Man in Overalls

My mother grew up in Jackson County on a small farm.  Her family grew cotton, corn, and peanuts like everyone around them.  Unable to pay the mortgage, her family planted crops in the spring; laid them by; headed to Michigan for the summer to pick cheeries, strawberries, peaches and the like before returning to harvest their crops in north Florida.  With the onset of winter, the family loaded up for a temporary move to south Florida to harvest citrus before coming back to north Florida in the springtime to repeat the process. I was raised by a farmworker who taught me to identify with folks tending our food, to recognize the skill and ceaseless work necessary to grow and harvest the groceries we can easily take for granted.  I was raised in a faith that is rooted in the cries of the enslaved Israelite people who were expected to make bricks without straw. From an early age, I heard words such as, "In Christ there is neither slave nor free...." It is with su...

"A Peace of Bread" a new documentary by Diva Communications, is about young folks around the country who are working on food system change as a method of addressing hunger in their communities.  Debra, Diva's director/producer got wind of my work here in Tallahassee because I am a Food Justice Fellow with the Presbyterian Hunger Program .  She came through Tallahassee this past August to interview me and others amidst the Tallahassee Food Network . Take a look at their opening sequence: A Peace of Bread - opening sequence from Diva Communications on Vimeo .

This past week I was in Oakland for the 15th annual conference of the Community Food Security Coalition .  With the Oakland's rich history of food justice work rooted in the Black Panther's Free Breakfast for School Children Program (that gave rise to the nation-wide free and reduced lunch programs), the Occupy Oakland movement centered just around the corner, and a gathering of 1100 folks from across the country and world all working amidst the food movement, the stage was set for a dynamic conference. But how do I tell the story of a movement meeting itself? Of 1100 workers in the food movement-- a microcosm of the global good-food system-- in the same place sharing stories, successes, challenges, models, and dreams?  Can I capture the dynamic via lists and links of represented organizations? If nothing else, I've got to discuss Food Sovereignty .  It was an oft repeated phrase at the conference.  As Malik Yakini from Detroit pointed out, " Food Security is...

Food Day festivities were a whirlwind of Tallahassee's food movement.  From the New Leaf Farm tour to video screenings , garden open houses, the community gardens tour , the Youth Symposium on Hunger and Food , Food-O-Rama at Kleman Plaza, the Sustainable You conference, and the "Florida Grown School Lunch Week Kick Off" at the capital, Food Day revealed many of the organizations and efforts amidst the food movement that largely go unseen, especially the Tallahassee Food Network . On Food Day proper, Oct 24th, I exhibited in the capital courtyard with the aid of my "truck farm," which was picked up by WCTV .  (As an aside, I'm working with a team of Frenchtown Youth to manufacture and sell the garden buckets you can see in the below picture, which are improvised earth boxes (which retail $60, empty).  We'll be selling ours, filled and planted for $25-$30.) The same day, I taught a workshop at Sustainable You called "Food and Community Gardening ...

A friend shared this article on my FB page a couple days ago.  It is the most articulate and emcompassing article I've read about the food movement's benefits-- as well as a rebuttal against the centralized food system's attempts to hedge in our community garden, health, small-scale/sustainable agriculture, community-based food systems, nutrition, farmers' market... (i.e. food movement) work.  It's worth the read.  If you're looking for an article to pass to friends and family to demonstrate the extent of the food movement and the corresponding need for us to recreate resilient community based food systems, this is a worthy candidate. (If you'd prefer to read it on the Washington Post's website, click here .) Why being a foodie isn’t ‘elitist’  - By Eric Schlosser, April 29, Washington Post At the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting this year, Bob Stallman, the group’s president, lashed out at “self-appointed food elitists” who are “...

Last June, I got an email from Marcy Rosner, a native of Tallahassee that had been-- for a handful of years-- living in Oakland.  She was back home for the month and hoped to find some volunteer opportunities with community gardens or some other volunteer urban ag project in Tallahassee.  Eventually she linked up with Shelby Stec, an awesome FSU student that coordinates a garden at the Salvation Army on Jackson Bluff. Last week, the day before catching a plane for the Bay area (for a visit to see my sister, Kelley), I sent Marcy my own email.  I'd been hearing reports about all kinds of food movement work in Oakland like this YES! Magazine article featuring the work of Urban Tilth .  I'd also heard stories about People's Grocery from Marcy, and, via Farm City, a book by Novella Carpenter , I'd heard about City Slicker Farms .  I hoped to see a bit of what's going on in Oakland with reference to the food movement and to catch a few stories. Marcy invited me ...

Two weekends ago, I marched with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers ( ciw-online.org ) in overalls.  They were marching to hold Publix accountable for the supply chain from which they purchase their tomatoes. Centered in the town of Immokalee, FL, the tomato fields of Florida are home to some of the more blatant injustices of our day.  Folks-- folks I have been getting to know over the past year-- must pick 2.5 tons of tomatoes to earn $50.  In the worst cases-- cases that have been tried and led to prison sentences--farmworkers have been forced to work without pay; they were chained at night to prevent escape. The thought that keeps returning to me as I consider my weekend marching with farmworkers, students and church allies is this: "How absurd is it that folks who handle thousands of pounds of food a day go hungry on a regular basis?!" The reason I started Tallahassee Food Gardens was to highlight and work towards a food resilient community, one in which whatev...