{"items": [{"author": "Holly", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-july-13-2010-the-make-food-organic-charity/409034381212/?comment_id=409055396212", "anchor": "fb-409055396212", "service": "fb", "text": "A) I love your notes.
B) My food ethics are limited at the moment because of where I live, but when I make my personal choices, my factor is local.
I eat local meat because I found I needed some discipline in my eating habits-- I don't want to be vegetarian anymore, but I didn't feel good about the quality or quantity of meat I was eating. I think I end up more in the \"healthy\" category
It's hard for me to separate these different reasons out--taste from health from environment from economy... too interconnected.
A big part of it for me is that I want to support a local industry that is at risk of dying out in New England, and I don't see that supporting OxFam would do anything to preserve small farms in New England. I could donate to something like Maine Farmland Trust to do that instead-- not sure there would be that much more benefit to doing that than supporting local farmers through my meat purchases.", "timestamp": "1279056008"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-july-13-2010-the-make-food-organic-charity/409034381212/?comment_id=409209466212", "anchor": "fb-409209466212", "service": "fb", "text": "1. You seem to be suggesting that one should choose the best charity and give all of one's money to that single charity rather than to a variety of charities. I like giving money to the food bank and to the homeless shelter and to MSF, so why not to the organic food cause as well?
2. In the absence of a \"make food organic\" charity, the only real way to advance that cause is through personal marketplace choices.
3. Those marketplace choices are having a real effect if Walmart is pressuring their suppliers to go organic.
4. Supporting organic farming (and the constellation of related practices) is about far more than what we personally ingest; it is about the extent to which we continue to poison our land and waterways, the health impacts on farm workers, and the viability of small scale farming.", "timestamp": "1279103305"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-july-13-2010-the-make-food-organic-charity/409034381212/?comment_id=409229916212", "anchor": "fb-409229916212", "service": "fb", "text": "@Holly:
(A) thanks!
(B) You write that \"I want to support a local industry that is at risk of dying out in New England, and I don't see that supporting OxFam would do anything to preserve small farms in New England.\" That's entirely true. Because I don't believe that farmers are more deserving of my help just because they happen to be near me I don't have the same motivations as you. (In the abstract I like the idea where everyone gives to help the problems immediately around them. This is nice because you have a much more complete view of your local situation and you can see the magnitude of the problem. In practice, as someone living in one of the richest countries, this doesn't work. Even the most unfortunate people I'm likely to encounter are substantially better off than others in other countries, and while the safety net here isn't very good, it's a lot better than that available many places.", "timestamp": "1279111605"}, {"author": "Holly", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-july-13-2010-the-make-food-organic-charity/409034381212/?comment_id=409231601212", "anchor": "fb-409231601212", "service": "fb", "text": "Oh, also I think there are some local ag orgs that partner with organic farming movements in developing countries. One thing that is worth my consideration is matching the amount I spend on this sort of thing with a charitable donation to like efforts in other regions of the world.", "timestamp": "1279112173"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-july-13-2010-the-make-food-organic-charity/409034381212/?comment_id=409233496212", "anchor": "fb-409233496212", "service": "fb", "text": "@Michael:
(1) I realized my answer to this was kind of long, so I wrote a blog post: http://sccs.swarthmore.edu/~cbr/news/2010-07-14.html
(2) I agree, but I'm curious: if there existed a \"make food organic\" charity, would you think it made sense to give it money?
(3) I agree.
(4) Again, I agree. I don't think it's the most good I could be doing with my money, but I do believe it is positive.", "timestamp": "1279112777"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/tuesday-july-13-2010-the-make-food-organic-charity/409034381212/?comment_id=409237626212", "anchor": "fb-409237626212", "service": "fb", "text": "(1) Those arguments make sense if you assume that your charitable actions are in isolation and in secret. I want there to be multiple charities because I believe more good is done that way. I want and expect people in the aggregate to donate to multiple charities because that's the way to support those charities, and because different people will adjudge different charities the most important. Given that, I see no advantage in having you give all your money to Charity A and me give all my money to Charity B vs. each of us supporting both. The advantage of splitting our support is that each charity can then claim twice the number of supporters, which is useful for soliciting donations from people who have not reached their maximum for charitable giving and for gaining clout in the policy arena.
(2) It would really depend on the details. The simple case of giving money to a charity so they can subsidize someone else purchasing organic food seems far less efficient than my purchasing it myself. Perhaps there's a more effective way to promote organic farming practices than purchasing choices, but I'd have to be convinced (since I've seen the purchasing choices having a strongly positive effect in recent years).", "timestamp": "1279113985"}]}