Getting to know our food system: from grower to eater and everything in between

Are you interested in the human, animal, economic and environmental impacts of our current food system – especially now that the COVID pandemic has made us all more aware of food system issues? We've put together a year-long program made up of 1-hr webinars with a focus on New Mexico and an awareness that this is a global concern (2021 UN Food Systems Summit). We promise this (free) program will be informative, interesting, and thought-provoking. Join us as we dive in and we'll all learn together.

Healthy Soil and Farming (March 19, 12-1 pm MT)

We’ve put together a great panel to explore issues in New Mexico around soil health and clean water for our farmers, and how SFSF might support local and regional organizations doing work in this space. The chair of the panel will be Christina Allday-Bondy (New Mexico Healthy Soils) who will be joined by Juliana Ciano from Reunity Resources to talk about the necessity of soil health for growing healthy food and what’s happening in New Mexico with healthy soils and regenerative agriculture. You can listen to a listen to a recording of this webinar here.

Raising and Processing Meat (May 21, 12-1 PM MT)

From the hazardous conditions in meat packing plants revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic, to the lack of small and medium sized slaughterhouses, to misleading country of origin labeling, and the animal welfare and environmental issues with many large meat production operations, there is a lot to talk about. Panelists include Tommy Casados from C4 Farms and Judith McGeary, founder and executive director of the sister organizations Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance and Council for Healthy Food Systems. You can listen to a listen to a recording of this webinar here.

NOBODY CARES ABOUT SUPPLY CHAINS ‘TIL THEY BREAK! (July 16, 12-1 pm MT)

How does food move from source to market? We knew there were issues before the pandemic. What has COVID shown us about the fragility of the food system globally, nationally and locally and what are we doing to improve it? How have we managed to do relatively well here in New Mexico? We will talk with local producers and distributors and hear how they managed or adapted over the last year and what changes they’re anticipating and implementing into the future that will affect us all as eaters. You can listen to a recording of this webinar here.

Food security, food justice and food sovereignty (September 17, 12-1 PM MT)

New Mexico is one of the most food-insecure states in the country, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made this situation worse. We’ll take a look at this problem and talk about what can and should be done for people who have trouble obtaining enough nourishing food to eat. We’ll also talk about the growing food sovereignty movement, driven in large part by indigenous communities. You can listen to a recording of this webinar here.

What can we (non-farmers, non-ranchers) do? (November 19, 12-1 pm mt)

It’s easy to say that a few companies and their food lobbyists have too much power, but companies respond to consumer demand signals, and voters can change policy. It’s not always straightforward though. For example, certification systems are often driven by consumer demands for more information but sometimes these certifications are expensive to implement and end up hurting small-scale farmers. What are the current issues in NM?