Churches Week of Action on Food
The Churches Week of Action on Food is an opportunity for Christians all over the world to act and speak out together on food justice issues. It is a time to raise awareness about food production and distribution systems, examine our own food consumption, and call for policy changes that will ensure the right to food for everyone. Our faith calls us to feed the hungry and care for Creation – this we can do as individuals, as churches, and as global citizens.
In 2014, the week of action will be held from 12-19 October and incorporates the International Day for Rural Women (October 15), World Food Day (October 16) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17). Our focus this year will be on resilience - ensuring we have:
- sustainable food production methods, such as agroecology, best suited to local contexts and our long term future;
- marketing and distribution systems to ensure livelihoods for farmers and their communities;
- commitments and actions to reduce food waste throughout the food chain;
- policies that promote all the above!
This year, churches and community groups will have the opportunity to “twin” with a church or group in another region to share experiences and concerns about food security. See our Sister Community Questionnaire and contact ccampeau@who-needs-spam.e-alliance.ch for more information.
Worship, study and action resources are available below. Sign up for our action alerts or follow us on Facebook to get the latest updates.
Resources for the Churches Week of Action 2014
Worship service prepared by Presbyterian Church (USA) | |
Sister Community Questionnaire | |
Worship on Land and Land reforms and the Year of Jubilee by the Commission on Justice, Peace, and Creation of the National Council of Churches in India. | Text (EN) |
Bible Study Resources on Sustainable Food Systems from World Vision | PDF (EN) |
Bible Study on 1 Kings 21:1-16 | PDF (EN) |
Resources for the Churches Week of Action 2013, which focused on Seeds for Life!
Seeds for Life: Scaling Up Agro-Biodiversity | |||
Seeds of Success | PDF (EN) | ||
2013 Liturgy | |||
Seeds for Life Prayer | PDF (EN) | ||
Gospel of Salvation in a Continent of Hunger | Text (EN) | ||
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La Via Campesina: Our Seeds, Our Future | PDF (EN) |
Our Coming Food Crisis, New York Time Opinion Piece, Published: July 21, 2013 | [link] |
How farmers are saving seeds and building a Canadian collection | [link] |
Putting the Cartel before the Horse...and Farm, Seeds, Soil and Peasants etc: Who Will Control the Agricultural Inputs? ETC Group, 2013 | PDF (EN) |
NGOs working on seed issues | [link] |
Food for Life 2013 video | [link] |
Seeds of Freedom video | [link] |
Seeds of Death video | [link] |
The World According to Monsanto video | [link] |
You too can be a Seed Saver! A Guide to Seed Saving. | PDF (EN) |
Is Africa about to lose the right to her seeds? | [link] |
Modernising African Agriculture: Who benefits? Civil Society statement on the G8, AGRA and the African Union's CAADP | [link] |
Understanding the impact of genetically modified crops in Africa, African Centre for Biosafety (Handbook) | PDF (EN) |
Harmonization of Africa’s Seeds Laws: A Recipe for Disaster, Players Motives and Dynamics | PDF (EN) |
Civil Society Statement on COMESA Seed Trade Laws | PDF (EN) |
From Seed, to Stove, to Mouth: Food Sovereignty and Solidarity in Greece, by Jon Wiltshire | [link] |
Seed Heritage of the People for the Good of Humanity, From the Women Seed Forum in South Korea | PDF (EN) |
A Declaration of Seed Sovereignty: A living document for New Mexico | [link] |
Colombia farmers’ uprising puts the spotlight on seeds, GRAIN | [link] |
The United Republic of Soybeans: Take Two | [link] |
Seeding the Future Galleries, From Gaia Foundation | [link] |
Sowing Autonomy, Gender and seed politics in semi-arid India | PDF (EN) |
Our Seed, Our Sovereignty – Seed Law Victory in Indonesia, Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice | [link] |
TED Talks Roger Thurow: The Hungry Farmer - My Moment of Great Disruption Joel Salatin: Thinking About Soil Roger Doiron: A Subversive Plot |
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Books to Read 66 Square Feet: A Delicious Life, by Marie ViljoenBlessing the Hands that Feed Us: What Eating Closer to Home Can Teach Us About Food, Community, and Our Place on Earth, by Vicki Robin First Food: A Taste of India’s Biodiversity, by Sunita Narain and Vibha Varshney From the Ground Up: A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation, by Jeanne Nolan with Foreword by Alice Waters Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm, by Forest Pritchard with Foreword by Joel Salatin Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith, by Fred Bahnson What has Nature Ever Done for Us? How Money Really Grows on Trees, by Tony Juniper with Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales |
More Action Ideas
Set aside a church service on 16 October to focus on the importance of seeds. The liturgy can be used in its entirety or adapted for your context.
Prepare a meal for your family using vegetables or fruit from traditional, local seed varieties. A new recipe will be uploaded each day throughout the month long countdown to World Food Day on the Food for Life Facebook page You can add your own family recipes there too!
Gather your local traditional farmers and gardeners to build a seed bank in your local library by ‘checking-in’ your most successful breeds and ‘checking-out’ the champions among fellow breeders. For inspiration, see the partnership between Basalt Public Library and the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute and learn how it’s done.
Organize a church group to study local plants and indigenous seeds and then write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to reinforce the need to safeguard these varieties.
Prepare a meal for your family using heirloom varieties and discuss the nutrient value of wild species versus their domesticated varieties. Would you believe that Peruvian Purple potatoes have 171milligrams of phytonutrients compared to the Yukon Gold variety (5.45mg) or the standard white potato (1.03mg)? (source)
Consider hosting a screening of Seeds of Freedom
Schedule a study group to read the articles on Seeds and Peasant Sovereignty in the 2013 Right to Food and Nutrition Watch, which will be launched on October 16.
Plan awareness-raising events on World Food Day to support local food markets that return fair prices for small-scale agricultural and food workers and promote a broader use of agricultural biodiversity. Better yet, lobby policy makers and businesses to create a stable demand for local and seasonal produce through school meal programmes and hospitals (such as the Programa de Aquisicao de Alimentos (PAA), as referred to on page 36 of the EAA report Nourishing the World Sustainably: Scaling up AgroEcology
These ideas for actions have been suggested by our members. Use ideas that work best in your context, be creative in adapting them or making up your own! Send in your suggestions to ccampeau@who-needs-spam.e-alliance.ch
