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Terra Brockman is an author and speaker on a variety of food and farm topics. She has written extensively on food and agriculture, especially as it affects the environment. A member of a remarkable farming family, Terra is a nuanced observer of, fierce advocate for, and gifted writer and speaker about sustainable agriculture. She comes at her subject from unexpected angles, combining her experience growing up as one of the 4th generation of an Illinois farm family with her expertise in biology, ecology, literature, philosophy and history.
Terra is the author most recently of The Seasons on Henry�s Farm: A Year of Food and Life on a Sustainable Farm, which takes the reader through the many �micro-seasons� on her brother Henry�s sustainable, extremely diverse vegetable farm in central Illinois. Excerpts from the book have appeared in Orion Magazine (�Corn Porn,� August/Sept., 2009), and The Wildbranch Anthology (�Bean by Bean,� Univ. of Utah Press, 2010). Brockman is also the founder of The Land Connection, an educational nonprofit she started when the disconnect between good land use, good meals, and good health became so dire that the situation demanded action on the ground. So when a 21-acre parcel of farmland came up for sale near Henry�s Farm, Terra drove down to the state capital, and incorporated The Land Connection. Within 9 months she had raised $85,000 to purchase this farmland. For the next five years, she served as founding Executive Director of The Land Connection � working to further the organization�s mission of preserving farmland, training new farmers, and connecting consumers with local producers.
Brockman spent her formative years in rural central Illinois, and like many teenagers from small towns, couldn�t wait to get away and see the world. She attended the University of Oregon and University of California at Berkeley before receiving an M.A. in English Literature from Illinois State University. She then worked as a teacher, writer, and editor in Japan for five years, and continued as a writer and editor in New York City for the next 10 years. During those years, she also traveled extensively, from Nepal to Eritrea to Morocco to the Baltics. While visiting �third world� countries, she found she ate better foods than in the U.S. There may not have been a lot, but it was fresh, local, unprocessed, delicious and nutritious.
As Terra gradually returned to her roots in central Illinois, she realized that the best food in the world could and should be grown in the rich soils of Illinois, and should feed Illinois communities first. Through her writing, speaking, and advocacy work she continues to work for healthy farmland, healthy foods, and healthy communities by elucidating the food chain that links the American eater to the American land.
Her website is www.terrabrockman.com.
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