While Sue has always been passionate about food and its impact on our culture, her first stirrings of activism arose after being stuck in a Johannesburg hotel for 7 days after the September 11 attacks. A member of the USA Women’s Whitewater Rafting Team, Sue was on her way home after a wild week of racing on the Zambezi River when the World Trade Towers were hit.
All American citizens were quickly quarantined in the hotel because of anti-American hostility in support of the terrorist attack. Just the week before the USA insulted the South Africans World by withdrawing its delegation from the World Conference against Racism in Durban. September 11 changed us all; for Sue it was a time to examine her privileged lifestyle, consider the reasons why the world was so angry, and inspire her to find a way to make a difference.
Obviously the way food is produced and consumed has a great deal to do with our physical health and the environment, but it also contributes to economic and social injustice. Because food is our most basic need- and one we all have in common- it is one of the most powerful tools we have for change. From disconnected families and local communities to environmental degradation to global control of commodity markets, the way we eat impacts everything.
The intention of The Ecogastronomy Initiative is to research and communicate the most effective means for thoughtful citizens to create a wave of social revolution that will guarantee a healthy, sustainable, delicious, more humane world, everywhere, everyday.