Within the greater scheme of “the food movement”, each person has their own, unique internal food movement. I see this as a food journey, shaped and embellished by individual food stories along the way. Slowly, over the years, I began assimilating information and experiences in a way that allowed me to see the broader connections within the area of “food justice” or “food sovereignty”.
Over the last few years, I’ve had different ways I’ve thought I might be involved in the food movement. My partner and I tried starting a farm project in his hometown in Puerto Rico in 2013, but ran into a several bureaucratic obstacles in participating in the Department of Agriculture incentive programs. Lately, we’ve had some leads to start a program in PR similar to the Southwest Conservation Corps in Salida, CO, which would be part trail building crew, part food corps, with a youth employment/education focus similar to the Urban Roots program in Austin, TX.
One of the reasons I’m attracted to the field of Planning is that I feel it will allow me to better navigate municipal policies, ordinances, and legal considerations to organize a community-based food initiative. I’m also interested in studying food issues at the policy level, so it would be wonderful to find a way to be engaged at different scales.
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