Food will be the biggest challenge of the 21st century. Will you be ready?

Mark Winne has worked for 50 years as a community food activist, writer, and trainer. From organizing breakfast programs for low-income children in Maine to developing innovative national food policies in Washington, DC, Winne has dedicated his professional life and writing to enabling people to find solutions to their own food problems as well as those that face their communities and the world.

Mark Winne's Latest Book Is Now Available

Seven Unlikely Cities that are Changing the Way we Eat

Look at any list of America’s top foodie cities and you probably won’t find Boise, Idaho or Sitka, Alaska. Yet they are the new face of the food movement. Healthy, sustainable fare is changing communities across this country, revitalizing towns that have been ravaged by disappearing industries and decades of inequity. What sparked this revolution? To find out, Mark Winne traveled to seven cities not usually considered revolutionary. He broke bread with brew masters and city council members, farmers and philanthropists, toured start-up incubators and homeless shelters.

The cities of Food Town, USA remind us that innovation is ripening all across the country, especially in the most unlikely places.

Speaking

Mark Winne maintains an active speaking schedule that includes keynote speeches for annual meetings and conferences, talks and trainings for smaller gatherings, and lectures for colleges and universities. Topics include domestic hunger and food insecurity, public health, sustainable agriculture, social and food justice, food democracy and food sovereignty, the role of public policy in promoting social change, and empowering individuals and communities to take charge of their own destinies.

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WRITING

Mark’s essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the Boston Globe, Washington Post, The Nation, In These Times, Sierra Magazine, Orion Magazine, Successful Farming, Yes! Magazine, and numerous organizational and professional journals. He posts regularly to the blog on this website and is a contributor to www.civileats.org.

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TRAINING

Mark Winne provides a variety of training and technical assistance services to organizations, governments, and communities interested in developing just, sustainable, and economically robust local, regional, and state/provincial food systems. These services include phone and email consultations; on-site trainings, workshops, seminars, and an array of printed and on-line resources. He also specializes in assisting groups that are developing and/or operating local, regional, tribal, and state/provincial food policy councils and networks.

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BOOKS

Mark is the author of Food Town, USA (Island Press, 2019), Stand Together or Starve Alone (Praeger Press 2018), Closing the Food Gap (Beacon Press 2008), and Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas (Beacon Press, 2010).

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Putting 50 years of community food system experience, activism, and policy advocacy to work for North America’s communities.

With the advent of industrialism and its widespread application to our food supply – factory farms, genetic engineering, and agricultural chemicals – the struggle between human freedom and authority has reached a critical juncture. In spite of the rapid growth of an alternative food system – local and sustainable food production, farmers’ markets, the public’s rising food consciousness – we become more dependent everyday on industrial agriculture whose representatives insist that it is the only way to feed a hungry world. In the face of such assertions, we must ask if our dependence on such a system threatens to supplant individual self-reliance. Will personal freedom succumb finally and forever to the dominant voice of authority? Are we at risk of sacrificing our democratic voice to self-appointed governing elites? These are no longer speculative questions suitable only for philosophers, but real-life concerns set squarely on the plate of every eater.

Appearances

Blog Archive

Mark Winne’s Blog

FINDING SOLUTIONS TO TODAY’S FOOD CHALLENGES

To View, To Eat, Per Chance to Not

By Mark Winne November has always been a confusing month for me. Traditionally, it is the time when we Americans give thanks to a mixed bag of things from the bounty of the autumnal harvest to the blessings of that new flat-screen TV that now adorns the living room...

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November and December ’08 Appearances

November 6 - Phoenix, Arizona - Maricopa County Extension Office (434 E. Broadway); Keynote address, 9:30 a.m. For more information contact Cindy Gentry at 602-493-5231 November 11 - Norman, Oklahoma - University of Oklahoma, 7:30 p.m; Public talk. For more...

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Factory Farms, Dirty Water, and the Bible

The following article was first written by me in 2006 for publication in the Sierra Club magazine "Sierra." Though accepted in a revised form by the editors for publication, they chose not to run the piece for some reason that they were never able to explain to me....

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Harvest Home Brings it Home

August 28th, 2008 by Mark Winne You would be hard pressed to find a place where the divide between the “haves” and “have nots” is more sharply defined than Manhattan’s Eastside. The gap between rich and poor is not just evident in the number of nannies pushing...

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EXTRAORDINARY FOOD FOR ALL

By Mark Winne A recent New York Times dining section piece (4/9/08) told the story of a 17-year old on his spring college shopping tour. Apparently the young fellow’s selection criteria was not limited to a school’s academic strengths but also included the quality of...

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Food Bank Speech – May 15, 2008 – Seattle, WA

Leading the Charge, Leading the Change By Mark Winne (Excerpted from a keynote address given to the Northwest Harvest Food Bank Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington - May 15, 2008) Here are three thoughts I’d ask you to consider – open-mindedly and with the hope that...

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High Food Prices – Just Another Bad Day in the Food Line

High Food Prices - Just Another Bad Day in the Food Line Mark Winne The current spate of alarming farm and food stories – drought, rising food prices and shortages – has riveted our attention on the precarious state of our food system. As a nation that has become...

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Replenishing Our Food Deserts

In tightly packed urban neighborhoods and isolated rural areas, fresh and healthy food is unavailable to many Americans. Lawmakers hope to remedy that. By Mark Winne September 2007 Whether you live in an urban or rural community, access to fresh produce and meat is a...

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Farm Bill or Food Bill?

U.S. agriculture policy has grown fat and lazy--and hasn't helped our waistlines either. It's tempting to take for granted summer's bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But if you care about how that succulent tomato gets to your table, your beach reading should...

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