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Erik: What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?
Cathy: Well, there's different levels of what I do. I think that one of the things that
you could say I do is champion the good food movement, healthy eating, and cooking creatively
at home. So-- "What does it mean to be a leader?" Means engaging people and leading people,
not just by writing about it, but by getting out there and organizing activities, initiating
group -- just engagement somehow, whether that be asking people just questions to answer
to in a Twitter feed or getting together a bunch of people and hosting a great event
for a good cause. So I think that people just need to respond to you and need to be active
themselves, they need to take an action, aside from just watching or reading, in order for
you to be a leader. Erik: Continuing on that, what leaders have
you learned from? Cathy: I've learned from a great deal of a
really good food writer mentors. Also, along those lines, there are lots of local leaders
in the food world, Anna Lappé who lives down the street from here, she's great, she's always
been very active. Same with Marion Nestle she's always on panels, always talking, always
being at events. I don't know her personally, but Alice Waters is such a leader. It's insane
how much she does. Erik: How so?
Cathy: Edible Schoolyard, I was out in Berkeley, California when they were celebrating their
30th anniversary with that project, and it just seems to expand all the time. They add
more functions to this project. There's more cooking courses going on, there's more events
surrounding it, and more groups that are getting involved with Edible -- it's like this thing,
it's like this beast now. So, yeah, she's a huge leader.