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Our shared Commitment:Disclosure of Oil and Mining payments to Governments June 25th, 2015

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate JPIC office has joined and signed a letter by faith-based organizations and religious communities in supporting a U.S law, which creates more transparency of oil and mining payments to Governments.The letter is addressed to Secretary Kerry at the Department of State.

The faith based organizations and religious communities letter says, “As people of faith, we call on the U.S. Government to renew its moral leadership to help combat corruption, protect human rights, and ensure that citizens can hold companies and their governments accountable for which resource concessions are granted, the money received from those projects and how the profits are spent.”

Read letter here: Faith Ltr. to Sec. Kerry-DoddFrank 1504[1]

Goodbye to Plastic Bags in Laredo Texas April 14th, 2015

Laredo, Texas has banned the use of plastic bags, after a nearly decades-long campaign by community based environmental groups. Fr. Bill Davis, OMI joins in this PSA video to alert people to the ban, which will start on April 30th.

The ban will prohibit single-use retail plastic bags with a less than 4 mil thickness, and single-use paper bags with a less than a 30-pound weight standard. Exceptions have been made for restaurants, fast food establishments, meat products, dry cleaners, newspapers, nonprofits, and foods that are chilled or frozen.

Each year, Laredo – a city of roughly 240,000 people – consumes an average of 120 million plastic bags, according to city estimates. The city is littered with plastic bags, and they have created a significant problem for the city’s creeks and storm drains, as well as the Rio Grande, the city’s only source of drinking water.

The Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), a non-profit that works with the Oblates in Laredo and now the JPIC Office, spearheaded the effort to clean up local waterways.

Urge a Yes Vote on the Urban Ag and DC Food Security Bill of 2014 September 8th, 2014

The Garden at 391 Michigan Ave., NE at the Oblate headquarters in Washington, DC

If you live in Washington, DC, please join us in supporting the Urban Agriculture and DC Food Security Bill of 2014. The legislation is moving through the City Council this month, and your voice is needed!

DC City Council Member David Grosso, who spent time visiting the Garden at 391 last April, introduced this legislation, with the idea of building on the legacy of the urban farming act of 1986 and the DC Healthy Schools Act of 2010. This bill takes those initiatives a step further by opening up more public and private land to grow healthy food. Passage of the Urban Agriculture bill is very important as a way to develop local food growing capacity.

Gail Taylor, the farmer of the lower field at the Oblate headquarters in Washington, DC has been building the soil and productivity on the city plots that make up Three Part Harmony Farm for the last 3 years, but she and her fellow farmers need these policy changes to take the next step to really grow (in so many different ways!).

Please get involved in this brief grassroots effort to make sure the City Council knows how important this issue is to residents of DC.

Contact the Chairman and members of the DC City Council Finance and Revenue Committee. They are currently in the mark up phase of the bill.

Please feel free to use these points as a guide:

“Hi, My Name is:

I live in Ward:

I’m calling/ emailing to let you know that the D.C. Urban Agriculture and Food Security Act of 2014 is an important piece of legislation for our city and that I hope it will be passed soon.

• The Act encourages private, District landowners to lease their land for agricultural purposes and encourages urban farming on unused city owned land in response to problems of blighted property.

• The Act responds to the District’s continued struggle to address chronic hunger amongst residents with a local solution: encouraging urban farmers to donate a portion of their produce to District-based food banks and shelters.

• The Act enables urban farmers to sell their produce both on and off the leased land, bringing easy, fresh food access to neighborhoods across the city, including those currently identified as food deserts.

Thank you!”

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Please write or call:

Chairman Phil Mendelson: (202) 724-8032; pmendelson@dccouncil.us
Jack Evans: (202) 724-8058; jackevans@dccouncil.us
Muriel Bowser: (202) 724-8052; mbowser@dccouncil.us
Marion Barry: (202) 724-8045; mbarry@dccouncil.us
David Catania: (202) 724-7772; dcatania@dccouncil.us

Thank Grosso and Cheh for their leadership, and the other supporters of the bill as well:

David Grosso: (202) 724-8105; dgrosso@dccouncil.us
Mary Cheh: (202) 724-8062; mcheh@dccouncil.us
Jim Graham: (202) 724-8181; jgraham@dccouncil.us
Kenyan McDuffie: (202) 724-8028, kmcduffie@dccouncil.us
Tommy Wells: (202) 724-8072; twells@dccouncil.us

Thanks to Three Part Harmony Farm for the information in this post. For more information on Three Part Harmony Farm, visit: http://threepartharmonyfarm.org

Fr Seamus Finn, OMI Elected Chair of ICCR Governing Board September 2nd, 2014

Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI and Sr. Judy Byron, OP at the ICCR meetings

Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI and Sr. Judy Byron, OP
at ICCR meetings in NY

Our own Seamus Finn, OMI has been elected Chair of the Governing Board of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. This is an acknowledgement not only of his substantial experience in the field of faith constant and socially responsible investing, but also of the value of his strategic thinking in this area, for ICCR and other faith-based investing initiatives.

Learn more about ICCR here.