Farm-to-Front Page

The Other Writing I've Been Working On

In addition to writing this newsletter, making The Only Thing That Lasts, and working a bunch of odd and ordinary jobs, I write about food and farming in New Mexico. I’m a big believer that geography matters, and that contributing skills and service locally is only becoming more important in a world where we are encouraged to focus more and more on the whole world all at once. If we encourage people to farm and eat local, why not encourage people to write and read local?

So because I think it’s important, and because I’ve had a blast working these stories over the past year, and I thought I’d share some of the highlights this week.

The Once and Future River

From buckets and barrels to tanks, farmers across the state are putting in the work of preserving traditional Indigenous farms and recovering sacred rivers in a drier New Mexico. Read the full story in edible New Mexico.

A Slice of Manaña

The New Mexico Cheese Guild is melting boundaries and cultivating a new future for artisanal cheesemakers in the Land of Enchantment. This story includes a couple of excellent, cheesy recipes! Read the full story in New Mexico Magazine.

2024 True Heroes: Farmer Joaquin Lujan

This Río Grande Valley farmer shares thousands of pounds of produce with the residents and food banks of Carrizozo, Tularosa, La Luz, and Alamogordo to fight hunger, foster community engagement, and address issues from voter registration to water rights. Read the full story in New Mexico Magazine.

Bonus: Sarah Mock on the Agrarian Future’s Podcast

For everyone out there who’s sick and tired of my writing, but just can’t get enough of hearing to me talk, have I got the podcast for you! I got the chance to have a lovely conversation recently with the folks from the Agrarian Future’s podcast, where we discuss:

• Why land "defies capitalism" - and what that means for our food system.

• The double bind of retiring farmers and new farmers locked out by land prices.

• How the disappearance of agrarian populism has shaped today’s agriculture policy.

• The myth of the silver-bullet tech fix for food and farming.

• Real alternatives to land as a speculative commodity.

• And what it would take to make small and mid-size farming viable again.

Listen to the episode wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thanks for reading and supporting my work. I’ll be back next week with regularly scheduled programming.

—Sarah