We've been following the progress of A Growing Culture for some time now, and we're not surprised that someone as brilliant and passionate as Freya is part of their team.  In addition to being jealous of her long lunch breaks in Italy, where she bases her work, we're blown away by how her background as a librarian informs her work in the food system. It never ceases to amaze us how many parallels can be drawn from food to other parts of life.

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

I was immediately drawn to food systems and agriculture when I realized the dimensions included climate change, gender equality, poverty, peasant rights, food sovereignty, information access... and so much more. My background is in information and library science and my research in graduate school focused on information policy. It's remarkable how connected information access is with food systems.

Another thing I love about working with food systems is how relevant the work is. I took a marketing class as an undergraduate and the first day the professor showed us all the famous Maslow hierarchy of needs chart. The most basic needs - the ones our body needs to function and to survive - are physiological. Air, water, and - of course - food. This is a silly example to explain an overwhelming truth. I'm happy to be able to play a small part in changing our inadequate food system.

Also, the second I learned about the food sovereignty movement - the right of peoples to control their own food and agriculture systems - I knew I wanted to work in agriculture.

How did you get your current good food job?

I started working with A Growing Culture (AGC) right after graduate school. Loren Cardeli, Founder and President of AGC, was looking for Board members with an information and library science background. During the recruitment process my current position opened up. It seemed like a good fit for me, and it was. AGC is headquartered in New York City, but we have staff all around the world. I'm based out of Italy where there is a profound cultural connection with food - I'm not sure my colleagues know this but I take a 2 ½ hour long lunch break!

I came into the organization at a moment of incredible growth. Much of the work done over the past five years has been research, so it's been exciting to now make real things happen. Our partner base has grown significantly and we're about to launch our biggest project yet: an open-access digital repository platform of farmer innovations called the Library for Food Sovereignty. The Library is a participatory database where farmers can document and share their techniques in a way that allows others to access them while still receiving credit and protecting their knowledge rights.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?

I have a Master's of Science in Information and Library Science. I didn't know that my research was preparing me for a good food job but it turns out it was. The main thing you learn in library school is to evaluate information resources. My research focused on information policy - specifically from a rights perspective. In a nutshell, information policy is the study of the laws, policies, and regulations that shape our information environment and govern access. This is incredibly relevant in food systems, and my job at AGC in particular, because the right to control your own food system involves having access to information. At AGC we believe strongly in open-access and open-source movements and we make them central to our mission daily.

Another aspect of my work is to raise awareness of our project in academic communities. We believe in leveraging practitioner research and creating more participatory learning environments. The current agricultural information landscape is very top-down. As Director of Information Services at AGC, I manage almost all aspects of development and implementation of the Library for Food Sovereignty. I think a lot about how to document farmer innovations and make them widely accessible online in a meaningful way while also removing cultural, geographic, and language barriers as much as possible.

One thing I work on (that isn't thought about often) is metadata. Metadata increases the value of the digital objects by describing them so they are more visible and searchable online. It clarifies relationships between digital objects in data environments. It's basically digital cataloging. We're planning some interesting crowdsourcing tools as well to make the Library as engaging, participatory, and grassroots as possible. This project is really all about collective knowledge.

In short, my research in graduate school, along with my previous work at the New York Public Library and United Nations, prepared me to work with agriculture's vast knowledge-based resources.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream? 

Information and library science is such an increasingly expanding field that it was hard to know which direction to go. Public libraries - really the backbone of information access and still some of the most-used spaces for poor people - are often seen as struggling to stay relevant in the digital world. This is far from true, of course, but the social stigma of librarianship was hard at times. What kept me going was knowing librarian values - whether you work in a public library or in a more information-oriented position - are pretty much the same: social justice, stewardship, democracy, preservation, education, information access, and public good. And these also align with the core values of the food movement.

Name one positive thing that a former employer taught you that you continue to appreciate?

During graduate school I completed a year-long internship at Watson Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's main research library. The first day of the internship my supervisor, John Lindaman, scheduled a brief meeting with one staff member from each department of the library. It was an incredible opportunity to see all the different working roles within the library such as conservation, acquisitions, reference, and digitization. In addition to meeting heads of departments (that I wouldn't have otherwise met) it made me feel welcome and enthusiastic about starting my internship. The Watson Library staff is really wonderful.

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?

Definitely the food sovereignty movement. Started by La Via Campesina (LVC) in 1993, it has become the largest membership organization in the world, bringing together farmers' organizations from Europe, Latin America, Asia, North America, and Africa. LVC membership is currently 200 million farmers and 164 organizations from 73 countries. As stated on their website, "La Via Campesina is the international movement which brings together millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants, and agricultural workers from around the world. It defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity. It strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature." I see the food sovereignty movement as an opportunity for individuals, organizations, and governments to stand up against 'big ag' and support local production. Food sovereignty ensures that the rights to use and manage lands, territories, water, seeds, livestock, and biodiversity are in the hands of those who produce food and not of the corporate sector. We need to stand together in solidarity and support the world's smallholders. We're part of this movement at AGC and the Library for Food Sovereignty is for this community.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?

To be at the forefront of merging the open access and food sovereignty movements is incredibly rewarding in and of itself. When I think about the difference this will make in the world I'm thrilled to be a part of A Growing Culture.