---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Frank Tamborello <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 2:48 PM Subject: food justice news To: [email protected]
*To All Those Interested in Food and Justice... * * * A (usually) weekly update on food issues, promoting access to sufficient, affordable, healthy food ---with a focus on campaigns you can become active in! **** ** ** *Follow us *on Twitter @HungerActionLA . Welcome to all the new people on the list: please respond to [email protected] if you wish to use a different e mail or be removed**** ** ** *March 5, 2013: Sequestration Frustration Blues:* * * A Center for American Progress infographic shows the incredible comparison of the number of people losing meals, rental assistance, child care and other necessities compared to the tax break for yacht owners (which remains intact):**** http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/03/01/55201/infographic-social-programs-cut-by-the-sequester/ **** ** ** ** ** ***1. ****Hunger Action Meeting Friday March 22* ***2. ****International Womens Day Saturday March 9: * ***3. ****Fair Minimum Wage Act Introduced March 3* ***4. ****No Hunger for Heroes Act Introduced to Help Military Families* ***5. ****Is America Eating Healthier In Spite of High Food Prices?* ***6. ****European Investors Shamed By Oxfam Report on Food Speculation* ***7. ****A Place at the Table: Film on Hunger Available Online and on ITunes* ***8. ****Forbes Magazine: Five Food Websites You Cant Live Without* ** ** ************************************** ** ** ***1. ****Hunger Action Meeting Friday March 22* * * The next HALA meeting is *Friday March 22 at LAANE, 464 S Lucas Ave, LA CA 90017.* All are invited. *10 am to 12 noon*. Bring your ideas for vibrant campaigns to fight for food justice in LA! Well be following up on last meetings with results of activity on the Homeless Bill of Rights: SB 283 to recognize the right of people leaving prison to eat: and restoration of dental care to seniors getting Medi-Cal. These are the three issues the group decided to focus on in the February meeting.**** *Hunger Action Day:* HALA is also gearing up along with numerous colleague organizations around the state for Hunger Action Day, which will be Wednesday May 22 in Sacramento at the state capitol. If youre interested let us know and we can save you a spot on the bus for the adventurous ride up the day before (Tuesday May 21) from an as-yet-unknown central location. Contact [email protected] **** ** ** ****************************************************************************** **** *2. International Womens Day Saturday March 9: * * * Inequal treatment of women is one of the major causes of hunger, not just in the Third World where women are deprived of education and business opportunities but in the US, where women are still paid less than men for the same work, and where welfare programs benefitting primarily very poor women, have been gutted in favor of tax breaks for wealthy corporations (Facebook made $1 billion profit but will be getting a $429 million tax refund instead of paying any taxes )**** http://gawker.com/5984831/facebook-will-pay-no-taxes-get-huge-refund-instead) **** This Saturdays 14th International Womens Day Action will take place in Downtown LA. **** Gather at 10:30am near the family visiting lines outside the Downtown Jail 441 Bauchet St, LA 90012**** March for Survival from the jail to The Last Bookstore**** Teach-In starting 1:30 at The Last Bookstore 453 S. Spring Street, corner 5th St**** Protesting the criminalization of survival, expansion of the prison industry, removal of children from their moms due to poverty (instead of assisting those moms)**** http://globalwomenstrike.net/content/9-march-2013-iwd-event-surviving-globally-surviving-southern-california **** ** ** ************************************************** *3. Fair Minimum Wage Act Introduced March 3* * * >From Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC): **** Today, ROC applauded Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA-11) for introducing the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, new legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 and require that the tipped minimum wage be set at 70% of the regular minimum wage, a move that will help lift many restaurant workers out of poverty.**** We applaud Sen. Harkin and Rep. Miller for introducing a new minimum wage bill that is inclusive of all workers in the United States, including those who work for tips, said Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director of ROC United. For decades, the minimum wage for tipped workers has been stuck at just $2.13 per hour. For too many restaurant workers that means that after long, sometimes back-breaking shifts feeding others, they cant put food on their own tables. **** ** ** **************************************************************** *4. No Hunger for Heroes Act Introduced to Help Military Families* * * AB 276 has introduced by Assemblymember Ben Hueso of San Diego. This bill will adjust the way that military families living on bases have their wages calculated when applying for CalFresh benefits. Currently their basic allowance for housing counts as income, but this minimal assistance consumes most of the families paychecks. Assemblymember Huesos bill, called the No Hunger for Heroes Act, will exclude the basic allowance for housing from consideration in the CalFresh application and allow these families to get more food assistance.**** ** ** If the bill passes the state legislature, it still has one more step to go to be implemented. California will have to submit a request to the United States Department of Agriculture to get this rule change in place.**** ** ** *********************************************************** *5. Is America Eating Healthier In Spite of High Food Prices?* * * Michael Moss, an investigative reporter for The New York Times and author of "Salt Sugar Fat,"says Americans are changing their habits and switching to healthier foods, in spite of the higher prices of many healthy foods, and in spite of the insidious ways that food scientists and the big food companies they work for, figure out to get you to give into temptation every time and buy their food.**** http://www.pri.org/stories/business/author-finds-americans-eating-healthier-despite-higher-food-prices-13129.html **** ********************************************** *6. European Investors Shamed By Oxfam Report on Food Speculation* An Oxfam report that accuses banks trading agricultural commodities of speculating on hunger<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f269a28-7794-11e2-9e6e-00144feabdc0.html>is transmitting high-voltage shocks across the fund management industry reports the Financial Times.**** European banks are choosing either not to speculate on food prices on behalf of investors or to scrap funds tracking agricultural prices, following a scathing critique by the non-profit groups Paris office. **** Oxfam is an international nonprofit anti-hunger agency that has made connections between food price hikes and speculation by investors in agricultural commodities. In response to a campaign by Oxfam France, Banks: Profiting from Hunger, on Feb 14, two major French banks suspended funds including one of $214 million. Barclays in the UK (also present here in the US) also declared it would stop speculation on food commodities. A similar campaign by Oxfam in Germany last year had similar results.**** Food price hikes result in hunger here in the US too, but in other parts of the world food is put completely out of peoples reach by such price volatility, sparking riots and actually being the cause behind the Arab Spring uprisings**** http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2013-02-18/key-eurozone-banks-step-back-food-speculation **** ******************************************** *7. A Place at the Table: Film on Hunger Available Online and on ITunes* ** ** >From the website: 50 million people in the U.S.-one in four children-dont know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine this issue through the lens of three people who are struggling with food insecurity: Barbie, a single Philadelphia mother who grew up in poverty and is trying to provide a better life for her two kids; Rosie, a Colorado fifth-grader who often has to depend on friends and neighbors to feed her and has trouble concentrating in school; and Tremonica, a Mississippi second-grader whose asthma and health issues are exacerbated by the largely empty calories her hardworking mother can afford.**** ** ** http://www.magpictures.com/dates.aspx?id=e016f484-4c9a-4401-8fbc-e19eb2119389 **** ** ** **************************************************************** ** ** ***8. ****Forbes Magazine: Five Food Websites You Cant Live Without* (Thanks to Lynn Kersey of MCH Access for sharing this)**** ** ** Beth Hoffman writing for Forbes magazine has tipped the world off to some innovative food websites If youre concerned about what youre buying from the grocery store, you may want to check some of these sites out. Here are three of the five:**** *National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations FishWatch:* as one of our best sources of protein sadly heads toward extinction and/or permanent toxicity, you can use this website to see if youre eating safe fish, what is its origin, is it caught wild or farmed. (Cool aqua blue and turquoise home page, too)**** http://www.fishwatch.gov/about/index.htm **** *Just Label It:* They may have defeated Californias proposition to label GE food last year, but that doesnt mean we cant keep up the fight and keep up with the news on the fight:**** http://justlabelit.org/ **** *Environmental Working Group* has a site addressing not just food but a host of environmental issues from an everyday persons perspective, ranging from info on our drinking water, GE foods, how to shop healthy on a low budget, the massive US Farm Bill, all that behind the scenes info of the industrial food system and how to avoid unsafe or environmentally unsound products:**** http://www.ewg.org/ **** Heres the rest of the article about the websites:**** http://www.forbes.com/sites/bethhoffman/2013/02/19/five-more-food-websites-you-cant-live-without/ **** ** ** ** ** Frank Tamborello**** Hunger Action Los Angeles**** 961 S. Mariposa #205**** Los Angeles CA 90006**** 213-388-8228**** [email protected]**** -- JAI RAC-LA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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