CES and Dining Services hosted community food activist Mark Winne for a lecture on “Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas: Finding Our Way to Food Democracy” on October 10. Winne has been involved in food and hunger issues for over four decades, and in addition to serving as executive director of the Hartford Food System from 1979 to 2003, he has been involved in a number of policy groups and has received the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plow Honor Award (2001) and a Food and Society Policy Fellowship from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (2002).
Winne’s lecture focused on the idea of “food citizenship” as a way forward for the food movement. After providing an overview of “food gaps” (problems in the food system) ranging from health concerns, to hunger, to rising food prices, Winne emphasized the power of the food industry in controlling agricultural policy at the state and national level. He argued that allowing large corporations to determine the future of food means sacrificing democratic processes, and democratizing food policy is therefore a crucial step in restructuring the food system. Concluding with examples of the positive impact of food policy and planning through groups such as local Food Policy Councils made up of “food citizens,” Winne demonstrated the power of “joined-up” food policy that can comprehensively address agricultural, health, social and economic issues.
