“Be joyful/though you have considered all the facts.” Considering this quote, I find a release in them. This quote makes me think of  life. For example, during the academic year, we all have a lot of works. I know the facts that I have to do homework even though I do not enjoy the class or the homework is really tough, long, and boring. But we have to force ourselves to love, enjoy, and get it going by being positive about it. I try to find the benefits of the subject and think that I will  […]

“Be joyful/though you have considered all the facts.” This line from Wendell Berry’s poem not only offered a sense of relief by mentioning the possibility to find joy amongst fact, but it also conveyed the somewhat disheartening realization that fact does not always (or even mostly?) lead to joyfulness. Ideally, I like to think that being exposed to and learning new facts would make one happy (because learning is supposed to be fun, right?). However, thinking about some of the facts that I’ve learned over  […]

After reading this line, I find a feeling of tension. It reminds me of another saying about how the truth hurts. In our readings, I’ve found some of the things that I am learning about in regards to food very shocking. I did not know how food and the distance it travels had an effect on our well-being and health. What I mean by this is that Berry talks about how industrial agriculture now replaces people with machines and how we depend on fossil fuels  […]

“Be joyful/though you have considered all the facts.” I haven’t started my internship or my stay in Weybridge yet, so the hills and farmland of Middlebury still seem like a different planet from my DC suburban neighborhood where food from all over the world is consumed happily and easily. Even so, I have been trying to read up on national poverty and hunger to give myself a macro view of the micro problems that likely await me at the Charter House this summer. Though such  […]

One of the feelings I struggled with during our discussion last Sunday was an overwhelming sense that I had no idea where to begin solving the problems that Berry outlines in his book. In “Conservationist and Agrarian” Berry discusses the incredible power that “land-exploiting corporations” hold over American culture and life (public schools, politics, etc.), articulating the inextricable links between everything. So…I found that the more I thought about it, the more tangled the predicament became. When I returned to the text, though, Berry’s essays quelled some  […]

“Be joyful/though you have considered all the facts” I think that this is one of the hardest things, but often overlooked. This fall I took a human ecology course, and I became aware of so many problems, problems that had I never thought about before. Things like the problem with foreign aid programs, conservation projects that displace people, and the basic capitalist system. I was glad to become aware of all these things, but it was hard to look at my place within it all,  […]

Here is the blog prompt from Professor John Elder: Thanks, everyone, for so boldly and perceptively exploring issues raised in Wendell Berry’s three provocative essays. Here’s hoping that some of the images and questions we considered together will remain helpful throughout the summer. In particular, the ecological concept of the edge, as a fragile but also rich “betweenness,” seems pertinent to our various endeavors as individuals and as a community.   In the latter part of the conversation Joe brought in Berry’s wonderful piece “The  […]

Welcome FoodWorks Fellows to your summer of learning about and exploring food systems. The FoodWorks Team has been working hard to organize a fulfilling program of 5th day field trips, guest lectures and video conferences. In preparation for Orientation on Sunday, please be sure to have read “Bringing It To the Table” Introduction, Chap 1: Nature as Measure 3-10, Chap 2: Stupidity in Concentration 11-18, Chap 3: Agricultural Solutions for Agricultural Problems 19-30 AND Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front   (Poem by Wendell Berry)  […]

FoodWorks Louisville Newsletter June 1-8 2014 Click the headline to view the newsletter  

Middlebury FoodWorks Positions Available for Summer 2014 Apply Now through MOJO Live and learn together about food and food systems while doing cool and meaningful work in your area of interest! Paid positions with 21 businesses and organizations in Louisville, KY and Vermont.  Work in a facet of the food system: microenterprise and economic development; education;health and nutrition; food production, processing, distribution, and marketing; food access and security; food equity and social justice; sustainable agriculture; research and policy; and more. Middlebury FoodWorks is a cohort  […]