Farmers & Activists Stage a
platechanging Over the past five years, a powerful food
movement has taken root across the country. Touchstone books such as Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and films such as Fresh and Food, Inc. have rallied many American eaters from their processed-foods stupor. First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House kitchen garden has inspired tens of thousands of first-time gardeners. Mount Holyoke alumnae are driving these movements, here and abroad. Not only are they active farmers—navel orange growers, peony propagators, cheese makers, and biodynamic vegetable farmers—but they are also foodjustice activists, anti-hunger advocates, and supporters of small-scale farms. Perhaps because of recent campus initiatives such as an active Food Justice Society, a student-run vegetable garden, and classes that tackle agricultural issues, young alumnae in particular are pursuing careers in farming. For example: Annie Sullivan-Chin ’08 delivers Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares by bike for Stone Soup Farm in Belchertown, Massachusetts; Clare Robbins Fox ’04
helps convenience stores in Los Angeles sell fresh fruit and vegetables through her work at the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency; and, in a move that would make British chef Jamie Oliver proud, Sarah Kadden ’01 is changing the landscape of public-school food in Burlington, Vermont, via Shelburne Farms’s Sustainable Schools Project. As I interviewed alumnae for this story, several themes emerged. While success is measured in different ways, everyone agreed that having a firm grasp on the business side of farming is as important as knowledge of crop rotations and conservation tillage. MHC grads are also working to solve the two hot-button food-justice issues of our day—“food deserts” and food insecurity. Business Savvy One of the main challenges for farmers—especially new farmers—is the financial-planning side of things. Or as Eva Agudelo FP’08 puts it, “the nitty-gritty paperwork stuff that farmers aren’t necessarily super excited about.”
By Hannah M. Wallace ’95
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