http://desertification.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/unicefs-seed-has-germinated-in-the-saharawi-refugee-camps-taleb-brahim-willem-van-cotthem/
The presence of family gardens in an Algerian refugee camp is one of the clearest incarnations of food I've seen in some time, despite its unfortunate circumstances. No hype and no frills; just a group of people taking stock in the land they live on, and truly working to understand it for the sake of their own sustenance. It's a reminder that beyond all of the debates and popularity battles around GMO, organic, free range and 15 different kinds of peanut butter ("natural" or not), food is essentially and ultimately something that should build community and nourish, not tear down or detract from common health.
That only comes into sharper relief for families who have to make a new home together in a strange land, the unforgiving desert no less.
I try - and hope for all us - to remember that base nature of food at every meal.
