Brooklyn Farmers and Friends Will Get Down to Grow Food Justice
While others ask how to build a more inclusive good food movement, Henry Harris has an answer: beets.
As a primary organizer of the Food Security Roundtable, Henry has recently worked with Mothers on the Move of the South Bronx to bring a ton of fresh organic vegetables, including over three hundred pounds of beets, straight from farmers in Vermont to communities where such quality produce can be difficult to find.
And now he is turning his energy to another innovative collaboration, working with staff and volunteers from Just Food and other organizations to build a diverse delegation from New York to attend the Growing Food and Justice Initiative (GFJI) conference in Milwaukee at the end of October.
The Growing Food and Justice Initiative came about through the work of Growing Power, Will Allen’s national non-profit. As the successes of Allen and his organization are being lauded by everyone from Bill Clinton to the Macarthur Foundation, this year’s conference will focus on building cross-cultural understanding for systems change.
To get to cross-cultural understanding, you first have to bring people with varied and diverse points of view to the same space. Which is where bio-diesel powered VROOM (Vehicles for Radical Organizing and Other Madness) bus comes in. Having received a grant from the GFJI organizing committee to fund partial scholarships and transportation to the two day event, the Food Security Roundtable will be packing the bus, and possibly an additional van, with thirty activists, community organizers, farmers and young people. Members of the delegation are being selected to ensure diverse representation including urban and rural backgrounds.
Fostering such a community, however, comes at a price. To defray a larger portion of the cost of registration, lodging and transportation, the groups gathering the GFJI delegation are hosting The Brooklyn Farmer’s Ball on October 27th at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Volunteers will prepare dinner largely from donated produce, followed by music for dancing. 
Giving away leftover beets to volunteers organizing the fundraising effort earlier this week, Harris remarked that they had been given by the farmers, “to build a more sustainable food system.” He followed that with “and I think they’ve done that.” That night, even the most reluctant member of the group had at least tried the beets by the end of the evening. They could indeed be a stepping stone on the path toward a more democratic food system.
Go here for more information on The Brooklyn Farmers Ball.
