Civil Eats

With a new year now here, and new season in the White House on the verge, featuring a President who successfully harnessed a burgeoning movement (one that I like to call the Transparency Movement or the We’re Not Going to Take it Anymore Movement) now is the time to put our potential into action.

It makes sense to turn over a new leaf in the new year by growing the conversation on how we eat, and what to do about it.  In this period, there is a new opening of opportunity ready for the taking.  Fortunately we are in a time of increased need for resourcefulness, when what we say and do about the food system will have a direct impact.  This is our moment; it is time to change the world we’ve been watching from the sidelines.

Therefore we are proud to present for your consideration Civil Eats version 2.  We hope the new site will be easier for our readers to use (and take part in), and will continue the conversation on fixing our food system, which began in October, more vibrantly.

In looking forward at the work ahead for us food fighters, Civil Eats is taking stock of the big changes we seek to push forward in the coming year.  We hope that you will find all that you need here on the site to learn about and take action on issues that are pressing in food policy.

To that end, our new year’s resolution is to keep bringing you up to date on the day to day news on food, and also to focus in on the specific barriers we face:  empowering and bringing new farmers into the fold, cooking good food economically, healthfully and sustainably, learning how to grow your own produce in whatever space you have, rebuilding our local foodways and communities and more.

And we are always looking forward to your feedback — Let us know about the issues that matter to you.  Just this morning a reader wrote me to ask about our future coverage of school lunch programs.  And I will be looking into ways to put more focus on the government programs that determines so much of the food eaten in the United States, as well as supporting stories on healthy kids.

I look forward to the coming months, and the continuing the fight to change the way we eat for the better.

Photo: Depression era quintuplets celebrate decadent birthday

Paula Crossfield is the managing editor of Civil Eats. She is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and is a contributing producer at The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio where she focuses on food issues. An avid cook and gardener, she currently tends a vegetable garden on her roof in the Lower East Side. You can follow her on Twitter for the latest food policy news.