Temra Costa is an American author and sustainable food advocate. She authored Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat. [1] The book focuses on women's involvement in improving the sustainability of the U.S. food system. It includes biographies of and interviews with female farmers, educators, chefs and activists. [2] [3]
Costa graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a degree in International Agriculture and a minor in Women's Studies before moving to California. While living in California, Costa led a state campaign to encourage consumers to buy locally produced food, serving as Buy Fresh Buy Local's campaign manager for Community Alliances with Family Farmers. [4] [5] Costa currently resides outside Sebastopol, California.
Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with the anti-GMO movement.
Polyface Farm is a farm located in rural Swoope, Virginia, run by Joel Salatin and his family. The farm is driven using unconventional methods with the goal of "emotionally, economically and environmentally enhancing agriculture". This farm is where Salatin developed and put into practice many of his most significant agricultural methods. These include direct marketing of meats and produce to consumers, pastured-poultry, grass-fed beef and the rotation method which makes his farm more like an ecological system than conventional farming. Polyface Farm operates a farm store on-site where consumers go to pick up their products.
Slow Food is an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. It was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 and has since spread worldwide. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds, and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It promotes local small businesses and sustainable foods. It also focuses on food quality, rather than quantity. It was the first established part of the broader slow movement. It speaks out against overproduction and food waste. It sees globalization as a process in which small and local farmers and food producers should be simultaneously protected from and included in the global food system.
Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.
Community-supported agriculture or cropsharing is a system that connects producers and consumers within the food system closer by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming. The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets.
A farmers' market is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or outdoors and typically consist of booths, tables or stands where farmers sell their produce, live animals and plants, and sometimes prepared foods and beverages. Farmers' markets exist in many countries worldwide and reflect the local culture and economy. The size of the market may be just a few stalls or it may be as large as several city blocks. Due to their nature, they tend to be less rigidly regulated than retail produce shops.
Alice Louise Waters is an American chef, restaurateur and author. In 1971, she opened Chez Panisse, a restaurant in Berkeley, California, famous for its role in creating the farm-to-table movement and for pioneering California cuisine.
The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, family-run activities that are highly labour-intensive, to large, capital-intensive and highly mechanized industrial processes. Many food industries depend almost entirely on local agriculture, animal farms, produce, and/or fishing.
Food miles is the distance food is transported from the time of its making until it reaches the consumer. Food miles are one factor used when testing the environmental impact of food, such as the carbon footprint of the food.
FoodRoutes Network (FRN), headquartered in Arnot, Pennsylvania in the United States, is a national non-profit organization that provides support to a variety of other localized groups that encourage sustainable agriculture and community-based food systems.
The Future of Food is a 2004 American documentary film written and directed by Deborah Koons Garcia to describe an investigation into unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods sold in grocery stores in the United States for the past decade. In addition to the US, there is a focus on Canada and Mexico.
Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) is a non-profit organization that provides networking, education and leadership development for women in sustainable agriculture and food systems development. Programming focused mainly in the Midwest, such as an Iowa program called "Women Caring for the Land".
The White House has had multiple vegetable gardens since its completion in 1800. John and Abigail Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama all have had their own versions of vegetable gardens. Roosevelt planted the White House victory garden during World War II to promote the use of victory gardens by American citizens in a time of possible food scarcity. Hillary Clinton had a vegetable garden constructed on the roof of the White House. On March 20, 2009, Michelle Obama broke ground on the largest and most expansive vegetable garden to date on the White House lawn.
Marin Organic is a non-profit 501(c)(3) association of organic producers headquartered in Point Reyes Station, California. Founded in 1999 with the goal of creating the first all-organic county, Marin Organic is known for working with the government, community groups and organizations, fellow ranchers and farmers to advance the practice of sustainable, organic production. The organization is internationally recognized model for building economically viable, community-based local foodsheds.
Deborah Madison is an American chef, food writer and cooking teacher. She has been called an expert on vegetarian cooking and her gourmet repertoire showcases fresh garden produce. Her work also highlights Slow Food, local foods and farmers' markets.
The Fruit & Vegetable Prescription Program, also known as FVRx, is one of three of Wholesome Wave's programs. The program aims to provide under-served communities with fresh fruits and vegetables by allowing consumers to exchange healthcare provider-generated “prescriptions” for local fresh fruit and vegetables at participating, local farmers' markets.
Wholesome Wave is an American nonprofit organization focused on nutrition and access to fresh food. Wholesome Wave operates two nutrition incentive programs, the Double Value Coupon Program and the Fruit & Vegetable Prescription Program, which tackle the issue of affordability for underserved consumers. The organization works with food hubs, retail outlets and convenience stores. Wholesome Wave's programs address the complex issues of food insecurity, farm viability, economic vitality of local communities, and diet-related diseases. Wholesome Wave was founded in 2007 by Michael Batterberry, Gus Schumacher and Michel Nischan.
A foodshed is the geographic region that produces the food for a particular population. The term is used to describe a region of food flows, from the area where it is produced, to the place where it is consumed, including: the land it grows on, the route it travels, the markets it passes through, and the tables it ends up on. "Foodshed" is described as a "socio-geographic space: human activity embedded in the natural integument of a particular place." A foodshed is analogous to a watershed in that foodsheds outline the flow of food feeding a particular population, whereas watersheds outline the flow of water draining to a particular location. Through drawing from the conceptual ideas of the watershed, foodsheds are perceived as hybrid social and natural constructs.
The White Dog Cafe is the name of four restaurants located in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. The restaurants employ dog-themed decor. The first restaurant was founded in University City, Philadelphia by Judy Wicks in 1983. Noted for its commitment to local food and environmental stewardship, it became a Philadelphia institution. In 1993 Conde Nast Traveler magazine recognized the White Dog Cafe as one of "50 American restaurants worth the journey".
Artisanal food encompasses breads, cheeses, fruit preserves, cured meats, beverages, oils, and vinegars that are made by hand using traditional methods by skilled craftworkers, known as food artisans. The foodstuff material from farmers and backyard growers can include fruit, grains and flours, milks for cheese, cured meats, fish, beverages, oils, and vinegars. The movement is focused on providing farm to fork type foods with locally sourced products that benefit the consumer, small scale growers and producers, and the local economy.