What do they do?
Greenpeace are a global organization that focuses on the most crucial worldwide threats to our planet’s biodiversity and environment. Their work includes promoting the use of renewable energy, defending our oceans, protecting ancient forests, eliminating toxic chemicals, preventing the release of genetically engineered organisms into nature, protecting future generations and the environment from the effects of nuclear power, its accidents, contamination and waste, and promoting world peace and disarmament.
How can I get involved?
Volunteer – Young people living in Auckland can work in the Auckland. However sadly there are less jobs for those outside of Auckland. Outside of Auckland, the current volunteering opportunities that exist are: putting up posters, researching in your community, and letter writing for a specific campaign project.
Join the Climate School Challenge - The Greenpeace Climate Challenge is a project designed to empower young people to play their part in preventing climate change Those taking part in The Challenge will each be given a logbook filled with climate saving tasks they can do, with points awarded for successful completion of each. Each student will ask for sponsors to support them in the challenge by making a donation. Greenpeace have some awesome prizes for the top fundraisers and the top point scorers.
Throughout their history the Chinese have followed the strict practice of Chinese medicine, which states the importance of balancing yin with yang. Its teachings led to healthy and harmonious practices amongst Chinese, such as consuming a large variety of vegetables, fruit and grains, with some meat, and avoiding excessively oily and sugary foods. However, in today’s China, the growing influence of the west is fast replacing these wise teachings of Chinese medicine with unhealthy western diets.
“As the food around them changes so does their appetite” says Chang, owner of a traditional Chinese restaurant in Beijing, China. He adds that, “people are moving away from their traditional diets and focusing on a more meat centred one”. In recent years western diets involving high consumption of meat and dairy products have become increasingly popular in China. This change in tradition has led to rising obesity levels – now 2% – and high inflation rates. Inflation in China is rising mainly because of the shortage in western foods, such as wheat, meat and dairy products, meaning less food available and at higher prices. The recent move towards biofuels is also contributing to inflation rates because more sugar and grain crops have been used to create fuel for vehicles than for human consumption. This diversion of crops away from food production has resulted in shortages and price rises throughout the food industry.
At an Egyptian market today, you are likely to find dozens of hungry people, who can no longer afford even main staples such as rice, lentils and pasta, let alone the delicacies of meat, fruit and vegetables which are also needed for good nutrition. For low income Egyptians, the wages they are being paid no longer meet the cost of living and so now the only thing affordable is subsidised bread. The government subsidises bread in certain bakeries around Egypt and costs ten times less than unsubsidised bread. However, even with subsidised bread Egyptians are trapped. Unless wages start to rise soon, riots will continue as citizens campaign for a chance to eat. Mother of six Anippe, a resident of Cairo who voiced her thoughts on this Youtube video, explains that once her wages have been spent on the rent, water, electricity and food, none is left for her children’s future. “There is none left for anyone’s future,” she says.
Brazil has long been a country influenced by many traditions. In the early eleventh century, during the Inca rule in Peru, the potato made its way across the border and became a staple. When the Spanish came in the 1500s, they brought at least one welcome addition with them – the sugarcane, which is still being turned into the traditional alcoholic drink Cachaca. Today, while still retaining its traditional dishes of rice, meat, beans and potato, Brazilian food continues to be influenced by people who have come to live there, adding a hint of African, Italian, and Middle East cuisine to the mix.
In a recent attempt to lower rising food prices the Brazilian government suspended taxes on wheat, the main ingredient for bread and pasta. The price of wheat in Brazil has risen because of international prices and the export ban placed on wheat in Argentina, Brazil’s main supplier. Argentina is placing export bans on many commodities to prevent farmers exporting and to create protective stockpiles thereby lowering prices within the country. While that may temporarily lower national prices in Argentina, it means that other countries which import wheat, such as Brazil, end up paying more.
Early Australia was inhabited solely by the Aboriginal people who enjoyed a diet of meat, fish, root vegetables and fruit. With the arrival of the European colonists in the eighteenth century, Australian cuisine took a huge turn. The colonists brought their European diet with them and this still remains dominant today, despite modern influences from Asia.
Why is this all happening? While some supermarkets, middle men and farmers are definitely profiting, the main reason prices are rising is oil. Almost everywhere in the food production and transport chain, oil is needed. Its retail price is now over NZ$2 a litre a sum accumulated by the expense of finding and exposing new oil supplies, company profits and high public demand. Climate change is another issue, leading to extreme weather conditions, such as the drought in Australia. Then there is the higher demand for food by a growing population, which is leading to insufficient food stores. The shortages are made worse by the increasing production of biofuels, which are directing land and resources away from food production.
Food is an integral part of human existence — we need it to survive. It is part 
There are 800 million people in the world who go hungry every day and there are over a BILLION people who are obese. There is enough food in the world for everyone, but the systems in place mean that some people don’t get enough food and others have access to lots of unnutritious food. Fast food outlets and supermarkets have made food convenient and easy… you don’t have to think, just eat! Un-conscious eating is making us unhealthy and a lot of us obese. But as we keep over-consuming in the developed world, many people in the developing work — including those who pick our cocoa beans, coffee beans, bananas and tomatoes — are struggling because they don’t have access to affordable food. More info: 
Fiji, a country that traditionally valued the fuller figure’, was affected by an outbreak of eating disorders three year after television arrived in 1995. A study by Harvard Medical School found that 74% if teenage girls surveyed felt they were “too big or fat” and 15% of the girls reported they had vomited to control weight. The introduction of western values and (unrealistic) images of beauty was seen as the likely cause of the increase in eating disorders. More info: Borrow the movie Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising Images of Women (DVD) from the Global Education Centre library Freeganomics 
In the US it is estimated that half of the food produced each year is thrown away. You probably know about vegans but have you heard about Freegans? Freegans are a group of people who live solely off the waste of others and distance themselves from big corporations and consumerism. They go through dumpsters outside supermarkets and other shops (known as dumpster diving’) and pick out the unspoiled food that has been thrown away. They also grow their own food or contribute to community gardens. They are not poor or homeless, they do this in an attempt to minimise their impact on the planet. More info: 
Not sure where your food comes from? You’re not the only one. A recent survey of 1,000 British kids aged eight to fifteen revealed some strange ideas. In answer to the question: If cows ate grass, what colour would their milk be?’, eight percent answered brown, green or not sure. Ten percent of the city kids in the survey (the country kids did a little better) didn’t know where yoghurt came from and eight percent were unable to say which animal beef comes from. Of the same group, two percent thought that bacon might be from cows or sheep, and that eggs come from cows. More info: 
Although recently highlighted as a key solution to another pressing global issue — climate change — the production of biofuels may actually be causing more harm than good, particularly when it comes to food. Biofuels need a large amount of water and fertile land — land often found in developing countries which could otherwise be used to grow food crops. The UK government’s Chief Scientific Adviser recently described the global rush to grow biofuels as “profoundly stupid”, pointing out that a global food crisis is going to hit before some of the more serious impacts of climate change. More info 
Tahiti. Sun, sand and… socio-political activism? This may not be the most likely combination, but for over 1000 youth from around the Pacific region, it seemed to do the trick. The inaugural Pacific Youth Festival held on the island of Pape’ete between the 17th and the 22nd of July, was a unique and thought-provoking experience for its participants. Over the five day period, we attended a number of conferences, workshops and seminars centred around the four festival pillars — namely fair globalisation, sustainable development, cultural diversity and conditions of peace. These ranged from the basic (what are human rights ?’) to the complex and challenging (”Recognition, Preservation and Protection of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property “), and provided a rare forum for youth from different countries and cultures to discuss issues concerning the Pacific Region.
