Excellent Keynote Speech by Aduradha Mitall, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute presented in late February at the 2010 Environmental Land, Air and Water Conference in Eugene.

Anuradha Mittal is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights, and agriculture issues. After working as the codirector of Food First/ Institute for Food and Development Policy, Mittal established the Oakland Institute, a progressive policy think tank, in 2004.

This video is about 30 minutes in length. Anuradha Mittal: World Hunger

VegWorcester Puts on First Annual VegFest. Free Food, Free Music, and Free Education!

The Portland Restaurant Workers Association (PRWA) is proud to present Know Your Kitchen! a series of free job skills workshops. The workshops will educate workers on the kitchen techniques they need to advance in the restaurant industry, and allow already familiar workers a chance to hone their skills.

The Know Your Kitchen! workshops will be led by award-winning chef Andrew H. Garrett in the test kitchen of Bargreen and Ellingson: Fodservice Supply and Design.

Wednesday, April 21st was the first day of the expanded Farmers' Market in downtown Santa Cruz. However, it was strangely quiet compared to previous weeks. Notably absent from Parking Lot #4 was the weekly drum circle and the crowd it attracts. And a vendor was selling artisan bread where for years, Food Not Bombs had been distributing free meals to anyone.

New Yorkers for Parks (NY4'P's) announced the hiring of a new executive director last month, but the appointment of Lee Stuart has disturbed some in the community garden movement. Ms. Stuart played a central role in a major open-space dispute in the South Bronx, that on November 21, 2002, led to the arrest of three residents – at gunpoint – advocating for community gardens.

by Texas SFA from the Open Publishing Newswire: The first-ever Texas SFA Regional Encuentro brought students and youth from cities accross Central, South and North Texas to the University of Houston for a weekend of strategizing, conviviendo and taking action around the CIW-led Campaign for Fair Food.

Saturday’s Encuentro started with an introduction to SFA, CIW, and the Campaign for Fair Food. We had folks brand new to the campaign as well as veteran@s from the days of the Taco Bell Boycott - including UTSA, where mechistas successfully organized to keep Taco Bell off their campus [PDF] - who shared history and their reflection on what SFA and the CIW have meant to them over the years. The most exciting part of our Encuentro on Saturday was the March to Kroger in the afternoon. Over 20 students and community allies marched the streets of Houston passing out cards to people in the community and putting pressure on the local Kroger. We were kicked off the Kroger property by the manager and then monitored by the police but we were able to get the manager to talk to us and make a couple of calls to his supervisors. People in the local community came out and were supportive of the rally. Several shoppers turned away after we passed out information on why we were protesting. [Read the Full Story with photos]

More from the newswire: One Mile March for Farmworkers rights and against modern day slavery from UH to Kroger | Report on Successful Texas SFA Regional Encuentro

I gave an audible affirmation when Erin Harper, a member of Engineers Without Borders at Illinois, spoke of efforts to create a community garden at Washington School in Urbana. I learned that the school board has approved a community garden curriculum at Washington and that each class will grow food and take it home and perhaps one day sell it at a local food stand.

SE Portland Urban Farmers seek help with seed increase in conjunction with a larger project to breed superior varieties and have enough seed on hand, no matter what happens, to feed town. For a 100% sliding scale contribution, you can help out and have a garden for life - check it out, be part of the project, and help your local farmer out.

It's scheming, planning and assessing time for farmers once the hard freeze comes, as it did on 9 December. Your humble Urban Farmers haven't been totally idle during these shortest of days: I got a darn good idea. I've spent the last few weeks fleshing it all out and securing the necessary support from the other farmers to make it happen. The SE Seedbank Project will involve folks in ways that go way beyond keg parties w/ the 2010 Perpetual Seed Kit. This came out of an idea of Calliope's called the Neighbourhood Foodshed Alliance, where we go even further to reduce travel distance for food by connecting folks w/ their neighbourhood farmer.

But, that's neither here nor there! So....

 http://sePDXseedbank.wordpress.com/

Food Not Bombs now has a Camden chapter. They did their first food service on November 22, and Life-Net Radio was there. LISTEN

"Food Not Bombs is one of the fastest growing revolutionary movements and is gaining momentum throughout the world. There are hundreds of autonomous chapters sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people and protesting war and poverty[...] throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia." More Info: foodnotbombs.net | New Jersey Chapters

Related: Mantua Food Not Bombs (video)

From Friday Nov. 20 through Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 26, urban forager Rebecca Lerner will attempt to survive exclusively on wild food she gathers from sidewalks, parks, wilderness areas and yards in the city of Portland, OR. There will be no Dumpster diving, mooching from gardens or picking from cultivated fruit trees. In an effort to highlight wild food, Lerner's unusual menu will include thistle, sumac, dandelion and other weeds; fat she gathered from a roadkill deer; the root vegetable wapato; acorns, chestnuts, hazelnuts and black walnuts harvested from city trees; mushrooms; stinging nettles; hawthorn berries; yellow dock seeds; cleavers, and more.

"Foraging is a fun and free way to get healthy local food," Lerner said. "It's also a survival skill that can come in handy in an emergency, and a way to get in touch with our roots as hunter-gatherers."

On Thursday, October 29, Israelis and internationals joined Palestinians for a quiet protest against the destruction of olive trees near the village of Susya, South Mountain Hebron. The Hoshia family who own the land in this area, had more then twenty olive trees cut down by settlers in October. During the recent months settlers destroyed hundreds of olive trees own by Palestinians in the West Bank.

At approximately 10:00 AM this morning, North Dakota farmer Wayne Hauge, Vermont farmer Will Allen, and fed up American entrepreneurs, were arrested while digging up the DEA's lawn to plant industrial hemp seed imported from Canada.

Putting a spotlight on some of the biggest movers and shakers of the vegetarian world, Bay Area residents and visitors celebrated World Vegetarian Day with a weekend-long festival on October 4 and 5. The 10th annual World Veg Festival featured cooking demos, free samples, and international vegetarian delights to pique every appetite. Entertainment included the Red Panda Acrobats and a sing-along of tunes in defense of animals.

This side show performance at Bread and Puppet in Vermont this summer, told the story about eliminating polystyrene lunch trays at Piney Branch Elementary School. From their website: The Young Activist Club, based in Takoma Park, Maryland, is working to eliminate single-use disposable polystyrene lunch trays at the Piney Branch Elementary School, a public school in Montgomery County, Maryland. We are 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Battle in Montgomery County Video The Young Activist Club –- No Styrofoam Campaign

In August 2009, a Compassion Over Killing investigator worked inside Michael Foods, a company that supplies eggs to Dunkin Donuts. Find out what he documented while employed at this egg factory farm in Minnesota: http://dunkincruelty.com/investigation