Food Tank recently had the opportunity to speak with Twilight Greenaway, Managing Editor at Civil Eats, who will be speaking at the summit.
Food Tank (FT): What inspired you to get involved in food and agriculture?
Twilight Greenaway (TG): I was raised on an organic farm, and food and farming have long been a native interest of mine. I started writing about farmers in 2005, when the local food movement in the Bay Area (where I live) was really starting to take off. Since then, I’ve found that there are countless fascinating ways that food and agriculture can shed light on the world we live in.
FT: What do you see as the biggest opportunity to fix the food system?
TG: Where to start? I think developing holistic alternatives to factory farming (and especially those that require the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics) is a huge opportunity. And the right form of immigration reform could also go a long way toward leveling the playing field for farmworkers in America.
FT: What innovations in agriculture and the food system are you most excited about?
TG: I am excited by folks who are working toward perennializing agriculture and using agroforestry to heal our soil, reducing our dependence on monocultures, and boosting biodiversity.
FT: Can you share a story about a food hero that inspired you?
TG: Delores Huerta is one of my personal food heroes. She co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez and received so much less recognition, but she also had staying power and continues to work for civil rights for farmworkers at 86!
FT: What drives you every day to fight for the bettering of our food system?
TG: I’m a journalist and editor—so I spend my time covering the food system and tell the stories of folks who want to improve it, but that’s just a portion of what I do. I am driven by an interest in complexity and a drive to tell stories that inform and surprise my audience while allowing them to make up their own minds about how to best use the information.
FT: What’s the biggest problem within the food system our parents and grandparents didn’t have to deal with?
TG: The impending end of antibiotics is something we should all be very concerned about—and it’s a reality I am not looking forward to passing on to my son.
FT: What’s the first, most pressing issue you’d like to see solved within the food system?
TG: Ending food insecurity. It may sound hopelessly old-fashioned, but I want to live in a country where everyone always has enough healthy food to eat and the recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (in the short term), as well as a government subsidy system that incentivizes the cheap processed food over fresh fruits and vegetables (in the long term), could and should be re-examined.
FT: What is one small change every person can make in their daily lives to make a big difference?
TG: Consider the system behind your food and read the food news! Remember, on a daily basis, that food is much more than sustenance, entertainment, and a status symbol.
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