It's Time to Preheat the Oven for our First Fall Action
Get out your cameras, grab an apron, and start baking!
The Real Food Challenge is teaming up with Slow Food to take part in 350.org's international day of action on October 24. 350.org is inviting people around the world to take action to curb climate change by submitting a photo petition to leaders before UN meetings in Copenhagen. We're urging policymakers to recognize that levels of atmospheric carbon are dangerously high: life on Earth can be safely sustained at levels lower than 350 parts per million. Right now, we're over 385. We're telling leaders to set 350 ppm as the target for reducing atmospheric carbon.
The Real Food Challenge is participating in this historic day of action because curbing climate change requires international solidarity--we can't limit carbon emissions without a collective effort. And we're highlighting that food is central to this: agriculture is a major contributor to climate change.
To show support on your campus and demonstrate the link between climate change and agriculture, here's a suggested action that's fun AND edible:
Burnt to a Crisp: A Real Food, Slow Food, & 350.org Collaboration: Round Pies, Real Action and a Round Table.
Ever wonder why pies (or cakes, or cookies, or really most baked goods) are baked at 350 degrees instead of 450 degrees? Ever accidentally cook a pie at a temperature that's too hot? The Earth is going to be burnt to a crisp--just like a pie baked at 450 degrees--if we don't reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350ppm.
Here's the deal:
- Bake. You and your student group will bake two pies (or another baked good). You'll bake one at 350 degrees F and the other at a higher temperature (400 or 450). We're focusing on the number 350 to show our support for policy limiting atmospheric carbon to 350ppm.
- Show off your baking. Set up a table in your campus center. Display your edible and burnt goods, and when students pass by to see what's up, tell them all about the 350 campaign and the connection between climate change and food. Then, invite them to a follow-up round table discussion later that day or the next. Don't forget to take pictures of your display!
- Talk about it. Invite students, professors, and community members to a round table discussion about agriculture and climate change. There are numerous resources on the 350.org website to help with that discussion. (And there will be lots on RFC's too!) Photograph your discussion.
- Submit your photos. Send in your photos to 350.org's photo petition. Get your message heard by policymakers around the world!
- Take action. Don't stop there--funnel energy on your campus to stop global warming by fixing our broken food system. Get a petition going to rally support behind real food on your campus. Get students to contact administrators or policymakers. Deliver a message to dining services demanding real food on campus.
We'll have more resources for you over the next few weeks. In the meantime, register an event on your campus!
Keep it real,
The Real Food Challenge Team
RFC Twitter
Challenge Partners
Sponsored by The Food Project and the California Student Sustainability Coalition
Comments
Nice work, RFC! I mentioned
Nice work, RFC!
I mentioned the Climate Action Day yesterday, and was happy to dig up a picture of the Maldives' underwater cabinet meeting to illustrate the post -- worth a look, if you ask me. It's here.
Constantly overlooked cause !
Hello to all thinking and concerned students, and others,
Let's introduce some numerical facts - related to the enviro. problems, locally and Globaly.
The population of US is around 320 million . Multiply this by 20 and you get 6,400 million. And,
this is LOWER than the population of the rest of the World !!!
Also, did you know that, due to an unwise, and unreasonable high birth rate in some countries,
the Global population is continuing to INCREASE by around 60 million per year ! This means that
in only FIVE years, another population of US is added to already overburdened Earth.
I realize that people in US and other "afluent" counties have an "Ecological Footpring" which is
much larger ( per capita ) than the one in poorer countries. However, ALL people around the
Earth, and especially those in poor countries DESIRE to increase their "standar of living".
So, dear "warriors to save our planet Earth", please include in your plans to do so constant
mentioning that ALL GROWTH, "financially, economically and population wise" MUST BE STOPPED,
and eventually even reduced to the "Carrying Capacity" of the Earth's biosphere.
Otherwise, no other methods of trying to divert further Global Warming, increase of hunger and
death of suffering people, and destruction of environment will succeed.
THINK, and consider the above, and if you disagree send me your oppinion at
> dankusti@eastlink.ca , Regards from Envirodan
The Agribusiness-Climate-Deforestation Connection
Great call, Real Food Challenge!
Your insight, "...agriculture is a major contributor to climate change" is definitely on point.
I think the 350.org action this year is coming at a crucial point so close to Copenhagen....There are so many great organizations like RFC out there stepping up and talking about connections... connections of problems and solutions, connections of issues like agriculture and climate, and drivers of climate change like Agribusiness and their multi-emitting actions.
I wanted to offer a perspective on a connection between rainforests, Big Ag and climate...
This is a doozy, but its true: the destruction of rainforests releases more CO2 than all of the world's ships, planes, and cars put together!!!
Research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed that tropical rainforest destruction is responsible for one-fifth of current global greenhouse emissions. The leading cause of tropical deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands is palm oil plantation expansion. Palm oil is a low quality, cheap vegetable found in nearly half of the items of the average grocery store's shelf from junk food to candles to soap....
So basically, big corporations like Cargill and ADM are cutting down rainforests (emitting greenhouse gases), growing unsustainable monocultures like oil palm (while kicking local people off their land and making traditional subsistence lifestyles impossible, and polluting air and water) and then emitting even more greenhouse gases while processing and transporting these unethical products all over the world to put in junk food making people unhealthy. Ugh.
The good news is that local sustainable food systems are awesome and decrease our dependence on Big Agriculture! But we must also focus on bringing an end to destructive practices such as Cargill corporation's relentless attack on rainforests for oil palm.
So right on RFC, for drawing attention to the connection between climate and agriculture, and thanks for letting me add a perspective about how deforestation is another part of that....
There are a lot of ways we can be part of the solution, so stay posted and let's figure it out together! To learn more about the Rainforest Action Network's Rainforest Agribusiness campaign, visit www.theproblemwithpalmoil.org or ran.org.
Rock on!
Muchlove,
Hillary Lehr
Grassroots Action Manager- Forests Program
Rainforest Action Network