Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
I so often tell others that the reason I grow food is because I love eating. But let us not lost sight of the fact that ‘food is medicine and medicine is food’. We can brings plants together and manage them in a forest garden, to provide for ourselves, our families, communities and customers.
Rethink Food is working to help restaurants stay open while feeding the communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brooklyn-based nonprofit, which recovers excess food from restaurants and grocery stores, launched several emergency programs to create jobs and distribute meals to people in need.
Hear what Danielle Nierenberg, Co-founder and President of Food Tank, Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage, and Melissa DeSa, Working Food Community Programs Director have to say about the failures of our global food system, how the largest segment of working America has been left without food and economic safety nets, and inspiring ideas for improving food security in our own communities.
The aquaculture industry just got a huge boost from the Trump administration, as an executive order just paved the way for these companies to build massive industrial fish farms in the oceans.
We must look at how we can push forwards to strengthen our local food system, increasing resilience and ensuring sustainability while continuing to support those struggling, fighting for food justice, and prioritise our local farmers and producers.
Today, danger confronts all of us on this Earth. “We were already facing climate change, and now there is the pandemic,” Skye says. The seeds will always be there, to provide both food and a spiritual connection to the Earth, he says. “They are how we will survive.”
Six River Farm is a diverse organic vegetable farm located on the shores of Merrymeeting Bay in Bowdoinham, Maine. Nate and Gabrielle both have roots in New England. They work with a small crew of employees, to grow a wide range of produce which they sell seasonally at local farmers markets, restaurants and natural food stores.
The lockdown and threat of a global pandemic has turned a lot of people who previously may have depended solely on supermarkets for their food into gardeners and would-be farmers overnight.
Refugee Women of Bristol (RWoB) is a charity organisation that’s run by refugees, for refugees. The charity has been up and running since 2003 and I’ve been involved for more than 10 years. Connecting through food has always been at the heart of our work.
Food is fundamental. While farmers have yet to face the full economic impact of this pandemic, their collaborative efforts, along with local grassroots networks, could mark the beginning of a new economy laboring to be born.
But sometimes when things are out of my control, when it’s impossible to tackle big stuff because the money isn’t there and restrictions are pushing from all sides, it feels really good to make a small change that is under my control. Especially if it’s something I’m staring at heaps of.
This global pandemic is a very loud call to all of us earthlings to share the common ground, and to work together to find opportunities to create a new paradigm for life on our imperiled planet. In other words, the Huichol Center is not alone in our struggle to prevail in these tumultuous times.
