You asked for it...

Hello young adult friends. Welcome to the March edition of You asked for it…, NCP's monthly email to folks like you. Back from January Nepal Learning Tour, February Sudan delegation, and fabulous  Fort Wayne ...

You won't believe what I found at the airport on Monday. I was at Door 1A of the United terminal at O'Hare waiting for my son Daniel to pick me up after a trip east. As I waited, I was fishing for recyclables in the curbside trash cans—you know, trying to ease my guilt at just having gotten off a fuel-guzzling plane.

In the third can, there was a bag. In the bag was quite a collection—a seeming emergency stash grabbed at a store on the way to the airport by someone in a hurry. There were the likely suspects—a water bottle and aluminum can. Then as I pushed aside open cottage cheese and chunked fruit containers, I noticed other wrapped items. First there was a 12-pack of disposable “sensitive skin” razors—with 10 still inside! (I've recently grudgingly switched to disposables, as the regular ones not only have way too many blades, but cost way too much.) And in my hand was about a year's worth—recycled!—and tailor-made for a sensitive guy like me… J

But just below that…a container I didn't recognize…on closer examination was shown to hold…Veggie Patch Meatless Meatballs! Still in a sealed package, a month left on the expiration date, the morning temperature a chilly 34 degrees—assuring that they were still good. Not eating beef in our house, my mind quickly turned to sweet and sour meatballs—haven't had ‘em in years.  My find even got Daniel excited (he's generally not as enthused as I am over such “discoveries”). 

The Lord (or at least a harried wasteful fellow traveler) doth provide.

They say we waste about half the food we produce in this society. And over a quarter of that waste takes place after we get the food items in our hands (as opposed to during harvesting, packaging, shipping and storing). Along with the wasted food comes the wasted energy: Our food system consumes 17% of all the fossil fuel we use in the US . So imagine 8.5% of our fossil fuel burned for nothing. And think of all the pollutants (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) we send into our skies and waterways raising this food—that's wasted too, adding insult to injury for God's earth.

I was at Elon University two weeks back—they're working at the food waste issue in a novel way: they've done away with trays in the cafeteria. Turns out students don't load up and then waste so much when they don't have a tray to pile it on. Cool.

Speaking of which, have you seen our new flyer “Eat, Drink…and be Wary”?  (right column) Look over our Reading List lately (three new titles related to diet)?

In this edition of You asked for it…

• Hot fun in the summertime (who sang it?—answer below)
• Make the drum
• March to the beat of a different drummer
• Anybody see a jaguar around here…
• Enviro Fact
• Justice Fact
• Faith Fact

Be well. Be in touch. Be good—but not too good—we need to be shaking this world up a little bit.

David

Hot fun in the summertime I   (that would be Sly and the Family Stone ) Check out Orion Grassroots Network's cool listing of internships and other position openings with enviro, social justice and other movement-type groups 

Hot fun II   At this writing we  have one spot open for a Solidarity Worker in Sudan. Other placements include the Amazon and Honduras.  Live and learn while having the time of your life.      

Drum-making workshop    Camp Mack in Milford, IN is sponsoring a drum making workshop on April 3-6. For as little as $12 a day plus drum-making materials ($25-$525) you too can build your very own drum. Call 574-658-4831 for more info, or contact NCP friend Curt Rowland

A different drummer   Join lots of other folks of faith and conscience for Ecumenical Advocacy Days in DC this March 7-10. Special young adult track.

Jaguar?    Not too late to sign up for NCP Learning Tours to the Amazon (late May—rainforest, native culture, impact of oil drilling), Guatemala (mid-June—indigenous people, history of repression), Honduras (mid-July—live and work in a poor community), Alaska (mid-August—camping, wildlife, sea cruise, impacts of global warming) and Burma (late-August—Buddhist culture, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, military government).  Love to have you along! Modest scholarships available for enviro-focused trips.  (Last year jaguar (Amazon) and lynx ( Alaska ) sightings—can't promise, but you never know...)

Enviro Fact  The glaciers atop the Himalaya Range are predicted to shrink from 300,000 square miles to 60,000 square miles (or be gone completely) by the mid-century, thanks to climate change. Millions of people depend on this high-mountain snowpack for their dry season water. What then? Dasani for everyone…?

Justice Fact    The USA provides more aid to its own cotton farmers annually via subsidies ($3 billion) than the entire economic output of some west African countries where cotton is a major crop.  These subsidies will in turn cost poor cotton farmers there tens of millions of dollars in lost income.  

Faith Fact   “Am I my brother's keeper?” – Cain  ( Genesis 4:9 )