Featured Story: Michelle Ajamian
Michelle Ajamian starts our interview by reminding me of the Indigenous people to whom granary millers like her owe their livelihoods. Her digital email signature acknowledges the “traditional lands and territories of the Shawnee, Osage, Adena, and Hopewell peoples, where I live and work in Appalachia.”
“On this continent,” she writes, “we owe First Nation peoples, enslaved Africans, and farmers from the global majority gratitude for our agricultural wealth and rich cuisine built around corn, beans, and rice.”
“That’s where we have to start the conversation” about staple foods, she says.
Featured Organization: Center for Environmental Farming Systems
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) is a founding partner organization and a national partner organization of the North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN). CEFS is committed to working with other organizations within NAFSN to plan and pursue resources to further the work of NAFSN.
In 1994, a dedicated group of farmers, community members, university researchers, and state government officials, came together to launch the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) out of a shared conviction that a land-grant university–based research, education, and extension program focused on organic and sustainable agriculture could have a significant and essential impact in North Carolina. CEFS’ three key partners, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services recognized a need for testing and adoption of research-based sustainable farming practices in North Carolina.
