Group fasts to highlight food crisis
Courrier Journal (Kentucky, USA)
Group fasts to highlight food crisis
By Peter Smith • psmith@courier-journal.com • May 24, 2008
A handful of local residents will wrap up a three-day fast tomorrow to draw attention to the global food crisis, saying Americans need to re-evaluate the food policies supported by their government and international financial organizations.
They say free-trade agreements and related policies have decimated local farming in the United States and around the world and have contributed to the current food shortage.
“Fasting is a practice in all major religions,” said organizer Stephen Bartlett, of Louisville, at an event marking the start of the fast outside the Romano L. Mazzoli Federal Building on Friday morning.
“It’s a way of purifying the body, but it’s also a way of focusing your attention,” he said.
“We have a choice,” to fast, Bartlett added. “Obviously the people who cannot afford to buy food do not have a choice.”
The fast has been supported by a coalition of local groups, including the Community Farm Alliance and the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and similar fasts are taking place elsewhere in the world.
Food shortages, which have resulted in higher grocery prices in the United States, have reached crisis proportions overseas. The results have been a tripling of rice prices in Asia, riots in Haiti, a general strike in Senegal and warnings issued by the United Nations that millions more people will face hunger in the coming years, the Associated Press has reported.
“Too much of the discourse in the media is given over to the very people whose policies have caused this in the first place,” Bartlett said.
The International Monetary Fund, one of the organizations criticized by local organizers of the fast, defends its advocacy of free-trade policies as the best long-term policy to prevent food shortages. It says the current crisis is due to such factors as higher costs for fuel and petroleum-based fertilizers, shifting consumption patterns, financial speculation and rising demand for crop-based fuels such as ethanol.
Anita McLaughlin, a registered dietician from Louisville, took part in the fast in part because she believes that supporting locally produced commerce ensures a more stable food supply and is more healthful.
“If you take care of the environment, you take care of the people,” she said.
Participants in the fast have long advocated farm reforms. Many have advocated better working conditions for Florida tomato pickers, and they were cheered by news on Friday that Burger King had reached an agreement to raise wages, following the lead of McDonald’s and Louisville-based Yum! Brands.
“We have a victory, but we’re still fasting,” said participant Amalie Victoria. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Other events during the three-day fast have included gatherings at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) headquarters and Central Presbyterian Church.
