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
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 –...
Food Takes Center Stage in 2025 Election
I’ve always been fascinated by how and what city mayors eat. One of my early favorites was the now-deceased mayor of Hartford and retired firefighter, Mike Peters. As a man of considerable rotundity, he had elevated the usual hot-dog chomping American mayoral image to...
Hunger is a “Sensitive Social Issue”
On October 28, I attempted to “boost” my recent Facebook post that promoted my new book The Road to a Hunger-Free America (that post is replicated here). For those not familiar with Facebook (a form of ignorance I would heartily endorse), the boost function places...
The Road to a Hunger-Free America is Here!
I am proud to announce the publication of my fifth book The Road to a Hunger-Free America: Selected Writings of Mark Winne (Bloomsbury). This announcement is likely to provoke a follow-up question which is why write another book at the age of 75? One answer might be...
The Hungry Don’t Count
The Trump dictatorship announced yet another effort to conceal information from the American public. Herr/Hair Trump’s USDA will terminate the annual measurement of the prevalence of food insecurity (hunger) in the United States. Vital research data that has been used...
The Famine Next Time
I’ve turned my attention lately to the subject of famine. Not a cheery topic I know, but one that, like the proverbial Doomsday Clock ticking down to midnight Armageddon, seems more real than metaphorical. What prompted this grim look into the future was a deep dive...
Strawberry Fields…Forever?
According to my Word Press counter, “Strawberry Fields Forever?” is my 200th blog post since I began markwinne.com in 2007! I don’t honestly know what to do about that other than to simply make my readers aware of what I guess is a milestone. I thought about honoring...