the gill tract
former greenhorns intern and much beloved friend Anya Kamenskaya wrote this nice piece about her current work out in California.
October 27, 2009
by Anya Kamenskaya
It is undeniable that in the last year or so, the media’s discourse surrounding Food has escalated into one that titillates, frustrates, and invigorates people of many professions and inclinations. The very word has taken on many meanings and subtexts: everything from farmworker’s rights to international trade relations to the growing population of young farmers. Popular newspapers and magazines have circulated the words “locavore,” “sustainable,” and “green” to the point where you can’t read a foodsystems-related article without tripping over one of them. Movies with budgets large (Food Inc) and smaller (King Corn) are ostensibly opening more and more American eyes to the devastation that the current industrial food system wreaks on our children, our soils, and our minds.
Of course, I do not presume that this wave of awareness and interest has reached its climax, or that every American has the opportunity to choose between factory-raised or pastured pork. Indeed, those who labor for food justice have a long way yet to go. However, there are institutions that are increasingly opening their dialogue (and sometimes even infrastructures and budgets) to include food. And thanks to students nationwide (like many of those who write for this blog), universities are on the forefront of creating equitable food policy, research, and participation.
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