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Changemakers Day & Slow Food Nation
August 16, 2008
Changemakers Day & Slow Food Nation: a time to celebrate the good food movement’s arrival on the national stage

On the one hand, a world food crisis, driven by peak oil, peak population, and climate change looms. On the other, spiking interest in renewable energy, healthy food and agriculture, social justice, and the concept of sustainable civilization offers hope. Amidst this dichotomy each of us make choices every day. How do I live? Where shall I focus my energy? What is my vision for the future?

Some will become more cynical and committed to self-preservation, hunker down in the face of challenges, and build a financial, physical, and psychological mote. Some will close their eyes, live as they have, and hope for the best. And some will think of the whole, search for solutions, and lend a hand in collective efforts to transform crisis into opportunity.

The Changemakers Network is comprised of those in the third group.  It grows each day as those thinking about this moment and the future see the centrality of food and agriculture in reorienting human civilization to conform to biological reality.  Changemakers are working for healthy land and seas, healthy plants and animals, healthy people and communities. Changemakers are health makers and the more there are, the better our future will be.

Six hundred and seventy Changemakers are about to arrive in San Francisco for Changemakers Day on August 29th, the first day of Slow Food Nation. This day of dialog and inspiration is a moment to both learn and celebrate. We are engaged in a great task, an essential one that future generations will be grateful was undertaken.

Up to 40,000 will enjoy the series of events that comprise Slow Food Nation. Three hundred reporters will attend and up to 1500 media stories will be generated. Over 330 individual stories (written, audio or video) have already appeared. By the time it is over, the nation and much of the world will know that something big, related to food and agriculture, is emerging in America.

 I am so happy that Roots of Change could join the Slow Food Nation team to make Changemakers Day happen and to assist with the Food For Thought lecture series. I am so grateful to all the brilliant team members from ROC and Slow Food Nation who have worked for months: Ali Edwards, Anya Fernald, Daniel Kramer, Dominic Phillips, Haney Armstrong, Jen Dalton, Lauren Mendez, Morgan Mallory, Naomi Starkman, Nicole Mason, Melissa Tatge, and Suzy Vitello. They are all Changemakers of the first order.

Obviously, missing a special day in August does not mean one is not a Changemaker. You can make food system change every day, wherever you are. However, we do not want to miss you again, so please join the Changemakers Network. By signing on you will be informed, be invited and be involved in some of the most important work underway on the planet right here in California, the most important agricultural zone on earth.

In closing, let me offer a vision that Changemakers Day and Slow Food Nation mark the moment when those engaged in the national effort to improve food and agriculture realize they are being heard and embraced by the nation. May the Changemakers Network grow exponentially. May leaders in every community, every state, and in Washington DC awaken to the urgent need to end the status quo and begin the national effort to retool the food system. And may every Changemaker that comes to Slow Food Nation relax, have fun, and be renewed for the work ahead.  

 

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Rebecca T. of HonestMeat
August 28, 2008
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Votes: +0

Michael- I appreciate that you have my blog listed on your site. However, I am wondering why these excellent workshops for "Changemakers" is not open to whoever wants to attend? Don't you want to broaden the movement? Anyone who makes the effort to attend these workshops should be allowed in. Making a movement "invite only" is only destined to become insular and deemed elitist. If you have space considerations, why not make these workshops first come, first serve instead?

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Michael Dimock
August 29, 2008
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Thanks for the question. Slow Food Nation has two tracks: public and professional on August 29. Food for Thought is a lecture series open to appl on a first come first serve basis. Changemakers Day is for professionals or serious volunteer activists in the good food movement. We faced 2 challenges: space and ensuring certain links were made among related organizations that are currently working on California's Campaign for a New Mainstream in Food, Farms, and Fisheries, about which more information is available on ROC's site, and we had only limited funds. Since we had room for 670, specific connections to make, and only 1 day, we made the decision to invite people and then open it to all for any unaccepted invitations. Very few declined the invitation. Thus we could not accommodate all who would have liked to participate. It was only the first Changemakers Day. There will be more and we will strive as we move forward to include
more and more people focused on meeting the food system challenges. As you point out, if we do not broaden the base, we will fall short of our goals.

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Haney Armstrong
September 25, 2008
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In an effort to open the information up to more people, we've begun posting reports of the panels at http://www.rocfund.org/campaig...ay-reports

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Daniel Kramer
September 26, 2008
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In regards to "broadening" the movement, we also invite everyone to exercise their rights as part of the largest changemakers network in the world - the American electorate. Vote in November, and be sure to visit http://www.fooddeclaration.org to endorse or comment on the Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture. It's open to everyone!

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