How do you define sustainable food?
In most of my interviews, this is one of the first questions I ask. “Sustainable” can mean healthy. It can mean community-based. It can mean affordable. It can carry connotations of privilege and call up images of exclusive farmers’ markets and co-ops. Or it can talk about a production system that empowers people to take charge of their own food security.
Northfield encompasses a wide range of organizations working to improve access to sustainable food, whatever that phrase might mean to them. Together they have made significant strides in the community, and they continue to address the issue from diverse angles. It is this variety of work that inspires my project. Through interviews with some of the key workers in these organizations, I hope to further conversations on the state of sustainable food access work in Northfield. I aim to create a gallery of activism -- stories, challenges, successes, collaborations -- both here and on my project's website: www.solvejgwastvedt.com/seniorproject. With all this information available, it is my hope that people working on sustainable food access in Northfield will find it easier to connect with each other and broaden their impact.