by Adam Liebowitz | Jan 3, 2022 | News
Although the term “regional food system” is used more frequently these days, regional food systems are inadequately understood and valued. A Regional Imperative: Making the Case for Regional Food Systems, a new Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) report by Kathy Ruhf and Kate Clancy, takes a comprehensive look at regional food systems and makes a compelling case for their importance in food systems change work. Clancy and Ruhf are not new to this topic. This report greatly expands their 2010 NESAWG working paper: It Takes a Region. As two of NESAWG’s founders, they have championed regionalism and regional food systems as core to NESAWG’s work for over three decades. Join CFF on January 26th when the authors will present the key concepts of the report, along with examples from the field. Ruhf and Clancy will distill the material into digestible “take-aways” for food system practitioners, educators, policymakers, funders, researchers and advocates.
by Adam Liebowitz | Dec 6, 2021 | Films & Video, Past Events
On December 1st, CFF partnered with Engage New York and Neighborhood Funders Group to host an event titled, For Us, By Us Farm-Based Education: Land, Language, and Liberation. The session brought together three farm-based education programs in New York State that are all rooted in culture and community, and designed specifically to serve the population that its instructors and organization are representative of: the Akwesasne Mohawk community for Akwesasne Freedom School; low-income BIPOC communities for Farm School NYC; and the queer community for Rock Steady Farm.
by Adam Liebowitz | Nov 8, 2021 | News
Join CFF to hear from three educational programs that are intentionally rooted in community and culture to flip this dynamic on its head. Food and economic sovereignty is necessary to address the systemic inequities their communities suffer — the Akwesasne Mohawk community for Akwesasne Freedom School; low-income BIPOC communities for Farm School NYC; and the queer community for Rock Steady Farm. These organizations share an insistence on curricula defined, developed and taught for their communities, by their communities. They are committed to increasing their communities’ autonomy, agency and representation in farming and land stewardship, and they know the harm that can happen when those efforts are led by organizations and individuals who don’t share their culture or relate to their lived experiences.
by Adam Liebowitz | Oct 21, 2021 | Films & Video, Past Events
On October 12th, CFF partnered with The Martha and Hunter Grubb foundation to host a briefing titled,Scaling Regenerative Agriculture in the Northeast.The session started with an overview of regenerative agriculture and all that the term entails, to provide a framework for the rest of the discussion. We also recognized that these principles and practices are not new at all, but come from indigenous cultures who were stewards of the land for centuries. In fact, if native people were not forcibly removed from the land, we likely wouldn’t need to have conversations like this or be in this dire predicament.After the opening framing, we heard from several practitioners in the northeast working to implement and expand regenerative agriculture in our region.
by Adam Liebowitz | Sep 21, 2021 | News
How do entire foodsheds or communities transition from conventional to regenerative food systems? What are the levers of change? What are the hurdles to overcome? And how is regenerative agriculture putting down roots at a regional level in the Northeast? Meet some of the people and organizations laying the groundwork for scaling regenerative agriculture in the Hudson Valley, as we connect the dots across the food system, from producers to consumers to scientists to activists, and learn how regenerative agriculture intersects with other values in the food movement.
