{"id":134180,"date":"2025-04-18T16:04:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/your-field-guide-to-building-hope-and-community-strength-in-todays-world-food-tank-the-think-tank-for-food\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T16:04:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:04:05","slug":"your-field-guide-to-building-hope-and-community-strength-in-todays-world-food-tank-the-think-tank-for-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/your-field-guide-to-building-hope-and-community-strength-in-todays-world-food-tank-the-think-tank-for-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Field Guide to Building Hope and Community Strength in Today\u2019s World – Food Tank: The Think Tank For Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Home<\/a><\/span> \u00bb Policy and Organizing<\/a><\/span> \u00bb Your Field Guide to Building Hope and Community Strength in Today\u2019s World<\/span><\/span>
A version of this piece was featured in Food Tank\u2019s newsletter, released weekly on Thursdays. To make sure it lands straight in your inbox and to be among the first to receive it, subscribe now by clicking\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em>
All the work we do at Food Tank, from highlighting success stories in online articles to bringing food system leaders together in conversation at Summits, is rooted in optimism. I do this work because I know, genuinely, that we all have what it takes to build a better world if we come together and fight for it.
But let me pull back the curtain a bit: This optimism is not like a light switch we can simply flip on. Cultivating hopefulness within ourselves, like bringing meaningful change to our communities, takes dedicated effort! It\u2019s a muscle we have to continually work to strengthen.
I\u2019ll be the first to admit that this might feel daunting. It can seem all too easy\u2014especially these days, as we face a barrage of complex news every day\u2014to let ourselves slip into hopelessness and helplessness.\u00a0But I\u2019m deeply serious when I say that we owe it to ourselves, our communities, and the next generations to push back against that destructive fear and strengthen our sense of hope!
Across food and agriculture systems, there are countless resources that can empower us to take action. So let this be our field guide to finding our voices and raising them collectively for food systems change.
Step One: Let\u2019s get better at clearly articulating the challenges we\u2019re aiming to solve.<\/b>
Marion Nestle, one of my personal food heroines, recently praised the book \u201cOrganizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists<\/a>\u201d as \u201cthe best thing I\u2019ve ever read\u201d about making our advocacy efforts more effective at identifying and addressing the problems we face.
Step Two: Let\u2019s make sure our movements are well-organized and strong from the inside out.<\/b>
A wonderful place to start is the book \u201cTools to Save Our Home Planet: A Changemaker’s Guidebook<\/a>,\u201d which comes out in paperback on April 22. It includes contributions from 40+ inspirational folks who help both new advocates and seasoned activists clearly articulate their cause, shore up the internal logistics of their organizing efforts, and ultimately mobilize through policy, partnerships, legal avenues, and more.
Leah Penniman\u2019s book \u201cFarming While Black<\/a>,\u201d probably one of the most impactful food and agriculture books in recent years, also provides invaluable resources around movement-building through education, direct action, and policy change.
This also means educating ourselves about key issues in the food system, like regenerative agriculture. If you have not seen films<\/a> like “Kiss The Ground” and “Common Ground,” those are good places to start\u2014they’re streaming on Amazon Prime starting April 22, Earth Day. Kiss the Ground also offers\u00a0an on-demand virtual course<\/a>\u00a0to help anyone from advocates to educators to gardeners to citizen eaters more deeply understand topics like soil, water, and the future of climate and nourishing foods.
Step Three: Let\u2019s use data to help target specific solutions that have the most impact.<\/b>
Through Project Drawdown\u2019s climate-focused solutions library<\/a>, you can filter sector-specific practices and technologies that can reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, are scalable and financially viable, and have a net positive impact across a variety of scenarios. Of course, many of the solutions that are most effective at reducing emissions and mitigating the climate crisis are tied to food and agriculture systems!
The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) does amazing work to improve the well-being of people struggling against poverty-related hunger in the U.S., and their resource library<\/a> includes interactive data tools and toolkits to support more healthful and nourishing policies. The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas<\/a> analyzes policy recommendations in countries around the world to reduce food waste and tackle hunger. ReFED\u2019s Insights Engine<\/a>\u00a0offers deep dives into 40+ food waste reduction solutions.
Step Four: Let\u2019s boost relationships with policymakers, community leaders, and other potential changemakers to push for the progress we need to see.<\/b>
Our elected officials are meant to represent\u00a0us<\/i>, so we need to be vocal in communicating the issues we care about. There are plenty of guides, like this one from the University of California<\/a>, that\u2019ll help you call legislators at all levels of government. The Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI-USA) has resources<\/a> to help identify local officials to contact with the goal of challenging the root causes of unjust food systems, and you can join their Policy Action Network<\/a>\u00a0for more ways to take action.
Social media can be a great tool for advocacy, too. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), a grassroots alliance that advocates for policy reform centered around sustainable rural communities and food systems, has great tips for social media advocacy<\/a> and other opportunities to encourage legislators<\/a>\u00a0to support farmers and ranchers.
Step Five: Let\u2019s commit to the meaningful steps we can take as individuals\u2014and recognize where we have to prioritize collective action to stand up for our neighbors.<\/strong>
As citizen eaters, we have power. We can diversify our diets with often-overlooked opportunity crops like amaranth, yambeans, millets, fonio, and other vegetables. We can make sure to support local, self-reliant economies by saving our money in local banks and credit unions<\/a>. We can buy from farms and stores that provide unionized, safe workplaces and proper compensation.
But as author and advocate Raj Patel told us during SXSW<\/a>, \u201cthe scale of change required has to go beyond the shopping cart.\u201d
\u201cWe need to do more than make phone calls,\u201d he told us.\u00a0\u201cWe need to protect communities of undocumented people, we need to protect communities of the working class. And that\u2019s not something you can do by yourself. But you can do it together.\u201d
This is absolutely right. Many people across the world are in precarious political and economic situations right now, and we all need to stand up for one another\u2019s well-being. Building community networks takes time and dedication\u2014just like working a muscle.
When we collaborate to share our goals, organize strong movements, and fight the good fight, we not only build a better food movement\u2014we build hope and optimism, too!
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement?\u00a0<\/i>Become a member today by clicking here<\/i><\/a>.<\/i>
Photo courtesy of Anita Austvika, Unsplash<\/em>
Danielle Nierenberg is President of Food Tank and an expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues. She has written extensively on gender and population, the spread of factory farming in the developing world and innovations in sustainable agriculture.