2013 Policy Plenary: Missing at the Table

Keynote Speakers

Br. Dave Andrews of Food and Water Watch and Rev. Michael Livingston of Interfaith Worker Justice began the first full day of EAD 2013 with two focused and substantive reflections on the theme of food justice as it relates to those at home and abroad who are “missing from the table” – those who continue to suffer hardship because of unjust food policies.

Additional Resources

Read Brother Andrews’ presentation.

Read Rev. Livingston’s presentation.

 

Brother Dave Andrews, CSC, JD, Senior Representative for Food and Water Watch

 

Dave Andrews is Senior Representative for Food & Water Watch. Dave is a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, an international Catholic religious order of men. Dave has 40 years of work on sustainable development, food and water issues, and public policy both nationally and internationally. He was the Executive Director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference for 13 years. He has served on many Boards of Directors including the Organization for Competitive Markets, Heifer International, the Community Food Security Coalition, the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. He has attended the last three World Trade Organization meetings, World Food Summits and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dave’s outreach work for Food & Water Watch includes working with the faith community. Dave was a Senior Advisor to the President of the 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations under the presidency of Miguel D’Escoto. He was reconized by the Rural Sociological Society for Distinguished Service to Rural Life in 2012. He serves on the coordinating committee of the Civil Society Mechanism of the Committee on World Food Security at the FAO. Dave has a law degree from Loyola New Orleans School of Law.

 

The Rev. Michael Livingston, National Policy Director for Interfaith Worker Justice

Michael Livingston is the Washington Office and National Public Policy Director for Interfaith Worker Justice.  Livingston is the former Director of the Poverty Initiative of the National Council of Churches and former Executive Director of the International Council of Community Churches. He began ordained ministry as a pastor of Presbyterian churches first in Los Angeles and then in New York City where he was active in community redevelopment and church based multi-racial and interfaith organizing. Rev. Livingston served as President of the National Council of Churches, 2006-2007.  He has led or participated in ecumenical and interfaith delegations to Paris, advocating for peace prior to the Iraq War, to Beirut following the bombing in 2006, and Vietnam in 2010, to study and report on the continuing devastating effects of Agent Orange.  In Nov. 2010, Rev. Livingston met with President Obama as a member of a delegation of heads of member denominations of the NCC for the 100th anniversary of the ecumenical movement to discuss a variety of social justice issues, and again in the summer of 2011 with mainstream, evangelical, and Roman Catholic religious leaders in response to the continuing budget crisis prior to the passage of the Budget Control Act. He was arrested that summer with eleven other clergy and religious leaders protesting the inactivity of the congress and threats to federal programs that support the most vulnerable people in our nation and world. In March of 2012 he fasted for six days in solidarity with farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Lakeland, FL. For fourteen years, Rev. Livingston edited “Liberation and Unity: A Guide for Mediation and Action, jointly published by the Consultation on Church Union (now Churches Uniting in Christ) and the three historic African American Methodist churches:  AME, AMEZ, and CME.  He has been interviewed and made guest appearances on a variety of radio and television programs as an advocate for social and economic justice for people living in poverty.  Rev. Livingston is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and received his Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary.