About the Magazine

Reap/sow is:

• A creative magazine: striking pictures, innovative techniques, thoughtful stories, evocative poems, interesting analysis, and inspiring music
• A publication by, for, or about youth (twenties and late teens)—and welcoming to anyone who wants fresh perspectives
• An exchange of ideas
• A belief in the power of food to drive ecological, cultural, economic, and personal change
• A recognition that a movement without art is like a person without a soul
• A declaration that diversity is strength
• A goal to unify and mobilize; to give voice and visibility
• An understanding that we all “reap what we sow”: our actions have consequences, and we are determined to make a world that is better than the one we inherited.

Reap/Sow is the creative edge of our movement. In its pages, we will find hope and support, ideas and inspiration, humor and joy.

About the Movement

This magazine celebrates a peaceful revolution taking place in schools, gardens, and farms across the Americas and the world. Every day, more and more young people from different backgrounds are growing produce, raising livestock, running farmers’ markets, demanding access to healthy food, and challenging policies that degrade our land and bodies. In doing so, these teenagers and young adults are championing a future based on higher values: of community over commodity; of activism over apathy; of service over selfishness; of production over rampant consumption.

The Food Project’s global initiative (Building Local Agricultural Systems Today) was created to nurture this movement. We bring people together. We share ideas and information. And we create more opportunities for young people to discover their talents and leadership.

If we succeed—and we must—we will see a profound transformation in the way our food is produced and consumed. Vacant lots will become vibrant gardens. Family farms and rural economies will thrive. All people will have access to food that is nourishing.

What’s more, we will foster a social culture that reflects our agriculture, where diversity is strength, where young and old work together, where both interdependence and self-reliance are valued, and where youth have meaningful roles that prepare them to be wise stewards of land and effective caretakers of community.

These are the things we stand for. Our revolution is young, but its roots are old—they stem from the deepest truths of nature and the best aspects of human nature. We will grow.

Here are images and words to honor our work, to refresh the spirit, and to reveal the future unfolding before us.

Sincerely,

Anim Steel
reap/sow Co-founder & Editor-in-chief
Director of National Programs

Ben Handzo
reap/sow Founder & Editor
Food Project Fellow