I can still recall the day a few years ago our CEO, 3-time cancer survivor Doug Ulman, returned from Australia and told me, “Hey, I’d like you to see about us getting involved with this organization called Movember.” OK, I said, tell me about them.  He went on to say they were this enthusiastic group of guys who wanted to bring back the moustache (a Mo in Aussie slang) in November, hence: Movember. And in the process they’d spread the word about men’s health, raise some funds, have a lot of fun and a then throw big party afterwa

When we were putting together our special food issue earlier this year, I was struck by the wide range of topics that we covered: factory farms, technology, pollution, nutrition, agricultural traditions, labor conditions, poverty, and so much more. That interconnectedness is being celebrated across the nation today, the first annual Food Day.

I’ll admit it: I like a challenge.

When we look at our lives it’s not hard to see just how busy we are. But yet – as a population – we still have a tremendous problem with being overweight and in some cases obese.

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We’re outside the Mercy Corps office in Gashamo, Ethiopia – a bone-crunching nine hour drive from Jijiga, the regional capital. It’s early in the morning, and the noisy generator is cranking out its last few minutes of power before we shut it down for the day. Here we only have the electricity we create with our own generator, and that only at night. There’s no cell service, no internet. The guys who work in our office here are at the front lines of Mercy Corps’ work to ease hunger and suffering in remote rural Ethiopia. They make do with very little in the way of comfort.

Our ministry often refers to the “opposite of poverty.” And you might think that we are referring to wealth. The opposite of poor is obviously rich, right?

Today is Blog Action Day 2011. It is also World Food Day. This year's theme for Blog Action Day is Food. Bloggers all over the world are writing about this one theme, from their own unique perspective. To find out more, visit the Blog Action Day website. Read more of our Blog Action Day posts on Heifer Blog here.