Stephen Munshin, Publisher |
Brian Halweil,
Editor |
Brian Halweil has been at the forefront of the growing "buy
local" campaign. As a student at Stanford University, Brian worked
with California farmers interested in reducing their pesticide use,
and set up a two-acre student-run organic farm on the Stanford campus.
In 1997, he joined Worldwatch Institute as a Senior Researcher and
John Gardner Public Service Fellow. At the Institute, Brian writes
on the social and ecological impacts of how we grow food, focusing
recently on organic farming, biotechnology, hunger and rural communities.
He describes the evolving local food movement in his recent book Eat
Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket. Brian's
work has also been featured in the international press, and he has
testified before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the
role of biotechnology in combating poverty and hunger in the developing
world. He has traveled throughout Mexico, Central America and the
Caribbean, and East Africa learning indigenous farming techniques
and promoting sustainable food production. He works on Edible East
End publications from his home in Sag Harbor, New York, where he and
his wife tend a home garden and orchard.
Stephen Munshin has been involved with food from many levels, "from
the lowliest cook pulling up mats in the kitchen at three am, to
the head bartender pulling up mats behind the bar at four am",
he says. He has worked in restaurants from San Diego to the East
End of Long Island and points in between. Looking for a way to keep
traveling, he began importing Nepalese outerwear, which turned into
a full-fledged clothing line designed by his wife and produced in
India, China and New York. Ten years later, Stephen is still traveling
but not in the same way. He now has two sons, which has increased
his desire to live and work locally. And realizing that the clothing
business will not be experiencing a move to local production, he
felt he should contribute to the "buy local" movement
on a personal level instead, as the publisher of Edible East End.
"Living where there is a bounty of local harvest, running a
local honey business, and working with my knowledgeable and persuasive
friend, Brian, to produce a publication that promotes buying local
seemed like an opportunity not to be missed. This is also giving
me the chance to combine my skills in computer graphics, sales,
and scheduling, acquired during a decade in the fashion business
with a decade in the restaurant world, and that doesn't come along
too often," he said.
The seed for Edible East End was planted when Brian Halweil met
Edible Communities founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, and
Larry Yee at a seminar Brian gave at University of California at
Santa Barbara in 2004. Over lunch, they all agreed that the East
End of Long Island was experiencing a culinary renaissance and represented
a perfect region for an Edible publication. Doing Edible East End
would also complement Brian's existing work with the local Slow
Food convivium, farmers' market, and regular food column for the
local newspaper. Feeling somewhat overextended, Brian was elated
to find that his friend and neighbor, Steve Munshin was looking
to start a new business venture, seeking a more satisfying and value-driven
work and lifestyle for himself and his family. Brian and Steve aired
the idea among local chefs, winemakers, farmers and others, who
endorsed the idea. "With some short-term nostalgia", says
Brian, "we now remember that the decision to go ahead was clinched
while Steve and I were together raking oysters on New Year's Eve
day for a party that night. We realized then our own personal interest
in preserving such local flavors, and the rest will soon become
history."
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