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)?

To lift up critical voices of grassroots leaders, WhyHunger’s Beatriz Beckford facilitated a national call with dynamic organizers and activists across the country to discuss the connection between the oppression that Black communities face at the hands of the state via police violence and at the hands of an unjust food system. Based on this initial dialogue, What Ferguson Means for the Food justice Movement series was born. Through this series, we’ll release a powerful collection of articles featuring the grassroots voices of Black leaders working within movement building and food justice to create real social change. These are their voices and their solutions, rooted in their lived experiences.

The What Ferguson Means for the Food Justi Ace Movement series is a collective interrogation of these issues from the perspective of Black activists around the country organizing around food justice. The series is rooted in the innovation happening in Black communities to resist state violence in all its forms while building our way into the society we have always dreamed of.

We hope you join us for this important conversation and contribute your thoughts. Read the series introduction by Beatriz Beckford to get started and follow the conversation with #FoodJusticeVoices

 

 

Download the PDF

• Introduction by Beatriz Beckford
• Issue 1 by Malik Yankini
• Issue 2 by Dara Cooper
• Issue 3 by Amanda Walker
• Issue 4 by Charm Taylor
• Issue 5 by Tanya Fields