CFSC Conference in New Orleans Focuses on Sustainable Food and Food Justice

This week hundreds of people are gathering in New Orleans to share projects and ideas around sustainable food. The occassion is the  annual Community Food Security Coalition national conference, and it draws thinkers, do-ers, advocates, and activists from around the U.S. to present community-based efforts that work towards a more democratic and sustainable food system.

The Community Food Security Coalition works towards healthier, more sustainable food systems by advocating for federal policy that supports community food security and provides resources to make food security projects possible. CFSC also promotes  a six-principle approach to food security that includes fostering local agriculture, meeting low- income food needs, supporting self-reliance and empowerment, and addressing problems with an interdisciplinary systems-based approach. In addition to other resources, CFSC hosts the  COMFOOD email listserve that is a great forum for national discussion of sustainable food issues.

Conference speakers, workshop leaders, and attendants have streamed in from every corner of the country, representing a number of innovative sustainable food security projects like the National Farm to School Network, Growing Power, Food First, Belo Horizonte, and Farm Aid. All the big names in food security will be there: Mark Winne, Will Allen, Robert Gottlieb and so many other inspiring leaders. The conference is a meeting of representatives from policy, academia, production, distribution, and every other facet of community food systems. Participants attend classes and networking events for five days of strengthening national ties amongst organizations who are committed to building a patchwork of sustainable food systems in communities across America. The whole event is sponsored by such giants like WhyHunger, The Small Planet Fund, Organic Valley, and the Kellog Foundation. Sounds like a pretty exciting meeting of the minds, doesn't it?

This year, the annual conference theme is "Food, Culture, Justice" and is appropriately set in New Orleans, a city where local food culture is rich, but food security and justice is somewhat in disrepair, though local grassroots food movements show signs of real promise.  Although the conference is a national gathering, a significant portion of the schedule is devoted to highlighting innovative efforts in New Orleans that feature a multi-cultural and regionalized approach to food security unique to the Gulf Coast. In New Orleans, food security is a collaboration between farmers, fishermen, urban agriculture, school-based agriculture, faith-based organizations, and culture, all mixed together to create "the gumbo that unites us all."

I wish I could attend this years conference and pick the brains of community food veterans, but really I'm more exited to observe the connections and projects that will spark and perhaps grow out of this conference. What is most inspiring and truly innovative about the work that CFSC and other such organizations do, after all, is the emphasis on food as community, and shifting the responsibility of sustainable food systems and food security away from a handful of regulators and corporations to the tangible fabric of local community.

photo credit: olycap green bean