The Think Eat Save Student Challenge

Sensitizing children to the ecological impacts of food waste is important and the Think.Eat.Save Student Challenge is a great example of an powerful educational project. Vast quantities of food are wasted each year and this phenomenon is sadly a part of many western cultures. To help reorient children to this issue, UNEP has launched a new campaign that calls schools and students to start a wasteless revolution.

The campaign challenges students and to find out how much food gets wasted in their schools. Then students are encouraged to organize a project and take action to reduce or eliminate food waste.

Infographics: Population, Food, Agriculture, Water, GHGs and Solutions (World Resources Institute)

Event - Creating a GMO-Free Holiday

Creating a GMO-Free Holiday will take place on December 19, 2013, from 6:30 pm - 8 pm at Collingswood Library, 771 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood, New Jersey. GMO Free NJ meets to explore ways to avoid the genetically modified organisms that are in our food supply.

From 7-8, they will discuss creating a GMO free holiday, the latest on GMO labeling legislation and other projects.

Video - Sustainable Meat: Trailer from the Documentary "American Meat"

American Meat, is a feature documentary about a grass-roots revolution in sustainable farming. This film explains how America arrived at its current industrial system, and shows you the feedlots and confinement houses, not through hidden cameras but through the eyes of the farmers who live and work there. The story shifts to the burgeoning movement of farmers, chefs and everyday folks.

Event and Seminar - GMO Labeling at the Natural Products Expo and All Things Organic

The event and seminar GMO Labeling at the Natural Products Expo and All Things Organic takes place on Friday, September 27, 2013, 10:00 - 11:00 am EDT at the Baltimore Convention Center, Room 319. Washington State's I-522, the Federal Just Label It effort and Lessons Learned from California's Prop. 37 GMO labeling advocates are rallying to support Yes on 522, the People's Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act, in Washington State.

Washington's I-522 is the only GMO labeling bill heading to voters this fall, and is a critical front in the battle to label genetically engineered foods. Learn how I-522 can withstand opposition from big biotech and the junk food industry, which considers the I-522 GMO labeling bill a serious threat and has already raised more than $11 million to defeat it. Also, hear from leaders about lessons learned from California’s Prop. 37 and what’s happening on a federal level to require labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Event - Second Annual Bionutritional Summit

The second annual bionutritional summit will be held on October 23, 2013 at Seelbach Hilton located near the GIE & EXPO in Louisville, Ky. The Summit will be hosted and sponsored by Holganix.

This year’s keynote speaker is Judith Guido, former sales, marketing and strategy executive of Service Master’s TruGreen Landcare. She will focus on how to leverage the green phenomenon and make a profit from it. Guido’s presentation is entitled, Leveraging the Green Phenomenon & Building a Profitable Green Company.

Highlights include, Understanding the size and opportunities with the green market, how to leverage the green opportunities within your market, creating differentiation and a competitive advantage with green and how to build and position an profitable green company.

Video - International Day Of Protest Against Monsanto & GMO Foods MAY 25, 2013

An international protest is planned for May 25, 2013 against biotechnology company Monsanto in more than 250 cities in six continents and demonstrations are planned in tens of countries. Monsanto, a titan of the emerging biotech industry, has come under attack from environmentalists, agriculturalists and average consumers over the company's conduct in the realm of genetically-modified organisms and genetically-engineered foods. Monsanto has lobbied hard in Washington and around the globe to be able to continue manufacturing lab-made foods without the oversight that many have demanded. This protest comes in the wake of the passage of the "Monsanto protection act" that will protect GMO companies from assuming any liability.

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Video - The Passage of the "Monsanto Protection Act"

A new law protects GMO companies from liability and takes away American's right to know what is on their plates. Congress approved and President Obama signed a bill that gives Monsanto and other GMO companies immunity from liability against the deleterious effects of the foods that they provide. The Protect Interstate Commerce Act (PICA), is an amendment inserted into the 2013 Farm Bill passed by the House of Representatives' Agriculture Committee. It revokes the ability of individual states' lawmakers to pass GMO-labeling laws.

Insects are a Sustainable Food Source

As the impacts of climate change worsen, extreme weather including drought will make it harder to grow enough food to feed the world. In addition, rising population levels, particularly in urban centers, will put added pressure on already constrained food resources.

By 2030, over 9 billion people will need to be fed, along with the billions of animals raised annually for food and as pets. Meanwhile, land and water pollution from intensive livestock production and over-grazing are leading to forest degradation, thereby contributing to climate change.

Climate Change and Biofuels on World Food Day 2012

October 16 is a special day for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Each year at this time food becomes the center of attention and this year agricultural cooperatives are the focus of World Food Day 2012. The day is intended to raise awareness and understanding of approaches to ending hunger. The 2012 theme was chosen to highlight the role of cooperatives in improving food security and contributing to the eradication of hunger. Interest in cooperatives and rural organizations is also reflected in the decision of the UN General Assembly to designate 2012 “International Year of Cooperatives.”

Two major issues that directly impact World Food Day are climate change and biofuels. In 2012 climate change induced extreme weather has wreaked havoc on world food prices and threatens to increase global hunger. The use of agricultural lands for Biofuels have also increased the likelihood of global hunger. In the US, 40 percent of maize yields are converted to ethanol to power vehicles. The UN estimates that 1 in 8 people on the planet are now living in chronic hunger conditions.