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
Ken Regal Gets the Last Word
When I found out that Ken Regal, 65, was retiring at the end of June from a nearly 40-year career at Pittsburgh’s Just Harvest food advocacy organization, I knew I had to interview this man before he disappeared. I’ve known Ken off and on over the course of 30 years,...
Sometimes the Hands Forget
(With thanks to Callum Robinson and his wonderful first book "Ingrained") My gardening hands have a way of forgetting from one season to the next. Some of this stems from being out of practice—winter’s dormancy and frozen ground had forced a pause in my outdoor...
How to Wrap a Fig Tree and Other Lessons from Joan Gussow (1928 to 2025)
“Stuff the dried leaves gently between the burlap and the tree. Work them into the branches but be careful not to break any branches. There are more leaves over there near the river. You hold the burlap open while Mark stuffs the leaves in. Yes, that’s good. Don’t...
Billionaires Bully Babies
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. William Butler Yeats Press Release Washington, DC. February 10, 2025. To ensure the safety and...
Feel the Pain, Seek the Joy
“Work and learn in evil days, in insulted days, in days of debt and depression and calamity. Fight best in the shade of the cloud of arrows.” Ralph Waldo Emerson I’ve used this quote from Emerson before, and I bet you can guess when—November 2016. Yes, after Trump’s...
Another Book and Another Place
Just in case you were thinking I took the summer off, let this post assure you that I’m still kicking. The astute among you, however, may gauge my temporary absence as something more than choosing beach diversion over writing immersion. And you’d be right. No, I’m not...
The Heart of Urban Ag Is Still Beating…In Kansas?
A note to my readers: Writing this post during the high light of summer felt almost out of place against the gloominess that has enveloped us over the last few weeks. Not wanting to succumb to the darkness, however, I persevered because it’s a story about people and a...
Rise Up for CFP!
The Community Food Projects (CFP) grant program is to the U. S. Department of Agriculture what one tomato seed is to a large garden. It may not look like much in the palm of your hand, but when handled properly, it’s a mighty force for community food system change....
The Choice is Clear
“We must cultivate our garden.” Voltaire The crack of the bat. The soft shoosh of the shovel blade sliding into the yielding earth. The satisfying humpf of a baseball smacking a leather mitt. Coming out of its winter hibernation, the wheelbarrow squeaks its way across...