Family, Food and Fairness

We had another really good week, in spite of the fact that traffic has worsened. In fact, the boys had an after school program one afternoon and were a couple hours late in getting home. They were in good spirits though. Jensen was all excited about learning to play cricket and Pruitt was pleased to show us the first "magic" he learned in Beginners Magic. Riley did a special letter to his grandparents this week and here he is showing it to Grandma Miller.


We finally got around to having Dad's 60th birthday party last night. What a blessing it is to have family here and to all be healthy again! Our celebration was topped off with blackberry cobbler, a rare treat over here!

Amidst so many blessings, I have again been reminded of those who suffer beyond what I can even imagine. Yesterday I read the July/August edition of a Common Place (a magazine put out by MCC) and was blown away by some statistics and stories. Rising food costs have hurt many people in many places. According to the USDA, there was a 4% increase in food costs in the US in 2007. While I know that 4% was huge for many people and don't want to down play the affects it had in the US, I was a bit shocked when I realized how small that was compared to the 40% increase of maize in Kenya and rice in Bangladesh. It was even more shocking to read that in parts of Ethiopia, the price of maize has risen 84%. How can people survive? I often hear my boys saying things like, "But Mom, that's not fair." And I tell them that life isn't fair. More than ever I am convinced that life isn't fair, but in the sense that I got the good end of the deal. I could be watching my children starve to death instead of simply helping them work out their battles with each other. I just can't stop opening my mouth and telling anyone who will listen that we are all in this together. Every choice we make does affect someone somewhere. It takes about 1776 pounds of grain to produce 222 lbs of meat, which is the average meat consumption/person in the US. We can eat less meat. It's not hard and I'm discovering more and more amazing vegetarian dishes! We can buy locally grown products or grow our own ( yeah, I know, those blackberries were not locally grown - but it was a very special occasion and lifestyle issues are different from the occasional splurge. Though I must confess that I will probably move to South America before I give up coffee! But then there is always fair trade, which really does help farmers globally...) It's been an enjoyable challenge for me to learn how to make my own brown sugar, for instance, instead of paying $5/bag for some imported stuff. I've been trying to make granola bars with locally available ingredients and they still need some work. I guess what I'm trying to say is that changing the way we live and eat isn't always easy. It takes a little effort. If you can hop in your car and buzz on down the road to a loaded supermarket and buy all this amazing stuff, it's probably going to be harder for you than it is for me. Some things I don't even have to think about because I don't have as many options and I am so close to where so much is locally grown and we can enjoy fresh produce year round. But wherever we are, we have choices to make and if enough people make small but wise changes perhaps life will become a little more fair for one of our neighbors out there somewhere.

If you'd like to learn more about rising food costs and what you can do, visit mcc.org/food