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ORAL HISTORY

Marianne Cufone

Recirculating Farms

Marianne Cufone has worked in food, farming, and fishery policy and advocacy for all of her adult life. At the Center for Marine Conservation (now the Ocean Conservancy), she blueprinted species dependent fishery management plans. In 2005, she began contract work for the Gulf Restoration Network (now Healthy Gulf), an advocacy group working in the Gulf of Mexico. That job eventually led Cufone to New Orleans, where she launched Recirculating Farms in 2010. Using an aquaponic model that combines fish and plant farming, cohabitating in constantly recycled water, Recirculating Farms aims to raise the awareness about this type a farming, a way to grow lots of food within a limited footprint. Originally located in the Central City neighborhood, the organization’s homesite offered community classes and events in a lot that had once sat overgrown and blighted. Recirculating Farms also delivers weekly crates of food — vegetables, fruit, eggs — directly to consumers. Additionally, Cufone directs the Environmental Law program at Loyola University, New Orleans.