Nick Routledge@nick_routledge

1/7 In 1999, I co-founded the self-described 'avant-gardening collective', Food Not Lawns. Our team, operating a community soup-kitchen in Eugene, OR, had discerned that the vast structural injustices driving food poverty were calling us to a radical shift in direction.

Copy of tweet here: the UN special rapporteur on the right to food: “Any hope for justice for all in the United States must address people’s food needs and the food system.” Stuart Haniff, CEO @foodbankrgv: "The truth is, we’re never going to foodbank our way out of hunger." Because the root cause of hunger is inequality, any method of boosting food production that deepens inequality will fail to reduce hunger. Conversely, only technologies that have positive effects on the distribution of wealth, income, and assets, that are pro-poor, can truly reduce hunger. -Miguel Altieri The contemporary 'paradise gardening' or 'prophetic earthwork' movement adds a novel twist, embodying a dynamic reconciliation of path, justice and peace in the natural, immediate sequence of a concrete, native journey into Beauty’s deepest ground. How and why do we garden, then?
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Copy of tweet here: the UN special rapporteur on the right to food: “Any hope for justice for all in the United States must address people’s food needs and the food system.” Stuart Haniff, CEO @foodbankrgv: "The truth is, we’re never going to foodbank our way out of hunger." Because the root cause of hunger is inequality, any method of boosting food production that deepens inequality will fail to reduce hunger. Conversely, only technologies that have positive effects on the distribution of wealth, income, and assets, that are pro-poor, can truly reduce hunger. -Miguel Altieri The contemporary 'paradise gardening' or 'prophetic earthwork' movement adds a novel twist, embodying a dynamic reconciliation of path, justice and peace in the natural, immediate sequence of a concrete, native journey into Beauty’s deepest ground. How and why do we garden, then?

Copy of the Food Not Lawns original website logo - a 'Celtic' trinity knot made of worms.
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Copy of the Food Not Lawns original website logo - a 'Celtic' trinity knot made of worms.

Context in the archive

Quoted byRT @nick_routledge: @Plough It's not that US models don't exist—45 yrs. of 'for-and-by-the-community' Food Not Bombs kitchens, hierarchy be damned, prove the point. As for yet deeper eco-cultural coherence? Such efforts produce vast amounts of high-quality compost: a self-reinforcing gift of life to itself.Quoted by@Plough It's not that US models don't exist—45 yrs. of 'for-and-by-the-community' Food Not Bombs kitchens, hierarchy be damned, prove the point. As for yet deeper eco-cultural coherence? Such efforts produce vast amounts of high-quality compost: a self-reinforcing gift of life to itself.Quoted byRT @nick_routledge: @NoemaMag @olliemilman Lawn conversion has a storied history. 25 years ago, at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, 'the grass seed capital of the world', we established the 'Food Not Lawns' project. Here's how our pioneering experiment in deeper eco-cultural coherence worked outQuoted by@NoemaMag @olliemilman Lawn conversion has a storied history. 25 years ago, at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, 'the grass seed capital of the world', we established the 'Food Not Lawns' project. Here's how our pioneering experiment in deeper eco-cultural coherence worked outQuoted byRT @nick_routledge: @NatureSchoolSU @ewahlwriting Thanks for keeping that wonderful blast from the past alive, kind sir. Heather, a creative genius wedded to a starburst of passion, blazing talent and industriousness, was responsible for those. Fwiw, I gave the original Food Not Lawns collective the Twitter treatment recently.Quoted by@NatureSchoolSU @ewahlwriting Thanks for keeping that wonderful blast from the past alive, kind sir. Heather, a creative genius wedded to a starburst of passion, blazing talent and industriousness, was responsible for those. Fwiw, I gave the original Food Not Lawns collective the Twitter treatment recently.Quoted by@PaulaFl3m1ng What a wonderful way to cut your teeth and, my goodness, did you get promoted along the way! No wonder you're having a total blast. For me, similarly, urban lots were a blessed launch-board (into starting food bank farms n' all). I so enjoy your glorious adventuring, Paula.Quoted by@k_shlagel Wonderful! It's how God got me up and running. I went on to caretake and then start food-bank farms.