Some of what’s caught our eye this week…

For news on the Food and Farm Bill, we’ve been following:

• National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition 
• Rural Coalition
• Environmental Working Group
• FRAC

On Twitter, #farmbill and #fairfarmbill have been invaluable for following the progress of the bill. For analysis of the Food and Farm Bill and the food justice movement, check out Farm Bill Fiasco: What Next for the Food Movement?, a Food First backgrounder published this week by Christopher Cook.

Say Hello to the 100 Trillion Bacteria that Make Up Your Microbiome
In this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan explores the fascinating world of the human microbiome—the 100 trillion or so bacteria that live in and on our bodies. Scientists are just beginning to explore the benefits of our complex microbiota, and early results are pretty incredible. (Spoiler: Turns out eating a lot of plants and whole grains gives you a much more diverse and healthy bacteria ecosystem. Who’s surprised?)

Biotech Ambassadors: How the US State Department Promotes the Seed Industry’s Global Agenda
Food and Water Watch examined five years of diplomatic cables for its impeccably-researched and illuminating new report, documenting how our government “has aggressively pursued” foreign policy benefiting the interests of the likes of Monsanto and DuPont—what the report calls “thinly veiled corporate diplomacy.” Definitely worth a read.

What have you been reading this week? Give us your recommendations in a comment!

The post What We’re Reading Now appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

Some good news yesterday from our friends in Brazil–after 20 years of grassroots-led direct action to win title to their land, the Landless Workers Movement, better known as MST, has succeeded in their struggle. Our partners at Grassroots International work closely with the MST, and bring us more on this story of victory for the people by the people.

After a Two-Decade Occupation, MST Families Win Land Rights
Saulo Araujo, Program Coordinator for Latin America, Grassroots International

After 20 years of struggle and waiting, the families camped out in the municipality of Prado, in the extreme south of the Brazilian state of Bahia) have finally received legal title to their land. The roughly 5,025 acres of farmland has the capacity to support about 280 families.

For members of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the Rosa Prado land symbolizes much more than a deed to land. It represents 20 years of struggle and resistance by families who endured many hardships.

For Evanildo Costa, the regional director of the MST, this land rights victory represents the struggle for agrarian reform throughout Bahia. “It’s been two years since even a single hectare of land has been reclaimed in Bahia. This victory will energize the struggle of all the landless workers in the state,” he said.

In celebration, the settlers held a march from near the settlement to MST’s regional headquarters, to represent the difficult road they walked during their years of encampment–and the solidarity that the families found in each other and from allies. On their arrival, the families were greeted by friends and partners of the MST, activists from other settlements, camps and regions.

A celebration ritual made ​​reference to the history of Camp Rose Meadow, recalling difficulties, honoring the militants who were part of the process of organizing the camp and the comrades who participated in the construction of the settlement, and remembering those who died before the land title was awarded.

The encampment at Rose Meadow began with the first occupation of Rose Meadow Farm on August 16, 1993. Since then, the families have suffered 19 eviction injunctions.

Despite difficulties such as living in make-shift shacks and scarce food, the settlement families continued to resist. According to Brazilian Congressman Valmir Assumption, “After 20 years of struggle, today we can say that this land belongs to the working class. This achievement shows that we have no other way to win our rights to land but by occupation and resistance. And now in this same way that we have demonstrated a successful organizing model, we need to challenge ourselves to become a model for sustainable agricultural production, education and organizational development.”

A version of this article originally appeared on Grassroots International’s blog. 

The post Victory for the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

The Food and Farm Bill is a massive piece of legislation that shapes just about everything about how we eat, from farm to plate. It includes funding for SNAP (formerly food stamps), support for farmers, provisions for conservation and much more. Usually, the bill is rewritten every five years, but Washington hasn’t done anything in the usual way lately. A new Food and Farm Bill was expected to be passed in 2012, but instead Congress passed a one-year extension to the 2008 bill–an extension which cut many programs supporting local and regional food systems. After many months of uncertainty about when movement might start on a new five-year bill, we have an answer: Now!

The House and Senate Agriculture Committees released their versions of the bill late last week and are scheduled to debate them and add amendments on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. It is likely that there will be a full hearing on the floor of the House and/or Senate next week.

Both bills propose cutting billions of dollars from SNAP (formerly food stamps), and in each, some critical programs to support small-scale, beginning and minority farmers, farmers transitioning to organic, and others have been cut.

What can you do? This week, the Agriculture Committees need to hear from you! On Tuesday, call Senators; on Wednesday, call Representatives! (You can reach any of them through the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121.)

When you call, ask to speak to the staffer who works on agriculture issues. Ask them to oppose any cuts to the SNAP program, and to support amendments in support of conservation, beginning farmers, and local and regional food systems. (For more specifics and a script, click here.)

Finally: This is the future of our food that Congress is talking about. Don’t let them do it in secret–we have to let them know we’re paying attention. You can watch the hearings starting Tuesday at 10am EDT here. Follow the proceedings and join the conversation on Twitter, #fairfarmbill and #farmbill. You can also tweet at Senate and House Ag Committee members. Make your voice heard!

The post Take Action! Farm Bill on the Move appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

Tanya Fields (left), The BLK ProjeK

Our friend Tanya Fields, founder of The BLK Projek in the South Bronx (NYC) and mother of four, sent us some thoughts on being a radical mother and how being a mom has directed her life and work.

“Being a ‘revolutionary’ mother for me was never a choice. I want to raise them with a level of consciousness and awareness of the types of nuanced obstacles they may face, and I have a responsibility not only to fight those things, but also to build alternatives and demonstrate courage, fearlessness and conviction, even in times of uncertainty or when I am scared as hell. How else will they learn to do the same?

“I look at those faces and I realize that my job as a mother is to also be a warrior, to love my children more than I love myself and to love them enough that I would literally attempt to move mountains and change the world for them. That’s radical motherhood for me; the gift they give me every day is to inspire me to look beyond myself and see the possibilities that we often bury so deep in our psyche and that our inner voice tells us we can’t do. When I see my kids, all I can think of it what I MUST do. They’re friggin’ amazing that way.”

Happy Mother’s Day to all the radical moms out there!

The post Happy Mother’s Day! appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

Coast of Nicaragua

It’s the apex of the dry season on the Isla de Ometepe – an island of approximately 165 square miles which rises majestically out of Lake Nicaragua near the Costa Rican border. The island is host to two active volcanoes connected by a strip of land and, from an aerial view, resembles two melting ice cream cones carelessly dropped on the hot pavement. Until recently Ometepe was one of Nicaragua’s best kept secrets – an island paradise prophesied, according to some historians, by indigenous tribes who traveled from the north in search of a utopia that came to them in a vision. And despite the fact that low-budget tourists from around the world have begun to make the 4-hour trek from Managua to sun on the sea-like shores of Lake Nicaragua and climb through the cloud forests to the rim of the island’s active volcanos, Ometepe is suffering both economically and ecologically – no longer the prophesied paradise marked by insatiable abundance.

I’m visiting Ometepe to learn more about Project Bona Fide, a partner in WhyHunger’s Imagine There’s No Hunger Campaign with Hard Rock International. It is a month or more before the rainy season will bring with it renewed hope marked by an increasing greenness and fullness along the hillsides. For now food insecurity is at its highest: the fields are dry and barren, stored staples of rice and sorghum are dwindling, and fruit trees have only just begun to let loose some of their bounty. Nicaragua, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is the second poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean after Haiti. Two out of three people in the Nicaraguan countryside live on less than one dollar a day. In this context, Project Bona Fide stands out on this small island of 42,000 people as one grassroots effort blazing a trail to a new vision of paradise on Isla de Ometepe.

A 10-year old organization and 43-acre educational farm in the island community of Balgüe, Project Bona Fide was founded by American Michael Judd, an edible landscaper. His goal for the project was “reintroducing biodiversity to support rebuilding ecologies and economies that first feed and nurture the communities growing them.” Project Bona Fide’s long-term vision is to contribute to the community’s and region’s food sovereignty – or the right of the Nicaraguan people to define their own food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries systems and to not have to rely on the imports and exports derived from international market forces.

Project Bona Fide’s approach has three main components: First, demonstrate the possible. Second, learn from and educate the interested. And third, collaborate with the community.

Níspero fruit

Demonstrating the possible
Chris Shanks, one of Project Bona Fide’s co-directors and a young “elder” of sorts within the Bona Fide crew, instructed us as we stood in a cacophonous and bustling Sunday morning market in Granada before boarding the ferry to Ometepe: “You can hold an entire food forest in the palm of your hands.” Thus began our rapid but thorough education in permaculture as an adaptive and agroecological approach to ending hunger. To illustrate his point, Chris led us through the market to select and taste literally handfuls of fruits, each with their particular flavor, history and use from the unfamiliar níspero, bread fruit, tamarind, jacote, mamoncillo, and jack fruit to the more familiar mango, coconut and passion fruit. We then crossed Lake Nicaragua and began our trek up the hillside and onto Project Bona Fide’s farm to witness the evolving food forest.

In the 20-minute walk from the town of Balgüe to the farm’s property line, Chris used the different landscapes we encountered to paint a picture of the impacts of short-sighted, chemical-intensive agricultural practices coupled with climate change. What was once a lush and diverse tropical forest has been mostly clear cut for single-crop farming. Rice and sorghum were planted on small plots up a hillside strewn with large rocks from the last volcanic eruption. No attempt had been made to work within the natural contours of the land, for instance, to create a terraced hillside. As a consequence, soil erosion – up to 2 inches per year – is common and last year’s drought led many farmers to abandon the harvest altogether because there was so little to show for their work. We crossed paths with horses, pigs and cows that had been left to forage since feed was expensive and in short supply. We passed women returning from their long daily trek to the top of the mountain to gather bananas to sell in the village, and men carrying heavy logs on their shoulders for lumber to build their homes or to make furniture.

Chris’ elder status is clearly a product of his experience in designing and implementing permaculture systems throughout Latin America but especially on Finca Bona Fide – Project Bona Fide’s farm — coupled with his almost compulsive need to educate. There are no short answers from Chris. One step across the property line onto Finca Bona Fide and the lessons became as thick as the foliage.

Roberto Mayrena and Chris Shanks of Project Bona Fide, Nicaragua

Permaculture is the philosophy and practice that defines Project Bona Fide. In the simplest terms, permaculture is the design of agricultural ecosystems that examine and follow nature’s patterns. Chris elaborated to speak about the importance of multi-season research and trials rooted not only in the local ecology but in the local cultural and historical context. Above all, Chris said, permaculture involves farming in the “fourth dimension of time” — that is, choosing crops and a pattern of planting them based on their capacity for long-term resilience in the face of climate change. One of the key functions of Finca Bona Fide, Chris said, is “to hold these methods of resiliency in trust,” preserving the knowledge while the methods are learned in practice throughout the community. Project Bona Fide is implementing and providing training in a variety of very specific food-producing methods that address issues of persistent hunger with strong economic potential, including alley cropping, grey water use and water management (“slow it,” “store it,” “spread it”), bio-char soil amendment, agro-forestry (combining fruit trees with field crops), and integrating livestock such as chickens and pigs.

The concept and practice Chris introduced us to that most deeply resonates with my romantic sensibilities is the “guild.” I’ve always wanted to be a part of a guild – a group of artisans working together in the same community, practicing the same craft. In permaculture terms, a guild is a grouping of plants, animals, insects, and other natural components that work together to help ensure their survival. Permaculturists rarely speak of planting gardens or crops; rather, they “build guilds.” In describing the plants, trees and crops we encountered on the farm, Chris spoke primarily of the function of each and its contribution to the synergy within the guild (food producing, nitrogen fixing, cover cropping, pest control, water catchment, among other functions).

It was truly inspiring to witness the evolution of Finca Bona Fide into an abundant life-giving food forest – it was an oasis, dramatized, no doubt, by our visit during the dry season. The size of the plant nursery alone was astounding and oozed of the potential for transforming the entire island into self-sustaining food-secure communities.

Learning from and educating the interested
The 43 acres of the farm are sustained primarily by young volunteers from every corner of the world who often arrive with little more than a curiosity about permaculture or agroforestry and, sometimes, a specific skill to offer, such as carpentry, welding, animal husbandry, cooking or organizing. Mitch Haddad, Chris’ co-director for the past four years, is largely responsible for organizing these diverse interests and skills into guilds of people, maximizing the opportunity for education and the promotion of permaculture, and – importantly — the labor force necessary to maintain the on-farm trials and research, and the future of Project Bona Fide as a center for education and a catalyst for community development.

Mitch struck me as a deeply passionate person, greeting everyone and everything with great enthusiasm and open arms. His long, wiry black hair which was often pulled back in a ponytail that he proudly refused to groom or cut, seemed to have Samson-like powers, fueling his charm and ability to instantly establish rapport. “Mitchito!” the locals called out as he greeted each of them with a warm hug. It was easy to become fast friends with Mitch and understand how his personality, skill set, knowledge and role in Project Bona Fide so perfectly complemented that of Chris. In a sense, they make up their own functional guild.

Mitch Haddad and Marina Menocal of Project Bona Fide, Nicaragua

Project Bona Fide is one of the largest employers on the island. Chris and Mitch do not draw a salary and have established a permaculture consulting business that keeps Chris traveling, while Mitch holds down the fort in Balgüe. The income is used to supplement donations and grants that support the farm’s infrastructural needs, pay local staff – and provide Chris and Mitch with a very simple lifestyle. They sleep in homes on the farm that they built from natural materials – thatched roofs, local timber, composting toilets – with one modern convenience: electricity, which recently came to the island.

During our visit, we watched the construction of an outdoor kitchen for use by those living on the farm, under the guidance of Don David, an older campesino from Ometepe. A renaissance man of sorts and one of the staff paid by Project Bona Fide, Don David could build just about anything from just about any materials. He was busy working and consulting with a French carpenter who had arrived to volunteer. The kitchen cabinets were carefully crafted from local timber and the large sinks would rely on spring fed water and return grey water to the farm; with its view of the volcano and Lake Nicaragua, the kitchen looked like it could appear on the cover of an upscale design magazine. It was both beautiful and functional. Don David was teaching several volunteers about construction with found (rebar) and natural materials (clay and grasses). Three local women who were hired to prepare lunch every day for the volunteers and staff – the cooks who will soon preside over the new kitchen – were working with volunteers to prep the meal. The women grilled small sunfish caught in Lake Nicaragua over an open fire, made beans, rice and plantains, and juice from local fruits. New to them were salads at every meal with greens grown on the farm, accompanied by dried fruit from a passive solar dehydrator. Fresh greens are not a regular part of the local diet, nor is food preservation but, as a part of its co-learning approach, Project Bona Fide is working to introduce them. Other paid staff from the community of Balgüe included a few young men who worked on establishing plant guilds and harvesting, and a young woman responsible for tending the farm’s thousands of seedlings. In all, Project Bona Fide employs 30 people from the local community who bring existing skills, cultivate new capacities and educate those who come to learn.

Collaborating with the community

In addition to employing, learning from and educating local community members, Project Bona Fide collaborates on off-farm and community-driven projects. In part with funds from the Imagine Campaign, Project Bona Fide has partnered with local families and local leaders – such as Roberto Mayrena and Marina Menocal — to establish Mano Amiga and Café Infantil – a community center and a child nutrition program. Mano Amiga – now managed by Don Roberto – is a beautiful natural building in the center of Balgüe housing a library and a women’s sewing cooperative, in addition to a permaculture garden and playground.

After-breakfast tooth-brushing at Cafe Infantil.

A decade after its founding, and with its demonstration farm well-established and employing local residents, Project Bona Fide is now focusing on community outreach efforts. The annual Seed Exchange event took place in April, where hundreds of people from communities around Ometepe gathered to eat, talk, exchange seeds for planting in their kitchen gardens, and participate in workshops that introduce new (or forgotten) species that will bear fruit and contribute to family food security. Leading up to the exchange, Donna – a volunteer organizer from Mexico – gathered ideas from the community about new collaborative projects, such as establishing gardens at local schools, starting a community market, and bringing children and teachers to the farm for “garden-based” learning of all kinds of subjects.

Project Bona Fide’s next big push – essentially what it has been building towards for a decade – is working directly with farmers to support them in establishing diversified farms, or food forests, on their own plots of land. Those who are poised to take on this challenge are the young local men and women who have been working at Finca Bona Fide. After contributing to the building of Project Bona Fide’s 43-acre permaculture farm, they are beginning the transformation of their own plots from a single crop/slash-and-burn method to one that is rooted in the principles of agroecology and its promise of resilience. It’s not only a challenge for these farmers; it’s a risk.

Project Bona Fide will provide support to these trailblazers to mitigate the risks. The transitioning farmers will receive a form of farmer insurance which will include seedlings and other materials, training and on-going support for the three years needed to realize the full benefits of the established farm and food forest, and – as necessary – the cash to make up the difference between what the farmers are able to make from sales of their products during this intensive learning phase and the income they would have made had they grown rice or sorghum. In return, these farmers will pass on seedlings and training to new farmers and pay back the “insurance fund” so the next phase of farmers – all of whom live hand-to-mouth, season-to-season – will be encouraged to adopt new practices that ultimately, farmer-by-farmer, will transform Ometepe into the life-giving island their ancestors foretold.

The post Paradise Lost and Found on the Island of Ometepe appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

We’re proud to say that American folk icon Pete Seeger is a longtime supporter of WhyHunger. How long? Well, he turns 94 today! For just about all of those years, Pete has been standing up and singing out for justice of all kinds and inspiring several generations to work for a cleaner, healthier, kinder and more just planet.

In celebration and thanks to Pete, we bring you a performance of “This Land is Your Land” by Pete and Bruce Springsteen (another longtime WhyHunger friend!) that we promise will make your Friday afternoon.

The post Celebrating Pete Seeger! appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

Investigative reporter Michael Moss caused a stir— and won a Pulitzer Prize— with his 2009 New York Times article questioning the safety of “pink slime,” a controversial product made from low-grade beef trimmings and treated with ammonia to kill E. coli and other bacteria. His story ignited a powerful consumer backlash against pink slime, which forced grocers, restaurant chains and school districts towards greater transparency regarding the contents of their ground beef. He has since shifted his journalistic attention from hidden contaminants to products that are intentionally added to our food.

In his latest book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Michael Moss takes the reader into the conference rooms and laboratories of America’s largest food companies, where experts deftly engineer and market processed foods that contain rapidly increasing amounts of sugar, fat and salt. He begins each part by delving into the neuroscience of taste, describing the effects of these additives on the brain’s pleasure centers. Food processors are able to exploit our biology to create products that consumers find irresistible:

In the process of product optimization, food engineers alter a litany of variables with the sole intent of finding the most perfect version (or versions) of a product. Ordinary consumers are paid to spend hours sitting in rooms where they touch, feel, sip, smell, swirl and taste whatever product is in question. Their opinions are dumped into a computer, and the data are sifted and sorted through a statistical method called conjoint analysis, which determines what features will be most attractive to consumers.

Moss goes on to explain the success of many familiar foods, such as Lunchables, Go-Gurt and Prego spaghetti sauce, and illustrates why, for example, Americans now consume three times more cheese than they did in the 1970s. Unlike the writings of Michael Pollan or Mark Bittman, Salt Sugar Fat is not prescriptive. Moss acknowledges that processed food is part of life for most Americans, but his book is incredibly useful in providing the reader with a better understanding of the forces that people face in the pursuit of a healthful diet.

Excerpts from Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us were published in the February 10th issue of the New York Times Magazine.

* * *

This article originally appeared in our monthly e-newsletter, the Clearinghouse Connection, which facilitates the exchange of information, resources and ideas among emergency food providers. To subscribe, email nhc@whyhunger.org.

The post What We’re Reading: Salt Sugar Fat appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.”

The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA), of which WhyHunger is a founding member, is proud to announce that it is accepting nominations for the 2013 Food Sovereignty Prize. Since 2009, the Food Sovereignty Prize has been awarded to an organization advancing the cause of food sovereignty through education and direct collective action. Prize winners must also have implemented programs and policies that prioritize the leadership of women, indigenous peoples, people of color, migrant workers and other food providers in the global food movement.

Last October, WhyHunger co-hosted the fourth annual Food Sovereignty Prize ceremony in New York City, honoring grassroots organizations from Korea, Sri Lanka, Honduras, and the US. The event, which also featured UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter and music from musician and activist Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman, brought the issue of food sovereignty to a larger audience through widespread media coverage.

The 2013 Food Sovereignty Prize will be awarded by the US Food Sovereignty Alliance, a US-based collaboration of food justice, anti-hunger, labor, environmental, faith-based, and family farming and fishing organizations. The USFSA works to connect local and national struggles for food justice with the international movement for food sovereignty to uphold the right to food as a public good and basic human necessity.

The deadline for nominations is May 20.

Read the Call for Nominations and submit a nomination: www.foodsovereigntyprize.org. French and Spanish versions available.

Past recipients of the Food Sovereignty Prize: www.foodsovereigntyprize.org/the-honorees/

Learn more about food sovereignty: www.foodsovereigntyprize.org/about-fs/

Questions: Email foodsovprize@gmail.com

The post 2013 Food Sovereignty Prize: Call for Nominations appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

Robb recently called the National Hunger Hotline from Houston, Texas. He had spent time in prison for drug possession and had just been released. He was not eligible for many government nutrition programs, so the Hotline advocate gave him phone numbers for several food pantries in the Houston area to address his immediate needs. Robb talked about having difficulty navigating his new life, so the advocate also gave him numbers to several agencies to assist him with housing, as well as information for the National Helping Individuals with Criminal Records Re-enter through Employment Network (HIRE). The goal of the National HIRE Network is to increase the quality and quantity of job opportunities available to people with criminal records, by changing public policies, employment practices and public opinion.

The National Hunger Hotline 1-866-3 HUNGRY and 1-877-8 HAMBRE  (1-866-348-6479 and 1-877-842-6273) refers people in need of emergency food assistance to food pantries, government programs, and model grassroots organizations that work to improve access to healthy, nutritious food, and build self-reliance. Help is available on Monday through Friday from 9am-6pm EST. Hablamos español. The Hotline is funded in part by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.

This article originally appeared in our monthly e-newsletter, the Clearinghouse Connection, which facilitates the exchange of information, resources and ideas among emergency food providers. To subscribe, email nhc@whyhunger.org.

The post Stories from the Hotline: Navigating Life After Prison appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.

Brooke Smith, Director of WhyHunger’s Grassroots Action Network, is on the road this week in the Mississippi Delta, visiting our partner, Delta Fresh Foods Initiative (DFFI). Over the last several years, WhyHunger has supported development of the DFFI network and programming. Brooke sent us photos to show off the exciting projects they’re working on this spring!

Mound Bayou school gardens

The Mound Bayou school district is participating in the first Delta Farm to School project with the support of the Delta Fresh Foods Initiative. This summer, DFFI will partner with Teach for America interns and Delta teachers to develop the first comprehensive Mississippi-focused school garden curriculum, and align it with the new statewide core curriculum guidelines. By the time the school bell rings next fall, Delta students will be growing fresh fruits and vegetables for their school cafeteria and learning critical math, history, reading and life skills each step of the way!

Dorothy Grady-Scarborough and WhyHunger's Brooke Smith

Dorothy is a mentor and champion for farmers and growers across the Delta. A nutrition advocate, school nurse, youth organizer, Delta Fresh Foods Initiative board member, and all-around community builder, Dorothy is currently converting an abandoned Head Start facility into a comprehensive community center. The five structures are being refurbished by student and community volunteers and include a fitness center; a weekly food pantry; a community kitchen; two greenhouses for production of sprouts and greens; a garden planted with lettuce, sweet potatoes, peppers and onions; compost production; free range chickens; and – on the day I was there – some pretty happy kids playing a pro-level game of tag around the maze of truck-tires planted with bright marigolds and more produce!

The post Snapshots from the Field: Mississippi Delta appeared first on WhyHunger: Grassroots Action Network Connect blog.