1-Minute Activist | Small Planet Institute

Campaigns

Below are organizations that the Small Planet Institute supports. We encourage you to, too!

Summer of Soil

03/12/2013 - Järna, Sweden July 7 to August 9, 2013 - The international community has recognized the importance of soil and warn of the negative influence of unsustainable agriculture and soil management on the health of our soils and food security. SUMMER OF SOIL is a 5-week, multi-disciplinary accelerator program designed to awaken and inspire a collaborative movement to rebuild and maintain living soils.

The program will include a series of hands-on soil-related courses, an exhibition of regenerative growing practices and the 5-day Living Soil Forum for bringing conversation to action.

Food MythBusters: Do we really need industrial agriculture to feed the world?

02/05/2013 – N.Y. – FOODMYTHBUSTERS is brought to you by the Real Food Media Project, a collaboration between author Anna Lappé, Corporate Accountability International, and a Coalition of leading food and farming organizations to offer creative videos, online resources, and grassroots events that tell the real story about the food we eat.

Host a screening event - the film and resources are free for you to use! Don't forget to download the script with citations and the companion reading guide.

HELP UMASS PERMACULTURE REACH 10,000 VIEWS BY 9/30 AND THEY RECEIVE FUNDING TO GROW GARDENS AT 3 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS!

09/27/2012 – Amherst – Our friends at UMass Amherst Permaculture have released a beautiful and inspiring short video that shows how we can truly create sustainable campuses. If their video reaches 10,000 Youtube views by this Sunday, 9/30, they'll obtain additional funding for installing permaculture gardens at 3 local elementary schools! Please watch and re-post the link if you agree with the message - Frances is featured in two parts. Watch it now!

TELL CONGRESS: Cut crop insurance subsidies and use the money to restore food stamps!

06/06/2012 – D.C. – Help us make sure Congress spends our billions of tax money to support families and children, not insurance companies and agribusiness. Anna, Frances, and 70+ other leading food and nutrition experts sent this letter to Congress yesterday, laying out their priorities for a farm bill that supports a healthier America.

Call your Senators and tell them what YOU care about with the farm bill. Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121 and ask for your senators' office. When the receptionist answers, ask to speak to the Ag staffer. Let them know that you are following up to make sure they received the letter delivered on June 4th regarding the farm bill. Help us make sure they read the letter closely!

Sign onto your own letter at the Environmental Working Group's website here supporting Senator Gillibrand's amendment to cut wasteful and unfair crop insurance subsidies, and use that money to restore funding for SNAP (food stamps).

OXFAM RELEASES SATIRICAL VIDEO IN FOOD AID REFORM PUSH

04/26/2012 – D.C. – As legislators in the US Senate work to craft the 2012 Farm Bill, international relief and development organization Oxfam America released a new satirical online video and TV ad to mobilize support for reform to international food aid programs.

The video is a call-to-action for Americans to speak-up and tell their members of Congress that they’re sick of special interest giveaways that cost lives and tax dollars.

Thousands have already signed Oxfam’s petition calling for reform to Food Aid programs, and and you should too!

News from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

03/20/2012 – Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, joined workers and their allies who braved six days of hunger during the Fast for Fair Food. The fair ended March 10th outside Publix headquarters in Lakeland, Florida.

Anyone can support the CIW's efforts. See their site for ideas. Also, don't miss Frances' recent Yes! Magazine profile of CIW's Lucas Benitez.

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Frances & Anna Lappé

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Surprising Facts

Ninety percent of Americans make less in real dollars than they did in 1973 – on average $4,000 less. The wealthiest 400 Americans now control more wealth than half the world’s people.

Worldwide, more people are members of cooperatives than own shares in publicly traded companies. Cooperatives provide a fifth more jobs than do global corporations.

More than a third of both the world’s grain and fish catch now go to feed livestock, which return to us only a fraction of the nutrients.

If the whole world moved to sustainable agriculture, a U. of Michigan study found that enough food could be grown to feed the world’s current and projected population.

An MRI study of people competing vs. cooperating found that cooperating stimulates the same parts of our brain as does eating chocolate!

America emits twice the carbon per person that Europe does. But think what’s possible: California emits 20 percent less carbon per dollar GDP than Germany; and it gets almost a quarter of its electricity from renewables!

In Washington DC, more than two dozen lobbyists push mainly corporate interests for every one representative American citizens have elected to protect our interests.

In 2011, solar use grew all over the world, soaring 54% to 28 gigawatts.

Organic farming yields are about the same as conventional yields under normal weather conditions, and during times of drought, organic farming outperforms conventional methods by 31 percent! Organic farming also uses 45 percent less energy.

Because of lower overhead costs, farmers using a non-pesticide approach in India enjoy a 23 percent increase in income, and report their health improving as well.

Read all and find sources…