Reclaiming Our Food:
How the Grassroots Food Movement is Changing the Way We Eat
Tanya Denckla Cobb
I borrowed this book from my buddies at Lynchburg Grows, and
it features them in it, so of course I have loved it. It reads more as a reference book, though, and
I wouldn’t necessarily advocate that you get it and sit down to read it
through. If you want to get into this
field, though, I think it would be very helpful.
The thesis is that there is already a movement afoot to
reclaim our food from the destructive systems that dominate the US. She sees that food is a “powerful agent of
change – for better or worse. At its
worst, we’ve learned that daily fare that is highly processed, rich in calories
but ppor in the broad range of nutrients needed to maintain health, benefits
the corporations that produce it, not the people who eat it…. At its best,
however, our daily fare can be a powerfully positive force for individual and
community healing and health.”
Essentially, we “have lost our center” (including disconnection from
nature, spiritual restlessness, disconnection from each other) but the
grassroots food movement has arisen in response to that with a fighting,
community-oriented spirit.
She goes on to showcase a variety of ways that communities
across the US are reclaiming our food.
They range from community gardening programs in public housing, to urban
farms, to farm to school programs. I’ll
highlight some of the learnings from my favorite sections below.
Supporting Back Yard Gardens
·
Build a volunteer community to install gardens
for low-income people. Helps keep costs down and builds community buy-in.
·
Test the soil (it is often contaminated)
·
Follow-up is really important to support
success. Mentor models have been successful.
·
Be smart – run it like a business. This book has a lot of specifics in it that
could help with start-up (e.g. how much it costs to install one raised bed,
whether you need to rent a trailer, etc.).
·
Other options for backyard garden models:
chickens, goats, beekeeping. All are
subject to potential controversy because people are scared of bad smells and
getting stung. This book offers good
ideas for how to navigate those issues while being sure your livestock have
good lives.
·
There’s a group in San Francisco, ForageSF, that
is a community-supported foraging program, which independent foragers collect
things ranging from acorn flour to curly dock, nettle, plantain and wild turkey
to be shared among subscribers. I love
this and wonder how different the things found in VA would be. Definitely plants and mushrooms. Also squirrels? I also like this section
because it has awesome mushroom photos and it reminds me of that part in The
Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Connecting Food and Community
·
Community GroundWorks in Madison, WI is
awesome. They do cohousing and farming,
youth programming, potlucks and conservation.
They also build and install gardens for people who can pay to fund their
low-income community programs.
·
Throughout, they focus on some major lessons –
o
building a broad coalition of people invested in
the work
o
have guiding principles that you stick to
o
build creative collaborations (housing and
gardening – used a Land Trust to allow for permanent affordable housing and
permanent conservation areas)
o
follow these principles in working with
partners: don’t duplicate, fill a need, don’t take credit, make it the
community’s project, make new partners, connect with local government, connect
with local economic development, don’t take on an 800 pound gorilla (start
small), tell the story, approach people where they are.
o
These tips are common to each of the projects
described throughout the book.
·
There are a lot of ways communities can come
together to live out a better food system, and you should be open to the
possibilities depending on your community.
Partnering with a land trust, farmers, local government, conservancy
programs/foundations – all play in here in ways that have allowed lots of
community/food projects to thrive in their unique circumstances. Also work with an economy of scale, and find
a sister program that you can learn from.
Empowerment: Working in At-Risk Communities
·
Give respect, and honor the peoples’ voice; not
a social services mentality
·
Ask the community what it wants
·
Ensure that all decisions and approvals are made
by the community
·
Create a safe environment
·
Dfine your roles (are you an insider our
outsider?)
·
build on community strengths
Food Heritage: Preserving Cultural Identities
·
Importing food to replace local heritage (foods
that thrive locally and are connected to culture) foods, and using genetically
modified foods, both threaten the resilience of local food systems
·
Biodiversity is a key to resilience
·
traditional farming methods can combat issues
that challenge farming (e.g. water access)
·
Connection between spirituality and food:
o
Sacred white corn (ho-mah) in Hopi communities
is also threatened, but they use it daily (offering on the ground in the
morning, offered with any pryares throughout the day, feeding the spirits in
ceremonies).
o
A Navajo woman, Rose Marie Williams (whose farm
is near the Grand Canyon) says that every time a seed is placed in the ground,
it is a form of prayer. “Being out in the field, it seems like the holy people
are with you. They tend to heal you. It’s peace and quiet there. You are there
to be holy and humble.”
o
Communities are losing the ritual as well as
food security: “[Some kids] don’t know the songs because they don’t know the
Hopi words. They don’t participate. They’re just standing there – no words
coming out of their mouths…. We’ve forgotten our way, how we were taught,
because it was a long time ago….You’re going to go to White Man’s way. You’re
going to forget your Indian way, and you will forget to pray. Then you’ll be
nothing. It won’t rain anymore.”
Susatainability: Food for the Long Term
·
Bioregional food clusters: idea from Joel
Salatin, Polyface
o
Support small family farms by creating systems
that have experts in production, distribution, marketing, accounting and
customer service, each rooted in a storefront/restaurant like Cracker Barrel
(but really not like it)
·
Localizing Fast Food: Polyface and
Chipotle. Worked because of “personal
commitment and integrity” – mini-Compact
Other things this book has that could be helpful if you want
to change your career:
·
Tips on how to run a CSA successfully
·
Fun facts on aquaculture
·
Working with volunteers and interns
·
How to raise funds to sustain your social
enterprise (selling farm supplies, nursery, CSA, etc.)
·
How to start a farm to school program
·
Models for successful farm to campus
(university) programs, focusing on buying from local sources
