Perspective: Dreaming New Mexico
By WorldLink Staff | January 29, 2013 | Leave a Comment
How do we restore and strengthen local food systems? Peter Warshall, Co-Director of Dreaming New Mexico, explores how to create ecological and social transformation at the local and regional level.
What is the vision for the Dreaming New Mexico: Food and Farming project?
Peter Warshall: Dreaming New Mexico is a process more than a vision. It is a process in which all players involved in producing and consuming food take time off from the grind and politics to ask: What is it I really want? What do I deeply desire? Why did I get into this? What does my dream and success look like? It is a kind of sanctuary from everyday headaches, maybe even a purification to re-discover one’s original desire.
What is an agro-ecoregion? Why is this such an important frame of reference?
Peter Warshall: When you sit down and say grace or gobble a burger, can you trace in your mind the ingredients that will soon became your flesh and blood? All dreams about healthy food and sustainable agriculture must actually start with some tract of earth. What soils and water grew the food? Who grew it? Dreaming New Mexico calls these landscapes “agro-ecoregions.”
Agro-ecoregions are crucial to the future of local foodsheds because they help each region define what it can produce each season and what it needs to import. They deconstruct arbitrary county and state boundaries and let us, once again, see how diverse landscapes support us in varied but crucial ways. Visit our website to see New Mexico’s six agro-ecoregions and our Methods section on how to define your own.
RSS Feed
RSS Feed
Comments