Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One of the best ways to source dairy in an ethical and sustainable way, for those of us who choose to consume it, is to buy it directly from farms. Instead of shelves of unfairly-priced milk from faceless farmers and uncertainty around production methods, consumers can get to know both farmer and their animals, and the animal welfare and environmental standards of the farm.
Once the pandemic has ended, there will need to be a drastic restructuring to ensure the survival of many businesses and food systems, both large commercial organisations and small independents alike. Going forward, equitable availability of good quality food will also have to be ensured, to provide adequate healthy options to all communities.
Nothing is duller than a prepackaged seed packet. What started in January with the hopeful perusal of vegetable catalogs ends in February with the arrival of parsimonious clutches of lonely seeds, each variety sprinkled into the bottom of a small envelope. Like the childhood prize in a box of Cracker Jacks, the reward is always less than one had hoped for.
During the first half of the twentieth century, citrus fruits came to be grown a good distance from the (sub)tropical regions they usually thrive in. The Russians managed to grow citrus outdoors, where temperatures drop as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius, and without the use of glass or fossil fuels.
As Britain went into lockdown, millions of people across the country lost their jobs and the ability to access nutritious food. With the government and other organisations struggling to meet the need, community food groups have stepped forward providing emergency resources and services where others could not.
But personally I prefer an arrangement that allows for a high degree of resilience and a kind of Plan B insurance against unlikely but highly disruptive events. Our present institutional systems work remarkably well…until they don’t.
Since 2012, the Inga Foundation’s revolutionary agroforestry system of Inga alley cropping in Honduras has dramatically transformed the lives of 300 subsistence farming families, planted over 3 million trees, and become a model for true environmental sustainability and ecological resilience.
