#agtivist

[leghorn]

Those who live in the desert borderlands of southern New Mexico face plenty of serious struggles. Water is limited, living wages are scarce, and many live in unincorporated communities called colonias, which often lack basic infrastructure like roads and gas lines. Things are so tough there, in fact, that one might understandably presume that the only food issue on residents’ minds is whether or not they’ll have enough. 

Not so, argues Rebecca Wiggins-Reinhard, director of the Farm Fresh program for La Semilla Food Center in Las Cruces, the largest city south of Albuquerque. In 2010, Wiggins and two colleagues founded Semilla (“Seed” in Spanish), with plans to start a youth food policy council, a youth farm, and multiple produce stands. After their inaugural year, which included the council’s launch and the gift of 15 acres to start the farm, Wiggins’ work won her an Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) fellowship — and a visit from cookbook author, New York Times columnist, and food maven Mark Bittman. I spoke with Wiggins by phone to hear about her surprising path to food work, her plan to grow 500 foods in a desert, and what it’s like to promote local food in the country’s fifth-poorest state.

[rielpolitik]

RESILIENT LIVING: 'Agtivist', How To Take Control of Your Food Supply

RESILIENT LIVING: ‘Agtivist’, How To Take Control of Your Food Supply

Source – naturalblaze.com

– “…The health crisis, which quickly became an economic crisis, and will soon morph into a food crisis shouldn’t stop us from doing the right thing by our bodies and the Earth. In fact, these crises should highlight how much more important it is to be self-sustainable by providing your own food and caring for the planet”

SM:…A wise man once said, ‘Growing your own food…

[kimberlydelanghe-blog]

Grist Food Articles Update

Beer and cheese ‘r’ us: Why fermentation makes us human  by Sandor Katz

The food movement’s final frontier: Taking care of workers  by Twilight Greenaway

Pushing for local food in the farm bill: An interview with Chellie Pingree by Enrique Gili

Celebrity chefs and food movement leaders tell Congress: ‘This farm bill stinks’ by Twilight Greenaway

New Agtivist: Fixing school lunch in the nation’s capital by Sarah Henry

With the ‘McItaly,’ did McDonald’s truly go local? by Molly Hannon

[leghorn]

DEMAND IS SHIFTING. USDA records show a 17-percent increase nationwide over the last year in the number of farmers markets. The number of community-supported agriculture programs, by which members receive a weekly share of locally grown produce in exchange for an investment in a farm, has risen from fewer than 100 in the 1990s to more than 4,000 today. These changes point to a shift in public awareness that bodes well for McGeary’s alliance, especially if educated, urban consumers continue to look beyond their food to the policies affecting farmers.

McGeary is encouraged by people who visit farmers markets for the first time after watching documentaries like Food, Inc. and Fresh, but she knows this is frequently where the action stops. Her biggest adversary is an “all or nothing” attitude about activism, she says.

“I’ve had so many people over the years say things like, ‘We need something like the civil rights movement of the ’60s’—as if the civil rights movement just happened. [As though] thousands of people became activists all at the same time, just spontaneously.

“We’re trying to build something like that. You build it a group at a time. You build momentum. … People are waiting for a big movement and not realizing that the big movement doesn’t happen if you wait.”