It’s All Connected

Having recently returned from the national Community Food Security Coalition conference in New Jersey, I’m as energized as ever about the amazing work from groups all across the country and around the world.  I’m also incredibly humbled by the hard working staff and board of our very own Sustainable Food Center and the huge strides that SFC has made since its inception to strengthen our local food system. 

I am reminded of the lessons about taking care of the earth and respect for all living creatures, plants and animals.  These are becoming more mainstream values, as the “fringe ideas” of organic practices, conservation, and food justice move closer to the middle.  More and more people are seeing the connections between our food system, public health, and climate change.  Lessons from the past are coming full circle and take on more relevance and meaning as communities respond to food and energy prices, and to global crisis.  

Kudos to the folks on the ground who have been doing this work for years and years, not in response to crisis but because it was the right thing to do, because we live on this planet in connection to the land and our food.  I had the opportunity to meet many of these folks in New Jersey.  I am constantly inspired by the tireless efforts of advocates for social justice, humane animal treatment, environmental protection and hunger relief.  These are the same folks who want our communities and our planet to be healthy, and who want everyone to know where their next meal is coming from.  It’s all connected.  It truly is all connected.