W a t e r a n d F o o d f o r A l l

Passionate about life

Danish Minister of Climate & Energy, Connie Hedegaard

“I am pleased to see that The Humanitarian Water & Food Award works for furthering Corporate Social Responsibility and the collaboration between business life and humanitarian organisations”

Danish Minister of Development, Ulla Toernes

“Denmark is internationally at the forefront. The Award goes hand-in-hand with the government’s efforts. So I want to say best foot forward and I hope that it will be a yearly event”

The Humanitarian Water & Food Award …

• Offers a Corporate Social Responsibility platform for corporations who want to bring their best to help empower the poor and forgotten

• Raises awareness of what works

• Encourages that all people enjoy clean water and food in abundance

• Short-lists 20 humanitarian initiatives that make a significant difference

• Has fun volunteering – what can you do?

  
  

Read more about the award here…

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The Water and Food Award is proud to announce its participation in the projects of We Collaborate. Our project is among some sixteen competing to win the the opportunity to present our social project before Dr. Yunus and Chuck Waterfield on the 6th of July. The projects which get the highest number of votes from the users of WeCollaborate will win the presentation.

Vote for your favourite project and follow the Competition here (must be logged in).

Read more.

WeCollaborate, based in Denmark, brings people together via its website to create new solutions to social and environmental challenges in a process it calls Collaborative Social Innovation (CSI).

Their site offer three main areas:

• The Magazine is designed to give you inspiration and new ideas for social innovation. You will find articles written by members, research by leading authors and experts, case stories on projects currently being developed on WeCollaborate, and much more.
• The Community is you workspace. Here you can learn about and contribute to all the ideas and projects being submitted by our members. And you can create a group around your own idea.
• In the Project section you can upload documents for your group, you can create a calender and a to-do list. This is for groups that have developed a fixed goal and a plan how to get there. The Project section is currently being developed even further to provide you with the most user-friendly and up-to-date filesharing and project management tools.

Sponsoring the Water and Food Award is part of a humanitarian response to the current situation and,  of course, comes with no guarantees that you will see a return on your investment.

However, joining our network will give you access to our database of initiatives that are taking place around the world. Many of these initiatives are driven by people with passion, integrity and creativity. Thus, they are potentially excellent business partners.

As food security increases, so does people’s entrepreneurship. An empty stomach weakens and distracts.  Food and water fuel entrepreneurship and the development of prosperity. Innovative projects going on to provide food and water are ultimately helping drive prosperity in the region.  Increasing prosperity mean growing markets.

Applicants for the Award are invited to submit Requests for Assistance (RFA’s). In some cases these may be for technical help, for products or financial assistance. Corporate sponsors and our NGO partners are free to respond to these RFA’s,  potentially opening  up new opportunities for both the applicant and sponsor.

As prosperity increases, so does market potential. Being a sponsor of the Water and Food Award increases your chances of being there in that market with competent, entrepreneurial partners.

As there can only be one winner, you might think that applying and not winning will not bring any benefits to you.  On the contrary, The Humanitarian Water and Food Award aims to help support and spread innovative initiatives. By applying, you will gain access to our network of sponsors and partners who are more than willing to support you in any way they can.

Once in the database, our partners will be able to see opportunities to assist you

Once your application is approved, that is to say your application fulfils the basic criteria, your project is published on our cooperation database.

Once published, our sponsors and institutional partners will be able to see your project. But there is more…

Once published, you will be able to complement your application with a Request for Assistance. If your project needs expert help, a loan, more volunteers, etc, you can request this help and it will be published along with your application details. (See How to Submit a RFA.)

Many of our partners are anxious to provide support, and those with technical and scientific knowledge will scan the database for projects needing this kind of assistance.

Some of our partners work with finance and micro-finance. These may well your project interesting too.

So regardless of your own feeling about your project, please go ahead and apply. We at the Award Office will help you formulate your application if needed, and make our network available to you.

“Can nine billion people be fed? Can we cope with the demands in the future on water? Can we provide enough energy? Can we do it, all that, while mitigating and adapting to climate change? And can we do all that in 21 years time? That’s when these things are going to start hitting in a really big way. We need to act now. We need investment in science and technology, and all the other ways of treating very seriously these major problems. 2030 is not very far away.”

- Prof John Beddington, UK Chief Scientist, addressing SDUK 09 conference (March 2009)

Quote from:

http://www.oursouthwest.com/news/quotes1sd.htm

Feasta  was launched in Dublin in October 1998 to explore the economic, cultural and environmental characteristics of a truly sustainable society – and to disseminate the results of this exploration to the widest relevant audience. This conference, marking Feasta’s tenth anniversary, will analyse the systems and the mindsets that have steered the world onto its grotesquely unsustainable current path. Discussions will focus on the new systems (financial, energy, food) and ways of thinking that are urgently required to correct the situation and bring about a rapid transition to a more secure future. Many of the ideas explored are Feasta’s. Others will be presented by international speakers who broadly share Feasta’s analysis of what needs to be done to build a truly sustainable world.

Almost 70 years ago, the outbreak of World War II forced the Irish Government to declare a state of national emergency. The Emergency Powers Act of September 1939 gave it the authority “to make provisions for the maintenance of public order and for the provision and control of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.” Today a similar attitude is needed to address an emergency of a different and even more compelling kind: global economic collapse, combined with crises in climate change, water and energy supply, soil erosion, and the massive over-exploitation of natural resources. The extraordinary growth in population, wealth, urbanisation and societal complexity witnessed since the Industrial Revolution cannot continue. Nature’s life-support systems are failing fast. Humanity is facing what might be called “The New Emergency.” If ours is to be a stable world, the restoration of resilience at a local and global level must become a priority. And this resilience has to be achieved with the commitment and pace that countries adopt when, as in 1939, there is an immediate and very real threat to people’s security and well-being.

This conference, marking Feasta’s tenth anniversary, will analyse the systems and the mindsets that have steered the world onto its grotesquely unsustainable current path. Discussions will focus on the new systems (financial, energy, food) and ways of thinking that are urgently required to correct the situation and bring about a rapid transition to a more secure future. Many of the ideas explored are Feasta’s. Others will be presented by international speakers who broadly share Feasta’s analysis of what needs to be done to build a truly sustainable world.

Read the full invitation here.

A coalition of more than 30 non-governmental organisations launched the “Roadmap to End Global Hunger” on February 24th at Capitol Hill. The Roadmap provides a description of specific activities, suggested funding levels and inter-governmental coordination needed to successfully alleviate global hunger.

If the steps are implemented, then world hunger could be cut by half by the year 2015. All that is needed is the political will. The Roadmap calls for the following key elements:

• Strengthened emergency response to better address short-term hunger needs. * More flexible safety nets to mitigate the impacts of shocks on vulnerable populations.

• * Improved nutrition programs to ensure that people in the developing world have access to the nourishment needed to lead healthy lives.
• * Expanded programs to enhance the productivity of smallholder farmers, which is critical in addressing chronic hunger.

Nine individuals, including two Members of Congress, spoke on behalf of the organisations committed to implementing the Roadmap to End Global Hunger.

• Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)
• Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.)
• Ambassador Tony Hall
• Carl Leonard, chairman, Alliance for Global Food Security
• David Beckmann, president, Bread for the World * Ken Hackett, president, Catholic Relief Services
• Karen Sendelback, president and CEO, Friends of the World Food Program *
• Nancy Lindborg, president, Mercy Corps
• Charles MacCormack, president and CEO, Save the Children

This post reproduced from the blog “you must be the change you wish to see”

To quote a recent article in Farmer’s Guardian

Speaking at a meeting of the British Hydrological Society recently, Tim Hess, an agro-hydrologist at Cranfield University, UK,  said few consumers were aware of just how much water is used to produce food, with a typical balanced diet requiring 3,500 litres of water per person per day.

WATER is used in almost every stage of food production, from growing crops to feed animals to washing and preparing products. Researchers at the university have calculated just how much water is used to produce many common foods:

• Cup of tea – 32.4 litres
• Pint of beer – 160 litres
• 1 glass of wine – 120 litres
• 1 glass of milk – 200 litres
• 1kg of beef – 15,000 litres
• 1kg poultry – 6,000 litres
• 250g packet of peanut M&Ms – 1,153 litres
• 575g Dolmio pasta sauce – 202 litres

The Fatal Harvest Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture

This book contains essays illustrating the negative consequences of how our food is produced, identifying the ecological and social impacts of industrial agriculture’s fatal harvest. It also gives a compelling vision for an organic and environmentally safer way of producing food.

To read an excerpt click here.

Robert Hart set out to create a minature edible forest as  practical solution to world hunger.

image from planetthoughts.com

Eating red meat increases the chances of dying prematurely, according to a large US federal study that offers powerful new evidence that a diet that regularly includes steaks, burgers and pork chops is hazardous to your health.

At the same time, a study by Stephen Leckie concludes

“A shift in society toward plant-based diets would reduce these problems simply by reducing livestock populations and their demand for land and other resources. On a per capita basis, the land requirements of plant-based agricultural economies are only a fraction of those with high rates of meat production. With fewer animals to feed, it might be possible to rebuild world grain reserves, ensuring dependable supplies for direct human consumption in countries facing food scarcity. Reducing land use by cutting meat production would also be a very effective way to ensure that wilderness areas are maintained and even expanded. Wilderness is crucial to providing biological diversity, climate control, and a store of carbon dioxide.”

This is backed up by an article by the BBC that calls for “meat in moderation”.

FIRST STUDY EVER TO LINK MEAT AND MORTALITY

The federal  study of more than 500,000 middle-age and elderly Americans found that those who consumed the equivalent of about a small hamburger every day were more than 30 percent more likely to die during the 10 years they were followed, mostly from heart disease and cancer. Sausage, cold cuts and other processed meats also increased the risk.

Previous research had found a link between red meat and an increased risk of heart disease and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer, but the new study is the first large examination of the relationship between eating meat and overall mortality.

“The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality,” said Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute, who led the study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In contrast, routine consumption of fish, chicken, turkey and other poultry decreased the risk of death by a small amount, the study found.