Former Food First Intern Scours the Urban Food-scape to Help Build Community

By Rick Jonasse

Food and agriculture have been intertwined with community and culture for thousands of years, but the modern food economy with its industrial production and large impersonal grocery chains, not only distances people from the source of their food, but also from one another.

Asiya Wadud was recently featured in a recent New York Times article for on her efforts to forage in the urban landscape for fruit that is not being eaten. She is connecting people in a 200 member fruit exchange network called Forage Oakland.

Forage Oakland is just one of many community efforts springing up across the country to exchange food locally outside of the money economy. Forage Oakland brings people together to sell, trade, or barter food that would otherwise just fall to the ground. Perhaps more important than not wasting food, are these connections that are established between people who might not otherwise meet if they did all of their shopping at grocery stores.

In addition to Asiya’s story, the New York Times story has web links to several other local efforts around the country:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/dining/10Fruit.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3&...
The San Francisco Magazine also features Asyia’s project in their July 2009 issue
http://www.sanfranmag.com/