Here at the Hampshire College Farm, we often find ourselves discussing the latest articles, videos, and academic writings about food and agriculture at our staff meetings, shared lunches, and coffee breaks. The content we share as a staff both deconstructs our understandings of what it means to eat and farm and helps us to assemble new perspectives and practices. We’ve decided to put together a list of what we are talking about here at the Farm. So keep an eye out for the “Friday Food + Farm Feature” every other week here on the Food, Farm, and Sustainability Blog!
Above all, we hope to cultivate discussion, so please post your thoughts and comments below, and feel free to link to the food and farm related content you’re reading!
We’ve all heard the statistic: if the world goes on with business as usual, there’s not going to be enough food to feed everyone by 2050. Nathanael Johnson has been focusing on solutions to this looming issue over at Grist for the past 6 months but you can skip ahead to his compelling synthesis on ways we CAN CHANGE to feed the world. The article is long, but there is a delightful surprise in the middle!
Less than 100 businesses control most of our food supply. Some people believe that changing those businesses alone will be enough to save the world. Consider The self-proclaimed “Food Babe” and her controversial approach to inciting change in the large corporations that control much of the food system.
Amongst an inspiring list of 72 Ways Food Can Change the World, Culinary historian Michael W. Twitty has some ideas of how we can change the ethics of appropriation and the principles of culinary justice to “share culinary legacies without disenfranchising and disempowering the cooks and chefs of impoverished or oppressed communities”.
If chef’s can change how we think about food and culture, maybe they can even change what we desire to eat in order to accommodate for a growing population.
Need a break from all of that reading? How about some videos!
Soul Food Junkies addresses shifting food consumption and traditions:
The National Young Farmers Coalition has produced a series of films by and about young female diary farmers who are changing the face of the dairy industry:
Even in France, industrial agriculture threatens the ancestral traditions of dairy farming:
