farmers. For the past 2-3 years, PARC was working with the World Food Programme to distribute food aid. With no access to markets, the farmers were struggling. They asked why we didn’t take their products?

“You help us at the same time as you help poor families,” they said.

Based on the farmers’ suggestion we designed and implemented the first stage of the project. There have been three stages – each stage has benefited 1,500 families and benefited about 200 farmers and women’s cooperatives. We buy through the farmers associations—we have contracts with the farmers–and this provides them some level of security. Each project has a steering committee that helps implement it. We’ve been trying to target refugee camps with the project because the need there is so great.

Normally, farmers shoulder all of the costs of production, work the land themselves, and then get low prices for their goods. Many don’t make enough money to cover their own production costs, which eventually makes it impossible to keep farming. We solve this problem by buying goods at their real cost from farmers. Then, through a local network of community based organizations and committees, we distribute the food baskets to the community.

One of the problems with traditional food aid (like flour, olive oil, and canned food) is that it is not fresh. PARC baskets include honey, jam, vegetables, eggs, dates, couscous, and cheese. We try to meet international standards of nutrition and at the same time, our project supports farmers–we help them stay on their land and produce and at the same time we help poor families.

What are the challenges PARC faces in implementing this project?

We face many challenges–one of the biggest challenge is the high demand. The number of poor families increases by the day. We’ve also faced some difficulties in reaching some of the more isolated or dangerous areas, due to the shelling. Sometimes we’ve had to use donkey carts to deliver the food baskets.

What has been the response of farmers to the project?

The project has been very well received by both the farmers and the families. It has been discussed in the local papers and people are talking about the good impacts. It encourages local production and offers a fresh food basket for poor families.

Take Khaled Abu Daqua from east Khan Younis, for example. He is the primary breadwinner in a family of 12. He produces white cheese with his family. He was about to stop producing and close his shop because he couldn’t meet his production costs. PARC approached him about this project and contracted with him for large quantities of cheese. This allowed him to continue producing. In the local market one kilo of white cheese would cost 13 shekels, but through this program, PARC pays him 15 shekels.

Another farmer in the program, Akram Zorub from Khan Younis, has a greenhouse. PARC contracted with him to purchase vegetables. In the first stage of the project he was producing low quality vegetables. This was because he didn’t have the money he needed to rehabilitate the soil. In the second stage of the project he produced much better quality and quantity of goods because he had some money to make small improvements to the greenhouse.

And Selma Abu Mustafa, a widow from Khan Younis, is a member of a women’s cooperative that PARC contracted with for zataar, an important herb in Palestinian cooking. She works together with the other women to producte zataar and other dried helps and vegetables, and that way, our basket of food can have flavors that are familiar to the families who receive the baskets, instead of imported rice or other foods that people here don’t typically eat.

What needs to be done to resolve this latest conflict?

This latest crisis, like other crises, is a political conflict, so there needs to be a political solution. Until we can reach an agreement on all of the difficult decisions–about who has the right to determine our future, about borders and control–this conflict will continue.

Things will get worse and worse unless we find a just solution. We hope all of the factions can come together to press for a solution.

We are hoping that soon a door will be opened and give the Palestinians a chance to take a breath.

It is time for all of our friends to raise this issue, to apply more pressure on the Israeli government to open the doors of this big jail and to start moving forward towards a just and real peace.

This is the crucial starting point. We need more pressure, more advocacy, more mutual cooperation from our friends around the world so that together we can tackle all of the short term and long term issues that Palestine is facing.

It is time to think together about our future and real development. Real development is linked with a just solution and a just peace that ensure the rights of Palestinians…to live, to build a state, to have open borders, to put an end to this misery, to stop putting up walls, to dream of our lives, our future.

We don’t need any more walls to remind us that we are living in a prison.

Big news from Hawaii!

After years of protest the efforts of many concerned citizens, Hui Ho’opakele Aina from Molokai, the Kauai Taro Growers Association, Hawaii SEED, The Gibson Foundation and countless farmers, native Hawaiians, and national groups there has been a MORATORIUM on GMO taro passed through the House in Hawaii! I think this sends an important message, not only about the mounting concern around genetic engineering, but especially about the strength of native peoples around the world who are saying NO to the genetic modification of thier sacred, ancient crops.

I do believe this is the first GMO crop ban in the United States!

Though it is good news, it was a bittersweet victory in that the ban included ammendments to the language of the bill from a 10 year moritorium to 5 years, and the reasons for the moratorium are now reworded as being strictly for cultural reasons (taro being a sacred crop in Hawaii to the native people.) The bill fails to state the other concerns from Native Hawaiians, the dozens of farmers who testified and other concerned citizens who flew to Honolulu to testify over past few years. Clearly the legislature, University of Hawaii, and other parties with vested interests in GE research in Hawaii did not want to send out any messages about this succession also being a result of pressure around environmental, health, economic, and other moral concerns.

(Specifically, the has bill passed through several committees, as well as on the floor of the Senate, then through the house including in the ag. committee. It still has to be heard in other committes so more changes may happen, but the 5 year moratorium is the minimum ban that will be enacted.)

Thanks also to The Center for Food Safety for help with the GMO taro issue in Hawaii over the years, as well as GEAN and our other allies worldwide.

Mahalo ke Akua.
This isn’t over. It will take some work to keep organizing over the next five years, but this is quite a victory.

With Aloha from Hawaii,

Sarah Sullivan, Hawaii SEED

If you are interested in seeing the bill, you can go to:
www.capitol.hawaii.gov and enter HB704 to see details and text

Food is more than a basic source of nutrients; it is also a key component of our culture, central to our sense of identity. Identities, however, are not fixed social constructs, but they are constructed and reconstructed within given social formations reflecting the existing and imagined structural constraints and lived experiences of subjects.” – Mustafa Koc and Jennifer Welsh, “Food, Foodways and Immigrant Experiences”

Sitting in my master gardeners class, listening to a wonderful old man talk about vegetable gardening. Such a good teacher!

He reminds me of pop, my mother’s father. A much friendlier man than pop but just the same, he reminds me of pop. He’s wearing jean overalls and a plaid shirt. He is carrying a long handle hoe, his head topped with a straw hat. Is it a man or scarecrow teaching our class today? This is our teacher’s attempt to ‘get us in vegetable growin’ mood’ but it reminds me of pop’s insistence on always wearing work clothes because, well, he was always out doing some sort of work, no joke to him. A labor of love that he is always willing to share.

I can thank my mother and pop for a lot of who I am today, for my environmental ethic, my dedication to hard work, my love of the land and respect for its processes, and (smile) for my sometimes cold, stubborn, or closed off demeanor. My pop grew up in Appalachians of Tennessee – his family was involved with manufacturing but has roots in farming. I grew up hearing his stories of what happened to the pigs when they ate the poisonous weeds outback and other farming stories. He and gram moved to northern Virginia, not too far from the DC line, after his years in the Navy. And on their fairly large track of land pop grew a beautiful and very well structured garden (the yrs of Navy training paying off?). During my young years I spent many spring and summer days out in the garden or out on an adventure in the woods with pop. Pop taught me how to be an outdoors person: how to set up camp and minimize impact, how to hike noticing every plant, insect, noise, scent, sign that an animal was once there, how to find my way using a map, the sun or the stars, how to find the best fishing holes, tie on the fly and cast into a jungle of braches in the hopes of a scaly catch, only to pull out the hook and let the fish return back to its shady home. He taught me how asparagus grows, how to drive a tractor, how tall corn really is when you are five yrs old, and all his best practices in his beds out back. He taught me to love, respect and use what the natural world provides.

Now we have our fair share of conflicts about this and that – if the National Forests should be logged, what to do about the deer in the garden, if we should keep the lawn around the River House… but we also know that we share a deep love and respect for land. Pop taught me how to grow food – taught me what real food looked like in the ground, where it came from, and how to develop a relationship with it.

Pop has stopped eating much these days. He is getting older, having difficulties with mobility and other body functions, and is finding much free time on his hands that he used to fill with different activities that are becoming more difficult. He is also obsessing over the necessity to be the weight he was when he entered the Naval Academy over 60 years ago. So, he had severely decreased the amount and quality of food he was eating. He stopped eating dinner, stopped eating meals almost entirely – only snacking here and there.

The man who taught me how to love the earth and the food we produce we harvest from it, now has such an unhealthy relationship with food and I don’t know if I can explain the kind of ache this causes me. Control, control of what we consume, control of our bodies and social opportunities. Pop has always like control – and so has his daughter (my mother) and her daughter. How does the idea that the controlling exercise of self-imposed starvation will result in satisfaction get passed down in a family of avid gardeners.

I know with myself the more connection I have to the production of my own food – the land, the preparation and growing, the preservation, and the cooking, the less I care about watching how much and what I eat, the more concerns about control of my body slip away.

Its rooted deep, a desire of control over body and environment/situation. We live in a culture where that control is often stripped away from us in foreseeable and unforeseeable ways. Does pop feel as he is getting older and as he is loosing his sight, the mobility in his knees, his physical ability to do things the old way, that he can regain some degree of control with his starvation?

He is an intelligent man, an avid reader and learner through doing; and he has passed this along, we are an intelligent family. He knows that eating less will affect his health and further limit his ability to get out. After months of doctor and family pleads, he is eating more normally. For how long, I wonder. Unfortunately, this lack of and obsession with control has also been passed to the three of us. I would like to see more attention paid to this issue in our cultures as not only isolated problems with seniors’ place in society, body image issues and objectification, assault, and domination of women but also within the framework of community food security. The CFS movement is an inter-disciplinary movement working to create sustainable and just food systems – working to empower communities and “address a broad range of problems affecting the food system, community development, and the environment such as increasing poverty and hunger, disappearing farmland and family farms, inner city supermarket redlining, rural community disintegration, rampant suburban sprawl, and air and water pollution from unsustainable food production and distribution patterns”. Will we add the relationship between food and control to this list, and by so doing take a more direct stance social inclusion, ageism and sexism – expanding our view of autonomy, self-determination, and freedom from want?

All this make me miss home… I should be back in DC, getting out to the River House to garden with pop, spending time kayaking, growing, fixing things and cooking with him and my mom. Honoring the values they have passed on to me and working to recreate what needs to be changed.

Record 1 in 9 seek food stamps, other assistance

Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING — A record 1.19 million Michiganians — nearly one of every nine residents — are getting government help in putting food on their tables, as a result of the state’s anemic economy and the massive downsizing of the domestic auto industry.

That’s the most recipients here in the program’s 40-year history and more than in all but five states. The cost of providing the food for struggling Michigan families soared to $1.24 billion last year, up 145 percent from just five years earlier.

And the government estimates that more than 300,000 additional Michiganians who are not receiving assistance would probably qualify for it, if they applied.

“We’ve seen a pretty steady climb since December 2000 and it’s gone up by a few thousand cases each and every month,” said Maureen Sorbet, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Human Services, which administers the program. “There must be a time when we reach the saturation point, but it’s difficult to determine when that will be.”

While food stamp use mushrooms, the number of people relying on nongovernment food banks, pantries and shelters for nutritional needs also is rising.

The Food Bank Council of Michigan says more than 1 million people got in excess of 75 million pounds of free food from charitable and religious groups last year.

Jane Marshall, the council’s executive director and a seasoned soldier in the war on hunger, said the situation is bleak.

“Our agencies say there is more demand, more working-poor families and more people who are coming in for the first time ever,” Marshall said.

“This year, I think demand could go up dramatically, and in places like Macomb County, Livingston County and other areas you wouldn’t think would have issues with resources. I don’t like doom and gloom, but things are getting worse.”

State Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, introduced legislation in Lansing recently to extend tax credits to people donating food to pantries and shelters. Currently, a taxpayer can receive a tax credit of up to $100 for cash contributions, but receives no credit for donating food items. Similar legislation failed to win approval last year and, given the state’s budget difficulties, the measure faces an uncertain future.

The federal government funds the food stamp program 100 percent and pays half the administrative costs. The remainder is covered by the states. In Michigan, that amounted to $93 million last year.

Last year, it cost more than $29 billion to feed 26 million people across the nation. Michigan trails just Texas, California, New York, Illinois and Florida in terms of both households and individuals receiving food stamps. Michigan ranks seventh in total cost.

Aid boost appreciated

Marilynn Hardin, an 81-year-old Detroit widow, swallowed her pride in November and applied for food assistance. She now gets a monthly allotment of $126.

“I didn’t want to put in for it at first, thinking ‘I’m managing.’ That’s what a lot of seniors do. We hate to feel we’re getting aid,” she said.

When told she was approved, Hardin was “surprised and very appreciative. I’m not a heavy eater, so it’s enough for me. I still use my coupons out of the newspaper.

“And with the help, instead of buying two cartons of yogurt, I can buy the whole eight-pack. It’s really made a difference.”

Belinda Dawson, a 42-year-old Detroiter, has been receiving food assistance for almost a year following open heart surgery. Her $200 monthly allotment was trimmed to $60 after she started to collect an $800 monthly disability check in August.

She said the food money isn’t enough to cover the entire bill; she dips into money that should be paying for her many medications to buy food.

“The food assistance helps because you don’t have to go into your pocket so much,” Dawson said. “But it’s still tough.”

Varied reasons for rise in use

Janet Cushman, food assistance program director in Michigan, said the food stamp program is intended to supplement rather than cover all food costs. The growth in recipients is the result of a number of factors, she said.

Michigan’s wobbly economy is a major factor, of course. The state’s December jobless rate of 7.1 percent trailed only Mississippi at 7.5 percent. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent.

But rule changes have also increased participation. For instance, Michigan got a waiver from the federal government three years ago to allow able-bodied adults without children to receive food assistance without time restrictions. Previously, the limit was three months.

While people call them food stamps, those getting assistance actually receive a “bridge card,” which resembles a credit card.

“That helped to eliminate some of the stigma where a person had to pay with coupons at the supermarket checkout line,” Cushman said.

A rule change in 2000 allowed people making up to 200 percent of the poverty level to receive food assistance. The old rule was 130 percent. Under 2007 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines, that figure is $20,650 for a family of four.

Other changes dealt with assets and deductions.

For instance, owning a home and car are not factored in when deciding how much assistance a person can receive. And costs for health care, child support, shelter, utilities and medical expenses can be deducted from a family’s income when applying for help. Changes under consideration in Washington would not count an individual’s retirement and savings accounts as assets when determining food stamp eligibility.

Cushman said a family of four with a net monthly income of $800 after deductions could receive $278 in monthly food assistance. A family of four with a net monthly income of $1,500 could receive $68 a month. A homeless person with no income could get $155 a month.

Cushman said the state continues with outreach programs to encourage people to apply for food assistance. The federal government estimates that only 66 percent of those eligible in Michigan are actually receiving benefits.

“So there’s still a lot of room for growth” in recipients, she said.

You can reach Charlie Cain at (517) 371-3660 or ccain@detnews.com.