August 27th, 12pm-8pm
Portland, Maine:
Morning: The Schooner Adventure Sails into Portland Harbor from her home port of Gloucester, MA.  She docks at 400 Commercial Street (Portland Yacht Services)
12.00p Leah Cook, Chief Stevedor, oversees loading of the cargo in the boat.
2.00p Historian William Leavenworth Gives “Ice tea Stevedore pep talk” on Maritime history at 400 Commercial street.
5.00p Gulf of Maine Research Institute panel discussion (350 Commercial St.) about the shared principles and practices that connect our coastline and traditional ports of call in the Caribbean Ocean: local food sovereignty, community fisheries, and campesino agroecology. The panel includes Heather Retberg of Quill End Farm, Robin Alden of Penobscot East Resource Center, and Florence Reed of Sustainable Harvest, which does Agro-ecology work in Latin America.

In the global south, where 98% of the world’s hungry people live, development aid largely supports chemical-dependent production of export crops offering abysmal work conditions and erratic income that does not allow farm workers to adequately feed their families. This might explain why 80% of those going hungry live in rural areas where they could grow a healthy diet for themselves and others if they had access to a sustainable farming extension program (such as the one that Sustainable Harvest International has proven successful for nearly twenty years). Food sovereignty is an essential foundation if we are going to build resilience and food self-sufficiency. The people who eat food and the people who grow food need to be making the decisions about how we produce and exchange food. This is so well done at the community level starting with food grown within our communities by our friends and neighbors. Fishing can be viewed as a metaphor for our challenge as humans: the key to a healthy fishery is to use a natural system and live within its bounds. The transport and market system is a key element in making sustainable fishing feasible, long term.

7.00p Drinks at the schooner at 400 Commercial St
8.00p Benefit dinner to support Sail Freight prepared by Vinland Chef David Levi.