The following infographic shows how Nourish has taken root in communities around the world.

You Are Nourish

Thank you for being a vital part of the Nourish initiative. We invite you to explore (and share) our ever-growing collection of food literacy resources.

• What is Food Literacy?
  Discover how food literacy acts as an entry point and catalyst for change. How food literate are you? Take the Food Literacy Quiz.
• Nourish Curriculum Guide
  Download this free resource for grades 4-12. Activity themes include: The Story of Food; Seasonal, Local Food; Food Traditions; Food and Ecosystems; Analyzing Food Ads; School Lunch Survey; and Action Projects.
• Nourish Short Films
  A video encyclopedia of food system topics, offered in “bite-sized” portions of 1-3 minutes in length. Use as thought-starters and discussion tools.
• Nourish Perspectives
  A library of Q&A articles featuring leading voices from the food movement. Deepen your understanding of critical issues that affect our food future.
• Nourish in Action
  Be inspired by food literacy initiatives in schools and communities. And please share your story!

The post Nourish Takes Root appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

Bren Smith, executive director of GreenWave, shares his vision for a day when there are thousands of ocean farms contributing food, fertilizers, and energy while lifting struggling coastal communities out of poverty.

What is restorative, 3D ocean farming?

Bren Smith: 3D ocean farming is a simple, replicable type of ocean farming which uses the entire water column to grow restorative species. It has a small footprint, because we grow vertically, and has a low aesthetic impact, too. One of the key elements that sets us apart from traditional aquaculture is that we’re protecting rather than privatizing the oceans–anyone can boat, swim, and fish on our farms. Imagine them as underwater gardens with hurricane-proof anchors on the edges, connected by floating horizontal ropes from which kelp and other seaweeds grow vertically next to scallops in lantern nets and mussels in their socks. Below are oysters in cages and clams buried in the sea floor. These farms are replicable in that they’re very simple and cheap to build since we don’t have to fight gravity underwater, which means that anyone with 20 acres and a boat can have their own farm. We’ve open sourced our model and now have requests to start our farms in every coastal US state and 20 countries.

CONTINUES IN PERSPECTIVES >

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Alii mushroom hand cut pasta

How can a restaurant practice both a farm-to-table and sea-to-table philosophy? Chef Jeff Scheer of the Mill House shares a story of food on the island of Maui, Hawaii.

What core values and commitments inspired the Mill House restaurant?

Jeff Scheer: The Mill House is comprised of a team of people who are passionate about creating the ultimate dining experience. It is more than just food and service, it’s about our setting and our story. Everything we do at the Maui tropical plantation is done to better ourselves and our way of life. We strive to make everything from start to finish, believing that it makes us better and provides the best quality food and experience.

The post Perspective: We Are the Farm: The Mill House Restaurant appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

Every farm tells a story. Knowing your farmer traces an arc from the soil to your table. One way you can build a relationship with your farmer is to join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In this locally-based economic model, community members support a farm by paying it directly for a share of its seasonal bounty. As Nigel Walker says, “When you give your money to a local farmer, that money goes to the local economy.”

Tips On Choosing a CSA

 How do you choose a CSA? Use these tips to guide your search.

1. Find out what’s available. Browse Local Harvest for a list of CSAs in your area. Visit local farmers markets and ask about CSA programs.

2. Assess your lifestyle. CSA programs typically offer weekly or biweekly boxes of produce. Are you around enough to enjoy the fresh food? Are you buying food for yourself, your roommates, or your family? What types of foods are you interested in purchasing: veggies, fruits, dairy products, honey, meats?

3. What growing practices do you support? Are you looking for organic produce or pasture-raised meats? When researching a CSA program, learn what farming practices it champions. Better yet, take a farm tour and really get to know your farmer and their practices!

4. Pick up or home delivery? Your CSA may offer delivery to a central community pick-up location or directly to your home. Find a program that works best for you.

Do you belong to a CSA? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

Additional resources:

• Learn more about CSAs and find programs in your area through Local Harvest and Eat Well Guide.

• Read 10 Tips For Making the Most of Your CSA from Serious Eats.

• Watch our short film, Farmers Markets.

The post Video: Nigel Walker, “Know Your Farmer” appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

Every day, more and more of us come together around food, building a community to ensure that it is sustainable, safe, fair, healthy, and delicious for everyone. In compiling our collection of Nourish Perspectives, we’ve had the opportunity to ask a number of individuals the thought-provoking question: “What does the food movement mean to you?” Included below are some of our favorite responses, which illustrate the rich diversity of narrative threads that run through the story of our food.

Because our individual relationships with food are so personal, so too are our connections with the evolving food community. Each of us has his or her own unique story to tell about the changing food landscape and its broader significance. So we decided to ask you the same question we’ve posed to so many others:

What does the food movement mean to you?

We invite you to give the question some thought and, when you’re ready, to submit your own perspective in the comments below. In April, we’ll put the names of everyone who participates in a hat and pick a few lucky names. Prizes will include a Nourish Teacher Resource Binder and Nourish DVDs, which will be tucked into a Food Day tote bag along with copies of books by your favorite Nourish voices, such as:

• “The Art of Simple Food,” volumes 1 and 2, by Alice Waters (donated by The Edible Schoolyard Project)
• “Grub” by Anna Lappé and Bryant Terry (donated by Small Planet Institute)
• “Food Escapes” by Jamie Oliver (donated by the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation)

So let’s hear it. As the examples below illustrate, there’s no right or wrong answer, no one-size-fits-all response. Every person has his or her own take. What’s yours?

“The food movement is already full steam ahead with heroes and heroines, rich stories, innovative practices, policy agendas, organizations galore. Call the goal real or just or healthy or whole or natural or organic or local food, it’s on many people’s radar. Parents want good food for their children. People are concerned about the health effects of manufactured foods. More people are aware of food injustice–food deserts with no nearby real food, and modern day farm-worker exploitation. Academics and activists and advocates, businesspeople and financiers, farmers and ranchers and foragers, educators and parents and chefs are part of it. In fact, all eaters are part of this tide, this migration to a more nourishing and meaningful way of eating for our bodies and communities and kids’ futures.”

– Vicki Robin, Author

“The food movement acknowledges that food–like water and shelter and not much else——is fundamental. It challenges us to treat that fundamental thing, the food we eat, with respect. It asks that we nourish our bodies with food that is grown in an environmentally sustainable way; in a socially just way; in a way that builds culture and community; in a way that’s affordable and accessible to all. And it holds out a huge and hopeful possibility: that if we can solve all these challenges in the world of food, then we’ll know that we can solve them anywhere.”

– Curt Ellis, Executive Director, Food Corps

“It’s a spark of hope. There are more people–particularly young people–organizing around food justice than ever before. Their grand vision is backed up by action. I’m inspired to be part of a movement that’s fighting not just to end hunger, but to kick-start democracy.”

– Raj Patel, Author and Activist

“The food movement is about taking back control of where our food comes from and celebrating the power to feed ourselves and our community good food. A handful of companies are responsible for most of the food we eat. It should not be this way. We should control the food we eat. Over 300 farmers are leaving their land every week because they aren’t making ends meet. Our environment is screwed up, and industrial food production is a major cause. We are too distant to understand where our food comes from, how it is grown, and how to cook it. Food is a basic human need. In order to function and thrive, we need to eat well and feed each other well. We can’t do it unless we recognize and understand what good food is.”

– Sam Mogannam, Owner, Bi-Rite Market

“In 1988, it would have been nearly impossible to find a political analyst predicting the fall of the Berlin Wall. Yet, a point occurred in 1989 when enough activists had been at work with their tools that the political infrastructure and the foundation of the wall were sufficiently weakened, and the wall came tumbling down. In the same way, we have had food systems activists chipping away at the current broken food system for many years. Countless farmers, gardeners, leaders, students, teachers, writers, politicians, businesspeople, academics, and moms and dads, with the equivalent of chisels and hammers in their hands, have been challenging the current food system brick by brick. Every time someone decides to get their food at a farmers market, establishes a small-scale organic farm, or develops a new sustainable supply chain for their company, they are attempting to change the current system, one step at a time.”

– Oran Hesterman, President, Fair Food Network

“The food movement is at a crossroads, and each of us is in charge of the direction it takes. I am fighting to take the food movement towards a system that is conscious and respectful of the health of the environment, the quality of the food, the safety of our growers, and the future of consumers, especially our kids. This means to me a food system based on triple bottom line of healthy kids, healthy food, and healthy earth.”

– Ann Cooper, Chef and Author

“The food movement is about creating systems that are designed for sustainability. Nourishing our kids can go hand in hand with stewardship of the earth and a fair living for those who grow our food and provide our meals, inside or outside of school. Educating our children about food as a holistic system teaches them that each part of that system affects the others. A school food environment focused on sustainability provides students with an opportunity to learn and help create solutions to the many challenges faced by our hungry planet.”

– Amy Kalafa, Filmmaker and Author

“The food movement is about quality of life. What we eat affects how we feel physically and emotionally. How food is grown and processed has an impact on the health of those who eat it. How our food is produced affects the environment, the existence of wildlife, and the size and characteristics of our country’s farms. It also impacts the local and global economies.
How we eat affects our ability to interact with others and provide for ourselves, and it influences relationships with friend and families. Eating and preparing food with those we care about provides a much different experience than driving through a fast-food restaurant or eating in one’s car. How we spend our food dollars determines the kind of food system we create, and the health of our farms, families, and communities. As Wendell Berry said, ‘Eating is an agricultural act.’ With the present focus on local food systems, now is the time to vote with our forks, as well as our ballots, and make positive changes in the food system.”

– Marion Kalb, Co-founder, National Farm to School Network

“Few citizens know where their water comes from or where it goes when they flush the toilet. Few can name the watershed they live in. Few can name five native resident, non-human species. Few can point north or tell you the phase of the moon. The food movement is the best way to bridge this nature-deficit disorder as it connects, in a very obvious way, the land and waters to one’s health and economy. Farmers markets, especially, turn food into stories and conversation, an aspect of human life that is hundreds of thousands of years old. It is an inexhaustible journey.
Thinking about chile in New Mexico, for instance, one winds up in Ethiopia, Mexico, China, and Peru; in biotech and cultural arguments; in food colorant industries and the beauty of ristras; in local cafes, NAFTA, and the USDA. A passion for food or a particular food may not make it any easier to improve local living or our society, but it is definitely a delicious way to taste certain old truths about the worth of soil and rain, harvesting, cultivating, and cooking that cannot be found in any other way.”

– Peter Warshall, Co-Director, Dreaming New Mexico

“To me, the food movement is about mindfulness. Like so many other routines in our daily lives, we eat without thinking. That leads not only to the myriad diet-related health problems plaguing our population, but it robs us of experiencing the appreciation and awe for the miracle of food on our plates. From the science of turning a seed into an edible plant, to the historical knowledge about what’s safe to eat and what’s poison, to animal husbandry and fishing, to the people who do the planting, harvesting, processing, packaging, trucking, sous-chefing, and cooking–rich story and real people and places are present in every spoonful of what we eat. ”

– Cheryl Dahle, Executive Director, Future of Fish

The post The Food Movement: What Does It Mean to YOU? appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

What is the School Food Initiative and what is your vision?

The mission of the School Food Initiative is to empower the public schools of Santa Barbara County to implement and sustain nourishing cook-from-scratch food service operations. We envision that given our inputs of culinary training for food service workers, grants for equipment and infrastructure, ongoing technical support by a team of chefs in the field and garden-based food literacy education, school food service operations will be financially viable, students will be offered appealing, nutritious food choices and food literacy will be a valued part of a student’s education.

CONTINUES IN PERSPECTIVES >

The post Perspective: Changing the Menu appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

In this video, pediatrician Nadine Burke reminds us to always read the Nutrition Facts label on the back of a package. As the good doctor puts it: “It’s your body. Figure out what’s going into it.”

Do You Know What’s In Your Food?

Learning to read nutrition labels means taking charge of your health. To make more informed food choices, follow these simple steps:

1. Read the ingredients list first. In general, the fewer ingredients the better. Keep in mind that ingredients are listed in order of predominance, so if sugar (or some unpronounceable additive that sounds like a chemistry experiment) shows up in the top few spots, think twice about putting that product in your shopping cart. Remember, you might find sugar hiding in a product’s ingredient list under a variety of names–sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, fructose, glucose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, molasses, and evaporated cane juice among them. (And many foods include several sugars, which results in their being listed lower in the list.)
2. Check the sodium content. Limiting sodium is important because too much sodium increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes. Food labels recommend that the average American adult should consume about 2,000 calories per day, and the Institute of Medicine recommends an upper limit of 2,300 milligrams of daily sodium intake for healthy, young, white adults and 1,500 milligrams for most other adults. To make it easy, let’s say the ratio of sodium to calories should be about 1:1. So if a product contains 100 calories per serving, it should also contain about 100 milligrams of sodium–or, better yet, less.
3. Check the fat content. Because fats of all types are easily stored by the body, too much dietary fat can make us overweight and lay the foundation for a host of other problems, including heart disease, cancer, and adult-onset diabetes. In addition to checking the number of calories per serving, check the number of calories from fat: If it’s more than 30 percent of the total calories, it’s higher than the USDA recommends. Don’t be fooled by front-of-the-box claims such as “99% fat free!,” which are based on percentage of weight, not percentage of calories.

Have any other tips you’d like to share? Join the conversation on Facebook.

Additional Resources

• How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label, from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Guide to the Nutrition Facts Label, from the American Institute for Cancer Research
• Reading Food Nutrition Labels, from the American Heart Association
• 5 Ways to Decode Food Labels at the Grocery Store, from Oprah

The post Video: Nadine Burke, “Read Labels” appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

What’s your favorite healthy “fast food”? Join the conversation on Facebook.

What Can You Do?

We get it. You’re busy. We’re busy, too. Most of us would happily cook a nutritious, delicious meal if it meant we could skip filling out those expense reports for the boss, mowing the lawn, and hauling the kids to soccer practice.

We’d eat better if we only had the time. But we don’t. And so we steer into the drive-through, order the fried combo #4, and try as hard as we can to convince ourselves that it’s no big deal to indulge in fast food “just this once.”

But it is a big deal. Through the miracle of modern science, many fast food items are products that are designed to enlist your body’s own physiology in a campaign to turn you into a repeat customer. Pretty quickly “just this once” becomes twice, or three times, or four.

That’s why it’s crucial to have a Plan B. Some suggestions:

• At home: Stock your pantry and refrigerator with quick, nutritious options such as breads, cereals, pasta, and prepared pizza crusts; fresh, frozen, or no-added-salt canned vegetables; fresh and dried fruit; and quick-cooking whole grains such as 10-minute brown rice and couscous.
• At work: None of us has extra time to spare in the morning, so pack your lunch the night before when you’re cleaning up from dinner. (Remember, leftovers–with one new ingredient added to keep them fresh–make great lunches.) Don’t get stuck in a sandwich rut; mix up your menu with hot and cold foods, too. Soups, stir-fries, and spaghetti will stay warm in a Thermos, while a cold pack (or, better, a frozen water bottle) will keep yogurt or hummus cool for dipping cut vegetables.
• On the go: All of us have made poor food choices when we were starving and our next meal was nowhere in sight. Equip yourself with healthy snacks–nuts, dried fruit, or trail mix, for example–to save yourself from a junk food binge.

And, as always, shop wisely!

The post Video: Jamie Oliver, “Fast Food” appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

In this short film, chef/author Bryant Terry suggests a few simple things all of us can do to work toward a more just, sustainable food system.

1)   Grow your own: Even if you don’t have a yard, you can grow many herbs–and even some vegetables–indoors or in a window box. Gardening at home is not only educational, economical and therapeutic, it may actually lead you to enjoy meals more due to the work you put in. (Behavioral economists humorously call this the IKEA Effect.)

2)   Support local farmers: Shopping at a farmers market or food cooperative, joining a CSA, or visiting a nearby pick-your-own farm can help conserve energy, educate kids about where their food comes from, and build community by bringing you face-to-face with the people who nurtured your food from seed to harvest. To find sustainably grown food in your area, go to localharvest.org and type in your zip code.

3)   Food is for sharing: Most people agree the best meals are those enjoyed with family and friends, and we would extend that principle to growing, shopping for, and preparing food. All of these activities are opportunities to teach, learn, and make connections. Frame cooking as a social activity rather than a chore and see how quickly people’s attitudes change about spending time in the kitchen.

By taking small steps to build your relationship to the people and processes that define the lifecycle of food, you’ll begin to see more clearly the sometimes hidden links between seemingly disparate parts of the broader food landscape. As they reveal themselves, the bigger picture becomes less daunting and opportunities for systemic change become easier to identify.

Of course, these are only Bryant’s top three; obviously there are plenty of other small practices we can adopt that can lead to big changes. What other action steps would you recommend to people who are ready to roll up their sleeves in support of good food? Join the conversation on Facebook.

The post Video: Bryant Terry, “What You Can Do” appeared first on Nourish: Food + Community.

Why do we need more young farmers?

Lindsey Lusher Shute: The nation’s farmers are retiring faster than they’re being replaced, and a quarter of all farmers are expected to retire in the next twenty years. This situation has major implications for food security, the health of our rural places, and our farming traditions.

What are the biggest challenges facing the next generation of farmers?

Lindsey Lusher Shute: Capital and land top most young farmers’ lists, followed by health insurance and student loans. Because so many farmers discouraged their children from farming over the past thirty years, many young farmers are coming from non-farming backgrounds. With no land or equipment to inherit, these farmers are starting from scratch and face big obstacles to getting a business off the ground.

With land prices skyrocketing across the country, finding an affordable and stable place to settle can be a tremendous challenge. In terms of capital, there are more lenders willing to take the risk with new farmers, but still not enough. Even when farmers can get a loan, many are very concerned about how they’ll make it through the first years when they’re figuring out their farm systems and developing a market.

CONTINUES IN PERSPECTIVES >

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