YOU ARE THE CREATOR . . . of your own reality.

This week, we were clearing away our holiday cards and found one from our friends at Soul Fire Farm. It's not uncommon for their words to resonate with us, but this seemed to be just what we needed - even a few months after the fact:

Leah saw the sky. For the past 14 years, Leah has held down a full-time teaching job off farm and squeezed her farming and organizing work in around the edges. This often meant leaving the land before the sun came up and returning in the dark of evening. Sad. Now that she only works part-time off farm, she can turn her face toward the sun daily. Leah is still combating the inner judges that define worthiness in terms of over-commitment, working hard to undo working too hard. She turns to plants for guidance in this matter - like tomatoes. We must cut off tomato suckers (side shoots) so that the apical meristen can thrive and fruit, directing energy to one central stem, not getting spread too thin in too many directions, which could lead to disease and collapse. In 2017 we are scheduling days off and sticking to it.

We hope that we all have the opportunity to be the creators of our own reality.

JUST FOOD CONFERENCE TICKET GIVEAWAY
Last week we asked readers for feedback on how we could increase our support for diversity on Good Food Jobs. This is a topic that we hold near and dear; it was four years ago when we first brought this up via the newsletter, but it is more pertinent now than ever. And we are glad to see companies that we admire doing the same.

Although we founded GFJ because we knew there were others out there who shared some of our fundamental beliefs, we also think it's vital to push our own boundaries. We field daily requests from those of you who want to see us represent diversity in not only race, but geography, age, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. The good food world is vast, and we want our offerings to reflect that.

Here are some of your ideas for how we can approach that goal:

• highlight local organizations who are already posting jobs with you to find the people who are really making the industry function and thrive.
• advertise with educational institutions that serve students in less elite settings, more career-focused / vocational settings, or those with a higher percentage of minorities in the student body.
• a publication can be more diverse in its viewpoint if they hire more people of color on the editorial side - it’s important not only to cover a more diverse spectrum of people, but to hire a more diverse set of people to conduct those interviews.
• give companies the opportunity to share the ways they promote diversity by offering an optional "what diversity means to us" field on your job postings. Even those who don't opt to use it will be prompted to give it some thought, and job seekers can use it to find companies that share their values.

Thank you to all those who shared your insight and ideas. If you didn't win the random drawing, but you'd still like to be a part of the conference weekend, we'd like to help: tickets to the networking reception are discounted at $25 each for the GFJ community, using the code GoodFoodJobs2017 at checkout. We hope that you'll make good use of them. 

To expanding opportunities,

Taylor & Dorothy
Co-Founders, Good Food Jobs