Food Justice Voices

WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series was created to support and amplify the voices of people working to regain control of their communities’ food system. Telling their own stories, these individual leaders and communities are on the front lines shaping the movement to alleviate food insecurity and build food justice across America. WhyHunger believes that telling one’s story is not only an act of reclaiming in the face of the dominant food narrative of this country, but also an affirmation that the small acts of food sovereignty happening across the country add up to a powerful, vital collective.

american

Pathology of Displacement: The Intersection of Food Justice and Culture

In new Food Justice Voices issue Pathology of Displacement: The Intersection of Food Justice and Culture, storyteller, healing practitioner and food justice organizer Shane Bernardo tells his story about how displacement has affected his ancestors and family within the Philippine diaspora, and how he is working to reclaim ancestral subsistence practices that connect him to land, food and his roots. In this piece Shane breaks down what was lost due to colonialism and how we can fight to get it back to truly achieve a real “food justice” movement. Download the full publication here.

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american

El Suerño Americano – The American Dream

Food Justice Coordinator Kathia Ramirez shares her perspective on the journey of immigrant farmworkers pursuing the American dream and shares why food justice is important on every level. “In the U.S.’ quest for cheap goods and labor, we have intentionally created a need for undocumented, low-wage workers. As we pump cheap food into the Latin American and domestic marketplaces, it is the workers, who we lure here to help us produce this food, that suffer the consequences, coming up against many barriers to securing their own daily meals.” Download the full publication here.

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Food Justice Voices Delta Fresh Grassroots Support

Social Justice for Lunch: Delta Fresh Foods Initiative at the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference

Continuing WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series, is “Social Justice for Lunch: Delta Fresh Foods Initiative at the National Farm to Cafeteria Conference.” This piece explores the work of the Delta Fresh Foods Initiative (DFFI) to transform the food system in the Mississippi Delta region into one that is more equitable and just for all.

Social Justice for Lunch gives insight into an equity-based approach to address the lack of access to nutritious food and the direct connection to decades of persistent poverty and oppression. DFFI was created from the ground up by organizers who recognized the importance of having a justice lens on their work and the necessity to include marginalized voices at the table. Together they chose to use Farm to School projects to strengthen the local food economy, promote healthy lifestyles and build social equity for Delta residents.

“With limited staff and a large chunk of geography to impact, we chose school, community and church gardens as a focus for projects to build the supply and demand in communities.” –Judy Belue, Director DFFI

Hear directly from the voices of Deborah Moore, DFFI Board Chair, Judy Belue, DFFI Director and Brooke Smith, WhyHunger’s Grassroots Action Network Co-Director who has worked with WhyHunger to support the development of the organization since 2009. Learn about what it takes to build an inclusive, collective power for long-term change and the framework that can be replicated going forward to ensure everyone has access to nutritious food.

Download and share the full publication in its entirety.

Chant Down Babylon Leadership Grassroots Support

Chant Down Babylon: Building Relationship, Leadership, and Power in the Food Justice Movement

Leaders from three dynamic grassroots organizations, convened in Detroit to initiate a conversation and develop action around collective leadership by people of color in the food justicemovement.

In the latest addition to WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series, Malik Yakini, Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, D’Artagnan Scorza, Ph.D., ExecutiveDirector of the Social Justice Learning Institute, and Nikki Silvestri, Social Innovation Strategist and former Executive Director of People’s Grocery, discuss the complexities of the role of African-Americans in the food movement, leadership dynamics, their hopes for the future of the food movement, and why they are trying to “work themselves out of a job” to indicate true reform.

“It’s not really revolutionary to wake up in 20 years and continue addressing the same problem over and over again…the revolutionary thing to do is to make sure that I help usher in the revolution so that what I’m doing is no longer needed.”― Dr. D’Artagnan Scorza

Lifting up some of the unspoken dynamics at play and supporting the healing of the communities where they work, this conversation offers a window into the minds of these dynamic community leaders who approach the work with love and honesty.

Download and read the full conversation at “Chant Down Babylon: Building Relationship, Leadership, and Power in the Food Justice Movement.

Agroecology

Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness

At the U.S.-Mexico border, surveillance cameras and military check-points are part of everyday life for those that reside in the surrounding communities. In the borderlands, many workers and their families are exploited and marginalized; ancestral farmland is taken away and replaced with destructive industrial agriculture, and fresh, healthy, local food is not readily accessible for most residents. In this second publication in WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series, “Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness,” Alma Maquitico writes that agroecology, or the practice of developing farming systems with low-input ecological principles, can empower people to claim their right to healthy food.

“If human rights is the theory,” writes Alma, “agroecology is the practice.” Alma works with low-wage communities in the borderlands as an educator, farmer and leader in grassroots farming initiatives. As a Mexican woman, she writes from personal experience that, “Forced migration…is characterized by the urgent need to free ourselves, to find a way out of poverty and exploitation, an urgent quest for self-determination.” Agroecology, she writes, is a framework for creating community-based farm systems to develop and support that self-determination, and at the same time builds a new model for agriculture that succeeds outside of the industrial agriculture paradigm.

Download and read the full report at “Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness.

Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert

Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert

A firsthand account of community-led groups and individuals in the Sonoran desert borderlands who are building dignity through struggle from the ground up.

How can people in the borderlands be healthy and empowered when their communities are under attack? This question is at the core of cesar lopez’s “Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert,” the first publication in WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series.

This thought-provoking piece goes beyond the issues of hunger, addressing the border region’s wide disparities in political and economic opportunity. Did you know 60 percent of fresh produce eaten in the U.S. is grown in Mexico? That produce is transported directly through the borderlands, while farmworkers in Mexico suffer from hunger, inhumane labor standards and poor wages, and people living on both sides of the border go hungry.

But there is hope. cesar’s piece provides a firsthand account of community-led groups and individuals in the Sonoran desert borderlands who are blazing another trail — fighting to heal from the trauma, working to put an end to a destructive system and building dignity through struggle from the ground up. “The impact of these homegrown leaders is hard to measure,” says cesar, “and the importance of change coming from the ground up cannot be overstated.”

Read more and download “Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert” written by cesar lopez, Sonoran Desert Latino Food Justice Network, Tucson, Arizona.

Cultivating International Solidarity through Popular Resistance

Cultivating International Solidarity through Popular Resistanc

Rural family farmers and farmworkers unite with international social movements for land, water, food and energy

Introduction Rural family farmers and migrant farmworkers are at the front lines of the climate, fossil fuel, fracking, water and land struggles across the U.S. They have been increasingly uniting with urban and international social movements to build resistance and change the system that has consistently failed them.

My reflections on the evolution of international solidarity in the U.S. are based on conversations with social movement leaders. The contextual analysis, history and practical methodology for building international relationships to change the system from a local to international level were highlighted in the conversations. The topic of international solidarity is then explored in the context of two evolving and personal experiences that highlight the intersections of water, energy, land and food connecting international solidarity to concrete action in the U.S.

Download and read more: Cultivating International Solidarity Through Popular Resistance. By Angela Adrar President, Ecohermanas, Community Relations for the Rural Coalition and Collective Leadership of La Via Campesina North America

Food Justice Zine

Food Justice Zine

Explore a compilation of drawings, poems, photos and short stories that elevates the voices of youth food justice activists, as well as intergenerational narratives around youth power within the context of the United States.

The newest addition to WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices, The Youth Food Justice Zine offers a platform for young food justice activists to share their stories, publish their creative work and express their views on the state of our nation’s food system. This compilation of drawings, poems, photos and short stories elevates the voices of youth food justice activists, as well as intergenerational narratives around youth power within the context of the United States.

Download and read more: Food Justice Zine

Issue I

WHAT FERGUSON MEANS FOR THE FOOD JUSTICE MOVEMENT

Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014 by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. What does what happened in Ferguson and the subsequent response that followed have to do with the food justice movement?

Risk Ratios reveals that Black people were killed at 10 to 40 times the rate of whites or other minorities at the hands of the police. Research also forecasts that Black and Brown children are now expected to live shorter lives than their parents, due to diet-related disease. This special series of WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices is a bold attempt to explore the way in which police violence and institutionalized anti-black racism is deeply interconnected to food, land and Black bodies. What is the connection between the death of Black people at the hands of the state (police shootings) and the death of Black people at the hands of the corporate food system (diet-related disease/land displacement/redlining)?

Download and read more: What Ferguson Means for the Food Justice Movement

Chant Down Babylon Leadership Grassroots Support

Chant Down Babylon: Building Relationship, Leadership, and Power in the Food Justice Movement

Leaders from three dynamic grassroots organizations, convened in Detroit to initiate a conversation and develop action around collective leadership by people of color in the food justicemovement.

In the latest addition to WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series, Malik Yakini, Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, D’Artagnan Scorza, Ph.D., ExecutiveDirector of the Social Justice Learning Institute, and Nikki Silvestri, Social Innovation Strategist and former Executive Director of People’s Grocery, discuss the complexities of the role of African-Americans in the food movement, leadership dynamics, their hopes for the future of the food movement, and why they are trying to “work themselves out of a job” to indicate true reform.

“It’s not really revolutionary to wake up in 20 years and continue addressing the same problem over and over again…the revolutionary thing to do is to make sure that I help usher in the revolution so that what I’m doing is no longer needed.”― Dr. D’Artagnan Scorza

Lifting up some of the unspoken dynamics at play and supporting the healing of the communities where they work, this conversation offers a window into the minds of these dynamic community leaders who approach the work with love and honesty.

Download and read the full conversation at “Chant Down Babylon: Building Relationship, Leadership, and Power in the Food Justice Movement.

Agroecology

Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness

At the U.S.-Mexico border, surveillance cameras and military check-points are part of everyday life for those that reside in the surrounding communities. In the borderlands, many workers and their families are exploited and marginalized; ancestral farmland is taken away and replaced with destructive industrial agriculture, and fresh, healthy, local food is not readily accessible for most residents. In this second publication in WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series, “Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness,” Alma Maquitico writes that agroecology, or the practice of developing farming systems with low-input ecological principles, can empower people to claim their right to healthy food.

“If human rights is the theory,” writes Alma, “agroecology is the practice.” Alma works with low-wage communities in the borderlands as an educator, farmer and leader in grassroots farming initiatives. As a Mexican woman, she writes from personal experience that, “Forced migration…is characterized by the urgent need to free ourselves, to find a way out of poverty and exploitation, an urgent quest for self-determination.” Agroecology, she writes, is a framework for creating community-based farm systems to develop and support that self-determination, and at the same time builds a new model for agriculture that succeeds outside of the industrial agriculture paradigm.

Download and read the full report at “Agroecological Approaches to Poverty, Migration and Landlessness.

Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert

Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert

A firsthand account of community-led groups and individuals in the Sonoran desert borderlands who are building dignity through struggle from the ground up.

How can people in the borderlands be healthy and empowered when their communities are under attack? This question is at the core of cesar lopez’s “Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert,” the first publication in WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices series.

This thought-provoking piece goes beyond the issues of hunger, addressing the border region’s wide disparities in political and economic opportunity. Did you know 60 percent of fresh produce eaten in the U.S. is grown in Mexico? That produce is transported directly through the borderlands, while farmworkers in Mexico suffer from hunger, inhumane labor standards and poor wages, and people living on both sides of the border go hungry.

But there is hope. cesar’s piece provides a firsthand account of community-led groups and individuals in the Sonoran desert borderlands who are blazing another trail — fighting to heal from the trauma, working to put an end to a destructive system and building dignity through struggle from the ground up. “The impact of these homegrown leaders is hard to measure,” says cesar, “and the importance of change coming from the ground up cannot be overstated.”

Read more and download “Dignity, Hope, Wellness and Action: Against All Odds in the Sonoran Desert” written by cesar lopez, Sonoran Desert Latino Food Justice Network, Tucson, Arizona.

Cultivating International Solidarity through Popular Resistance

Cultivating International Solidarity through Popular Resistanc

Rural family farmers and farmworkers unite with international social movements for land, water, food and energy

Introduction Rural family farmers and migrant farmworkers are at the front lines of the climate, fossil fuel, fracking, water and land struggles across the U.S. They have been increasingly uniting with urban and international social movements to build resistance and change the system that has consistently failed them.

My reflections on the evolution of international solidarity in the U.S. are based on conversations with social movement leaders. The contextual analysis, history and practical methodology for building international relationships to change the system from a local to international level were highlighted in the conversations. The topic of international solidarity is then explored in the context of two evolving and personal experiences that highlight the intersections of water, energy, land and food connecting international solidarity to concrete action in the U.S.

Download and read more: Cultivating International Solidarity Through Popular Resistance. By Angela Adrar President, Ecohermanas, Community Relations for the Rural Coalition and Collective Leadership of La Via Campesina North America

Food Justice Zine

Food Justice Zine

Explore a compilation of drawings, poems, photos and short stories that elevates the voices of youth food justice activists, as well as intergenerational narratives around youth power within the context of the United States.

The newest addition to WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices, The Youth Food Justice Zine offers a platform for young food justice activists to share their stories, publish their creative work and express their views on the state of our nation’s food system. This compilation of drawings, poems, photos and short stories elevates the voices of youth food justice activists, as well as intergenerational narratives around youth power within the context of the United States.

Download and read more: Food Justice Zine

Issue I

WHAT FERGUSON MEANS FOR THE FOOD JUSTICE MOVEMENT

Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014 by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis. What does what happened in Ferguson and the subsequent response that followed have to do with the food justice movement?

Risk Ratios reveals that Black people were killed at 10 to 40 times the rate of whites or other minorities at the hands of the police. Research also forecasts that Black and Brown children are now expected to live shorter lives than their parents, due to diet-related disease. This special series of WhyHunger’s Food Justice Voices is a bold attempt to explore the way in which police violence and institutionalized anti-black racism is deeply interconnected to food, land and Black bodies. What is the connection between the death of Black people at the hands of the state (police shootings) and the death of Black people at the hands of the corporate food system (diet-related disease/land displacement/redlining)?

Download and read more: What Ferguson Means for the Food Justice Movement

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