I’m happy to announce that as of March 1st, I officially became the Co-Founder & Director of The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming. The Institute is part of Glynwood, based in Cold Spring, NY. I’ll still be living and working from New York City, but I also have an office at Glynwood, a 225-acre farm on some of the most gorgeous land in the Hudson Valley. We officially launch toward the end of April – we’re hoping April 20th will be the date – it’ll depend on when the website can launch.
As part of the Institute, we have an Innovation Program, where we’ll be supporting Innovators in the sustainable food and farming field – the first Innovators are Anna Lappe, who’s Diet for a Hot Planet is out now, and myself.
I’ve pasted a one pager below and will make sure to put up the press release for the launch when we get it finalized. And there might even be a Glynwood blog sooner than later, where I can also keep you up to date with what we’re doing. Stay tuned!
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The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming
Mission: To address critical issues in food and farming by supporting the work of existing and emerging leaders and leveraging their collective creative power to develop and implement innovative marketing and communications strategies for solution-based projects.
The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming is an incubator for ideas and action, a “creative action tank” that develops and implements realistic solutions to critical issues within the food system. The Institute collaborates and networks with like-minded groups to elevate the sustainable food and farming movement into mainstream awareness as well as to provide tools and resources to help individuals and groups working on projects in food and farming.
The goals of The Glynwood Institute are to:
- Support the work of selected Innovators—action-oriented creative thinkers who are leaders or emerging leaders in the sustainable food and farming field;
- Develop and implement creative marketing and communications projects that help shift the US food system away from industrial agriculture to regional production of healthy, sustainable food accessible to all;
- Initiate selected projects related to the work of the Institute.
The Glynwood Institute is comprised of Innovators, individuals who have proven success in some aspect of sustainable food and farming or who are gaining recognition as potential future leaders. Innovators are selected by the strength of a sustainable food or agriculture project they have developed or launched. The Institute supports projects created by the Innovators and also helps develop marketing and communications strategies to educate, raise awareness about, or expand the Innovators’ work.
In addition, the Institute develops projects to raise awareness and educate both individuals and groups about sustainable food issues, with an emphasis on providing tools and resources to people and groups within sustainable food and farming. The program also helps groups collaborate and network more effectively.
To broaden and enrich the discussion around sustainable food and farming, as well as to explore and develop innovative marketing and communication tools, the Institute hosts meetings, retreats and workshops throughout the year. Invited participants are selected for their ability to bring a fresh perspective to Innovators’ projects, help identify emerging issues in food and farming, and assist in developing strategic marketing and communication approaches and solutions. Along with stimulating dialogue, Institute retreats result in tangible products, from white papers to project plans to proposals.
The Glynwood Institute officially launches in April 2010. It is co-founded by Judith LaBelle, President of Glynwood, and Diane Hatz, formerly of GRACE where she founded and directed Sustainable Table, was executive producer of The Meatrix movies and co-founded the Eat Well Guide. For more information, please email Diane at dhatz (at) glynwood.org.
The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming is a division of Glynwood, a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation based on a 225-acre farm and meeting facility in New York’s Hudson Valley. Glynwood’s mission is to help communities save farming.
