Merry Christmas, right-wingers, The Red Pope, and Jesus

Here’s a twist on Christmas that would make Jesus weep.
First, a right-wing faction in the US has been wringing its hands over a hokey cultural “crisis” cooked up by the faction itself, namely that liberals, atheists, humanists, and – God Forbid – Marxists are waging a “War on Christmas.” The infidels are not accused of lobbing bombs in this war, but Words of Mass Destruction. Specifically, the right-wing purists wail that unholy lefties are perverting the season by saying “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas.”
Second, some ultra conservative members of this same faction have launched their own war – against Jesus! How twisted is this? They say no one should mess with the word “Christmas,” yet they’re messing with the guy Christmas is supposed to be about.
Okay, technically they’re not going directly at Jesus, but at a key part of his message – and in particular, at a key messenger of Christianity: Pope Francis! They’ve decided that the Pope is a “Marxist,” pointing out that Francis speaks often about “the structural causes of poverty,” the “idolatry of money,” and the “new tyranny” of unfettered capitalism. Obviously, say the Pontiff’s pious critics, that’s commie talk.
The clincher for them was when Francis wrote an official Papal document in which he asked in outrage: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” See, cried the carpers, that’s proof that Francis is the Red Pope!
But wait – that was a very good question he asked, one ripe with the moral wrath that Jesus himself frequently showed toward the callous rich and their “love of money.” Indeed, the Pope’s words ring with the deep ethics you find in Jesus’ sermon on the Mount. Was he a commie, too? Could it be that the carpers are the ones lacking in real Christmas spirit?

America’s good food movement

What better day than Thanksgiving to celebrate our country’s food rebels!
I’m talking about the growing movement of small farmers, food artisans, local retailers, co-ops, community organizers, restaurateurs, environmentalists, consumers, and others – perhaps including you. This movement has spread the rich ideas of sustainability, organic, local economies, and the Common Good from the fringe of our food economy into the mainstream.
It began as an “upchuck rebellion” – ordinary folks rejecting the industrialized, chemicalized, corporatized, and globalized food system. Farmers wanted a more natural connection to the good earth that they were working. Meanwhile, consumers began seeking edibles that were not saturated with pesticides, injected with antibiotics, ripened with chemicals, dosed with artificial flavorings, and otherwise tortured.
These two interests began to find each other and to create an alternative way of thinking about food. Today, more than 19,500 organic farmers produce everything from wheat to meat, and organic sales top nearly $39 billion a year. Also, about 8,000 farmers markets operate in practically every city and town across the land, linking farmers and food makers directly to consumers in a local, supportive economy. Restaurants, supermarkets, food wholesalers, and school districts are now buying foodstuffs that are produced sustainably and locally.
This shift did not come from corporate or governmental powers – it percolated up from the grassroots. And it’s spreading, as ordinary people inform themselves, organize locally, and assert their own democratic values over those of the corporate structure.
Family by family, town by town, this good food movement has changed not only the market, but also the culture of food. As you, your family, and friends sit down for a good meal this Thanksgiving, celebrate this change, which is truly worthy of our thanks.
“Organic Sales, Farm Growth Soar in 2014,” www.ofrf.org, April 15, 2015.
“New Data Reflects the Continued Demand for Farmers Markets,” www.usda.gov, August 4, 2014.

Watering America’s food factories

Water scarcity is getting scary, and banning long showers is not even a drop in the solution bucket.
The biggest water sponge by far is food production, and agri-giants continue to pour it on their vast fields like there’s no tomorrow. In a May 31 column, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times reports that the Pacific Institute and National Geographic have calculated how much water today’s industrialized food system sucks up. For example:

• One little almond: 1 gallon
• A single walnut: 5 gallons
• A head of lettuce: 12 gallons
• A cluster of grapes: 24 gallons

But wait – America’s Big Oil frackers say not to worry, because they can offer a gusher of H2O to food producers. Believe it or not, they’re selling their fracking wastewater to agribusiness for irrigating fruit and vegetable crops.
This is water that ExxonMobil and other drillers mix with a witch’s brew of some 750 toxic chemicals before power-blasting it into underground rock formations. The drillers have had to reclaim and store this contaminated water, but – “Eureka!” someone shouted – rather than store it, put it on America’s salads! It’s perfectly safe, the always-trustworthy oil industry tells us, because they treat the water to remove all the cancer-causing nasties. But studies have found toxics remaining in some of the “treated” water, and a California science panel found that state regulators have no adequate testing process, nor any controls in place to stop contamination of crops.
Fed up, California Assemblyman Mike Gatto has introduced a bill to require warning labels on all state produce that has been irrigated with fracking water. This would empower consumers, rather than Big Oil, to decide whether fracking chemicals belong on our families’ dinner plates. For more information, contact: www.WaterDefense.org.