food justice is social justice
The 2023 + 2024 Food Justice Summits are hosted by the new Adirondack Food System Network. Craigardan is a proud founding steering committee member of the AFSN. learn more about the AFSN and the upcoming summit HERE.
THE 5TH ANNUAL FOOD JUSTICE SUMMIT
FEED BACK: Meeting in the Middle
SAVE THE DATE for this virtual event on February 23rd and 24th 2022
Craigardan is pleased to partner with the new Adirondack Food System Network for the 2022 event. Find more information, the call for presenters, and sponsorship opportunities below.
Keynote speaker, Margaret Gray, at the launch event What Does Food Justice Look Like in the Adirondacks
Working For Food Justice
Craigardan was a founding partner of the North Country Food Justice Working Group (FJWG) which was formed in 2017 with Racey Henderson of Essex Farm Institute, Zohar Gitlis of Adirondack Farm-2-School Initiative, and Tatiana Abatemarco of the University of Vermont.
The FJWG was a coalition of nonprofit and for-profit organizations, community members, local businesses, farmers and farm workers, and government agencies who came together to start the conversation about creating a more equitable food system in the North Country.
We wished to address our region's unique issues of accessibility, inclusivity, nutrition, and justice from field to fork. We continue to accomplish this through creative partnerships, ongoing dialogue, and targeted programs, projects, and events such as the annual FEED BACK summit.
How do we create a fair food system? How do we build an equitable future for the North Country? And how do we move our region toward stronger and more accessible, inclusive, nutritious, and just systems for everyone?
These questions frame our annual summit and bring together community leaders, business owners, farmers, consumers, healthcare professionals, educators, students, and more to discuss advocacy, politics, programs, and grassroots organizing. Our goal is to bring creative, scholarly, and frontline perspectives together into dynamic conversation.
What is Food Justice?
Food Justice asks the question "How do we create a fair food system?" The word "food justice" implies that there must be food injustice in our system. We are working together with partners to identify those injustices in the North Country and move toward a stronger and more accessible, inclusive, nutritious and just food system for everyone.
What is a Food System?
A food system is a network of farms, food suppliers, producers, consumers, restaurants, food hubs, distributers, and more. We're all part of the food system in one way or another and food systems are inextricably linked to all social justice issues in our community.
Past Annual Summits
2021 feed back, Move forward: Responding to 2020
The 4th annual food justice summit was held virtually on February 24th, 2021.
How do we create a fair food system? How do we build an equitable future for the North Country? And how do we move our region toward stronger and more accessible, inclusive, nutritious, and just systems for everyone?
These questions frame our annual summit and bring together community leaders, business owners, farmers, consumers, healthcare professionals, educators, students, and more to discuss advocacy, politics, programs, and grassroots organizing. Our goal is to bring creative, scholarly, and frontline perspectives together into dynamic conversation. This year’s theme reflects the urgency of inequities that 2020 laid bare and the challenges we must meet in 2021.
Together we will address the intersections of food justice, racial equity, healthcare, and education in our rural region. We will seek to engage active dialogue between presenters and participants, to identify obstacles, recognize successful initiatives, and engender collaborative networks.
2020 feed back: everyone eats!
The 3rd annual food justice summit was held on February 27th at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY
Previous Food Justice Summit conferences brought together activists, farmers, consumers, and educators to speak about advocacy, politics, and grassroots organizing. This year’s summit singles out a particular strand of these previous broad analyses: poverty and food. This theme reflects the urgency about inequalities in our world, and invites conference participants to work collectively as problem-solvers. We seek to identify obstacles and successful initiatives that address the intersection of poverty and food: activism, institutional change, and policy.
Local Farmers: What conditions are necessary for local farmers to be economically sustainable? What challenges do farmers identify that interfere with the affordability of their products? What laws and policies must change to address economic inequality of farm labor, especially migrant farm labor?
Students: What is the inside story about food insecurity on college campuses? How is this problem best addressed, and by whom? We invite students to share what they are learning about poverty and food in their academic courses, service projects, and internships.
Teachers: K-12 educators share their innovative strategies, methods, readings, and lesson plan content for teaching about poverty, inequality, and food.
Health Professionals: What challenges are health professionals facing that fall within the arena of poverty and food? What initiatives are successful in meeting these challenges?
Reports from the front line—food bank directors, food shelf managers, volunteers will speak about the immediate problems that affect their work. What are best practices that they can recommend to others? Do charity solutions to food insecurity impede or interfere with justice solutions?
2019 feed back: cultivating action
The second annual regional food summit was held on February 28th, 2019 at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY
Food justice is a strong, fair, inclusive, nutritious food system for everyone. The 2018 Food Justice Summit welcomed over 30 speakers, panelists, and presenters. There were over 160 participants, including community leaders, elected officials, teachers, organizations, businesses, farmers, and individuals who came together to ask the big question- What does food justice look like and and how do we create a strong food system together? The Summit began the process of identifying priority projects, working to strengthen existing initiatives, and aiding collaboration.
The 2019 summit built upon last year’s investigation of the North Country’s food system, emphasizing action toward our collective vision of a just and sovereign regional food system. The summit included contributions that instruct advocates, activists, farmers, and consumers on creating long-lasting changes to the food system and reaching out across socioeconomic and cultural differences.
Break out sessions highlighted the work of food justice advocates working locally and from outside the region to:
Teach concrete skills for public, private and cooperative advocacy.
Include actionable elements to create grassroots change.
Address racial and ethnic minorities in the food system.
Explore the role of policy and politics in food justice.
Engage and empower women.
Preference will be given to workshops that train food justice activists.
2018 feed back: growing and sharing the abundance
The FJWG held the first regional food summit on March 1st, 2018 at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY
An Inspiring Start
The term Food justice simply asks: how do we create a fair food system? We welcomed over 30 speakers, panelists and presenters to help us unpack this seemingly simple question and to get us thinking -and acting- proactively as a region. There were over 160 participants, ready to roll up the sleeves and get to work. The audience included community leaders, elected officials, teachers, organizations, businesses, farmers, and individuals who came together to ask the big questions - What does Food Justice Look like here in our region, now, and in the future? And, how do we create a strong food system together? The Summit was one step in the process. Together we began to identify priority projects, worked to strengthen existing initiatives, and find ways to aid collaboration.
Session Topics
Breakout Session topics included:
Migrant Farmworkers: Food Sovereignty and Justice
How Communities Divert Food Waste to Feed the Food Insecure
Land Access for Young Farmers
Farm Worker Pay and Rights: Can Farming and Food Processing Provide a Sustainable Livelihood?
The Farm Bill as a Tool for Social Change
Growing the Farm to Prison Movement in the North Country
Farm to Institution in the North Country
Fighting Chronic Disease and Food Insecurity with a Local Diet
Farmshare Fund and Workshop
Ending Racism in the Food System
Food System Mapping Project. Click to enlarge.