Local to Global

On my way from New York to Alaska at the beginning of September, I stopped in Glendive, Montana to meet farmer and food sovereignty activist, Dena Hoff. I have sat in many meetings throughout the world with Dena and was so excited to have the chance to visit her farm. Dena has been farming on Sand Creek Farm since 1981. She grows beans, corn, hay and alfalfa, and raises sheep and pigs. She also has an extensive kitchen garden that feeds her and her family through the winter. Dena is active with the National Family Farm Coalition and La Via Campesina to defend the rights of the farmers and the integrity of good food.

"Food sovereignty is something I never named. It is something I grew up with and thought that is the way life should be. We always ate out of Grandma’s organic garden. It was always my intention to feed ourselves as much as possible, the way my Grandma fed us. She is the one who taught me about food preparation, canning, soap making and about being self-sufficient. All I wanted to be was a farmer. While raising my children, we had at least one garden, and we hunted and fished. I taught my kids and they are pretty self-sufficient.

"I thought most people lived the way I did from their gardens and the land. And then I found that even my farm neighbors weren’t living that way. The farm agencies told them it was not efficient to grow their own food, milk a cow and it was much better to buy it at the grocery store. That was in the late 70’s and I started to question the whole system. Now, you read reports that nutritionally, food is much poorer today than it used to be. We don’t pay attention to healthy soil, and then we don’t have rich soil full of nutrients. Soil is becoming a medium to hold plants upright, and not a living entity in its own right. If we are looking for the earth to feed us, then we need to take care of it.

"Unfortunately, it takes dead bodies and people dying from e coli and listeria to see that the food supply is not as safe as they think it is. Because of convenience, people have given up their responsibility for a safe and nutritious food supply. Now that food nutrition deficiencies, like obesity and diabetes, are an epidemic in this country, people are beginning to pay attention. But the infrastructure is gone, and so are the people – the family farmers and fishermen. The corporate food system has destroyed the small infrastructure. They pay off Congress to pass rules in the guise of food safety, but it is really about getting rid of competition- small producers and small processors.

"I want people to know that the policies we have in this country are keeping people from making a living. Under the corporate dominated political system, people have to be willing to get involved at the policy level if there is going to be better food for everyone and economically and environmentally sustainable rural communities. I want people in Montana to know that a lot of their same concerns and dreams and hopes are shared by people around the world. I want people to have a focus that goes from local to global and realize that everything is connected.

"People need to change their own diets and reform will work its way up the political chain and hopefully generations after me things will be better. If we all give up hoping that things are going to be better then things are never going to get better. We have to believe that by standing in solidarity around the world, it can happen. But Americans want instant gratification and we want it easy. That has to change."