Meet the newest batch of Food Warriors, a passionate and diverse bunch ranging in age from 19 to 63 and originating from South Africa, Germany, and every corner of the United States! Men, women, students, parents, farmers, professional photographers, and even a professor…. all of them joining us in our efforts to document the food system!
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Ryan is drawn to studying and working in the food system…he particularly admires farmers, as they “hold a special place in the food system and in society because they are directly and intimately engaged in feeding themselves and take great pride in food they produce.” Read more… and more…
While attending UMASS, Sam was able to combine her passion for journalism with her desire to educate herself and others on industrialized agriculture and food politics. “Knowing where our food comes from brings us closer to our community, our environment, and allows us to make educated decisions about what to put in our bodies,” she exclaims. Read more…
Ali’s quest for good food began at the ripe age of 14, when she decided to become a vegetarian. At the time, Ali’s decision was not necessarily based on any substantial research on the benefits of such a diet, but instead on an adolescent desire to step outside the norm. Read more…blank
Lauren Telfer was attracted to Real Time Farms because she found many of her passions within this organization. She felt called to the organization… “RTF appealed to all of my passions that I have uncovered thus far in my life.”
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Ashlee is a 21-year-old adventure seeking, animal loving, environmental enthusiast. While studying at USF, she had the privilege of living in South Africa for five months through a study abroad program, which provided her an amazing growth opportunity and a chance to see the beauties of a new country. “I learned how to continuously be open and put myself out there,” she says.
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Currently
Lauren Ladov is finishing up her last year of studies at Emory University and is working hard on a honor’s thesis involving stop motion animation with food. In the future she dreams of owning a tomato farm by the time she’s 60, designing a park, and opening up a farm/cafe fusion.
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Jess emphasizes, next to making her own baby food from local organic produce, that exposing him to the land is an experience she wants to pass on as it was part of her own upbringing. It’s no small feat to dream up a childhood with strong ties to the land in an urban setting.
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Connie Horne (whose favorite dish includes her home-raised rabbits!) originates from Germany and wants to get more acquainted with the local food system in Atlanta. She has a ‘thing’ for the lettuce from
PodPonics, describing it as “soft, velvety, melt in your mouth…different from ground grown lettuce.”
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Donning neat white specs and a fuzzy navy scarf, I instantly knew
Brittni was a cool chick. Over the next few years, Brittni is considering law school or getting a degree in arts administration. It is clear that when she finds a passion, she follows it. Whether it be a full-time marketing position, interning at the CDC or law, Brittni finds a way to put her efforts towards what she believes in. And right now, that’s food.
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Robyn Metcalfe seems to have lived a hundred lives from all the things she’s accomplished and titles she’s held like management consultant, mother, wife, farmer, and my favorite, President of the Gloucestershire Old Spots Pigs of America. After talking to her for just a short bit of time, I can tell she is one of those rare breeds of people who acts on her curiosities, inspiring others to do the same along the way.
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At first, the mission of Real Time Farms was what really excited
Roxanne about the internship; that is, to make traceable food information available to just about anyone. But as the internship started rolling this past week and her first visit arrived, Roxanne’s excitement shifted a bit. In talking to the farmers and vendors, she discovered that more than anything she wanted the chance to “hang out and talk with them.”
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Mary-Rose Fisher is in the thick of her new career as a certified organic beef farmer in Central Texas. Few of her friends know she was a city girl, born and raised in San Diego, California, but that hasn’t stopped her from being a successful beef farmer near Austin. Her cattle are all grass-fed, grass finished, 100% organic. Nothing half-way about this lady.
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Molly’s arrival in Austin was a decision somewhere between whim and strategy. She knew she wanted to explore her interest in the food system further and see how it might translate into a career, but she wasn’t quite sure whether that meant doing the admittedly arduous work of farming, or if it meant a role as a sort of mouthpiece and advocate for local farming and ranching.
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Lee Carella recently moved to Athens from Tallahassee and is working on a Masters in food science at UGA in Athens. She loves to garden, both for taste and a heightened appreciation of food. She starts her seeds in her bathtub under a happy light before planting them in her backyard garden and cans her excess produce.
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Moving around has been part of
Natalie Machado’s life since a young age and it is easy to sense her energy and excitement in finding new experiences and opportunities. She hopes to explore how Atlanta’s food system is structured and to what extent urban planning, community gardens, and local food are at work in her favorite city.
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Food provides strong ties for strangers and friends alike to gather around meals or trade at markets. Food is also part of our identity, and in the end everyone has to agree: you are what you eat. It is this basic and essential social instrument that
Elizabeth hopes to study while eventually pursuing a PhD in Anthropology.
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Nun is a graduate student at Golden Gate University majoring in marketing and advertising. She is originally from Thailand which caught my attention right away! I immediately wanted to know the similarities and differences of food and transparency in Thailand compared to America.
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Colin Peacock, in Cambridge, MA, is a trained chef and professional photographer. He has done extensive research in the Amazon Jungle of Ecuador and throughout Wyoming and is interested in fly fishing, Qi Kung, Tai Chi, cooking, woodworking, and painting.
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Brittany Wade, in Moraga, CA, is a student at St. Mary’s College of California, studying anthropology. She has done extensive coursework on refined sugar and farmers market analysis and just returned from a month studying food systems in Nicaragua.
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Can’t wait to see what these Food Warriors get out of their experience these next few months! We are uber delighted to have each and every one of them!
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Stay Fresh,
Lindsay Partridge
Kernel Colonel
Hecho con amor. That’s the tag line for Dos Lunas Artisan Cheeses, and according to Austin cheesemaker Joaquin Avellan, love is the first ingredient in all of the cheeses he makes. Familial love took him back to his native Venezuela for several months to help care for his father’s dairy farm after an illness, and love of queso fresco came home with him when he returned to Austin several months later. He recalls some of those first weeks back in the states, waking in the night convinced it was time to rise and milk his father’s cows and get started making cheese. The fresh raw milk, the traditional cheese, and the culture of love associated with them – he wanted to find a way to bring authentic Venezuelan cheese to Texas.
While his father regained his health, Avellan spent 2.5 months in Venezuela studying his father’s process for making queso fresco. Having set up video cameras to record everything happening in the dairy so his father could view it from his home while he recovered, Joaquin became curious himself. He studied the video feeds piece by piece. Over time he came to know where inconsistencies happened, and he developed methods for refining the process to be very stable and predictable. He took these ideas with him when he returned to his home in Austin.n
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