Sustainable, Humane and Fair Food Consumption

Back To Food System Sustainability Issues

To be landless in an industrial society obviously is not at all times to be jobless and homeless. But the ability of the industrial economy to provide jobs and homes depends on prosperity, and on a very shaky kind of prosperity too. In the absence of growth, greed, and affluence, the dependents of an industrial economy too easily suffer the consequences of having no land: joblessness, homelessness, and want. This is not a theory. We have seen it happen.

I don’t think that being landed necessarily means owning land. It does mean being connected to a home landscape from which one may live by the interactions of a local economy and without the routine intervention of governments, corporations, or charities.

In our time it is useless and probably wrong to suppose that a great many urban people ought to go out into the countryside and become homesteaders or farmers. But it is not useless or wrong to suppose that urban people have agricultural responsibilities that they should try to meet. And in fact this is happening. The agrarian population among us is growing, and by no means is it made up merely of some farmers and some country people. It includes urban gardeners, urban consumers who are buying food from local farmers, consumers who have grown doubtful of the healthfulness, the trustworthiness, and the dependability of the corporate food system—people, in other words, who understand what it means to be landless.

- Wendell Berry

Scott M. Stringer, Manhattan Borough President
Fred Kirschenmann, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
New York City Needs a Foodshed

Post Carbon Institute
The Food and Farming Transition: Toward a Post Carbon Food System

Pride of New York Restaurant Guide

Local Harvest Green Eating Guide

NY State Farms to Restaurants Guide

Slow Food NYC Snail of Approval

NYSAWG New York Sustainable Agriculture Working Group

Buy Fresh Buy Local
Directory of New York family farms, farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture farms (CSA’s), u-pick farms, restaurants, grocers, caterers and bakers, bed & breakfasts, and other businesses that sell locally grown farm products.

NYC Fair Trade Coalition

Fair Trade Certified by Transfair USA

Equal Exchange
Our mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world. Equal Exchange now offers organic and sustainably grown coffees, teas, chocolates, cocoas, and snacks from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States.

Green America Guide to Fair Trade

Food Routes Network

San Francisco Ferry Market
Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture

Eat Well Guide

Green Restaurant Association
Certified Green Restaurant Guide

Chefs Collaborative
A network of chefs and members of the food community that fosters a sustainable food supply through advocacy, education and collaboration.

Council of the Environment of New York City
Why Buy Local?
10 Reasons to Buy Local Food

Greenopia New York

Sustainable Table
3 Easy Steps to Sustainability
Consumer question sheets
Shopping guides

Humane Society of USA on humane eating

Food News from Environmental Working Group
Shopper’s Guide
Features the 12 fruits and veggies with the most and least pesticides so you’ll know which ones to buy organic, and which conventionally-grown ones are okay when organic isn’t available.