Free Three-Day Chicago Food Justice Summit Starts Wednesday
Website Articles Includes Highlights and Links
The 20th annual Chicago Food Justice Summit — a three-day event that is free to attend — begins Wednesday (March 12). The first two days of the Summit will be online; the final session on Friday takes place at Chicago's South Shore Cultural Center.
The event — presented by Chicago Food Policy Action Council in partnership with the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and Cook County Department of Public Health — offers opportunities to engage with thought leaders, grassroots organizers, policy advocates, and cultural workers shaping the future of Chicago’s food system and beyond.
This article provides details about the event, provides highlights of the packed Summit agenda, and has links to register and to view the full program schedule.
Please read, sign up and share.
Fair Food Network's 3/18 Webinar Focuses on Rural Economies
Learn from Network Founder Oran Hesterman and Other Experts
Fair Food Network, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was founded in 2009 on the belief that food can strengthen local economies, support communities, and spark meaningful change. Food brings people together, creating opportunities for collaboration and innovation.
In keeping with that mission, the organization is presenting a webinar titled Strengthening Local Food Economies in Rural America. The free event will take place on Tuesday, March 18 beginning at 11 a.m. central.
According to the organizers: "Join Fair Food Network’s Founder and Resident Champion Oran Hesterman for an insightful conversation with Keith Schneider, Senior Editor at Circle of Blue and contributor to The New York Times and Jon Henry, Owner of Jon Henry General Store.
This Local Food Forum article has a link to register for the webinar.
In Memoriam: Joan Dye Gussow, Visionary for a Better Food System
It's kind of sad to first learn about a trailblazer in your field when they are already gone. Such was the case with Joan Dye Gussow, whose obituary in the New York Times was headlined, "Pioneer of Local Eating, Dead at 96." The subhead: "An indefatigable gardener, she was one of the first nutritionists to emphasize the connections between farming practices and consumers’ health."
My best explanation is that when I launched my second career as a Good Food advocate after I moved to Chicago in 2011, Joan Gussow was in her eighties and not in the news. Prior to my move, my engagement with the better food movement was strictly as a consumer and home cook.
According to the Times obit, Ms. Gussow was one of the first in her field to emphasize the connections between farming practices and consumers’ health. Her book “The Feeding Web: Issues in Nutritional Ecology” (1978) influenced the thinking of the writers Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver and others.
Learn more about this remarkable woman in this Local Food Forum article, which also includes a tribute from Erin Meyer, a nutritionist and founder of the Chicago-based Basil's Harvest non-profit, which takes a science-based approach to understanding the connection between soil health and human health.