Structural Racism in the Food System: Perspectives from Black Women Scholars- Webinar
May 24, 2019
Transcript

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Welcome to the first INFAS graduate fellows webinar.

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I get the slide. Okay.

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All right. Welcome to the first INFAS graduate fellows webinar. I will begin by giving a brief overview of the webinar and an introduction.

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before handing it off to the fellows who will share their work and their perspectives. My name is Joanna Friesner and I coordinate the INFAS network, which I will introduce in the next slide.

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I am recording this webinar for future viewing and we'll share a link to it in the next few days.

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You may submit questions via the chat function and I will do my best to include as many as we have time for do during the Q and A planned for the end

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I do want to ensure there's time for the fellows, including hearing their insights into the extra question that I posed to them, which was

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What should food system scholars and practitioners from outside the HBCU system, be aware of and/or actions to take with respect to structural racism in the food system.

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So I will start with just very brief background INFAS was established in 2010 with an endowment from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and it is a national network of university and

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Sorry, I'm getting a note- ok view mode.

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I don't know how to do that. So I'm gonna keep going: a national network of university and college educators researchers and activists representing 25 institutions and spanning 20 states.

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Our vision is a US food system that is environmentally sustainable and socially just this requires structural equality, such that race.

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Class and Gender no longer determine health outcomes, social status or economic opportunity, and that healthy restored agro ecosystems and fisheries are achievable.

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Some key objectives for the network include to increase the capacity of the scientific community to address the nation's major sustainability challenges and to raise the visibility of challenges posed by the current food systems.

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The INFAS network has a collaboratively shared leadership structure and our current Chair of the executive committee is Dr. Christine Porter at the University of Wyoming.

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So very quickly about the fellows program.  We developed the graduate Fellows Program this past year to engage early career scholars who are poised to become sustainable agriculture and food systems leaders.

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This is the pilot year of the program, which was open to scholars from historically black colleges and universities, also known as HBCUs and tribal colleges and universities, also known as TCUs.

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And specifically we sought proposals from scholars, whose research and practice focused on examining racism and other forms of structural inequity in the US and beyond, in relation to food systems.

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As we are nearing the conclusion of this year's program. We will be assessing its success.

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And this analysis as well as some efforts to identify funding sources to sustain the program will contribute to our discussions about possible future programs.

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I expect to have more to details on whether and how we'll continue the graduate Fellows program into the future. Hopefully later this summer.

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So turning to today's presentations. And just a quick reminder for anybody who has joined late. I am recording the webinar and I will share

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This link to others in the future as well as you/ Without further ado, I would like to introduce the first fellow and turn the webinar over to Monyai Chavers.

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Who is a master student at Howard University and just FYI, we may have like 10 or 15 seconds as we switch controls. Perfect. I'm going to go on mute. Now,

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Greetings. Can everyone hear me okay

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I am Monyai Chavers, a recent graduate of Howard University with an MA in political science, international relations was my major area of study with a minor in black politics.

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Since I traveled to Liberia on a study abroad trip in 2014 I became interested in the relationship between landing here and food security.

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Primarily my research consists of analyzing Liberia's new land rights act by using the participatory social learning theory developed by Almaz Zewde as an analytical tool.

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So you may ask, why does this matter.

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The United Nations committee on World Food Security defines food security as people having physical, social and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food.

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That meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life at all times.

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According to the economic commission in Africa, food security and poverty reduction cannot be achieved unless issues of access to land and security of tenure.

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And the capacity to use land productively in a sustainable manner is addressed.

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Sustainable Development Goals also incorporate security attending tenure as an indicator

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They state security of tenure is the certainty that a person's rights to land will be recognized by others and protected in cases of specific challenges.

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People with insecure tenure, face the risk that their rights to land will be threatened by competing claims and even lost as a result of eviction.

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As I stated earlier, my research focus is primarily in Liberia. It's located on the western coast of Africa. The American Colonization Society established the colony of Liberia in 1822

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By sending free blacks to the country the actions of ACS created a divisive society and due to the notion of superiority exercised by the American Liberians

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Eventually the country gained independence in 1847 and established the Republic of Liberia. As you can see from this map the entire country is covered in purple, meaning moderate chronic food insecurity.

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Moderate means that in a coming year households have ongoing mild deficits in food quantity and or seasonal full quantity deficits for two to four months of the year and consistently do not consume a diet of adequate quality.

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Household livelihoods are marginally sustainable and resilience to shocks is very limited. For example, the Ebola crisis devastated the country and also affected the food security of those there.

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 just a little background information about Liberia, they've had two civil wars. It resulted in over 250,000 deaths and the displacement of over 1 billion people.

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and this definitely affected their food security, based on data from the comprehensive food security and nutrition survey conducted in 2018 16% of the population is moderately food insecure and 2% severely food insecure.

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Also food insecurity disproportionately affects rural areas with 2.3% of rural households being food insecure compared to 11% of urban households.

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as you can see 3.3 million people living in rural areas governed by customary land laws are deprived of access to natural resources and the ability to engage in productive and profitable farming practices.

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There are a few structural challenges that prevents Liberia for providing

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secure access to land and adequate food for their citizens. For example, they have a dual land tenure; a dual land tenure doesn't necessarily mean that there will always be issues, especially if there are effective measurements in order to

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Handle both systems. Liberia's land system is comprised of statutory law, which provides the legal framework for Land and Natural Resources and customary law is defined from governance of local lineage based practices.

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In practice customary land is viewed as public land and the government issues concessions to foreign investors, which results in the displacement of many rural Liberians

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For example, 57% of the country's 9.5 million acres have been conceded to foreign companies and that's from the government 's commission in 2015

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Firestone as we all know, assumed the role as the largest producer in Liberia with a million acre concession, leading to 35% of wage and salaried workers being employed on either two of the corporation's plantations by 1955

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Women are provided more rights under statutory law than customary because of the patri-local mayor system and power imbalances in customary practices.

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The governor's commission of Liberia acknowledges the land alienation experienced by women, even though they represent the largest producers of food in the country.

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So I use the participatory Social Learning Theory, as I said before, developed by.  Almaz Zewde, a professor at Howard University.

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As an analytical tool to analyze the Land Rights Act of Liberia. The PSLT highlights the importance of field-level action and knowledge manifested locally for

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Goal driven outcomes. It's comprised of five driving imperatives: institution, human resources. Natural Resources, technology and investment capital.

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However, for my evaluation I concentrated on the institutional imperative, which will provide space for the other four imperatives to actualize, in particular the human resource imperative which incorporates the aspects of nutrition.

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Liberia's land rights act provides the rights and application obligations of each land category.

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And the process in which land can be acquired within each classification, it was passed on September fourth by the 54th legislature. The act defines, as I said before, four different types of land.

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It applies to all land and the government is considered the sovereign authority overland and is responsible for the protection and enforcement of land rights.

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It acknowledges the history of unwritten customary norms and practices such as oral traditions which is very important because of the the vast amount of people living in customary land in Liberia.

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So based on the description of the institutional imperative I mainly focused on pinpointing the functions and the role of the government throughout the act.

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And also customary language is significant. It was of significant importance due to the previous issues I mentioned before.

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For customary land, community is the highest decision making body and has the power by two thirds vote to approve the role of the government throughout the act. Customary Land was of significant importance of course due to previous

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Previous issues I mentioned, a two thirds vote to approve the sale, lease or transfer of customary land to the government or non community members is of extreme importance and

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Customary land owners or the community can divide land into different categories such as residential agricultural commercial and industrial areas.

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They also reserve the right and responsibility to identify community members and no community member may be excluded from the community, which is important for women and divorce. The government will conduct a Confirmatory survey survey by way of the Liberia land authority.

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In order to determine the size and boundaries of the land in each community.

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The Liberian land authority plays a significant role in a successful implementation of this Act because it handles land governance land administration and land use functions.

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The community land development and management committee will establish a land management plan for each community.

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And transfers of residential areas to community members will be confirmed, issued, and formalized by a deed from the CLDMC or the community lead development and management committee.

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They will also work with local government officials and the government will provide sufficient and adequate resources to carry out test concession.

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areas within customary land shower main subject to concession until the entire period of their existing terms and conditions.

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Inputs and concerns of communities will be presented through the CLDMC for view of concessions located on customary land.

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And women residential areas are entitled. So, community members, irrespective of gender, which may potentially address some discriminatory practices against women, but it's very important for them to keep an eye on that particular mechanism.

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Overall, the government will play a vast role in ensuring this act is is implemented successfully.

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And the role of Liberia and the role of the Liberian government, excuse me, and Liberia land authority is very important and the relationship they have with each other will only

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Work if they have accountability and transparency.

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Within their communication government collaboration with the community land development and management community is extremely important because

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The committee will get majority of their resources from the government. So if the government is not successful in implementing this Act, it would just

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It would detriment customary land owners. Relationship between the Community and the CLDMC is also important because the CLDMC will work for free. They will work on a pro bono basis. So it's very important for the community to

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Have a very positive relationship with that committee and implementation to prevent exclusionary practices against women should be analyzed. Further, as I said, because it gets tricky when it comes to

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Gender and residential areas, especially in a society that has the patrilineal inheritance. So I think all of these mechanisms will provide

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provide room for future research. I plan to use this research for my dissertation. Once I I am

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In a doctoral program, but overall I plan to use this research for my dissertation and I would like to track the progress of the land rights act since its implementation, which was back in September 2018

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And least for four or five years just to see its impact on food security and also its impact on secure providing secure access to land for all Liberians. Thank you for listening. And that concludes my presentation.

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Thank you, Monyai for sharing your work. As a reminder, will engage in some general Q and A following all the presentations.

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At this time I'd like to introduce Lindsay Lunsford she is a doctoral student and a resource specialist working at Tuskegee University and I know right now she is working on getting her screen up so just give it a couple seconds.

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Okay, hello everyone. Sorry, I have a little issue unmuted myself.

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Yes. And so my name is Lindsay Lunsford I'm based here at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama Macon County.

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And my presentation today will I will try to tell a little bit or I will tell a little bit of the story of the Alabama black belt food systems.

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As a sustainable food system resource specialist for Tuskegee University. So what does that mean, who am I - I break this presentation down in basically four archetypes: the woman, the place, the people and the network. So an introduction to the woman Lindsay, so I am a

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resource specialist here at Tuskegee University. And so basically what that entails is I work at building bridges and networks.

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Between all sectors of the food system and my conception of the food system is everything from seed to stomach like a big part of my work is also focused on consumption.

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Getting people to actually eat the food and everything that comes along that process and what levers. I look at the food system, quite literally, as anyone would look at a body.

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An interesting and intricate entity that has to flow and everything has to work together so

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a part of the things that make this body flow are policy. I am a PhD student just finished up with my coursework and into my dissertation.

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In the public policy and development program here at Tuskegee. It is an integrated program. So we learn across different disciplines and we're mentored

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My mentors are Dr. Robert Zabawa and Dr. Raymon Shange and they

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Come from different sectors and so it really, really helps to be able to see how policy, the laws, the things that govern people are so transverse and so cross cutting

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And I, am at the illustrious Tuskegee University. I went here for undergrad as well.

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Monyai and I actually used to go to school together like back in the day, I should say. I went here for undergrad and I just stayed. I got planted in this beautiful red Alabama clay and my roots just just lifted me here.

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My grandparents met at Tuskegee in the 40s. My mom always makes me shout that out but I'm pretty much really love this place.

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Through and through. It's a beautiful place. And it has some really interesting history and I want to share a little bit about that with you.

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So, the place, the Alabama black belt. Welcome to the south. What do you know about the South. If you're on if you're from the south. Go ahead and shout out and in the chat box, now is your time Southern folk because this

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This presentation is really about the South. My work is rooted in the South, and if you're from the black belt. If you're from a black belt County, please go ahead and shout that out in the chat box.

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A lot of people don't know what a black belt is besides karate. They don't understand that millions of people live there and they bear the brunt of this nation.

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They deal with the highest end instances of poverty obesity and so many other preventable diseases and the South is a place of historic and enduring poverty right historic and enduring let that be known.

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The South is also home to the largest demographic region in the US. Did you know that the largest demographic region in the US is in the South, it's home to one third of the nation's population and one half- 

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50% of the nation's poverty is located in the South. So when it comes to dealing with real issues, the people that I work with here at Tuskegee and across Cooperative Extension.

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really deal with the people that are what you would consider the lowest of the low or the most, not even the grassroots the soil, the clay, the people that are really, really dealing with and have always dealt with the worst that we have had to hand out as a nation.

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So Tuskegee University. A lot of people don't know Cooperative Extension- a trivia question. Where was it born?

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You could guess the black belt and Tuskegee University then Tuskegee Institute says, Be specific.

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A lot of people do not know that cooperative extension or I should say more people should know that Cooperative Extension was born in

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Alabama and it was born at Tuskegee with the first Cooperative Extension Agent Thomas Monroe Campbell. He was an African American man. I work a lot with disparity issues of diversity, equity inclusion and in

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Cooperative Extension. And I'll talk a little bit more about that later. But I just really want to root, that put that fact out there because

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Cooperative Extension is the largest community development organization in America. And it's important to understand

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That it got that way because it dealt its origins dealt really trying to deal with people that just came out of the overthrows of slavery and enslavement, human enslavement.

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That's why it's called the Black Belt. So it's called the Black Belt and our founder Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee University actually coined this term. It was originally a political, an agricultural term.

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And then it became a political term the Black belt is the region of America, it's over 600 counties spanning from Virginia, Texas, this right here, this image on the right is the eight are the 18 counties in Alabama.

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That are considered Black Belt counties and in these 18 counties.

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Why it was called the Black Belt is it was home to the most rich, beautiful soil, the soil was so beautiful and it grew vegetables so amazing that the soil was literally black so of course that drew settlers that, well settlers quote unquote "colonizers" and

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plantation owners and

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That is where eventually because the soil was so rich. This is also where the Choctaw and so many different tribes like Tuskegee Indian tribes were forcibly removed from this land because this land had been inherited since

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Before Christ on in some of that counties of the black belt. They found archives archaeological pottery that exists. Before Christ. People were dwelling in these lands because of how rich the soil was

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They were removed from that land and then that brought in slaves so many slaves are brought to this area that eventually the black belt was called the Black Belt because of the people and not because of the land. And today, it's still

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Considered that because all of these counties are unique in that they have a higher black population than they do a white population.

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And so it became a political term during the 60s, and so forth. So that's a brief overview in history of where we are and where Cooperative Extension comes from

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And how we deal with these issues across the black belt of structural racism and disparity and structural in that their institutional because they followed

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Literal institutions of enslavement and the fight and the good work that's always been done in these areas towards equity and justice.

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And so that's the place. And so let's talk about the people who's been fighting this fight. And so as I began framing my research, I wanted to start with a community based participatory approach.

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Or community based participatory research as a black researcher. What that means for me. And so I would

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Suggest that text black participatory research for any black researcher that wants to look at a black participatory approach and what that means, what it means to show up in this research as a black person.

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And it's, um, it was really helpful to help me understand how to frame this work. And so I began doing agent interviews and the man in the right is Mr. Walter Baldwin. He's recently retired and he worked

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at Tuskegee Cooperative Extension as an agent for over 46 years

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So it was really, really great to sit down and interview. Mr. Baldwin and learn about his work and some of the eye opening things that I learned through his work.

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He actually worked in Lowndes County, which is a black belt county when he began as a young 27 year old man, and at this time.

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sharecroppers, and people that were forcibly removed from their land for participating participating in voting, a few years.

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In the Voting Rights Act, a few years before were still living in tents. He was actually the county agent, when there was a what's called tent city there are multiple cities, but this is the one that was in

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Lowndes County. So he actually began his work and having to work with communities that were living in such unbelievable conditions, just for wanting to seek, you know, the full democratic process so

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One of the things he told me that was in 1976 he went to a courthouse in one of the counties in Alabama. And it was actually still segregated.

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There was a colored and a white entrance on the courthouse and the county, just the, the local laws and

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Way people operated it was still segregated. So I got to learn about the way race influenced the food system and influenced the way people operated

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Also began doing some public dialogue processes and understanding that through the Tuskegee public dialogue team and you can find some more information about that.

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The process of amplification and the need to tell stories. So the network, who do I do this work with- you can't do this work alone. You cannot work in isolation.

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When you're really trying to do systems work. A lot of times I've experienced

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The issues with silos. So these are some of this is a reflection of my network and other ways you can find me and plug into my work so

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I'm also a committee member on the racial equity in the food systems or REFS as we like to call it working group and we produce webinars and we have an equity food listserv that you can plug into if you're at all interested in racial equity work and its

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Intersection with the food system. I'm also a fellow for the eXtension diversity, equity, and inclusion so extension. We have a field book. The first one was

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Produced by Dr. Shitomi Lester Edwards from the University of Missouri extension and I'm working on version two. So if you have any good resources that you think the nation should know of when it comes to diversity, equity inclusion, please.

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we'll be given out some links. So just stop by the site, you can go to suggest the resource and add those also work with Dr. Christine Porter on the

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Journal for Agriculture, Food Systems Community Development shareholder consortium equity and inclusion committee. I know that's a lot of words. But we really just call it not just another equity COMMITTEE. COMMITTEE.

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And also participated in the coming together the racial understanding inaugural training, these pictures on the right shows a nation-full of folks that are committed to this work across extension.

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And this INFAS graduate fellowship, so thankful for this opportunity to unite and work with other people and also you can catch me on some keynotes and some speeches got some of those coming up this year. So I thank you for this time, and I will now pass it over.

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Great. Thank you so much. Lindsay, I appreciate your giving us a description of your work and your I'm looking forward to the outcomes of your further

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Interviews and analysis. Just a reminder, I'm recording this. I'll be sharing it later, along with some of the resources that the fellows are referring to

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And we'll do some general Q  and A following the presentations. So at this point, last but not least, I wanted to introduce our final fellow who's Kimberly Carr, and she is currently finishing up her doctorate at Tuskegee University.

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Can everyone hear me or see my screen.

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I can see it. Kimberly maybe put it in presenter mode or slideshow.

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Oh,

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Wait.

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Oh, it's the little

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Icon near the 50% sign up the bottom that little. I don't know what to call it.

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Okay, what about now. Can you see

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Can you see me on the screen.

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I can see the screen. You can also go to View.

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And see, make sure to take over.

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Control.

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What about now.

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Perfect.

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You got it. You see it. Okay, thank you everyone for bearing with me. My name is Kimberly Carr. I am a PhD candidate in the integrated Biosciences PhD program here at Tuskegee University.

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And I have accepted an offer with Michigan State University Center for regional food systems and center for interdisciplinarity

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So the title of my presentation for this afternoon is health disparities food insecurity and environmental justice among United States black adults.

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So this is my presentation outline. I'm going to give a very brief overview of my doctoral research.

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The background and purpose and the implications of my work on structural racism in the food system. So I'm going to start off with the definitions.

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For the context of my work: health disparities.

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Is the systematic potentially avoidable differences in health or the major socially determinant influences on health between groups of people who have different relative positions.

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In social hierarchies, According to wealth, power and prestige. Health disparities oftentimes are described as health differences between social economic groups social

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Status here with this definition, it signifies ethical adjustments, such as fairness and justice.

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So the definition of food insecurity that I'm using for my work is from the United States Department of Agriculture, who reference

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Anderson and food insecurity for my work is defined as the limited or uncertain ability availability of nutritionally adequate.

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safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways

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And here, my study I defined the environment using Dr. Robert Bullard who is also known as the father of environmental justice.

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And his definition of environment that's all encompassing where people live, work, play, older school as well as how things interact with the physical and natural world.

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So a little bit of more background. So there is a plausible association between environmental injustices like toxic releases,

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Food insecurity and health disparities. However, it is very difficult to scientifically verify concern and discern. And that's because of measurement issues.

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Trans-disciplinary language and how you operationalize the variables.

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Health Disparities, such as diabetes are disproportionately higher in low income and minority populations and toxic chemical release and other environmental justice issues are historically higher

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in communities of color and low income populations. If you direct your attention now to the bottom. These are some key studies.

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That discuss health disparities discuss environmental justice- so the very first one is the 1985

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Report of the task force on black and minority health and this is also known as the Heckler Report. It was the first report to document the differences and health specifically excess deaths

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among black and some other minority populations. And what this study this report found was that there were 60,000, more than 80% excess deaths that were observed among blacks.

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And another minority groups, compared to the non Hispanic white population. And if you go to the fourth.

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article it says, What if we would equal a comparison of this black white mortality gap in 1963 and 2000,

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That was a study conducted by David Satcher in 2005 and David Satcher is one of the former Surgeon generals of the United States.

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And what they found was that the 60,000 deaths that were in 1985 have risen to 83,000 preventable excess deaths so

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The next article is toxic waste and race and this study came from implication of the environmental justice movement in 1982 which was the

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Birth of environmental justice movement started in 1982 with the Warren County, North Carolina protest of a toxic waste facility being cited in a predominantly African American and rural county

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And what they found was that this chemical company ended up dumping about 30,000 square square cubic yards of polychlorinated biphenyls

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And research have shown a lot of epidemiological studies have shown that polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins are associated with diabetes. So those toxic release and at the very end is the toxic waste and race at 20

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Is an update of the 19 I'm sorry 1987 report of toxic waste and race and that was conducted by the United Church of Christ and that study of toxic waste and race was the first study

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To look at the correlation between commercial or hazardous waste sites and demographic factors. And what they found was that race, race was the most significant predictor and predicting the the siting of a commercial hazardous waste site versus land values and home ownership.

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So Lindsey did excellent job talking about the southern black belt so I'm not going to belabor that so the non-hispanic black population, the United States.

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The southern black bill, it's about 11 states. And if you look very closely, you can see the black belt that Lindsay was discussing and like

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Lindsay said it was at first. People want to say the, the very rich fertile fall, but it really had to do with the concentration of blacks after the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.

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And you have this large number of free blacks and there's a little debate, I want to say a debate now of the term, Lindsay's correct Booker T. Washington, used the term as the southern black belt as well W.E.B. Du Bois and he discussed the in terms of

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sociologically so if you draw your attention to the very first one on diabetes. If you look, this is the diabetes belt, the diabetes belt is about 15 states and in the diabetes belt area has increased likelihood of type two diabetes and it is

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More likely for African Americans to be in the diabetes belt and again just draw your attention to the very first first diagram or map.

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And then the next one is food insecurity. So if you look at food security near the average of the US average and look at food insecurity above the United States average

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You just kind of start seeing a little bit of association here just looking at it for face value, for validity.

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And this next one is next diagram is from the Environmental Protection Agency is the Toxic Release Inventory.

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And talk to release inventory is a pretty cool tool. You get to see what companies are releasing toxins in your in your area. So you can type in your zip code and you can see oh this company

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released this chemical, but the thing is with that is it's voluntary. So they, the companies are not mandated to report their toxic release.

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And what all these have in common, these different geographical maps is non-Hispanic black adults have the second highest rate of diabetes.

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The highest is Native Americans American Indians, Alaska Natives, the highest rate of food insecurity, which is that 21.8% and historically disproportionate chemical exposure compared to other racial and ethnic groups.

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So the purpose of my work is to examine association between health disparities, food insecurity and environmental justice among

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Non-hispanic black adults in the United States and the health disparity that I'm using is diabetes.

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Studies have shown that diabetes is linked to food insecurity and environmental injustice and environmental injustice that I'm looking at is toxic releases

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That are known to be associated with diabetes, like polychlorinated biphenols and your dioxins and your

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Different pesticides like hexochlorobenzene and those such and it's a mixed methods study. So I'm going to move on to

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The implications of my doctoral research on structural racism in the food system. And I want to make two points. One is alleviating food insecurity, using a deficit model versus an asset model approach and the role of community asset mapping

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alleviating food insecurity, the deficit model, it focuses on the identification of problems and needs of a community neighborhood or population and

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For people or researchers or maybe nonprofit organizations or other scholars that

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Are doing food insecurity work and trying to understand the population, you're probably end up doing a needs assessment.

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But one of the problems with using a deficit model is that you think of the questions like, what is the problem of what is missing, what is lacking.

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And then after a while, you know, you think you know what the answer is like ah, that's what it is, and you start to slowly move into that moral dimension of, you know, what's wrong with them? And why can't they get it right? So needs assessment,

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Environmental Scans, they're great, you know, you get to identify the problem but

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One of the implications of that is policy implications. And one example of that would be like your federal assistance or food assistance programs and food banks.

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Which are helpful. However, it's only looking at it from a deficit of what is wrong versus that asset model, which was

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Developed by two researchers Morgan and Ziglio, I have the reference down below, and it focuses on the positive protective factors or the assets of a community or neighborhood or

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Population. So you're looking at people's gifts. So instead of asking what's the problem you're asking what factors enable a community to be resilient against food insecurity.

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What factors will these, how will these factors, reduce food insecurity, and how would this community or neighborhood achieve food sovereignty.

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And "health assets" refer to any factor or resource which enhances the ability of an individual's, community's, ability to sustain that health and well being. So if you identify the assets that value, the culture.

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Of the community, you know, and given the empowerment that is needed, they can create their own culture of food sovereignty food justice.

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acceptability of food. So pretty much, making them very autonomous and making them very sovereign. So examples of that would be community gardens, you know, generational resilient social capital empowerment, food forests, and something a new term that I learned food oasis. So the role

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The role of community asset mapping. This is one of the tools that the asset model

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Implies as a, you know, you can use it this community asset model helps with brainstorming, you can identify local resources and community partnerships.

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You can recognize the culture, value and talents and you can seek to build sustainable relationships and connections. So again,

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Finding what is in the community. Because again, with food insecurity, the community, the populations, the neighborhoods they have to be eating something, you know, they're not starving. They're eating something so it's a great

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Tool to see what's there and to see the assets of that community and amplify it and I believe if you can amplify it then you can find a way of of

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helping

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So the way I look at it is availability. Can I get it, is it there. Accessibility. Can I get to it and Acceptability: do accept the services or the food that's being offered to me. So thank you for my presentation. This is my contact information and I'm open to questions later.

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Thank you. Thank you. Kimberly, actually, we're going to, we're going to go back to you for the

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Last slide because we're going to now at this point as we

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Finished the three presentations. We're going to have each of you share your insights to the question that I posed to you, which was

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For you to consider in your perspectives and your, in your opinion, what should food system scholars and practitioners from outside the HBCU system.

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Be aware of and or actions to take with respect to structural racism in the food system. And I'll just go ahead and start with you since your slides are already up and I think you have it as your final slide.

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Yes, so let me. Can you see it now. I'm still trying to

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Okay, you see if you can see it. Okay.

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We can we can see it. It's just like we can see all your little slides on the side.

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Here we go ahead and got

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All right.

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Thank you so much. Okay. So insight-Joanna has already set the question. And again, my insight, would be to utilize the asset model and community asset mapping. Like, for example, even though I didn't use the community asset mapping in my work, I had the opportunity to

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intern at a community food pantry in Alabama and while they didn't specifically use the community asset map. What is so great about this food pantry.

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And it's a food pantry program of the food bank of East Alabama.

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Is the fact that not only are they providing food. They also providing you know resources. The churches got together the local businesses got together corporations like WalMart got together, you know, and donated food.

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Another thing that makes me think of is you have to understand your mission and/or purpose in the food work system or the food systems work

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Like is it charity or social social justice. So charity, it refers to helping those in need. That can go into giving your time, that can go to giving the talent that can go for 

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Giving your money, but the thing is: charity makes you feel good. It really does. It makes you feel good, you know, you're helping people but

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charity really doesn't do anything to overcome, you know, structural inequities or structural inequalities, you know, as charity is short term,

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Is for immediate need unlike social justice and I like how these authors define social justice as the full participation in society.

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And the balancing of benefits and burdens of all citizens, resulting in equitable living and a just ordering of society and the difference with social justice.

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Versus charity, is that social justice is a long term and it assumes autonomy, it promotes social change, it promotes sovereignty. So I think there's something that we should

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Consider as we go forth in you know food systems work charity vs social justice because the goal is to make sure that citizens and people are autonomous, even though we know there are barriers there.

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And the last one is understand that historically black colleges, universities HBCUs, are grounded in an environment where structural racism manifests, not only in the food system. and that is my insight.

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Great. Thank you so much. Kimberly Monyai. Let's get your final slide up if you can get that going.

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So the two points that I want to touch on about structural racism in the food system that I think is beneficial.

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Are one: the idea of hegemonic. Well, the concept of hegemonic ideas that dictate how systems should operate.

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and are seen as common sense in development discourse, despite the challenges that they have been

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noted with. I think that it's important for researchers, activists, scholars, developers to know that there are alternative methods to development discourse. There isn't one way of doing things. And I think that a culture has been created that certain

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Certain experts or

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Certain experts opinions is, is more valuable than those of like local people and which is why my second, ties into my second point of a culture of respect.

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I think it's important for international organizations to respect and acknowledge the culture within

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Local civil society organizations that they work with, especially in rural communities. I think that is important for international organizations to

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Be transparent and to be accountable and also to listen to the rural people when they have ideas about their own

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Have ideas or solutions about their own problems. Um, so yeah, that would just be the two things that I think is very beneficial in order to combat structural racism in the food system.

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Great, thank you. Monyai. And last but not least, Lindsay. Will you share your final thoughts before we go into just the some, well the Q and A section.

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Okay.

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Okay, so these are just a few quick points I want to share about, especially people working in extension and when it comes to the question of people working outside the HBCU system.

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Just focusing on how the agencies, not just the agency system, but how land grant organizations perform so doing a little research if you don't already know about like the Smith lever lever act of 1914 which is established Cooperative Extension.

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Extension systems and then even going back before that, just how Cooperative Extension was established land grant

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But land grant but unequal state one to one matching funds for 1890 land grant universities. A lot of people don't know that land grant the HBCU land grants are not given their one to one state matching in many states.

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So that like an example combined 1890 land grant universities did not receive almost $57 million due to date not matching when they're legally required to and this has caused so much financial strain on

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Many, many HBC universities. And so when you talk about structural problems, literally, the way the law laws are not being followed, to the extent that millions of dollars are not coming into these counties. These

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Communities and these institutions and doing more research on that there's a good reference "Disparity"

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By Rupert Seals, Ron Wimberley Ronald Wimberley and Libby Morris and they also have to find out more about the black belt, they have a really good federal Commission.

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For the black belt and a lot of they did a lot of research on the black belt. Specifically, and why it needs its own federal commission, similar to

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ARD or any of the other research commissions. So moving on from that.

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I'm sorry. ARC Appalachian Regional Commission got my

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Acronyms messed up. But moving on from that, just like some quote to leave you all with

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"You have to get over the fear of facing the worst in yourself. You have to get over the fear of facing the worst in yourself, you should instead fear unexamined racism.

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Fear the thought that right now. You could be contributing to the oppression of others and you don't know it.

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But do not fear those that bring oppression to like do not fear the opportunity to do better." and that comes from "So you want to talk about race" (Ijeoma Oluo)

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And really quickly. Guys, I have one more. Kimberly really sparked this, I really wanted to add this because we are three black women scholars and I know this is a surprise, but I just have to put this out here. I'm

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Defining freedom cannot amount to simply substituting it with inclusion.

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countering the criminalization of black girls requires fundamentally altering the relationship between black girls and the institutions of power that have worked to reinforce their subjugation.

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History has taught us that civil rights are but one component of a larger movement for this type of social transformation.

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Civil rights may be at the core of equal justice movements and they may elevate an equity agenda that protects our children from racial and gender discrimination.

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But they do not have the capacity to fully redistribute power and eradicate racial inequity. There's only one practice that can do that. Love. (Monique Morris)

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And that comes from Pushout: the criminalization of black girls. So we just wanted to leave you guys with that as black women researchers, the things that we face and the light that we bring. We hope it doesn't inspire fear, but rather victory. Thank you.

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Wow, thank you. Lindsay, thanks for thanks for wrapping up this this hour with some really powerful quotes I did get chills here. So I appreciate that.

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And I do want to thank all three of you for doing such a great job in your work and sharing your perspectives.

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Each of you are at different academic and professional stages and you've had different perspectives and so much to offer. And it's been

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A pleasure and my honor to work with each of you over the last year and I know you're inspiring so many people

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With the work that you're doing now and the work that you will be doing for the foreseeable future, and for I can tell long and exciting careers with

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Inspiration and social change. As a reminder for everyone, this webinar is being recorded. I will share it. And in the last few minutes

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 that we have. I have a few questions that are in the Q and A  box and based on what I can tell, I know a few of them are directed at particular folks and

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So I think I'll just start by asking a question here. Um, I'm going to just go ahead and ask this question, I think, Lindsay might be a person who could answer this one.

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The question's from Tasha, and the question says, I have a question about not working in silos. How do you deal with people who say

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They're not working in silos, but yet their collaborations still exclude black and indigenous people and Lindsay, maybe you can take a, take a thought on that, like what you might say to people, or what you might do what you might do with them.

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Thank you. Thank you for that question. Tasha, I saw pop up. So I have a few quick notes that I thought about and the biggest one that stuck out to me from your question was the word exclude

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So how are they excluding are they actively excluding are they implicitly excluding and I think maybe one could be work with and then one needs to be

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Both of them require a unique strategy if they're actively excluding that's a strategy, if they're implicitly excluding that's a strategy. So one thing I would look at why are they, not why but how are they excluding and then

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Also for people that might be doing this, wondering like, oh wait, am I, excluding because I look around. There aren't a lot of black, brown faces around me. Am I doing this.

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To question myself. I would look at, are you sharing decision making power with people of color like, you might be working with people of color, but are they

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Lateral with you. Are you sharing decision making power? and then also the, the notion of sharing power is unique in itself. Right. So those are the things that I kind of thought of.

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Yeah, that's what I had. Thank you.

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Thanks, Lindsay Monyai or Kimberly is this if this is something that you'd like to also weigh in on. I might have you muted. So I'm going to unmute now.

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No, I don't.

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Okay.

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And Kimberly. Is there anything you wanted to add to that.

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No Lindsey did a fabulous job.

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Kimberly. I've got a question. Another question next that I think you might you based on your presentation, you might have something to say. And

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This question says, How do you feel about the challenge of food banks acquiring ethnically and equitable foods in the food banks for certain communities.

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That makes, if that's a clear question.

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Okay read that, say it one more time. I think I had the answer. I just want to hear that one more time to

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Yeah. And you might be able to see the Q A and A box. I'm not sure, but

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The question is how do you feel about the challenge of food banks acquiring ethnically equitable foods in the food banks for certain communities.

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About the challenge of

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Well, the thing is there is structural racism and with that I know from my experience with doing the work down here in Macon County. Well, then the food bank that I

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Intern I got more insight was in Lee County and that is a non black belt County.

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And it's interesting because Lee County and Macon County, or from Tuskegee to Opelik, is about 30 minutes away. But the food bank at the community market, they have a great food pantry is supported by the food bank and they have a very large support system and Macon County is predominantly

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African American, and I look at it as to how is it that these two places, you know, are 30 minutes apart in the same

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catchment area and Macon County, which is predominantly African American is having issues with getting, I would say funding, well getting food.

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from the east food bank of Alabama, I wouldn't say necessarily getting food, but I guess, putting it in a central location, how I feel about that is, is it's a very unsettling feeling considering I've seen it you know firsthand. As far as these food banks going

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Again, being supported one Lee County one Macon County one

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Little bit less African American versus I hope I answered your question.

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Thank you. Kimberly I we're almost out of time, but I did want to ask one more question and

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It might be again to you. Kimberly because you spoke about charity, um, the question here from Mecca says as a black woman

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working to start a farm and donate some food to those in need. How can I bring awareness to racial disparities in the food system and how can I use my charity to spark social change?

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So the thing is what charity again charity makes you feel

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Good. If you think of the ethical principle of benevolence, that is to do the intent to do no harm.

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And when we think of charity. Again, it's great you know you're giving your time you're giving you know your resources, but

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At the same time, it should be a social justice mission because really the goal is to make sure that the individuals or the communities become autonomous and they are sovereign

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In the efforts to go back to that is to try community asset mapping

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For I was reading an article, maybe a few days ago talking about the food forces now that are in Atlanta.

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So that may be something that you want to check out. But I will say definitely use the community community asset mapping, but also be aware of your intent, and intention is very key. I know this is very off topic but I

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Wonder if you have heard of the United States Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee

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Or the erroneously titled Tuskegee Experiment, that it's the wrong title. And if you look at that and parallel that very quickly, you have to look at the intent of that study as well, which is

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to look at the natural progression of syphilis and they would think, the researchers thought that they were doing it in

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The name of science, in the name of good science. So you have to be aware of your intentions of, do you just want to feel good of charity, which is great.

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Or do you really want to spark this change. And I think that has to be inflected with you and what your lens is, your ethical lens what are your ethics and what are your morals and how you can amplify that to make sure that people can see that and become autonomy themselves.

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Great. And I'm just going to take the moderator's or host's privilege and ask a final question posed by

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Christine Porter, University of Wyoming, who is a leader in our network and also served as a mentor for this program. And her question is being it from an academic point of view, of course, is is

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is complicated. But you guys are all speaking to this and it's really important in her question is "the impacts of white supremacy and structural racism are also manifest in the academy, of course.

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For her, I believe it was Monyai's hegemony point, for example, for a network like INFAS, which the three of you have been working with us over the last year, and we're hosting

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We would love to know your thoughts on actions that our faculty and activist academic network. What can we do to undo and counter the systemic white supremacy and structural racism,

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and support and sustain upcoming and current faculty of color who are doing radical work." So that's a, that's a lot of stuff there. But we would love to hear your input.

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OK.

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That one.

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Okay, so thank you Dr. Porter for that question. One thing that comes like right to mind, an example is the movie "The Help" with

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Octavia Spencer and her co star. I can't remember her co star's name at the moment, but in the example

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they weren't going to pay Octavia Spencer her due like what she felt she was worth. And so her co star,

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A Caucasian woman, a white woman went to the powers that be the leadership and was like, I

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I stand with her, like, I'm not going to act in this role. I'm not going to be in this capacity until you pay her what she deserves to be paid.

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And that sort of movement shocked them and it changed the way she was paid and there's an article about that. I can drop a link about that. And so I think that's a great example of the same type of work that can be done with academia.

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And I'll give you a historical point on that Stokely Carmichael (or Kwame Ture) he would always tell people, especially white people.

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Go to your home communities, your home institutions and advocate, you can't come to my community and advocate because my people need to see me as a leader, but you need to go into your community and advocate for

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This work to be done with your family members with the people that you will have sway over. And so what that looks like to me in the academic realm: I brought up the state one to one (fund) matching: the APLU association of public land grant universities put out this study (http://www.aplu.org/library/land-grant-but-unequal-state-one-to-one-match-funding-for-1890-land-grant-universities/file)

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Scholars at 1862, at these major land land grant universities, like mission like just so many different large there's so many across you know every state has land grant so they and not just those institutions other institutions.

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They need to stand up and start doing research and start advocating, coming to there administration being like hey

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"Why did we get an eight to one match and   our 1890 brethren didn't even get their one to one match? I will no longer do research for an institution that would be so greedy like that would take so much money.

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While another institution doesn't get it." So these universities have to stand in solidarity to start making some lawmakers see that like this should not be done in 2019 and going into 2020. So that would be my suggestion.

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This is Monyai, i agree 100% with you said Lindsey

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You're saying, but no, seriously, people do need to be transparent and stop sugarcoating and call it out for what it is, especially when it comes to academia.

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Um a lot of people try not to say things because they don't want the shame to be looked at them, but they don't want it to affect the trajectory of their career and that is not right because

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It's it just is playing into structural racism, it is playing into the structure of white supremacy, of hegemonic ideas that is so rampant, not only in American academia, but internationally as well. So I think you did a great job explaining that Lindsay, for sure.

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Thank you.

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One final question from another INFAS member is, if you would be interested to speak to your vision for food sovereignty in the communities where you work.

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So, well. So my I've been reading a lot lately. it's going into summertime, so I well, I read all the time. Let me say like this. I've been able to read for pleasure lately, and I've been picking up some NK Jemison

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Books and one of the ones I'm reading right now is called "how long till black future month"

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And it's basically Afro Futurism and she basically found a genre of

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Science fiction, where she realized that there weren't a lot of science fiction about black people living in the future, like

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People didn't really see a future for black people so they weren't writing about it. And you guys know that science fiction is totally self fulfilling prophecy

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So when you talk about a vision and I think about the future. And I think about food. I really like to just think creative ways like um, like my vision. I don't know. It's

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My full vision would just really be going back to like where people can access market ways and marketplaces and people, in a lot of ways, it's going back

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I just, I love Afro futurism. And it's kind of like the movie Black Panther. It goes back. It's an ode to like

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Community and culture and tribalism. And just like the way people used to live, but it's in the future because we're never going back right we're always going forward.

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So I see a lot of just traditional things coming back. But then, with new with new

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New flavor new techniques and then integration because so many different things mixing together so like my vision is is like, because I've been reading so much science fiction lately. I have my vision really open and it's really colorful

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This is Monyai. So my vision would be countries that are, because

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Because I studied international relations. I always have like an international perspective and I'm studying West Africa, particularly Liberia, as we just found out. So I think that like countries that are

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That produce a lot of food, but have to do a lot of exporting I think food sovereignty to me would be would be them being able to feed their own country feed their own citizens.

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People should not be food insecure. If you have the if you have the capacity to produce

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The agricultural capacity to produce food. But as we see there are structural barriers to that. So to me it would be breaking down those barriers and actually using your the, the foods that you produce in your country for your citizens first

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And this is. Oh, sorry.

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No, go. I was just gonna, I was gonna ask if anybody. Go ahead. Go ahead. Kimberly.

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Yes, so, um, to that question. I think of food sovereignty my vision for it is one starting off with a cultural framing. So looking at

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food sovereignty as a relational event with different relationships. So when you build a have a strong network of social capital, capital or empowerment. It kind of goes into how you can

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very loosely create a way of life and way I see with food sovereignty is that I'm

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Building around a culture that is sustainable build it around a culture that is Autonomous, autonomous and everything else

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Should be able to flow from so it's like when you have this relationship of the culture, you have this relationship with the environment, you have this relationship with health these things that are inter connected together

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will form, not just food sovereignty, but racial equity, excuse me, health equity. and the other assets. So that's what I look at it.

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Great, well thank you guys. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for joining. And for those of you who stuck around for the

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The I think the most fun part, which is the Q and A where we get into more of what each of the fellows, think about

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their perspectives on on really important questions in the food system. So I want to thank you guys for hanging around and thank all the fellows for your great work and to those of you still on the call. I'll just again say in a few days when I get this

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When I get the link ready and everything. I will send a follow up email to everybody and share and I will also share

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the notes, such as Casey Hoy from OSU INFAS member recommending a book by his friend and colleague, Melanie Harris called eco womanism African American women and earth honoring faiths. So this is great. I need some new books to read for the summer. So now I've got two

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On my list of plus the third one, the one

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In the talk was it I think is Lindsey who talked about the Disparity book I've already got that one anyway I diverge.

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I will send everything to you guys, including the links and the references and thank you guys and also I will send you some contact information to the fellows.

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If you are interested in inviting them to give a talk or work with you, I'm sure, as they advance in their professional careers, they would love to speak with you further. So thank you all. I'll go ahead and end