Return to Sender, Address Unknown

Don’t try mailing anything to USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) after September 30th. There won’t be anybody at the Washington, DC-based agency to open the mail. In fact, there may not be a forwarding address either since NIFA, which conducts...

So You Want to Change the World? Go Home!

About a year and a half ago, my son, Peter, told me he was leaving Brooklyn to move back to Hartford, Connecticut where he was born and raised. Having lived in New York for a while and recently completed a graduate degree at N.Y.U., he had soaked up enough of the Big...

Doing Food Summits Right

“Let’s do a food summit!” proclaimed the food policy council member, whose moving motion was immediately seconded and thirded by the council’s other members. “We can invite everybody!” suggested one member. “Michelle Obama can be our keynote!” chimed in another. “I...

Food Democracy’s Long, Hard Slog

          I swear to the Lord, I still can’t see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.                    – Langston Hughes The walk on this sunny winter day from the Lexington and 125th Street subway station took me several blocks down Harlem’s main...

Appearances – Winter and Spring 2019

It’s been cold just about everywhere this winter, even here in Santa Fe where the stingy Snow Gods have finally relented and answered our prayers for moisture. The mountains peaks in all directions are the whitest I’ve seen them in years, which is great for skiers now...