Oregon boasts a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy that includes both industrial agriculture and small-scale efforts such as community supported agriculture memberships, farmers’ markets, and community gardens. These smaller, community-based efforts are on the rise as means to nurture community and create local and autonomous food systems. Are these choices as consequential as consumers would like them to be? Does “voting with your dollars” significantly shape our agricultural systems?

This is the focus of “Good Food, Bad Food: Agriculture, Ethics, and Personal Choice,” a free conversation with Kristy Athens on Wednesday, the 26th of October from 5:30-7:00 PM at the Collins gallery at the Four Rivers Cultural Center at 676 SW 5th Avenue in Ontario. This program is hosted by Four Rivers Cultural Center and sponsored by Oregon Humanities.

Athens has an MS in food systems and society from Marylhurst University (2015) and is the author of Get Your Pitchfork On!: The Real Dirt on Country Living. Her food systems work includes presenting at conferences at Chatham and Yale universities, a TEDx Talk, and a chapter in the anthology Food Justice in US and Global Contexts. She lives in Wallowa County, where she works at the NE Oregon Economic Development District as outreach specialist and serves on the board of the Wallowa County Farmers’ Market.

Through the Conversation Project, Oregon Humanities offers free programs that engage community members in thoughtful, challenging conversations about ideas critical to our daily lives and our state’s future. For more information about this free community discussion, please contact the Cultural Center at 541 889 8191.