Some people say knowledge is power. I say access to affordable, healthy food to grow your body and your brain is power.

There’s been a lot of talk about the sustainable food movement being elitist when so many people don’t have enough to eat.

Whether or not you believe that to be true, you should know there are organizations working to make sure that people in lower socio-economic classes, and those who live in neighborhoods without access to healthy, fresh foods aren’t left behind in the movement. One …

Tags: food justice , social justice , sustainable agriculture , urban agriculture

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Living in New Zealand, a country that has, in my opinion, the best and safest drinking water, it’s hard to imagine that one-sixth of the world’s population (nearly one billion people) are without clean water on a daily basis.

Most of us simply acknowledge information such as this by finding an organization to donate some money to help fund clean water campaigns and then move on to the next pressing issue. But some Iowa engineering students didn’t. They heard the facts and then rolled up their sleeves and designed a $5, …

Tags: drinking water , innovation , potable water , sanitizer , social justice , technology

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With the Obama administration igniting fervor for hope and change, perhaps the world will take heed of the decade-strong work that has been generating from the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Since 1998, MSF has been producing a “Top Ten” list of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world. According to their website, the compilation was inspired when a devastating famine in southern Sudan went largely unreported in U.S. media. Drawing on MSF’s emergency medical work the top

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Tags: charity , Doctors Without Borders , global aid , humanitarianism , MSF , philanthropy , social justice

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Princess Isabella of Spain outlawed slavery in Brazil on May 13, 1888. And that would seem to be that. But it’s not. Raj Patel, in his book Stuffed and Starved, writes that there are somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 people enslaved in Brazil.

Though sugarcane and cattle ranches are known culprits, slavery happens on soy plantations, too. In 2003, the last year for which figures are cited, 4,932 slaves were freed from farms in Brazil – and that’s just the farms that were inspected.

As we saw …

Tags: Brazil , fair trade , farming , human rights , slavery , social justice , soy

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The television ad begins with a romantic winter scene of snow flakes falling and a couple frolicking. A slick male voice-over describes the ideal gift for that special someone. What is the present that lets you sum up your feelings, he asks? You are certain it will all end with DIAMONDS. But, wait…

The gift of livestock! What a great twist. That’s why this commercial, and cause, really sparkles. I …

Tags: charity , children , consumers , gifts , social justice

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When Kerry and Anne Hilton uprooted their lives to help the people of Calcutta, it broke their hearts to witness women selling their bodies just to keep from starving. Appalled that so many souls resort to prostitution as a means of survival, it was clear that they had found their calling.

The Hiltons decided to take advantage of the surplus of jute in West Bengal and pursue what they called “the business of setting people free” with the establishment of Freeset Bags. Here, many troubled victims of the sex trade, …

Tags: artisan , bag , Freeset , shopping , social justice , tote , women

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I just came back from an extended vacation to find my clothes hanging off of me in loose folds. No, I didn’t go to a fancy weight loss retreat. My vacation was an all-inclusive of sorts, but instead of a ship’s buffet of delicacies served up 3 times a day, I was studying Spanish, living with a Guatemalan family, and eating my meals with them.

The headline isn’t meant to be offensive. It’s just that this is the first time I haven’t had to make a New Year’s resolution to …

Tags: diet , food supply , guatemala , lifestyle , social justice , weight loss

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