Book Group: Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons, with Caitlin Hachmyer

The Slow Food Russian River Book Group will be discussing Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons, edited by Justine M. Williams and Eric Holt-Giménez (Food First Books/Institute for Food and Development Policy, 2017).

We welcome contributor Caiti Hachmyer, food movement activist and farmer at Red H Farm in Sebastopol, CA to talk about her chapter, Land Access, Social Privilege, and the Rise of Indigenous Leadership (pp. 112-124). [Download for study purposes.]

About Caiti Hachmyer and the Institute for Food and Development Policy

Caitlin Hachmyer has been recognized as a leader in ecological land stewardship locally by The Farmers Guild, nationally by American Farmland Trust, and internationally by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. As a farmer, researcher, writer and activist, Caiti has long been interested in the way that women, sometimes quietly and with out recognition, lead the food movement. Organizing and hosting an annual conference, Foundations and the Future: Celebrating Women’s Leadership in the Food Movement, has been one way to explore, recognize, and celebrate that leadership. In 2009, Caiti founded Red H Farm, an agroecologically managed vegetable production in Sebastopol, CA.

The Institute for Food and Development Policy, better known as Food First, works to end the injustices that cause hunger through research, education and action. Informed by a vast network of activist-researchers, Food First’s analysis and educational resources support communities and social movements fighting for food justice and food sovereignty around the world. Food First gives you the tools to understand our global food system, and to build your local food movement from the ground up.

To RSVP email the Book Group at sfrrbookgroup@gmail.com for the address. The Book Group is open to anyone who can read, loves cooking a dish, and likes a good conversation.

The Book Group meets the first Thursday of the month, 7 – 9pm in Sebastopol. It’s a convivial dinner. Please bring a dish for four and a beverage.

Membership

To be a member of the Book Group you don’t need to be a member of Slow Food, although – of course – we hope that with time you will become one.

Summary of Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons

Publishers Summary: In recent decades, the various strands of the food movement have made enormous strides in calling attention the many shortcomings and injustices of our food and agricultural system. However, the movement for fairer, healthier, and more autonomous food is continually blocked by one obstacle: land access.

With prefaces from leaders in the food justice and family farming movements, the book opens with a look at the legacies of white-settler colonialism in the southwestern United States.

Ultimately, the book makes the case that to move forward to a more equitable, just, sustainable, and sovereign agriculture system, the various strands of the food movement must come together for land justice.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Eric Holt-Giménez

Review of Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons

During the few quiet spells that punctuated the weeks of exhilarating but exhausting summer work on our farm, I eagerly sought out space to indulge in a powerful new book by Food First. Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons in the United States was released in June 2017. Each writer in this anthology rewarded my time with deep thought-provoking narratives. Cont. Book Review by Patti Naylor, WFAN Board Member.

Bibliographic Information

Title Land justice : re-imagining land, food, and the commons in the United States / edited by Justine M. Williams and Eric Holt-Giménez ; with prefaces by, Winona LaDuke, LaDonna Redmond, George Naylor.

Imprint Oakland, CA : Food First Books/Institute for Food and Development Policy, [2017]

Descript xxii, 283 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Note Includes bibliographical references and index.Subject Land tenure — United States.Commons — United States.Alt Author Williams, Justine M., 1985- editor.Holt-Giménez, Eric, editor.

Alt Title Re-imagining land, food, and the commons in the United States

ISBN 9780935028041 paperback0935028048 paperback
LC CARD # 2016058790
Standard # Perseus Distribution Services, 1094 Flex Dr, Jackson, TN, USA, 38301-5070 SAN 631-760X

Supplemental Reading

Read the latest Backgrounder of Food First, The Capitalism in our Food, by Marion Nestle who says:

“Recognizing the uncomfortable politics behind our food system is essential if we are really going to produce food that is more sustainable, less wasteful, and healthier for body and soul — and in ways that fairly compensate everyone involved.”

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor, of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She holds honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley. Her blog is Food Politics.