| Thanks for joining me. We’re all in a situation we didn’t expect to be in at this time, and I hope I can be of help as you try to steer your food-based organizations or companies to their highest use. As always, food is the object, but people and all the other species who share Earth with us are the subjects. |
| The coronavirus pandemic is by no means the first global outbreak of infectious and communicable disease.But it is the first time a global pandemic broke out in the context of global transportation and communication. These systems spread the disease and the word so quickly that it’s the first time global supply chains, global corporations and global messaging from a unified medical profession were central to the experience of a global disease.The pandemic will affect food supplies today, especially for those who suffer from inequity and disadvantage. But the overall pandemic experience will inevitably change the way we do and the way we are with food. This issue of the newsletter will help you do your best to help overcome today’s shortages, and help influence tomorrow’s recovering food systems. I’ve written two articles on the pandemic and worked on several other projects related to the pandemic over the last two weeks, and will share what I’ve learned with you. The crisis of a pandemic shows how our lack of capacity on social media has cost us some influence and ability to engage both supporters and people who need us. As it turns out, the ability to engage and mobilize is the most important expression of influence. We could have pivoted faster to put in place the things that need to be put in place to set up emergency and virtual services, such as direct delivery. Fortunately, it’s never too late to get up to date. I hope my article on how to use Twitter to gain impact during the pandemic will help. Please give it a clap and a share. To intervene and engage effectively, we need to link our tasks with our perspectives so we remain purposeful rather than lose out to panic. I’ve also written an article on how to think strategically on the coming shakedowns in the dominant food system. I lay out a way to think about the Big Food Picture here. Again, please clap and share. It helps get the word out. |
| RESOURCES:Here are some other resources I’ve either been involved with or can vouch for: There’s been a lot of activity to have farmers markets defined as an essential food service. Otherwise, giant supermarkets distributing long-distance and unsustainable food get a total monopoly over food choices. To keep up on efforts around public and farmer markets, please join me and Marina Queirolo at Public Markets on LinkedIn. You need to apply to join (that keeps spammers out), but it’s free and you’ll be admitted quickly. As more people realize their vulnerability to huge and distant food supply chains, they’re thinking of home or community gardening as a way to gain independence and food security, improve their food skills and reduce their costs. Lots of information and engagement services here. You’ll like the high-tech way Seed Voyage can link up home gardeners who have a surplus with neighbours who want to buy their surplus – a nifty way to create neighbourhood food security. You can also learn from other gardeners at a LinkedIn site called Food Gardens. If you’d like to hear two experts talk about the intro and fine points of home gardening, you can’t do much better than this podcast produced by Steven Biggs and his daughter Emma. One guest is Ryan Cullen, who teaches new gardeners and farmers. The other guest is Tom Bartel, an expert in high mountain gardening who loves heating his hot tub from heat generated by a compost pile. Steven Biggs also does some amazing gardening tweets at @TheStevenBiggs And if you want to boost your gardening productivity with a solar greenhouse and related equipment, check out the triple bottom line company, Prosperium. If you’d like to meet an Ontario cheesemaker who champions CSAs and relationship-based food systems, you’ll want to meet Ruth Klahsen of Monforte Dairy on Facebook. Ruth is trying to reach out to people who want direct delivery. For any organization hoping to do that kind of outreach, I think you’ll find this item from Red Website Design useful. Many people are thinking of green infrastructure playing an outsized role in economic recovery once the pandemic is over its worst. A terrific place to start thinking about how local food can be part of green infrastructure is the organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, which puts out this newsletter. And the sharing folks at Sharable share some ways to build the sharing economy during these trying times. I hope there is better news to report on the pandemic in this newsletter next time, and, if not, more useful stuff on what food organizations and companies can do. |