Food Fight

Food. It's our life source. Wars are fought over it. People die because of lack of it. I just got back from my local grosser and restocked my fridge with it. So simple, yet so complex. 


This research article in the Age brings to light a sinister war of greed and power lead by supermarkets Coles and Woolworths. http://www.theage.com.au/business/its-war-but-how-low-can-they-go-20111125-1nz6h.html


This year in one of my classes I learnt the terrible truth of IMF and World Bank deregulation of subsistence farming in places like Somalia, enforcing dependency on US imports. And thriving markets in Sumatra being mysteriously burnt down, only for Carefore to appear a few months later, mere meters away. 


These are the silent food wars, where the little guys, producing the food, are held at ransom by those with power and marketing control.


I now won't shop without my favourite Shop Ethical. Find out who's using slave labour to mine the shiny bits in your favourite foundation, and what milk companies are using ethical practice.


Because I think there's nothing worse than complaining about a problem without offering an alternative solution, I'm stoked that this app loudly and proudly celebrates those brands that are ethical and organic.


Get into it!

Friend

Today I'm thankful for amazing friends. 

{via Free People}

There Is Always Hope

It's a warm spring day and I'm sitting under my umbrella, while butterfly's float by, writing my final essay of the year; on Iraq. 


Don't worry, this isn't about to become a political rant, but I will say this - that place is messed up - even more so by the invasion! But it does get me thinking...about HOPE. 


Recently I was having my head-shots redone, and my photographer started speaking to me, asking me why I do what I do. The more we spoke, the more insight she had into who I was, and suddenly she says, 'Hold that look.' I wasn't sure what 'look' I was holding, but for the next two hour shoot she would say, 'Remember, there is always hope'. 

I hadn't realised until that moment, but that phrase keeps me going. At work I have this Banksy print I got last year in London. Hope keeps us breathing. It keeps us moving forward. 


I often feel like the bearer of bad news. My subjects are often about problems, I work in an environment of problems, our world has become a world full of problems. But what keeps us from curling up and staying in bed, or escaping to a utopia far away? Hope. That intrinsic belief that things will get better. That I[insert your name here] can make a difference. 


There is so much beauty that contrasts and often counteracts the pain and despair. All pain is relevant, but so is all joy. In Uganda I became friends with girls who had experienced horrific tragedy, the likes I cannot comprehend, yet they laughed louder and danced harder than any of my friends back in Australia. 


Where do you see hope?