UVM Food Feed

Posted by Darryl Benjamin | July 15, 2015

An interesting thing happened to me on my way to the Farm-to-Table movement. I discovered I might be a Marxist. More to the point, I found that my thinking was in agreement with some Marxist tenets, and, for a short while, I panicked. Was I really a Marxist?

The issue at hand is food justice. If I believe that systemic changes are necessary to achieve sustainable, equitable, fair, and democratic food systems, does it follow that I am a Marxist? Words like “equitable”and “fair”sound righteous on the tongue, something akin to the old Superman series where he is introduced as “fighting for truth, justice, and the American way.” What is the American way? Continue reading →

Posted in Economic, Social | 2 Comments

Videos from the 2015 Food Systems Summit Now Available

Posted by Alison Nihart | July 14, 2015

Watch the 2015 Summit playlist on the UVM Food Systems YouTube channel. Speaker presentations files are also available on the Summit website.

Posted in Economic, Environmental, Health, Social, UVM | Leave a comment

A week on the farm: Dirty knees, yummy peas and rad radishes

Posted by Guest Author | July 10, 2015

by Molly Leebove, UVM Farmer Training Program Staff

Fridays throughout the growing season, we will post a few photos from the past week at UVM’s Catamount Educational Farm and the UVM Farmer Training Program. From these you will get a glimpse of the farm season as it unfolds and witness the evolution of these aspiring farmers as they grow into bonafide farmers.

Posted in UVM | Tagged farmer training progam | Leave a comment

The Right to Food: A set of unifying principles the U.S. food movement needs

Posted by Guest Author | July 7, 2015

By Katie Kritzalis

Someone please tell Mark Bittman that every time a boy or girl says they don’t believe in the existence of a food movement in the United States a farmer loses her land, a new G.M.O vegetable is born in a lab, and an antibiotic-pumped cow is slaughtered and turned into burger meat destined for McDonalds.

On May 6^th of this year, Bittman, a food writer-cum-activist and regular op-ed contributor for the New York Times, lamented the inaction of the Obama administration towards the adoption of a national food policy that he, Michael Pollan, Ricardo Salvador, and Olivier De Schutter proposed in a November 2014 opinion piece in The Washington Post. Lashing out against the inefficiencies of our country’s policymakers in response to food issues, Bittman took his May 6^th column as an opportunity to question the very existence of a food movement in the United States. Although brash and a tad dramatic, Bittman’s desire to “make food issues real” underscores our need for a more unified approach to organizing our country’s food movement. Continue reading →

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To Label or Not to Label

Posted by Darryl Benjamin | July 1, 2015

As the debate rages on between those who want GMO food products to carry labels and those who don’t, a larger question looms quietly in the background: does access to information make a difference?

An escalating number of lawsuits by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Snack Food Association, International Dairy Foods Association, and National Association of Manufacturers are challenging Vermont’s Act 120, which requires labeling of GMO foods sold at retail stores in Vermont. A decisive victory allows the winner to claim the moral high ground and establish indisputabe authority. Continue reading →