Food Solutions New England longtime participant and Process Team member Niaz Dorry updates us from the road.
Greetings from Charleston, South Carolina!
I’m writing you at the end of the first week of America the Bountiful Tour – a two-month cross-country trip to visit as many rural fishing and farming communities we can. The reason for this trip is to kick-start my new role as the director of both the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) and NAMA. As someone who learns by doing and seeing, I felt the need to connect to those we work with – specifically in rural communities – on the ground, where they work, live, dream, and often struggle.
After a brief stop in Washington, DC to celebrate NFFC at a reception hosted by some of our allies including Rural Coalition, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Western Organization of Resource Councils, and Food and Water Watch, we headed south. I’m so grateful for being sent off with so much love and support from our friends in DC. I’m honestly not sure how best to describe how we are being received, and how I’m feeling toward all the people, communities, and ecosystems we have visited so far. If this past week is any indication, “love” will emerge as the best word to capture all that is happening around us.
I must admit I have always guarded the use of the word “love” as I felt it gets thrown around a bit too carelessly. Everyone I’ve met on this trip is changing my mind about what the word love really means – love for people you barely know or may never meet, the land, the water, the soil, the animals, the community, the planet, the ocean… the ecosystems that sustain all of us.
