FOOD & FRIENDS & FREEDOM . . . OH MY!

While we often have food at our events, until this past Saturday, we had never had an actual food preparation WORKSHOP. Sure, we’ve had plenty of meetings, workshops, and events where we TALKED about food but had never had a real “roll up your sleeves and get chopping” sort of gathering. It dawned on us over time that it’s one thing to “talk the talk” of regaining food sovereignty by canning and fermenting our own food, but altogether different to “walk the walk” by yes, renting a church basement equipped with a good kitchen, gathering high quality ingredients, bringing interesting people together and well . . . CHOP, CHOP!

The very best part of the workshop? These folks:

Anybody who has participated in any GMO Free NJ events knows that we love to have fun in all of our activities; from film screenings, hands-on workshops, rallies, public meetings to tabling events, if we can’t infuse joy and enthusiasm into it . . . well, we just won’t do it! One of our all-time favorite things to do is tabling events. I mean, what could be more rewarding than talking to everyone you meet about GMOs? (I’m dead serious–just ask my family). But, the AMAZING variety of people we meet is the big thrill . . . let me tell you about who we met at one recent event. We were sort of mooching off of GMO Free PA’s table at the Philly Greenfest when a young woman walked up to the table to tell us about her upcoming art exhibit. Here’s the invite:

Wow(!), an art exhibit entitled “Subsidized Starvation” about the industrialization of the food supply that features a screening of GMO, OMG!?! Needless to say we were INTRIGUED and added the art opening to our schedule. Abby Elizabeth, the artist, hadn’t told us that her work was created by gluing thousands of individual grains of rice, wheat, barley, and corn kernels as well as pennies (see if you can spot them) and children’s toys onto reclaimed pallet boards to create images that tell a tale of America’s food story from the Dust Bowl era to today’s Biotech takeover of the food supply. Here are two of my favorites: