"The Call of the Land"

Submitted by Michael on Tue, 08/24/2010 - 11:39

I haven't checked it out yet, but I'm very interested in Steven McFadden's "The Call of the Land," in which he profiles members of a group he calls Millennial Agrarians, who are working to create a secure and sustainable food system.

Though I can't say I think in the same broad terms, I'd cite my own veggie garden and my involvement in the Robbins Farm cooperative community garden and include myself in that group, if only on the fringe. And, you may recall that I've written about some bright Boston-area farmers who I'd put at the front of the movement.

The release says MAs include "sustainable farmers, gardeners, CSAs, urban farmers, and farmers markets, as well as also Slow Food, locavore, and food-security activists." Among the farmers mentioned are the Food Depot of Santa Fe, which encourages gardeners to plant a row of crops for donation to a food pantry, a Pasadena family's urban homestead that grows 3 tons of food on a fifth of an acre, and ex-NBAer Will Allen's Growing Power of Milwaukee, which seeks to empower inner-city youth to raise healthy foods and reduce their community's risk of obesity and diabetes, the release said. 

 

McFadden, the author of 8 books on similar subjects, blogs at thecalloftheland.wordpress.com.

Speaking at Commonwealth Club

I will be speaking on the topic of food addiction at the Commonwealth Club of California, the oldest public affairs forum in the country, on Feb. 28. I'll be joining a fabulous panel of researchers and clinicians: Nicole Avena of Princeton and the University of Florida, Eric Stice of the Oregon Research Institute, Vera Tarman of Renascent Center of Toronto, abd Elissa Epel and Andrea Garber, both of the University of California at San Francisco. I am very excited to be part of the roster, not to mention to be appearing at such a great institution. Ticket information here; if you come, please stay afterward to say hello.

Recently in print