The Food Activist Handbook

One person really can make a difference. From starting neighborhood kitchens to connecting food pantries with local family farms, Ali Berlow offers a variety of simple and practical strategies for improving your community's food quality and security. Learn how your actions can keep money in the local economy, reduce the carbon footprint associated with food transportation, and preserve local landscapes. The Food Activist Handbook gives you the know-how and inspiration to create a better world, one meal at a time. A valuable guide packed with practical ways you can support your local food community and create access to healthy food for everyone.



 
Ali Berlow is the author of The Food Activist Handbook and The Mobile Poultry Slaughterhouse, and the co-owner of Edible Vineyard magazine. Berlow founded and served as the first executive director of Island Grown Initiative, a grassrooots nonprofit that encourages and supports a resilient and accessible local food system on Martha's Vineyard. She is the co-host of "The Local Food Report," a public radio program out of WCAI in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, and in Putney, Vermont. Foreword by Alice Randall



Introduction



Chapter 1: Start
• Know your Local Food Community
• Hold a Potluck with a Purpose
• Find Your Issues
• Host a Farmers' DinnerChapter 2: Educate


• Start a Farm to School Program
• Institute Best Practices at Your School Garden
• Get Certified
• Have a Fun-Raiser
• Go to a Conference
• Connect Athletics to Healthy Eating
• Restrict Food and Beverage Advertising in Schools
• Start a Harvest of the Month Program
• Collect Data
• Make Over McDonald's
• Visit Your School Cafeteria
• Suspend Judgment
• Start a College Farm
• Join the Food Revolution
• Celebrate Food DayChapter 3: Build
• Ask What Is Working
• Practice the Foundations of Just Food Systems
• Learn Your History
• Campaign For Agricultural Workers' Rights
• Build a Healthy Organization
• Implement a Conflict-of-Interest Policy
• Ask for Money (and Use It Well)
• Keep Your Good Name
• Create a Food Hub
• Make a Map
• Use Mapmaking Software
• Organize a Farmers' Market
• Create a Permit Program for Produce Cart Vendors
• Join Farm Hack
• Support Humane Slaughter
• Build a Local Slaughterhouse
• Find a Policy Geek (or Become One)
• Become an Interpreter
• Learn from Those Who Came before YouChapter 4: Grow
• Make a Farm Succession Plan
• Green Your City Spaces
• Diversify with Ethnic Crops
• Seek Funding for Commercial Aquaponics
• Save Seeds
• Start a Public Seed Library
• Build a Community Garden
• Grow Free Food
• Keep Bees
• Grow a Kitchen Garden
• Organize a Workplace CSA
• Protect Migrant WorkersChapter 5: Connect


• Mentor Veterans
• Parade Cows Down Main Street
• Throw a Living Local Fest
• Screen a Film
• Plant a Garden at a Jail
• Decolonize Your Diet
• Host Interfaith Discussions about Food
• Bring Together Food and Religion
Chapter 6: Speak
• Be a Witness
• Promote Good Work
• Keep Informed
• Listen
• Learn to Tell Stories
• Hold a Poetry Workshop
• Publish
• Use MediaChapter 7: Harvest
• Create a Gleaning Network
• Harvest Public Fruit Trees
• Extend the Harvest
• Forage Wild Foods
• Start a Fillet Program
• Choose Fish WiselyChapter 8: Feed
• Support a Local Grocery Store
• Start a Food Miles Labeling Program
• Make Food Distribution Efficient
• Become a Food Desert Grocer
• Shop at Your Local Farmer's Market
• Accept SNAP
• Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage
• Start a Campaign to Tax Unhealthy Food
• Start a Food Recovery Program
• Bring Good Food to Hospitals
• Reduce Food Waste at Restaurants
Chapter 9: Cook
• Make Small Changes
• Plan Meals
• Grocery Shop
• St