Ethical Eating Team

eet

RESOURCES

EET has become part of the Mindful Eating Coalition

The Ethical Eating Statement of Conscience was adopted at the 2011 General Assembly!
Read the final version here.

Food Gatherers Welcomed UUAA Volunteers, 4/2/11

Despite sunshine, clear skies and the promise of spring possibly arriving last Saturday, twenty-two people showed up at 1 Carrot Way to spend the morning working in the Food Gatherers warehouse.
Read the rest of the story and see photos.

Who we are:

The Ethical Eating Team, or E.E.T, is a forum for UUAA congregants to study and explore the many facets of ethical eating, and to contribute to the dialogue regarding the Statement of Conscience by the UUA. See Colleen Crawley'sCongregational Report for 2010, summarizing what EET is all about.

Mission Statement:

The UUAA Ethical Eating Team (EET) provides interested members, friends and the wider community with objective, comprehensive, current information needed to make informed ethical decisions about food. EET also provides support to put this information into personal practice and community projects.

We have a table in the Social Hall after some services with books and articles and someone to answer questions on the 1st Sunday of the month. Join us there.

Join us in these exciting activities:

The EET willjoin with the Locavores to form the Mindful Eating group. Please join us on Saturday, October 1, 2011, 11 am - 2 pm for the
HARVEST POTLUCK AND WORLD CAFE!
Bring a dish to pass (as local as possible) and your place settings as we discuss the future of Mindful Eating in our congregation! See the flyer.

Sign up for these events at the EET table Sunday mornings, or email Cathy Muha at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Colleen Crawley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Return to top

Input:

We need your input to select new and enhance existing food justice projects 2010-2011.
UUAA members are already involved in CROP Walk, Growing Hope, Food Gatherers, Alpha House, Locavores and community/sustainable gardening on UUAA grounds. What Ethical Eating actions best suit our goals and capabilities, and your talents & enthusiasm?

To sign up to be on our email list, give input on or help with events, or for questions contact Colleen ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )or Cathy ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

What we've done:

Read and discussed Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food". The groups were facilitated by Stephanie Minerath and Paula Loewenhardt.*Read Stephanie's summary of the discussion.
Toured five area grocery stores. *Read summaries on the firstthree tours: Whole Foods (Eisenhower Pkwy), Meijer (Ann Arbor-Saline Rd.), People's Food Co-op (4th Ave). In June, we visited Arbor Farms (where we also ate dinner)and Kroger, both on Stadium. Both have worked to stock more local and organic foods.
Had a panel discussion featuring several UUAA farmers. Jennifer Kangas, owner of a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and Dan Bair, project manager for several area initiatives, discussing "Sustainable Farming. See John Erdevig's summary on this important topic.
On Sunday, February 21, Alison Paine, horticulture expert, held a workshop asking: "What is Sustainable Farming?". View her presentation.
Held a Reflection Brunch, where we reflected on what we've learned so far, and where we might go from here.
On Monday, March 1, author Janet Kauffman spoke on"The Rise of Industrial Livestock Factories (CAFOs) and the Impact on Communities and the Environment". Janet, author of "Trespassing: Dirt Stories & Field Notes", shared with us her thoughts and activism around CAFOs that are all around her farm in Hudson Township. The audience was very engaged! More details to come...

tofucooking laughing We held a cooking class: Taking the Mystique Out of Tofu, taught
by Chris Kelly. We had a great time watching Chris cook and tasting - from main dishes to a yummy chocolate mousse. Here are the recipes he used.

Real Time Farms: About 20 people enjoyed a lively presentation by Karl Rosaen on his upcoming website for connecting people with fresh, local foods. We had many thoughts/ideas for ways he could make his great site even more user-friendly. Karl said afterwards how much he appreciated our input.

It will be a highly interactive site. As a food purchaser, you can put in your zip code and then the food you're looking for, and find out which farmers markets, farms, stores, or possibly even people's gardens, have what you need. Also, you can take photos with your cell phone of local produce sources and upload them to the site.

To get on the mail list and have the opportunity to participate on the site, once it's released (no later than May 1, Karl says) go to www.realtimefarms.com/

In April, a large and enthusiastic group of adults and children toured the Calder Dairy. Take a look at the photos.

Return to top

hunger-all On May 9, we listened to a great panel discussion on: "Hunger Among Us. We learned alot about local agencies that are working to assist those in our community without easy access to good food.See the rest of the story here.

foodinccow We showed the documentary, "Food, Inc." on May 26th. About 30 people watched this Oscar-nominated documentary showing how, as the film's website states"our nation's food supply is controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment". After the movie, Barb Cherem led us in a discussion of the issues and what we can do. Prior to the movie, Keely Kaleski, whointerviewed the movie's director, Robert Kenner, told us what his goals were. See 10 simple things we can do to help change our food system.

amishfarm Cathy Muha spent a day in Amish Country near Hillsdale as part of a Michigan Agritours excursion. The focus of the tour was the intersection of food and spirituality.
Read about Maggie, our young Amish hostess, and her family.

Ethical Eating Statement of Conscience: Thanks for your input and vote at the Congregational Meeting on Jan. 23rd, 2011. The Ethical Eating statement of conscience was approved!

What the World Eats Presentation to UU Elementary-level Children: We kicked off the New Year by presenting a curriculum to K-5 based on Peter Menzel's "What the World Eats". K-3 focused on the U.S. China, and Chad, while 4-5 looked at what families inthe U.S., Japan and India eat.

The children were very engaged in a discussion comparing/ contrasting U.S. food consumption with other countries. Then they colored the countries in on world maps, and drew samples of the foods of the countries.

HomeGrown Local Food Summit, March 1-2, 2011

Colleen, Cathy and Guala attended the HomeGrown Local Food Summit,which openedon March 1 with a feature called Local Food Victories, highlighting individuals and institutions. Farms, farmers, entrepreneurs, mentors, youth and organizations were acknowledged for their role in “taking us closer to our vision for food”. Take a look at the honorees!

ghteam Fifteen or so UUAA members met on a cold February day at the Growing Hope Center on Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti to assist in preparing kits for the Seed Starting Squad. We accomplished a lot in a short time, despite the chill, and managed to have fun in the process.
Take a look at photos of the day (thanks to Tracy Darrow).

St. Joe's Farm-at-the-Hospital Tour, 3/27/11 About 20 UUs car-pooled to Ypsilanti on a cool but sunny day to tour the hospital's farm. Our own Dan Bair, St. Joe's farmer, guided us.
Take a look at photos of the day!

Food Gatherers Welcomed UUAA Volunteers, 4/2/11 Fifty people, including about 30 UUAAs, gathered together to build a hoop house at the Stone Coop Farm in Brighton for farmers Shannon Rau and Joannee' DeBruhl. We worked many hours and were exhausted, but we did it!
Find out the rest of the story with photos.