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A Crisis in Awareness & Participation: Michael Ableman

by Jon Steinman on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

in Food Policy

The New Resilient now features Deconstructing Dinner, an award-winning weekly radio podcast about local and international food issues brought to you by Kootenay Coop Radio CJLY FM in Nelson, British Columbia. You can download it here, stream it here or subscribe to it on iTunes.

Michael Ableman is a farmer, author and photographer. Since he moved to Canada from the United States about 10 years ago, Michael has been creating a diverse model of how a farm can become a community unto itself.

Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island is a working 120-acre historic organic farm. The farm currently produces strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, asparagus, melons, greens, roots, a wide range of annual Mediterranean vegetables, as well as a new orchard of diverse varieties of peach, plum, apple, pear, quince, persimmon, and cherry.

Beyond Foxglove’s status as just a farm, the site is also home to The Center for Art, Ecology & Agriculture, which was established to demonstrate and interpret the important connections between farming, land stewardship, food, the arts, and community well being.

In February 2009, Michael was hosted in Nelson by the Kootenay Local Agricultural Society. As he addressed the Nelson audience, Michael communicated a long list of ideas that he believes all communities must adopt to ensure that we can “feed the future before our choices are narrowed for us”. He concluded his talk with a descriptive glimpse into the images and stories that fill his 2005 book, Fields of Plenty.

Kootenay Co-op Radio recorded his talk.

Photo courtesy Michael Ableman.

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