Resources

Over the past three decades, groups have come together throughout the nation to respond to the issues of sustaining agriculture and local communities. Primary national networks include the Community Food Security Coalition and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture.  Below, you will find a list of key organizations in Washington State. Although there are many organizations that have programs relevant for our region, we've chosen to focus on those with offices in Washington as a starting point. Each of the groups above is part of a dynamic web of programs and projects. We've organized them by categories as a starting point in "mapping" the network.

CHILDREN'S GARDENS

Our hope for the future lies in the children. According to cultural historian Thomas Berry, however, our future is in grave danger because children "experience a world circumscribed by so much human-made material they are deprived of any normal relationship with the earth." The National Gardening Association sponsors KidsGardening.com, which provides excellent resources for parents and teachers interested in children's gardens. Below is a sampling of the organizations in Washington State working to help children re-connect with the earth.

COMMUNITY GARDENS AND URBAN AGRICULTURE

The past 30 years have witnessed a revival of the Victory Gardens of the World War II era. Neighbors are now cultivating gardens in hundreds of communities large and small across the country. Jac Smit of the Urban Agriculture Network envisions these gardens as part of an international "edible...

CULINARY COMMUNITY

One of the most promising trends is the rapid emergence of movements among both chefs and consumers to strengthen bonds with local producers. Celebrity chefs such as Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley led the way, and now local organizations are carrying on this work in local...

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In Economies for Life David Korten, a specialist in international development, describes the emergence of local living economies in the midst of what he sees as a dying global industrial economy. In his essay Conserving Communities, Wendell Berry writes that one place to start this transformation...

ENVIRONMENT

For millennia human beings lived in harmony with the natural cycles of the Earth. Since World War II, however, the industrialization of agriculture has led to a world precariously out of balance. No one has tracked industrial agriculture's threats to the environment more closely than Lester Brown...

FOOD AND FARMING

"A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one's accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes." ~Wendell Berry, "The Pleasures of Eating"Through the food we eat, whether it is from the local farmers market, the grocery store, prepared by chefs or...

LAND PRESERVATION

According to the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, almost 200 acres of Washington's resource lands are developed each day. That's an acre every eight minutes. The American Farmland Trust report Farming on the Edge, shows the areas of the state most threatened by development.American...

HUNGER

Hunger is an ever-present reality for many people in the Pacific Northwest. According to a study by Brandeis University's Center on Hunger & Poverty, in 2002. According to the Washington's Emergency Food Assistance Program, in 2002 the state's 320 food banks provided food for more than...

MARKETING

According to the USDA there are approximately 39,000 farms in the state of Washington. Although this includes a few large, corporate farms, the vast majority are small, part-time operations. In between are approximately 6,000 full-time family farms (in a state with the population approaching 6.1...

NUTRITION

Our bodies are made of food, and the choices of what we eat have a profound affect on the health of our bodies, communities and environment. Nutritionist Marion Nestle, Chair of the Department of Nutrition & Food Studies at New York University, has written two books, Food Politics and Safe...

PUBLIC POLICY

In communities throughout the United States public policies guide decision-making on issues such as health care, education, transportation, and land use. Few communities, however, have food policies to guide deliberation on complex issues such as nutrition, access to affordable food, farmland...

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Agricultural economist John Ikerd presented the keynote address to the 2002 Washington Tilth Producers Conference in Yakima. Entitled The Family Farm on the Cutting Edge, his speech outlined the vision for a new agriculture that is ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just. Below...