A better food system will not fix all … problems. It won’t heal everyone. But if we can take control of the food environment in our inner-city communities—and if we can knit together the broken fabric between local farmers and our cities, and repair the damaged urban land and grow fresh soil and food there—it can provide a chance for people to have lives with greater dignity. Access to reasonably priced, healthy, fresh food provides a defense against the dehumanizing and debilitating effects of diabetes and other food-related illness. A better diet will allow our young people to find more joy in their own bodies and in their minds. Growing food intensively in cities and on the edge of cities will offer the chance for new kinds of work. Creating opportunities for local farmers to connect to urban communities can help heal an emotional rift between the countryside and the ghetto. Not least, planting a small garden in your yard can provide the self-respect of being a little more self-sufficient in a world where we often are made to feel the powerless victims of the Dow Jones Industrial average, or the rise and fall of oil prices, or the employment market, or the fates of large corporations.
Will Allen
The Good Food Revolution
