So much of social change must come from within. The key to sustainability is change that builds from and reinforces the existing culture. Solutions must be familiar and evolutionary with buy in from those who have influence in the community.
In
Ethan Zuckerman’s post on ‘
Innovating from constraint‘ and his point of "Don't fight the culture" comes into play here, along with
Amy Smith on
rules for design in the developing world and her point about "Listen to the right people".
We can no longer put money in resources towards importing leadership and ideas into struggling communities. It is imperative that we bring innovation and creativity but build the solutions from within.
Here in Dallas, Texas we have we have impending food security issues of our own. We have plenty of ranchers in this region but not enough produce farmers. And, it seems that we
keep paving over the most fertile, loamy soil with parking lots and shopping centers without any regard from our elected officials and leaders.
I began addressing this issue of trying to increase farmer sustainability and increased production by hosting the first Farmers Round table Discussion in 2005. The event brokered conversations between farmers and chefs. Many of the farmers to this day claim that the connections they made to the commercial food industry provided growth opportunities that they are still reaping today.
Today, when planning an event (like
www.bigBANGtx.org ) I weave in an element of food security with the use of my food budget dollars. In this case I am partnering with
Youth Village Foundation to engage the young men of the county detention center to help grow the food for the event.
The lessons I have learned thus far:
1. The bigger community is rarely aware of the lack of food infrastructure.
2. The key to growth is access to new markets. Examples 1: The Farmers Roundtable Discussion helped increase regional food production because of access to a new market. 2: Youth Village Foundation increases their food production by having a large event to grow food for.
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