Freelance writing, Briarpatch Magazine (Food and Agriculture issue), pays $50-$150 per article (Canada)

Deadline: 5 May 2011

Food and Agriculture: Call for Submissions/Involvement

You are what you eat, the old adage goes. And in a time of food-based identity politics, locavores, vegans, hunger strikers, vegetarians and selective omnivores alike are defining themselves by what they eat (or don’t). But we don’t all have the luxury of choosing what we ingest. Lack of access to affordable, nutritious food renders people living in rural and remote areas, in urban food deserts or in conditions of poverty or conflict, reliant on food aid or cheap, highly processed fare. Meanwhile, the people growing our food – from grain farmers in Saskatchewan to migrant agricultural workers in southern Ontario to sugar cane workers in Nicaragua – earn pennies and suffer abysmal working conditions. Talk about biting the hand that feeds us!

But thanks to the universality of food and agriculture issues, it’s also an area in which we are seeing widespread engagement and transformation toward improved sustainability and equality. Briarpatch’s much-praised Jan/Feb 2009 issue, “Eat, play, live: the new food revolution,” highlighted a number of cutting-edge and potent food activism initiatives. Now, two and a half years later, we’re picking up where that issue left off.

Briarpatch is seeking submissions for its September/October 2011 issue, which will explore topics related to food and agriculture. If you’ve got something to contribute to this discussion, then we want to hear from you! We are looking for articles, essays, investigative reportage, news briefs, poetry, humour, comics, artwork and photography rooted in an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist analysis.

We also invite organizations and groups who could use this issue of Briarpatch as an organizing/educational tool to get in touch to discuss opportunities for shared distribution, bulk issue orders and possible in-kind exchanges.

Possible topics include (but are by no means limited to):

-(in)accessibility to nutritious food in northern, remote and rural communities
-the causes and impact of rising food prices
-agriculture and food in our education systems
-the criminal justice system, food production and prison farms
-migrant agricultural workers’ rights and working conditions
-agricultural subsidies and other Canadian food policies
-an anti-imperialist analysis of food aid
-poverty, conflict and food riots
-Indigenous food sovereignty
-the impact of malnutrition and hunger on health care
-diet and identity politics
-urban planning and food deserts
-labeling and licensing for organic and GM-free agriculture
-innovative models of community-based food security initiatives
-humanure, vermicomposting, seed saving, urban beekeeping and other personal food security strategies
-profiles of people, groups or communities engaging these and related issues

Queries are due May 5, 2011. If your query is accepted, first drafts will be due by June 13. Your query should outline what ground your contribution will cover, give an estimated word count, and indicate your relevant experience or background in writing about the issue. If you haven’t written for Briarpatch before, please provide a brief writing sample.

Please review our submission guidelines before sending your query to shayna AT briarpatchmagazine DOT com.

We reserve the right to edit your work (with your active involvement), and cannot guarantee publication.

Our standard rates of pay are as follows:

$50 – Profiles, short essays, parting shots (generally <1000 words) $100 – Feature stories, photo essays $150 – Research-based articles and investigative reportage (generally 1500-3000 words)

Contact Information:

For inquiries: shayna AT briarpatchmagazine DOT com

For submissions: shayna AT briarpatchmagazine DOT com

Website: http://briarpatchmagazine.com