With your permission, I will get a little introspective for a minute. In case you’ve wondered what the hell happened to the once-regular posts here on FiB, well, a few things have changed for me since I first posted here, almost three years ago:
I was elected to a two-year term on the Harvest Co-op Board of Directors in November ‘07. This has been an honor, a tremendous education in the retail side of our food system, and a more than a few hours of work, which are thus no longer available to spend writing for this blog. Also, since the Board has a policy of only speaking with one voice on Harvest-related matters, blogging about Harvest or retail generally is tricky.- In February of ‘08, I was hired as the IT Manager at The Food Project. Longtime readers know that TFP had been one of my favorite subjects due to the many roles the organization plays in the Boston-area local food scene. It’s a fantastic job, and it’s a job — I find myself wanting to wrestle with non-TFP stuff in my off hours.
- Permaculture. I took a Permaculture Design Course last fall, and have since been engaged in design and early stages of implementation for some friends in their new yard.
That should explain a bit about where my FiB energy has gone. It’s taken me a while to come to terms with that, but I think it’s inescapable by now. Going forwards, then, what to reasonably expect from FiB?
Independence Days: I really like this notion from Sharon Astyk about the value of publicly testifying to what you’re doing in the name of local food. To start: this week, in addition to my day job (which conveniently has to do with our food system), I watered & weeded my community garden plot, harvested some lettuce and mustard greens, started a little experiment using knotweed stems & leaves as mulch, and prepared for & participated in a co-op board meeting.- Reposts & links to events have been a staple here, and I’m happy to continue those. If you’ve got something you’d like to see here on FiB, please pass it my way. I’ll also aim to keep a short list of my favorite Boston-area food system bloggers active in the blogroll over on the right.
- Who knows, maybe occasionally some more substantial stuff…
Finally, those of you who actually visit the website rather than read in a feed reader may notice that I changed the theme to something a little cleaner & easier to read. It’s the old-school default Wordpress theme, which I hope is so old that it might be back in fashion again.
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Thanks to a huge amount of research by local community gardener, artist, and food purveyor Laurel Kirtz, I’m happy to point to a new page on this blog, Resources. There you’ll find lists and pointers to Boston-area local-food-friendly grocers, events, cooking resources, farms, restaurants, and more.
I’m only beginning to sink my teeth into all of it, and hope to at least get links in place for more of the listed resources that have web presences. Corrections and additions are most welcome (my email’s over on the right side of the page).
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While skimming a roundup of the New York City green scene, which includes a bunch of food-related events and organizations, I couldn’t help but wonder how things in Boston compared. Upon reflection, it turns out to have been an interesting year for local food.
If nothing else, Bostonians have been getting folks together to talk about food. This year’s events included the Tufts Food Symposium, the Food Project’s Farming the City conference, the ACGA conference, Barbara Kingsolver talking about her family’s year of eating locally, Vandana Shiva in Cambridge, local growers & grocers at the JP Forum, and more growers & grocers at Lucy Parsons.
In addition to all the gabbing, Slow Food put on a couple series of potlucks, as did my community garden, the Food Project, and many others. A number of food-related bike rides went down (and I missed them all; next year!). A bunch of folks I know started gardens for the first time, and started putting up their own & other local produce for the winter.
Looking forwards to 2008, it’ll be interesting to see if our apparent momentum towards more local & sustainable foods keeps on movin’. Off the top of my head, there are a few stories to watch. JP’s incomparable City Feed will be adding a second, bigger location and has indicated that they’re aiming to purvey more local foods. Harvest Co-op (hey, new web site!) has a few new directors on its board (including yours truly) with commitments to a healthy local food system. Brown & the Food Project are working together with Yale and other northeastern schools to build the student movement for sustainable and responsible food on campus.
Other notable local events for ‘07? Things to look forward to in ‘08? Your comments, as always, are appreciated.
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The Boston metropolitan area is a great place for food: it has a wide variety of restaurants, farmers’ markets, farm stands, CSAs, and community gardens; a number of decent grocers; and plentiful opportunities to learn more about food and eating.
The Boston metropolitan area has some serious food-related problems, including substandard food in our schools, an alarming number of people who can’t afford enough food to keep themselves and their families healthy, unjust distribution of fresh and healthy foods among the neighborhoods, and a bizarre obsession with Dunkin Donuts.
This blog seeks to celebrate the former, and highlight solutions to the latter.
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