This interview was originally published by Chelsea Green Publishing on May 9, 2013.

Tanya is Executive Director of The BLK ProjeK. Inspired by her experiences as a single working mother in a marginalized community, Executive Director Tanya Fields created and founded the BLK ProjeK in 2009. Tanya will be both an instructor and speaker at the University of Vermont Food Systems Summit in June.

In New York City, one and a half million people (out of 9 million) are food insecure, meaning they do not have access to healthy, good quality affordable food.

While many of the city’s residents can afford to dine out in expensive restaurants or shop at upscale markets, there are neighbors, many of them children, who go to sleep hungry. Many organizations have stepped up to deal with this crisis in food insecurity. One of those is BLK ProjeK in the South Bronx, headed by Tanya Fields. UVM interviewed her about the successes and challenges of building a sustainable food system in the biggest city in the US.

University of Vermont: How did you get involved in BLK ProjeK?

Tanya Fields: I was born and raised in Harlem, a community that I love, but that I could no longer live in due to gentrification. I moved to the South Bronx several years ago. It was an eye opener. I became much more aware of food insecurity, particularly among children. When my own child became ill, I realized that the quality, quantity and affordability of healthy food was a key determinant of health.

I also realized that social activism had a major role to play in the solution. We can complain about a perceived problem, but unless we do something, take action, the problem will persist. BLK ProjeK has two intertwined missions: to make healthy food accessible, and to develop leadership skills in local youth, particularly females.

UVM: In a city as big as New York is that an insurmountable task?

TF: No. If I thought that way, I would not be able to do my work. We are very small as an organization and it is difficult to get the funding that we need to sustain our work, but we are making changes everyday. Next month, we launch our Mobile Market, which will bring the needed healthy food to the people who need it most in this community.

UVM: There are several organizations, some big and some small, that do work similar to yours. How do you differ?

TF: Sadly, the organizations that have been around for many years and some newly formed organizations, have more than a million people to serve. That’s important work for all of us. We spend all of our money on food and delivery to the most in need. We don’t spend money on brochures and t-shirts because we just don’t have it to waste. We invest our money in solutions that increase access and create opportunities for people to feed themselves and their families.

UVM: What do you see as most important agenda in fixing the broken food system?

TF: Leadership. Particularly among the people who know these underserved communities first hand. I grew up seeing the dynamics in my neighborhood, in the schools, in social networks. I understand the issues because I lived them. But that is not enough. We need to develop leadership so that change is achieved though policy, though concrete solutions. A delivery of food to someone hungry is vital. Even more important is being an instrument of change, so that the system of food insecurity does not perpetuate itself.

By Erica Campbell, the Vermont Farm to Plate Program Director

The Vermont Farm to Plate Network is a statewide initiative legislatively directed to strengthen Vermont’s food system and increase local food production and consumption by 2020. It’s made up of over 225 organizations encompassing farm and food system businesses, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies.

The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund helps coordinate the Network and is launching the much anticipated Vermont Food System Atlas this spring. The Atlas features thousands of food system resources including stories, videos, job listings, data, a searchable map, and all sections of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan—the most comprehensive food system plan in the country and the first in New England. The Atlas provides a one-stop web portal searchable by people and places, region, keyword, and food system categories to enable partnerships to help reach the 25 goals of the plan.

Network members are getting excited for the Atlas to go live. “As a diversified farmer, I anticipate being able to use the Food System Atlas as a single source to connect with all the resources available to help me farm successfully,” says John Cleary of Cleary Family Farm in Plainfield. “Improving farmer access to technical assistance programs, educational workshops, and financing opportunities will help Vermont farmers grow and develop new markets. In my role as a fieldman for Organic Valley, the Atlas will help me connect new and existing farmers with market opportunities offered by our farmer-owned cooperative.”

The Vermont Food System Atlas will also serve as the communication hub for the businesses, organizations, and stakeholders engaged in the Network. Members collaborate in working groups and task forces and are developing and initiating specific projects to meet the plan’s goals, including increasing consumption of local food, diversifying production, and soil conservation. Besides helping these groups stay connected and coordinated, the Atlas will serve as and indicators dashboard to track the progress we’re all making toward building a resilient, viable, and sustainable local food system.

The Vermont Farm to Plate Network is not only working to grow Vermont’s food system but is also helping build a vibrant food system for the Northeast. Network members are active participants in the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) and the Food Solutions New England (FSNE) Network. Vermont is also playing an important role in helping other states develop food system plans. The Food System Atlas helps bridge Vermont’s multi-faceted local food efforts and programs to a statewide level to prepare Vermont for its vital role in creating a robust regional food system.

One May 13 the Vermont Food System Atlas will go live to the public, www.vtfoodatlas.com. Follow Vermont Farm to Plate news and updates on Twitter at @VTfarm2plate.

Kierstin Wall is a UVM student who recently started the blog Sustainabelly in her Food and Media course.

I would like to introduce you all to The Perennial Plate, a weekly documentary series dedicated to adventurous sustainable eating. The series follows Perennial Plate founder, Daniel Klein on his adventures eating socially responsible and sustainable food.

I just started the first season (there are three), which follows Klein for a year in Minnesota while he discovers the joys and challenges of eating sustainably. The second season Klein, his girlfriend and co-producer, Mirra Fine travel across the US on a sustainable food adventure. This season, the duo is traveling the world:

This web series is unlike anything I have seen before, it is informational, captivating, inspirational and insightful. In the first season, Klein hunts for his own meat and mushrooms, butchers a sheep, produces his own cheese, and builds meaningful relationships through food.

I would like to stress the importance of entertainment documentaries like Perennial Plate. I learned so much more about local food systems, sustainable eating, and agriculture from watching a few episodes than I have from any popular show on television. I also learned a couple really amazing recipes.

Why do the majority of Americans prefer to watch Rachael Ray and Emeril cook not-so-sustainable food, that the audience will never be able to re-create, in a fantasy kitchen that most of the audience will never be able to own?

Why hasn’t Food Network produced a local and sustainable cooking show yet? Is there not an audience for this?

I would like to challenge television and webivision (a new term I coined for watching online episodes) watchers to partake in viewing shows that benefit your well being. Why does the purpose only have to be for entertainment? Why does the audience only have to be consumers?

Think about the purpose behind what television (or webivision) episodes you watch. Are you gaining anything from it?

This episode discusses both challenges and rewards of owning a small-scale farm. Living in a city like Burlington, VT, I think this is something that happens every day that many of us who are purchasing local food don’t see. Enjoy!

Justin Adelman is a senior at the University of Vermont studying Public Communications. On his blog, Not So TV Dinner, he writes about how food and cooking are falsely portrayed on TV.

“Cooking Up a Story” is an online TV show & blog about food and sustainable living. I was shocked. Sustainable living? How is it that this online TV show is more up with the times than the Food Network or Cooking Channel? For once I found a TV show that focused on local ingredients, family farmers and sustainability rather than back-to-basics, 30-minutes and semi-homemade. The description of “Cooking Up a Story” reads as follows: “Cooking Up a Story is a show about people, food and sustainable living. Each episode portrays the passion of family farmers, artisan producers, and a diverse range of everyday people whose lives center on food, and sustainable living. These personal stories are told in the voice of the subject, without a prepared script, and filmed in their native surroundings to bring people behind our food to life.”

Why is there a lack of food TV programming aimed at sustainable living and food creation? I think the Food Network is a little behind in the “going green” movement. No sets, no scripts, no food magic just people who have a passion for sustainable living and food. From “wild and cultivated mushrooms” to “cooking catfish and hush puppies southern style” this TV show is redefining what it means to cook. Nothing fancy, no KitchenAid appliances or complex kitchen utensils, just passionate people who love to cook, care about their local food, local ingredients and the environment.

I think it’s important to have programming representing these values and lifestyles. I feel like these are overlooked a lot in food production and food entertainment. Sustainability, family farmers and local ingredients are important factors in what should be represented in cooking shows. “Cooking Up a Story” is taking steps to change that. This new, innovative online TV show should be used as inspiration to motivate home chefs and food fanatics to reach out to local food producers, find local ingredients and to cook sustainably. So let’s take out the old and bring in the new. Cooking sustainably is just a better way to cook. I challenge all of you to change it up and cook for your own self-fulfillment while reaching out to local farmers growing fresh, delicious produce or artisan producers crafting the heartiest bread or creamiest cheeses.

Keep it simple, keep it fresh, keep it sustainable.

Timothy Gillis Sheble-Hall is a senior at the University of Vermont who is studying food systems. He grew up on a sheep farm in Dover, Mass.

Labeling GMOs is a policy rooted in power. The passage of such a policy would transfer power from wealthy corporations towards consumers. Consumers want to know what’s in their food, it is a basic right. Over fifty countries, including members of the European Union, Japan, and China, have already instituted a labeling policy. In contrast, we haven’t even had a decent debate in America. Patent law provides a huge obstacle to research, and discussion is hushed around the topic.

Polls have shown that over 90% of Americans want food made with GMO ingredients labeled. Given this statistic, does it not seem logical that this policy would come to fruition through basic democratic process? Unfortunately, a disproportionate amount of the power in the decision-making process has been held by the opposition. Proposition 37, a measure in California’s November elections that would have mandated the labeling of food made with GMO ingredients, lost by six percentage points. The opposition to the bill spent $45 million dollars, as opposed to the proponents’ $6.7 million. In Vermont, a labeling bill has already been voted on in the House agricultural committee with strong support as it heads to the house floor. Guess what folks? We can win this thing.

Vermont certainly does not have the financial resources to outspend the wealthy opposition to GMO labeling, but we do have something they don’t: people power. Through grass roots organizing, Vermont has continually led the nation in change for the better. I think of power as the ability to make something happen that otherwise wouldn’t have without your influence. When Vermonters come together and use our collective voice, we yield tremendous power.

VT Right to Know GMOs is a coalition of organizations (Rural Vermont, NOFA-VT, VPIRG) that are organizing Vermonters who want to take action to support the bill to label GMOs. Recently, forums were held around the state in order to bring folks together to talk about the bill, and how to take action. If you want to see Vermont lead the nation in labeling GMOs, here are some ways to get involved:

• Sign the Petition (http://www.vtrighttoknow.org/)
• Contact Your Legislator-through phone, email, or in person. Let them know where you stand.
• Write a Letter to the Editor at Your Local Newspaper.
• Spread the Word! – Talk to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues about this issue.

Let’s come together for the right to know what’s in our food.