FRIENDS

Letters of Support

"It's time to reclaim American agriculture from the fast food chains, pesticide makers, factory farms and genetic engineers. Our heritage foods are not only healthier and sustainable, but they taste a hell of a lot better. Supporting this revolution is easy: buy the right food from the right folks."
-Eric Schlosser

"America's heritage foods have been amply documented to be flavorful, nutritious and filled with stories of their origins, dispersals and survival; what they have lacked is a means to be marketed in a manner that ensures that their traditional producers will not only survive, but thrive. The Center for Sustainable Environments endorses "the bridge" being developed to extend the promotion of these foods into new niche markets that will fully value the traditional knowledge of farmers, ranchers and foragers, and the foods themselves. We are ready to fully collaborate with the Heritage Foods initiative to see that these great foods once again reach American tables."
- Gary Paul Nabhan, Director, the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.

"The producers supplying heritage products are committed to, not only preserving our national agricultural diversity but, ensuring future generations get to experience the fine tastes from our past. Kansas Ag Innovation Center applauds and supports Heritage Foods for its efforts in connecting consumers in search of fine foods and food ingredients to our heritage product producers. We believe that together, we can ensure the continuous supply of these fine foods in America, and in so doing, infuse economic prosperity into some of our rural communities. "
-Vincent Amanor-Boadu, PhD
Director, Kansas Ag Innovation Center, Kansas State University

"Our land, our traditions, and our wild rice are our life. If we don't preserve and maintain these, we will cease to exist as a people. Indigenous people all over the world are losing their natural wealth and biodiversity at an unprecedented pace - losing the essence of their culture. A lot of time, energy, and traditional knowledge go into harvesting wild rice, growing heirloom corn, or raising churro sheep. These things are vital for the health of the land and the health of the people, and communities should be fairly compensated for those things they chose to share. We support the Heritage Foods Initiative for providing a venue for traditional foods to be bought and sold at a fair price for the growers and producers. In doing so, indigenous communities are strengthened not only economically, but also strengthened in culture and tradition."
-Winona LaDuke, Founding Director,
White Earth Land Recovery Project

"The food heritage of the Americas begins with the Native peoples who have thrived here for countless generations. Ceremonies and songs, health and welfare are rooted in Native American food traditions. Tohono O'odham Community Action (TOCA) is delighted to partner with the Heritage Foods initiative to share the culinary and cultural traditions of the Tohono O'odham harvest with a wider audience. By supporting local producers of traditional wild and cultivated foods, Heritage Foods is helping TOCA's efforts to create cultural revitalization, economic development and community health within the Tohono O'odham and other tribal communities. The work of Heritage Foods is a vital effort that TOCA fully supports."
-Terrol Dew Johnson and Tristan Reader
TOCA Co-Directors & Co-Founders

"Since we opened the business in 1982 Zingerman's has been about supporting, selling and savoring traditional foods. Everything in our values and in our vision is tied back to those traditions. The work of Heritage Foods is totally in line with our own work. In preserving traditional foodways we all work to support native cultures, healthy balanced ways of eating, and environmentally sound agriculture that will help to preserve our land and our cooking for future generations. In the food world in which we work this is absolutely essential work."
-Ari Weinzweig - Founder of Zingerman's Deli

“Dear Bill Keener,

I wanted to thank you for the role that you and Sequatchie Cove Farm are playing in the Chattanooga area. The farming methods that you are utilizing combined with marketing to our restaurants and locally owned groceries are giving our citizens and others who visit the opportunity to benefit from unique and locally grown foods.

Your efforts and the efforts of others, to introduce this concept throughout our region, utilizing products from our own food basin is inspiring other farmers in our area and encouraging other restaurants to do the same. Sequatchie Cove is a leader in causing the Chattanooga region to be distinctive in this way.”
-Bob Corker, Mayor of Chattanooga