Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

---

HIPPO – 18 March 2008
By Mary T. Hoffman

Are you acquainted with HIPPO (Help International Plant Protein Organization)?

According to Neville Heath Fowler N.D.A., Director, HIPPO “takes practical help to people in poor countries who are working to improve the nutrition of the needy, through the provision of good plant protein foods. People and animals are HIPPO’s concern. ‘Feeding the world with compassion’ is its motto. The work is entirely dependent on voluntary donations and volunteer workers. Every penny given goes to work and nothing is wasted on paid staff or glossy brochures.”

HIPPO’s particular concern is to change the way in which food and the resources involved in the production of food (land, water and energy) are utilized. Two basic facts stand out and underscore the importance of this approach:

1. When food is fed to livestock to produce meat and milk, 90% of it is wasted.

2. More than 75% of the agricultural land in Europe and the U.S. is used to grow food for livestock. For example soy is the biggest single agricultural crop in the U.S. and 95% of it is fed to livestock. Unfortunately, the developing countries are rapidly moving in the same direction. China has moved from being a net exporter of cereals to being a massive importer, principally to feed its pigs, and the Chinese now consume more meat per person than do North Americans. Africans produce and consume a fraction of the legumes that they did thirty years ago. Their place is taken by the growing consumption of animal foods resulting in the wholesale clearance of forests, soil erosion and floods. What point is there in breeding threatened animal species without tackling the very thing that threatens them – the destruction of their natural habitats?

To learn more about this important work, please visit:
http://www.ivu.org/articles/net/hippo.html

Go on to: Hoffman Helpful Hint: Pasta Primavera – 19 March 2008
Return to: Retreating Rather Than Advancing – 17 March 2008
Return to: Blog - Main Page
Return to: Archive - By Date
Return to: Archive - By Subject

See Readers Comments