“Quick test: Could you, for a full month, eat exclusively what’s grown within ten miles of your home? What would you eat? Would you survive? Would you suffer? Would you even want to run the experiment given you can run to your grocery store for a cornucopia of delights?"
So begins the introduction to Blessing the Hands that Feed Us, which recounts Vicki Robin’s experiment in hyper-local eating and what it taught her about herself, her neighbors, her place on earth, her passions, her politics and the prospects for a prosperous future for all our lives.
In this webinar Vicki will share her experiment of eating within 10-miles of her home on Whidbey Island and engage you in a thoughtful, lively discussion of what your own expermiments in "extreme sustainability" have been, might be and what we are all learning about the blessings of life in the relocalized lane.
Vicki Robin isn’t a food maven. She doesn’t have a green thumb or educated palate. She is an everywoman, torn between ethics and comfort, between confusion about which expert to believe while also trusting her gut, literally, to guide her to good choices. Through her 10-mile diet she undertook an empowering inquiry into who she is as an eater-in-community, learning how connected we all are to and blessed by every life that brings food to our table – and how we as eaters can become a blessing to the world. This is not a book about being thin or buff, about longevity or disease, about cooking or gardening – it’s about our relationship with food and the many hands that feed us.
Her book is:
- A spiritual story of redemption through community, of finding a true home.
- An introduction to “relational eating” – eating in the context of community (which is the way it is, we just forgot).
- A personal story of hope lost and found in her life as an activist.
- A brief education on relocalization, transition communities and the global resource predicaments.
- A word-and-picture map of Whidbey Island’s local food territory that others can use to survey their regions.
- Profiles of farmers and a community becoming stronger through food and feeding one another.
- A call to participate in re-regionalization of our food systems.
- A vision of how we can regenerate natural wealth in our communities, and find the lost and longed for soul food of belonging.
Presenters: Vicki Robin
