Building a Fair Food System, One Step at the Time

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on January 4, 2010

In 2010, there will be many things that will be fundamentally different for the Rural Enterprise Center. One of those areas that will change is that instead of trying to bring in new families to start new farming operations, we will concentrate on improving on the 2008 and 2009 projects that were used to develop the protocols, systems and relationships between a network of enterprises that working together in a symbiotic relationship can build solid, strong, profitable, sustainable, and fair food and agriculture systems.

2010 will be the year when one or two pilot families take off in a serious way, we will continue to build the support infrastructure, systems and programs needed to ensure their success, but with the idea of also paving the way for other families to join and build the grassroots networks of farmers needed to strengthen the regional food and agriculture systems that can systematically re-build the local infrastructure needed to make our food and agriculture sustainable.

The conditions that affect the systems and resources engaged in food and agriculture (farmers, workers, the land, water, ecosystems, etc.) also directly impact the quality of the final products available to consumers, consequently reducing consumer’s ability to choose local, wholesome, healthy foods.

As we plan our work for 2010, I have been doing some more digging of information and examples of what others have accomplished. One thing that attracted my interest were these videos and slide shows about fair trade in our domestic food and agriculture system.