Born -  Cleveland, Ohio, August 6, 1943. I live, now, in a small city surrounded by farms a... more

Born -  Cleveland, Ohio, August 6, 1943.

I live, now, in a small city surrounded by farms and woodland. Much beauty. But for many of us who live here, the number one issue keeping us awake at night is food -- how to grow, process, distribute, and for many of us how to get enough of it.

We face all the typical problems you would expect  --  terminator seeds, GMO infestation of seed crops, chemical spray over organic market gardens,  vast acreages turned over to fuel production, clear cutting of forested areas, farmland sold for new housing developments, neighboring (and not-so-neighboring) states using us as a dumping ground, drought, water pollution, and  poverty  -- particularly among small-acreage farmers and farm workers, many of whom are immigrants. This valley was once a thriving agricultural area, but almost all of the infrastructure necessary to maintain it is gone.

For the last couple of years I have been involved in a series of projects designed  to organize urban neighborhoods and rural communities around  neighborhood-designed and implemented food systems. The idea is to help each other assess needs and available resources in our neighborhoods. The goal is to create greater food self-sufficiency within each of our neighborhoods.  We see our small project as an opportunity to implement a participatory economic system.

less