All posts of HEAL Staff

Our food is grown and gathered by a variety of people in a variety of ways

The second plank of HEAL’s Platform for Real Food calls for the creation of a farming system that makes it possible for everyone to grow, raise, catch, hunt and forage for healthful food in ways that are environmentally sustainable and culturally appropriate for themselves and their communities. This includes: Independent farmers and ranchers, especially those […]
2 years ago

SoPL is Timely and Necessary: Reflections on Session 6

By Marlene Manzo, Political Leadership Coordinator, HEAL Food Alliance Twelve people joined us for the School of Political Leadership this year. In January, I was filled with anticipation and excitement of what this cohort would be like. Unsurprisingly, we had the pleasure of working with twelve loving and passionate food and farming leaders. Twelve people […]
2 years ago

Raising grassroots voices to take on corporate factory farms

Land Stewardship Project (LSP) is a Minnesota-based grassroots organization that is committed to breaking down power and consolidation in the food farming system while supporting small and medium farmers to build viable, values-based farming and ranching operations. They do this by organizing local campaigns, advocating for better policy on local, regional and federal levels and […]
2 years ago

Why are we calling to phase out factory farming?

What is “factory farming”? The handful of giant corporations that control the meat industry in the US tout factory farming as an efficient, cheap way to produce meat. In reality, factory farming comes at a huge cost to health and safety, the environment, and consumer pocket books, and that’s why we’re working with members and […]
2 years ago

The movement to phase out factory farming

In the previous sections, we covered why factory farming is bad for people, animals and the planet, and laid out facts about the systems and structures that are propping up this harmful system. Luckily, there’s a movement of people that are working towards mitigating the harms of factory farming and phasing out the system and […]
2 years ago

Voting with your fork won’t stop factory farms – but here’s what might

We’ve all heard the rallying cry that eating less meat can mitigate the climate crisis. From Silicon Valley CEO’s to celebrity billionaires to New York Times columnists, the urban middle-class has embraced the idea that going vegan or vegetarian, and switching to farm-to-table shopping habits can reduce our harmful emissions. But the science is mixed: […]
2 years ago

Can we phase out factory farming and still feed everyone?

One of the biggest arguments corporations and decision makers use to avoid taking action to stop harmful industrial farming practices like factory farming is that industrial farming is the only way to grow food at a scale large enough to feed everyone. It’s true that world  hunger has been rising since 2015: 650 million people […]
2 years ago

Campaigns and Comms! Reflections on SoPL Session 5

By Bea Fry, Development Steward, and & Jazmin Martinez, Co-Operations Steward  (Advocates for Urban Agriculture) and members of the Together Honoring Earth’s Mycelia (T.H.E.M.) SoPL team Together Honoring Earth’s Mycelia (T.H.E.M) joined the School of Political Leadership (SoPL) as a team of four: Bea, Jazmin, Ren, & Viviana after undergoing – and still actively in […]
2 years ago
report graphic for blog

HEAL Food Alliance Statement on Congressional Investigation into COVID and the Meatpacking Industry

May 19, 2022 A recent congressional investigation has revealed that Trump Administration officials collaborated with the meatpacking industry to downplay the threat of COVID-19 to plant workers and block public health measures which could have saved lives. In response to the investigation’s findings, Navina Khanna, Executive Director of HEAL Food Alliance issued the following statement: […]
2 years ago