Recipe for Hope Week #5

The next installment of Bread for the World's Recipe for Hope Campaign (a reason for despair in the current food crisis and an action for hope and change!)...Note that Chicagoland's own Willow Creek Church gets a mention!
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Ingredient for Despair: The mixed blessing of increased consumption
Another key cause of increasing food prices is growing demand for food around the world, including some parts of the developing world. Hundreds of millions of poor people in China and India have escaped poverty in recent years—an accomplishment to be celebrated.
But it comes with a new challenge. With higher incomes, people are, for the first time, enjoying more diverse diets. In addition to higher demand for food staples, there is rising demand for meat, which in turn increases the demand for grain to feed livestock. And supply hasn't caught up to demand yet. Helping to boost the productivity of farmers in developing countries would go a long way to increasing the food supply.
National Public Radio’s recent series about soaring world food prices featured an excellent piece about this situation in China. Read or listen online. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89766337

Ingredients for Hope:
Our Recipe for Hope has two components—something you can do; and something you can say to our nation’s leaders.

-Take the Five-Day Solidarity Challenge: For five days, eat as half the world’s population does, with meals of oatmeal, rice, beans and vegetables. Set aside the money you would have spent on additional groceries to redirect those dollars to help alleviate hunger by making a donation to Bread for the World or your denominational hunger program. See how one church did an excellent job of educating its congregation and rallying support for the Five-Day Solidarity Challenge.
http://www.willowcreek.org/COH08/limitmy.asp

-Write to Congress:
Urge your members of Congress to ensure that food aid and agricultural assistance are available immediately, rather than 2009, to address this hunger crisis. Send an email to Congress.
http://capwiz.com/bread/issues/alert/?alertid=11432626&type=CO