HEALTH: Controversial cuisine: FOOD NOT BOMBS

[Rick Gold]

In Alex Sakariassen's short article in the Missoula Independent News,
today, Thursday, April 22, 2010, he writes:
"A weekly vegetarian potluck outside the Missoula County Courthouse
has sparked a civil liberties flap between local health officials and
a decentralized group of peace activists called Food Not Bombs. The
Missoula City-County Health Department confirms two inspectors
approached Food Not Bombs during its weekly gathering Sunday evening
and asked members to stop serving food. According to Environmental
Health Supervisor Shannon Therriault, any organization that serves
food to the public must have a service permit and pass a city-county
review." see http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/health/Content?oid=1247859
for the rest of the story.
Yet, if one looks at Webster's definition of an organization ... "an
administrative and functional structure (as a business or a political
party); also : the personnel of such a structure," one need read no
further. Basically, an organization is systematically arranged and
managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals on a continuing
basis. All organizations have a management structure that determines
relationships between functions and positions, and subdivides and
delegates roles, responsibilities, and authority to carry out defined
tasks. And there's the rub. Food Not Bombs is NOT an organization. It
is an unmanageable, co-operative of individuals who gather to share
food, sort of like you, your family and friends out for a picnic or
gathering for a potluck.
That the City/State can and does object to people openly sharing free
food and connections, isn't a suprise to anyone. In Daniel Quinn's
Book Ishmael, (see http://www.ishmael.com/welcome.cfm) the pupil is US
and Ishmael is an intellegent Ape (Imagine that!). We learn that
10,000 years ago, there was a shift in consciousness in the near east
and the hunting/gathering culture of small tribes of individuals
living off the land (defined as a leaver culture) was suddenly shifted
to a sedentary farming/animal husbandry culture (defined as a taker
culture). As this taker culture grew, it organized itself into a
community to protect itself from outside attacks by forming a
government to lock away its resources (namely FOOD). It expanded
rapidly outward, conquering the smaller diverse leavers and as the old
cliche goes, "the rest is history."
Consequently, FOOD NOT BOMBS chapters have been around since "Boston
in 1980, It was started by activists involved in the anti-nuclear
movement, Food Not Bombs has blossomed into a worldwide, grassroots,
political movement of over 175 autonomous chapters. Each Food Not
Bombs group serves free food to people in need and in support of
political organizing efforts.
Food Not Bombs believes that society and government should value human
life over material wealth, human need not corporate greed, and that
most of its problems stem from this simple crisis in values." see
http://sffnb.org/history/
It's well past time for our Big Brother government to support the
efforts of activists who are making a diffence in people's lives in
their local communities.

happy earth day,
peace,
Rick Gold
Missoula, MT
http://mtlegal.blogspot.com
http://mtlegal.wordpress.com
.

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 6:39 PM, Black Cat <missoula...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry for those who get this email up to three times. I can't change the
> list-serves.
>
> Food Not Bombs is a de-centralized group of motivated individuals in the
> city of Missoula and across the globe who have a vision of a better world.
> The people in Missoula sharing food with one another in Missoula under the
> moniker or "Food Not Bombs" have been doing so off and on for years, this
> particular group has been active for about a calendar year and has
> successfully been operating sanitarily, peacefully, and co-operatively with
> the community at large. Sharing food together has proven to be a
> revolutionary idea in and of itself. The concept is simple: gather in a
> public place and share vegetarian food with all in our community in the
> attempt to make the following statements: 1) If effort of equal or greater
> value was put into feeding hungry people in the world instead of fueling the
> war machine, no one in our society would go  hungry. 2) Vegetarian food is
> non-violent and healthy. Most of our members are not vegetarian, but also
> due to health and food safety reasons, all the food that we bring to Food
> Not Bombs weekly potlucks are vegetarian dishes. 3) We believe that
> community space is for everyone, and that it is our constitutional right to
> make these statements and to assemble in public places for the purpose of
> sharing sanitary, healthy, delicious food with ourselves, our neighbors, and
> all members of the community. We see no difference between giving a
> casserole to our neighbors and inviting our neighbors to eat said casserole
> in public with us. 4) This is not a charitable practice. There is no
> hierarchy involved in this process, "we" are not "serving" food to "them."
> There is no "us" and "them.", and everyone serves themselves (free of
> charge, of course). All people who eat in front of the courthouse in
> Missoula are eating there because we are hungry and enjoy one another's
> company, and all are invited and encouraged to bring a dish of their very
> own.
> The City of Missoula is trying to stop us! They have ordered us to pay them
> to exercise our right to free speech and assembly, to pay them to share food
> with our friends, neighbors, and community members. This is not right. They
> claim that we are "serving food to the public" without a "non-profit tax ID"
> and therefore are not eligible to share our resources with the community at
> large. It's time that we show them that Missoula cares about helping all
> members of the community. We need your help!
> Come dine with us, bring as many people as you know who like to eat! 6pm,
> Sunday, in front of the Missoula County Courthouse @200 W Broadway
>
> ________________________________
> The New Busy is not the too busy. Combine all your e-mail accounts with
> Hotmail. Get busy.


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