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Nuestra lucha por la justicia alimentaria debe incluir a los que trabajan más cerca de nuestros alimentos. La organizadora de trabajadores agrícolas, Lupe Gonzalo, de la Coalición de Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIW) comparte el profundo poder que se encuentra dentro de las voces de los trabajadores agrícolas. Como trabajadora agrícola, Lupe arroja luz sobre las condiciones abusivas en las que están sujetos trabajadores agrícolas, desde el robo de salaries, la agresión sexual, y condiciones similares a esclavitud moderna. Los intentos fallidos de responsabilizar a los propietarios de granjas por las atrocidades en curso llevaron a Lupe y sus colegas a recurrir al poder de la responsabilidad social. El programa y la campaña Fair Food de CIW amplifican las voces de los trabajadores agrícolas para promover el cambio y fomentar la responsabilidad entre las grandes corporaciones de alimentos para establecer un código de conducta entre sus proveedores. Yendo más allá de establecer protecciones y garantizar que las políticas de seguridad se implementen y hagan cumplir, CIW ha luchado para construir poder, voz y agencia entre los trabajadores agrícolas en Immokalee, FL e inspirado a defensores en todo el país. Our fight for food justice must include those working closest to our food. Farmworker organizer, Lupe Gonzalo, of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) shares the profound power that lies within farmworker voices. As a farmworker herself, Lupe sheds light on the abusive conditions farmworkers work and live in everyday—from wage theft to sexual assault to modern-day slavery. Failed attempts to hold farm owners accountable for on-going atrocities led Lupe and her colleagues to turn to the power of social responsibility. CIWs Fair Food Program and campaign amplifies farmworker voices to advance change and foster responsibility among large food corporations to establish a code of conduct amongst their vendors. Going beyond establishing protections and ensuring that safety policies are implemented and enforced, CIW has worked to build power, voice, and agency among farmworkers in Immokalee, FL and inspired advocates nation-wide.

Bevelyn Afor Ukah believes that youth power holds the key to our survival and collective freedom. Only through our ability to be in multigenerational relationships with one another in our organizing efforts, will we be able to achieve the just world we know we deserve. Bevelyn's work at the Food Youth Initiative (FYI) at the Center for Environmental Farming System, centers their work in the Food justice space. Food Justice for FYI is more than just about food access, their organizing efforts span across interconnected issue areas leading us towards liberation. Bevelyn speaks to us as a person ever learning from the wisdom and leadership that youth have to offer, sharing the stories of her student organizers and all the ways they are working to transform our communities for the future.

In this episode of In Praxis, we are joined by Donne Gonzalez and Emily Arasim from New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA). Donne is the Farm Trainer/Farm Manager and Emily serves as the Youth Education Coordinator. Both Donne and Emily are deeply committed in serving as caretakers, and passing on knowledge about intergenerational farming and the larger systems impacting people living in the area. They discuss the importance of returning our hands and hearts to the land starting with the land in our backyard. Through building our relationships back with the land, the cascading consequences builds and heals our communities.

amaha sellassie is a public-sociologist working to transform communities through a love ethic. In this episode, amaha shares the story of how Gem City Market, a worker owned cooperative, came into existence. Gem City Market is the first full service grocery store in West Dayton, Oh. amaha shares his insight and perspective on the socio-political and economic dynamics that sparked the necessary change in his community. West Dayton is becoming a place that provides for one another with a deep sense of care and commitment to being a thriving community and Gem City Market is one of the first steps in this transformation. As listeners, we are asked think about what unlimited resources are already abundant with us and our communities that will fuel our fights in justice.

As a second generation Pan-Asian American, Angela Patel (she/her) uses her cultural history to shape and influence her work at Danny Woo Community Garden as the Sustainable Community and Educational Coordinator. Danny Woo Community Garden is situated in the heart of Seattle's Chinatown-International District stewarded, cultivated, and cared for by the local community of Asian elders, transient neighbors, and lovers of the land. In this episode, Angela discusses what food sovereignty means and how to combat scarcity mindset in immigrant communities by cultivating a culture of abundance.

Kyle Tsukahira is the Co-Director of Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement (APIFM) based in Los Angeles, CA. In this episode, Kyle shares his journey into food justice work, starting with a memory of foods that remind him of home. Kyle tells us about his lineage and the ancestors that brought agricultural practices from the East and adapted them in western soil, passing down knowledge from one generation to the next. Through their Food Roots program, APIFM partners with local Asian American farmers and other farmers of color growing culturally relevant food, and supports food distribution to local businesses and communities. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Food Roots program has worked to provide over 180,000 lbs of fresh produce and over 150,000 eggs to thousands of families in need across Los Angeles County.

Co-founder, co-director, and lead artist of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, Carlton Turner works at the intersection of arts, culture, and agriculture. Carlton comes from a long lineage of workers of the land and believes in the power of storytelling through food. In this episode, Carlton tells his food story—a deeply compelling tale that tells the socio-political and economic history of Utica, Mississippi as it connects to the current day. Through the unfolding interconnected history between power and agency, Carlton makes the case for community investment, empowerment, and access to food and our story as we journey back towards regenerative food practices for the generations to come.

Space Curator, Facilitator and conjuror of spaces for freedom, Emanuel H. Brown (he/him), Executive Director and Steward of Acorn Center for Restoration and Freedom, life's work centers around the question of How can people get free? How can people feel free? In this episode, Emanuel explores ideas of freedom through our ability to access healthy and health promoting food and our connection to the land. Food is a story. Food is restoring. Food is a mechanism for our healing. Our collective relationship to food and its source can transform not only our bodies but our world as we strive for liberation.

In 2014, when Berkeley, CA passed the nation's first soda tax, advocates and public health practitioners in San Francisco made a parallel effort to enact a similar tax on sugar sweetened beverages in their city. A testament to the beverage industry's massive funds, the measure failed in San Francisco in 2014. It would take another two years for the city to pass this measure successfully. Janna Cordeiro from San Francisco's Wholesale Produce Market discusses her public health work on sugar sweetened beverages in San Francisco and the struggles of taking on the well-resourced soda industry. As the SFUSD parent representative to the San Francisco's Soda Tax Advisory Committee, Janna speaks to the ways soda taxes can be reinvested to advance health equity and reduce prevalence of preventable chronic diseases in working-class communities of color. She advocates for the use of soda tax revenues to support small business owners and to fund community organizations working on the ground to directly address the most urgent health issues of communities hardest hit by the beverage industry's exploitation. This episode of In Praxis is a part of Season 2: Sugar Sweetened Beverage Taxes. The information, opinions, views, and conclusions proposed in this episode are those of our podcast guests.

Christina Goette, co-founder of Shape Up San Francisco Coalition, discusses the wide range of efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption in the Bay Area and situates SSB work along the spectrum of prevention. From education initiatives, to organizational culture change, to policy advocacy, the spectrum of prevention provides multiple avenues for decreasing sugar sweetened beverage consumption. Reflecting on the journey of passing San Francisco's  SSB tax, which was unsuccessful when it was first proposed in 2014, Christina emphasizes the importance of centering the voices of communities who are disproportionately burdened by beverage industry's predatory marketing as well as ensuring tax revenues are reinvested directly back into these communities. She shares how building authentic partnerships with community-based organizations who are grounded in their communities and have community trust was central to the passing of the tax in 2016. This episode of In Praxis is a part of Season 2: Sugar Sweetened Beverage Taxes. The information, opinions, views, and conclusions proposed in this episode are those of our podcast guests.

Holly Scheider, chair of Berkeley's Sweetened Beverage Product Panel of Experts, discusses Berkeley's work to reduce sugary drink consumption and their fight against the beverage industry. She touches on the ways Berkeley's Measure D has been used to invest in community-led health initiatives for those most harmed by the negative health impacts of sugary drinks and describes how healthy checkout ordinances, city procurement policies, and other strategies can be complimentary to soda taxes in combatting the tactics of the beverage industry. Drawing on her extensive background working on clean air ordinances and other public health policy to challenge Big Tobacco, Holly connects the fight against the beverage industry to the historic public health efforts that took on the tobacco industry. Building on this experience, Holly breaks down excise taxes and helps reframe arguments of regressivity to place the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of sugar sweetened beverage industry. This episode of In Praxis is a part of Season 2: Sugar Sweetened Beverage Taxes. The information, opinions, views, and conclusions proposed in this episode are those of our podcast guests.

In 2014, Berkeley, California passed Measure D, the first local tax on sugar sweetened beverages in the nation. Sara Soka, fellow at the Beeck Center and the campaign manager for Measure D, discusses the process of passing Measure D and the importance of community in moving SSB work forward.  Reflecting on the Measure D campaign, Sara touches on the ways community-led research, storytelling, and mapping is necessary for participatory policymaking and emphasizes that equity must be centered throughout the entire SSB policy process, not just within the actual policy itself. For this to happen, community members must be at the table during decisions making and the process must center those most impacted, particularly communities of color. This episode of In Praxis is a part of Season 2: Sugar Sweetened Beverage Taxes. The information, opinions, views, and conclusions proposed in this episode are those of our podcast guests.