- Street:
- Village Books
- Additional:
- 1200 Eleventh Street
- City:
- Bellingham ,
- Province:
- Washington
- Postal Code:
- 98225
- Country:
- United States
Join Ben Hewitt and Sustainable Connections' Food & Farming Program Manager, Laura Ridenour, for an author event and community discussion about what we can do to support our farmers and entrepreneurs who have embarked on a similar quest as those in Ben's community to create a comprehensive, functional and vibrant local food system here!
“This is a smart and lovely book” - Bill McKibben
Over the past three years, Hardwick, Vermont, a typical farming community of 3,200 residents, has jump-started its economy and redefined its self-image through a local, self-sustaining food system unlike anything else in America. Hewitt tells its important—and inspiring—story.
Like many rural US communities Hardwick, VT, was built on an industry that had packed up its bags and left long ago. With a population of 3,200, a median income 25% below the state average and an unemployment rate 40% higher, the town suffered from a depressed economy for nearly a century. But over the past three years, despite a crippling recession, Hardwick’s agricultural infrastructure has grown explosively, with numerous area food-based businesses starting up. In The Town That Food Saved by Ben Hewitt, we learn of a group of (mostly) young farmers and entrepreneurs who have embarked on a quest to create the most comprehensive, functional and vibrant local food system in North America. In the process, they have brought jobs to a region that desperately needed jobs, and found inventive ways to make a living off the Vermont farmland. The community in Hardwick is starting to prove what advocates of the decentralized food system have been saying for years: that a healthy, local agricultural system can be the basis of communal strength, economic vitality, food security, and resilience in hard times. As Hewitt tells the remarkable story of one town’s transformation, he also shows what these changes might mean for the rest of us.
Born in Vermont and raised in a two-room cabin, by a poet father and a mom who worked on a nearby dairy farm, Ben Hewitt now lives with his family on a diversified, 40-acre Vermont farm, where they produce dairy, beef, pork, lamb, vegetables, and berries. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers.
In this exceptionally thoughtful book, Ben Hewitt explores the complexities of today's food movement from the perspective of the people in one Vermont town who make their living growing food or making it possible for others to do so. Food, he argues, not only means life, but also community. This book should inspire everyone to go back to the land or find their own ways to promote food systems that are better for health and society. - Marion Nestle
This is a book about hope. Ben Hewitt is a master storyteller, weaving together profiles, humor, personal history, and compelling facts to show how and why this effort is needed and the joys and pitfalls of working for social change. Everyone who cares about food, local economies, sustainable agriculture and revitalizing communities should read this book - and then go raise some hell in their own towns to fix what's broken. - David Goodman, coauthor of Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times
Co-sponsored by Community Food Co-op and by Sustainable Connections' Food and Farming Program.
2012 Chuckanut Writers Conference
