Climate change, food insecurity, dietary health, community development: Food is always a big part of the story
Mark Winne has worked for 56 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
The Road to a Hunger-Free America
If we are to end the scourge of hunger in the U.S., in other words, advance a just and sustainable food system, such an effort demands an eagle eye on people, places, and actions. Further, and within those three groupings, I have discovered that success is keenly related to a fundamental application of justice, an active imagination, a clarity of focus on needs and solutions, and effective leadership. What I mean by all this is made visible by the stories and analyses found in these selected essays gleaned from nearly 20 years of writing.
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.
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.
BOOKS
Mark is the author of:
- The Road to a Hunger-Free America: The Selected Writings of Mark Winne
(Bloomsbury, 2025) - Food Town, USA
(Island Press, 2019) - Stand Together or Starve Alone
(Praeger Press 2018) - Closing the Food Gap
(Beacon Press 2008) - Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas
(Beacon Press, 2010)
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.
Mark Winne’s Blog
FINDING SOLUTIONS TO TODAY’S FOOD CHALLENGES
Bill Ayres – 1941 to 2026
I always admired Bill Ayres, but for the longest time I wasn’t sure why. He had this cherubic face out of which would come a Long Island-laden accent that to my New Jersey-trained ears clashed with his innate optimism. You see, when you grow up on Metro New York’s...
It Takes a Tough Woman to Work a Tough Town
Hereford, Texas – May 2026 Look at Casa del Llano’s brochure and the image of their building on its cover; it’s a study in modesty, humility, and maybe even discretion, as in we don’t want ICE knocking at our door. There’s barely a sign marking the building or...
I Also Speak!
Ever since the beginning of this century, I’ve enjoyed the many and very different speaking opportunities that have come my way. Each one has allowed me to share my experience, learnings, and ideas gleaned from over 50 years in this thing I lovingly call the food...
Two Updates: Podcast Appearance and NYS Food Summit
I had too much fun recording the following podcast with the inimitable and fully effulgent Indy Rishi Singh! Food insecurity, community activism, and food policy were our major themes, but Indy's universe is much too capacious to be restrained by only a few things....
Beauty and the Art of Policy
I was almost an art history major. What could be better, thought I, than sitting around all day gazing at beautiful images. But there were two problems: At the time my small Maine college barely had an art history department having one professor who taught all the...
Farm Stop Ahead!
“Honey, could you pick up some fresh greens and eggs on your way home?” Ever the dutiful husband, he replied, “Of course, dear…but wait, today’s Wednesday, the farmers’ market’s not open until Saturday. Do you want me to go to the supermarket?” With a breathiness that...
Radio Food!
I had the privilege in December to be interviewed by Melinda Hemmelgarn, the originator, instigator, and officiator of Food Sleuth Radio. With over 700 episodes spanning some 17 years, Melinda has faithfully, if not religiously executed the duties of an investigative...
Will Christmas Bring Light or Darkness to Palestine?
I’m not one to obsess over the historical antecedents of oppression. Perhaps because I take it as a given that civilization’s conflict-ridden unfolding has and always will be a dialectic of sorts between those with power and those without. But don’t let my intentional...
Of Microbes, Capitalism, and Christmas Shopping
Trump’s Pro-Hunger Agenda Andy Fisher, author of Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporations and Anti-Hunger Groups (MIT Press, 2017), always has an unorthodox take on the days’ events. As we’ve watched the whole Trump-initiated food stamp debacle unfold –...