32. Mark Winne, equitable and sustainable food systems advocate

Sustainable Agriculture Policy with Ron Kroese

Mark Winne is a renowned lifelong advocate for policies to advance equitable and sustainable food systems in the U.S. and throughout the planet.

On this week’s episode, Mark speaks with host Ron Kroese about food policy councils, farmers markets, food banks, farm to school, youth nutrition, and farmland preservation.

Mark grew up in the Garden State, watching gardens disappear, and became sensitive to food production and commercial ag production. He carried that forward, along with a desire to “do something about hunger.”

From 1979 to 2003, Mark Winne was the executive director of the Hartford Food System, a Connecticut nonprofit food organization. Under his direction, the organization started one of the first farmers markets in the country. They also studied food security and food in relation to agriculture.

He is the co-founder of the Community Food Security Coalition where he also worked as the Food Policy Council Program Director from 2005 to 2012.

He was a Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Fellow, a Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Visiting Scholar, and a member of the U.S. Delegation to the 2000 Rome Conference on Food Security.

As a writer on food issues, Mark's work has appeared in the Washington Post, The Nation, Sierra, Orion, and Yes!, to name a few.

Mark is the author of Food Town, USA (Island Press, 2019), Stand Together or Starve Alone (Praeger Press 2018), Closing the Food Gap (Beacon Press 2008), and Food Rebels, Guerilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas (Beacon Press, 2010).

Through his own firm, Mark Winne Associates, Mark speaks, trains, and writes on topics related to community food systems, food policy, and food security.

He also serves as Senior Advisor to the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

The interview was conducted on Feb. 21, 2017.

Links this episode:

“Doing Food Policy Councils Right: A Guide to Development and Action”

Mark’s website

National Sustainable Agriculture Oral History Archive (video link)

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