Weather Forecast: Tuesday, cloudy, mid-60s. Friday, possible storms, mid-80s.
Hi ya'll! Whew, it's been a full weekend on the farm. We are harvesting asparagus, finishing up the last of our soil blocking, potting up transplants for sale, and transplanting into the garden beds. And fencing. And weeding. And finishing pruning. And chasing the ducks out of the road.
This week is going to be a big push to get plants into the ground, so that's probably what we'll have you help us with. As you help us plant the seeds and plants that will fill our gardens during the coming season and we draw our time together to a close over the next few weeks, I want to make space for you to think more about where you (as an embodied person whose body is sustained by food) are located within the web of human and nonhuman relationships that involve food. And I want to share stories of resistance and inspiration about the good food work that folks are doing across the globe.
Leah Penniman is one such inspirational model. She runs Soul Fire Farm in New York. Check out her farm's website and some of their videos to learn more about what she does: http://www.soulfirefarm.org/
Then, watch this short documentary video in which Leah talks a little about her personal path to this farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPaoepZj-yI&feature=youtu.be
Finally, check out this 50 minute talk in which Leah discusses how her farm is rooted in 3 "stones" or principles as they work at their mission of ending racism and injustice in the food system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5TPTxllBjI
This week in the comments section, I invite you to reflect on the questions that Leah poses to her audience in her talk:
1) Where are your ancestors in this history of racial injustice in the food system? How are your people connected to the events she describes?
2) What can you do next to advance racial justice in the food system? (As you answer this question, think about what Leah said in the documentary about how all parts of herself and her experience are relevant on her farm. What gifts, talents, skills, and experiences do you bring to your work in the world and how might they all come together to make positive change in whatever community you end up living in post-graduation?)
" Black and brown people will and have been leading food movements!"- Leah Penniman
ReplyDelete“It is so important to acknowledge truth and move forward from that place.”- Leah Penniman
“Between 95-98% of land is owned by European people” 2012 census
1)
I will answer this question with the little that I do know about my lineage. My great Grandpa and Grandma immigrated from Poland to Detroit and had my Grandma Dolly. I never knew my Grandpa. I am not sure how they were related to racial injustice in terms of food systems but I do know that they benefited from living off of stolen lands and the labor and farming knowledge that fed them. “My people”... as described in this story are related to white people who benefited and are stilling benefitting from white settler colonized land.
Penniman saw a system that was not working for the land, the waters, people and she saw that as a calling to move toward what she views as a just and right place.
Three Stones:
Feed the people feed the soil. (SURVIVAL PROGRAMS)
-feed people on sliding scale, food dropped off
-economically sustainable farm to subsidize the shares of those who cannot afford
-Black panthers provided free breakfast programs and we follow those models to this day.
-Bless and thank the seed…
2) Train farmers/ activist
-shout out to Harriet Tubman
3) Movement building
2)
Wow this is a really difficult question again! I think moving forward I can take what I have learned from this Slow Farming class and share with whoever will listen to me about it, especially white people who I do not see eye to eye with politically. This is not advancing racial justice in food systems but it is honoring a relationship to the land. I also just think uplifting and donating to farms like Soul Fire Farm is key.
1) Where are your ancestors in this history of racial injustice in the food system? How are your people connected to the events she describes?
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew more about my family history in this sense. I know that (one pair of) my great great grandparents migrated from Germany and settled in Muskegon around the turn of the century. While I do not know much of this history, I can imagine their coming over was part of the greater and problematic trend of the displacement of the native Ottawa and Pottawatomi people in this area.
2) What can you do next to advance racial justice in the food system?
This is tricky question and maybe even a harder task. When Leah was talking about the laws in place that exploit farmworkers-- such as min wage discrepancies, lack of union/ bargaining power, and the various problems facing migrant workers -- it becomes obvious that such problems need to be addressed. However, it does not seem like industrial agriculture, modern food systems, and their associated racial injustices present a single-swoop solution. This work needs to be done on multiple levels. I think continuing to be educated on these issues is a start-- political involvement in the right scenarios might help too. Also being open to discussion, listening, and making the right changes when possible.
1.This question is very difficult for me for several reasons, first I know little to nothing about my family history. On my father’s side, my great grandpa was adopted and came from Scotland, so knowledge beyond him is unknown. On my mother's side, there has been so much inconsistency in her family relations that we have just recently (within the past 3 years) become connected with her siblings. From what I know, a majority of my ancestry is European so this is not my place to speak, but rather hear the stories of my peers. I am very likely benefiting from the oppression of others which I need to acknowledge, but I do not want to further silence these individuals by sharing in a space that is not mine.
ReplyDelete2. Another challenging and multifaceted question. First, I need to be humble and willing to listen to the stories of others. I am someone who is very uncomfortable with silence and oftentimes I find myself speaking more than my voice may need to be heard. I can, however, use my privilege to lift others up, whether that is reminding a group of these deep-rooted issues in the system, using my vote to elect officials whose platform is in line with the values Penniman is sharing, and purchase from businesses and individuals whose mission also follows those values.
1) I know two stories about my family history. The first is on my mom's side, whose parents are both first generation immigrants. My grandfather lived in Czechoslovakia until his early 20s when he fled the country after the Soviet Union took control. My grandmother was technically born in the US, so I guess she's second generation, but her older sister and her parents moved to the US from Italy. They met in Pittsburgh, my grandpa an engineer working in the steel plants, and raised my mom and aunts there. My dad's parents I know less about, especially his father. I think my great grandpa was adopted from a Jewish family, but I'm not completely certain and I don't know all the details. On my grandmother's side, the Callisons, I know they are an established family of Dutch heritage living in the West Virginia countryside. Their original property consisting of farmland and an abandoned house is pretty much unused, but still belongs to my distant relatives, I'm not sure exactly who. We've been to a few family reunions, and honestly I'm not familiar with many of those family members. Those are the only roots I know of that are connected directly to land ownership in the United States, and I think that it's telling that the land is sitting there unstewarded by its current white owners while there are people who have had the land forcefully taken away from them. Leah talks about a way people can donate their unused land to people of color who want to farm on it, and I think that is something that could be looked into if my extended family keeps letting the land sit unused.
ReplyDelete2) I expect to live in a more urban setting, so farming on a scale larger than personal gardens is not likely, but I can still participate intentionally in my food network that supports people of color. One way is by supporting local farmers by buying into a CSA and/or going to the farmers market. I'm sure there are poc farmers in my area that I can support with my business versus the grocery store where I don't know where and/or who my food is coming from. Also, I have been blessed with the knowledge I have gained in this class, which many of my community members are not aware of. I have the power to talk to people who have lived in a white suburban bubble for most of their lives, and I can spread interest in social justice within food networks just by talking with people and spreading my own knowledge and curiosity that I have gained in this class.
1) Where are your ancestors in this history of racial injustice in the food system? How are your people connected to the events she describes?
ReplyDeleteDue to the nature of colonization and imperialism, much of the history,body, and impact of my ancestors is lost to me. As a diasporic youth, my only connections to my ancestry are my mom's parents and their limited memory of familial history. While I cannot name any ancestors past my grandfather Albertino Lucero, I know that through agricultural and horticultural knowledge, my ancestors stand tall and present. Following a long history of land theft, murder, genocide, and violence both colonial and imperial, much of my family has worked on rich, settler land in El Salvador. My mom started working on fields at 6 years old making just enough for one egg and a pound of beans per week for a family of 11. Her first crops were her first loves, coffee and cotton, as they reminded her of the often times grueling work it is to nurture and harvest that which the universe and God will give you. As she grew up in an increasingly tensionful time --during commmunist-fearing America-land was stolen more than ever and being paid for work became a really difficult task. As such she moved with a great migration of those seeking financial stability in the USA in 1982. Following a disastrous landslide that came a result of overworking soil, my mom was able to successfully apply under TPS and work as a domestic worker the very same day that she arrived in the USA after 2 months of crossing the desert, the rio grande, and the northern part of Mexico. From there she worked as a live in domestic worker where she was mistreated for 6 years and intermittently picked blueberry, tomato, strawberry, and oranges in California. although we can't name the m, she know that she comes from people who hold soil and talk gently with the earth. She holds this still in the middle of bustling LA as she remembers the land she once made enough money to buy but that companies from the USA stole the deed to in 1999. She continues to revive her orchids(of which there are thousands of species in El Salvador) and stop the car when she sees lemon trees and flor de izote or just a tree that needs replanting. It makes me feel like I get to see her as one with her childhood something that she didnt get much of as she worked the fields that fed so many while she and her family starved.
2) What can you do next to advance racial justice in the food system? (As you answer this question, think about what Leah said in the documentary about how all parts of herself and her experience are relevant on her farm. What gifts, talents, skills, and experiences do you bring to your work in the world and how might they all come together to make positive change in whatever community you end up living in post-graduation?)
I think something I have never thought of is the potential to create overlaps between land and food justice with anti-racist pedagogy.finding ways to bridge the two had become something i think about a lot as we can use the space of history and memory to recenter and reclaim lost stories and lost preesences that remind us that this land is all of ours and all of us as we shall return to dust too.when I say that these movements are white i mean it. I mean it in what is tangible and accessible and available to a demographic at places like k or in big cities. this work has always been indigenous and black and brown and queer and trans and woman led and it is important that we begin to teach this early so that that reclamation doesn't happen in our 20s rather that our relationship grow as we do with guidance from the land and blessings from the eart .
I think my whole self will be useful as I can always and am always willing to learn. I hope to be able to center land and our potential and necessary relationship in all i do.I need to remember where I walk and who walks with me and all the abundance of that
Delete1) Where are your ancestors in this history of racial injustice in the food system? How are your people connected to the events she describes?
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure how my family is connected directly to the events and processes that she is describing. I remember that my paternal grandfather moved a total of 13 times across Michigan as a child to find work during the Great Depression. After that, and after serving in the Korean War he was able to settle down on a large tract of land with my Grandma to farm corn, soybeans, and whatever else was profitable. They also own a beef farm too (no dairy, just meat). I don't know the circumstances of how my Grandfather got his land, but I do know that it was stewarded by the Gun Lake Tribe for many years before he came there. How he came to purchase all of it is still unknown to me. I remember overhearing one of my aunts call him a 'business man', implying that he negotiated his way into the land... but still, I don't know what that means. Today, that land is farmed by my uncles who still plant soybean and corn and alfalfa using industrial methods that don't necessarily feed the soil.
On my mother's side, they have owned less land, but worked it more. Almost all of my family members on that side worked in the corn fields during de-tassling season. My grandpa had a little bit of land growing up, but not for long.
When I have asked him how long our family has been here, he responds with "We have always been here." Even this idea feeds into the events and processes that are talked about in the videos.
2) What can you do next to advance racial justice in the food system? (As you answer this question, think about what Leah said in the documentary about how all parts of herself and her experience are relevant on her farm. What gifts, talents, skills, and experiences do you bring to your work in the world and how might they all come together to make positive change in whatever community you end up living in post-graduation?)
I'm not sure what i can do directly, but I consider myself to be a semi- successful educator. A huge part of this movement towards justice requires that we educate ourselves and other people on the issues at hand, what their power is, and how they can use it. I am a skilled workshop leader and that is something that I feel I could bring to this work and allow people a space to share, work, and play in that is different from the other ways that we find ourselves 'educated'.
Also, it has been important to me to find ways that I can invest in the different communities that I will be living in as I move on from K. Right now I am looking for ways to connect to local community gardens in Chicago. Even in my work at the Art Institute of Chicago will allow me to advance ideas of justice through education.
1. This is a very difficult question to answer with the little knowledge I have about my family history. I know on both sides of my family there were farmers, while on my mom’s side in particular my family farmed the land in Kalamazoo. My grandmother's grandfather owned all the land around Kilgore road, but I am unsure as to how many acres of land he owned (named after him). I did a little research and found that the land in West Michigan was inhabited by the Potawatomi tribe. I am not sure as to how he acquired the land, but would assume it was granted to him by the government which was stolen from the Potawatomi tribe.
ReplyDelete2. This is quite a difficult question to answer. I think the one thing I can offer is my ability to work on a farm such as Leah's which offers assistance to poorer families in the community who normally do not have access to affordable fresh foods, while currently I am unsure as to where I will be living this Fall or what work I will be doing.
In the context of racial injustice within the United States food system, I think that my family is still pretty oblivious to what is going on outside of our domestic spheres. I resonated the most when she said, “To free our people, we must first feed ourselves, our community.” Along with that, it also comes with land and home ownership, a kind of stable support for ourselves mentally and physically. It wasn’t too long ago that finally my family has purchased a home. It was a kind of security that I grew up dreaming up about, and I remembered as a child being jealous of my friends during sleepovers.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of what I can do to advance racial justice forward, I think that being a genuine person and having the courage to hold these kinds of conversation with people, even when its uncomfortable, are very important. I also hope that my values and beliefs can be shown through my action to the community and folks around me.
1) Where are your ancestors in this history of racial injustice in the food system? How are your people connected to the events she describes?
ReplyDeleteMy dad’s grandparents all grew up on farms in Sicily. I remember hearing stories from my great-grandpa, stories that my dad has later retold me, of walking through their orchards and waking up early to watch sunrise from the base of Mount Etna. Aside from these small reminiscent tales, I know very little about my family’s life in Italy. They all moved to the United States soon before my grandparents were born and worked in the steel mills along the Ohio River in West Virginia. I know that when I visit them today, I won’t see much, if any, fresh food. While my family is in no way a victim of racial injustice, they are impacted greatly by a food system and institutions that do not value health. Their community has very high cancer and obesity rates, all due to environmental pollution from the steel mills and the food desert in which they live. On my mom’s side of the family, I know a lot less about their collective history. Yet, there is one very notable figure, my great grandfather. If you go and look at the Gloriosa Victoria painting by Diego Rivera, you can see a depiction of the Guatemalan coup d’état and the involvement of the United Fruit company in Rivera’s critique of violence against indigenous communities and capitalism. My grandfather is in this painting. He was the leading correspondent on Latin America for the Chicago Tribune at the time. Since his death (a crazy story) documents have been released exposing my great grandfather as a CIA operative, one involved in the Guatemalan coup. We can still see the legacy of such violence playing out today in our food systems.
2) What can you do next to advance racial justice in the food system?
Wow, like others have said, this is such a difficult question to answer. I think the difficulty that I am having relates to my own uncertainty about what it is that I will be doing next year and the years following that. What I do know though, is that I love fresh and local food and, especially thanks to this class, know that it is imperative that I support my local farmers and producers. Also, I know that I am a community-minded individual who thrives off of personal connection. I cannot see myself not sharing this knowledge in the new spaces that I will enter and share.
1)
ReplyDeleteMy paternal grandma came from a family that sharecropped for a living. Growing up, I heard her tell short snippets about growing up on the farm, talking about how they had to move a lot and how a few of her siblings died young (she had 8 siblings total). Besides that, my mom and her dad are really into genealogy (she used to take us to cemeteries to find the gravestones of relatives)...yet we've reached a lot of dead ends. My family has been in Southwest Michigan/upper Indiana area for several generations. There were a lot of family myths that haven't been proven or have been proven wrong, but we are German, and those relatives came from when Germany was called Prussia, and they were farmers as well (traced back on my mom's side). Despite all the research, we don't really know where/when exactly my ancestors came over.
2)
Living in an agricultural area with many agricultural workers, I can raise awareness of racial issues in farming with those I come in contact with in my daily life working on horse farms. I can be bold in highlighting aspects that many people in my community don't know (or may not care to know). I'll continue to live in this area for at least a year, so the one thing I plan to do is have conversations about these issues with those I see on a weekly basis.
1. So I had a really hard time answering this question. Largely because I do not know very much about where my family came from. I know that we were mainly irish and that there have been a lot of preachers on both sides of my family, but that is largely the extent of my knowledge on my families origin story. In terms of food I know that my maternal grandfather grew up as one of the youngest of 13 during the great depression. His mother was a small fiery woman with a lot of red hair. She was harsh to her children but always managed to feed all 13 children during those hard times AND legend has is that she never turned away a hungry stranger. How she was able to do that I do not know, my grandfather did not like to talk about his childhood and has now passed. That is literally the only story I know about regarding food and my ancestry. I have no idea if we had any farmers in out lineage or where we settled originally.
ReplyDelete2. I think coming from an area with so many migrant workers I would like to focus my efforts into improving this section of the agricultural sector. Even just by helping to try and increase awareness or visibility for the people who make our food and live in our communities but go largely unrepresented.
This is Ayla! I realized that my comment never posted D: so here goes again.
ReplyDelete1) I do not know where my German relatives were in relation to the history of racial injustice in that country's food system. My grandfather was a surgeon, however, so my mom and her siblings were well-off enough for that time period. I'd be interested to learn more about the agricultural system over there so I could be more educated. My family in the US, however, were farmers. My grandmother grew up on a farm in Ohio and eventually married a farmer, subsequently working and raising my dad on that farm. Whenever she talks about it, it seems like it is a point of pride for her. She talks about what grueling work it was, and how they didn't have any running water so she had to wash my dad in a washtub with ice-cold water. Her father immigrated from Serbia so I wonder how that dynamic also influenced their life, but I am not sure.
2. I think that even having these conversations is valuable, though, it does not suffice in terms of action. I do think it is important, though, to have educate myself and learn from/with friends and family in order to better understand racial injustice within the agricultural system. For me, I also feel that it is important to support local farmers when I am financially able.
Side note -- as I mentioned last class, Leah actually teaches at my old high school! I thought this was so crazy and I'm planning to send her an email letting her know that we've been having these conversations!
1. While I do come from a completely white background, my parents immigrated from Italy making this a history I had to study a bit more. Both sides of my family have always been heavily involved in agriculture work, with my great grandfather on my dads side creating one of the first machines to aid in harvesting wheat. I’m not 100% sure what slavery looked like in Italy- whether it also took part in Transatlantic slave trade, used prisoners of war or whether the lower class, the peasants, took on the brunt of the work. My dad always made it clear that we come from a long line of the latter. What I was able to find is what the food system looks like more currently. Apparently the system that funnels migrant workers into the Italian tomato-picking countryside is commonly referred to as modern-day slavery, known for it’s awful makeshift camps and undeniable wage theft- workers are forced to pay for rides and food even when making barely any money in the first place. But then I imagine Italians don’t really care because they see bigger forces like the U.S. openly exploiting workers in the same way. I think about where my Italian family stands now- none of them are in the agricultural industry anymore, ofcourse, yet they are all contributors to the system. As soon as farmwork started to be seen as socially unacceptable yet still very needed for Italy to survive we saw a whole stream of Italians move to urban areas and see the people doing the work as non-human, very similar to what happens here.
ReplyDelete2. One attribute I feel that I could bring to the community I’m moving to in Spain is one of open-mindedness. Because I will be an educator, simply believing in a future with soil and portraying that to children I come across is a big one. And with adaptation and flexibility, two characteristics I also know I possess, hopefully I can make these lessons culturally competent ones so as not to enter someone else's space and preach about things they don’t necessarily need to hear from me.
1. My family's history is complicated due to the fact that my parents are immigrants and I am a first generation citizen, and they came here out of necessity, but at the same time are settlers even when the journey here was violent and dangerous. Because of that it is very complicated.
ReplyDelete2. I think my ability to be fluent in Spanish (I did not learn English until I was about 8) allows me to communicate with others of my race very well. Not just because of the language we share in common, but because they are seeing someone that looks like them. I think everyone can learn any language but there is without a doubt something powerful about being a country that tries to violently rip your native tongue from you and have someone that looks like you validate you and your language. I think about how conversations about race are often in English, and not all people speak that language, so I think that is where language becomes a very important tool that not a lot of people consider