Happy Spring to all!
While it can have its difficulties, winter in the northwest Atlantic area provides a time to slow down a bit and prepare for the burst of energy Spring can be! This past winter I spent some of this time digging deep into the who/what/where/when/why/how of what I'm aligning myself within the work that I do. It's been a lot of good reflecting on the incredible people in this giant movement to protect the ocean commons, and it has been a struggle to determine where to direct energy due to all the good work happening.
This March in particular has been a whirlwind of many groups, projects, businesses, etc all aiming for very different end goals.
Many of these connections were incredibly uplifting and exciting, and leaves me wondering 'how can we support this project more?' And more importantly, 'how can the lessons learned here be brought to others who would benefit most from hearing this?'
However, in my visit to the Boston Seafood Expo, a lot more discernment is needed to find the people who will elicit that same inspiring reaction. Naturally, a major function of the expo is so the larger side of the industry can make new and bigger deals with other large players in the seafood space. That said, there are pockets of fantastic small/medium scale fishing folks scattered throughout, and very notably, a strong presence from an international campaign pushing Taiwanese authorities to guarantee WiFi access to fishworkers aboard vessels that are sometimes out at sea for a year at a time.
Prior to the Expo some people from that campaign, from the Local Catch Network, and from our network got to meet over a good meal and share stories with each other. There were about 7 different time zones in the room, representing fairly different sectors of work, yet when talking about what is being done to build up our communities, there are many more similarities than differences being discussed. Globally there are communities who know how to provide for their people, how to feed their people, and how to heal their people, but the capability to do so is constantly being threatened. Here in the US, we struggle against the privatization of, well, everything. The land, our food, our medicines, our art, and so much more. Time has shown many times over that once something is privatized, it will be consolidated, it's a matter of when, not if.
But at this dinner gathering, wandering around and hearing the efforts people are putting into rebuilding/healing their communities was inspiring. It's a little funny too, because hearing a conversation about providing HACCP training doesn't seem like something that'd be spoken of in this grandiose kind of way, but I imagine similarly without digging in, providing WiFi for fishworkers doesn't sound all too powerful. But in each case, both are providing crucial tools for people to begin building and begin working more with their communities and taking those next steps into creating the new practices that are going to change the ways we interact with our food, and thus each other, for the better.
As for the expo itself, it really highlighted the importance of all the efforts that were present at this dinner. Seeing the egregious displays of the lack of care for the ocean, the creatures within it, and the communities adjacent spelled out just why all this organizing has to be happening.
This Spring, I hope new connections and refreshed energy has been seeded for you all and that you all keep driving forward and building with us and the communities around you.
Peace,
Jon Russell
Food Justice Organizer
