Farming Four Our Future founder Toril Booker-Fisher is helping people improve their lives by supporting educational programs, community gardens, and local food movements to improve health, self-sufficiency and sustainable practice. Farming For Our Future's environmental programs stress the unique habitats and ecosystems found in Northern Michigan. Their mission is "To foster people's connection to what they eat, where it is grown and how their choices affect their personal health, and the health of their community and planet."
According to Booker-Fisher, "The next few years are kind of a final exam for the human species." She asks whether the same brainpower that gave us coal-powered plants and SUVs can help us to build a world that isn’t bent on destruction, asking, "Can we think, and feel, our way out of this, or are we simply doomed to keep acting out the same set of desires for MORE that got us into this fix? At some level the answer depends on our imaginations.We can and will dream up new technologies—we already have the windmill and the solar panel and the bicycle, all of which would help immensely. But, we need a picture in our minds of the world to come – a picture that shows a world more balanced, less careening. A world of farmers markets and trains, a world where 10 percent don’t live high and 90 percent live low. A world almost, but not quite, beyond imagining.”
Farming For Our Future has launched the Farm Tokens for Education program to help area schools raise money, while supporting healthy eating and our local economy. Petoskey and Harbor Springs, Michigan schools are piloting the program. Each time a family visits a participating business and purchases a local food item, they receive a wooden token, which can redeemed for 5 cents by the participating school. "This program was created to generate awareness of the food choices we make every day," explains Booker-Fisher, "Most people understand how important it is to support our local businesses. We are taking that notion a couple of steps further by focusing on businesses who sell healthy, locally produced products. In addition, we are encouraging an investment in the health of our children." In 2009, Booker-Fisher shared the Farming For Education program as a guest speaker at the Jane Goodall Institute in Chicago. To learn more go to: http://www.farmingforourfuture.org/
According to Booker-Fisher, "The next few years are kind of a final exam for the human species." She asks whether the same brainpower that gave us coal-powered plants and SUVs can help us to build a world that isn’t bent on destruction, asking, "Can we think, and feel, our way out of this, or are we simply doomed to keep acting out the same set of desires for MORE that got us into this fix? At some level the answer depends on our imaginations.We can and will dream up new technologies—we already have the windmill and the solar panel and the bicycle, all of which would help immensely. But, we need a picture in our minds of the world to come – a picture that shows a world more balanced, less careening. A world of farmers markets and trains, a world where 10 percent don’t live high and 90 percent live low. A world almost, but not quite, beyond imagining.”
Farming For Our Future has launched the Farm Tokens for Education program to help area schools raise money, while supporting healthy eating and our local economy. Petoskey and Harbor Springs, Michigan schools are piloting the program. Each time a family visits a participating business and purchases a local food item, they receive a wooden token, which can redeemed for 5 cents by the participating school. "This program was created to generate awareness of the food choices we make every day," explains Booker-Fisher, "Most people understand how important it is to support our local businesses. We are taking that notion a couple of steps further by focusing on businesses who sell healthy, locally produced products. In addition, we are encouraging an investment in the health of our children." In 2009, Booker-Fisher shared the Farming For Education program as a guest speaker at the Jane Goodall Institute in Chicago. To learn more go to: http://www.farmingforourfuture.org/
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