Respond. Reimagine. Rebuild.

Sunset at Namu Farm

October 16th, 2020
[Read Time: 8 minutes]

Respond, reimagine, rebuild. Something that we’ve repeated to ourselves over and over again lately (gratitude to Rodney Foxworth at Common Future for sharing a version of this framework with us). Throughout the last 6 weeks, we have supported our farmer clients as they respond to disappearing sales channels, urgent cash flow needs, and health concerns. We have had the opportunity to reflect on the significance of this moment for our food system. We have grappled with the multitude of feelings, often conflicting, that comes with being humans in crisis. And while our reality is ever-evolving, and most of us are still very much responsive to the current needs of our community, now is the time to reimagine a post-pandemic food system together.

RESPOND

Kitchen Table Advisors is a multi-racial, majority people of color and majority female team; we are, have been and are the children of immigrants, farmworkers, small business owners, organic farmers, healthcare workers, and more. And we are holding all the sadness, anger and anxiety of this moment. The disproportionate health impact on black and brown communities. The anti-Asian racism. The tremendous health risks faced by frontline healthcare and food chain workers. The millions of people out of work, including self-employed and undocumented folks. All of the ways this pandemic -- and the systems we live in -- continues to inequitably impact our people.

At the same time, there is hope, resilience, and resolve. We’re seeing folks in our communities and across the country showing up. There are aid efforts everywhere, from UndocuFund Monterey Bay started by our Kitchen Cabinet member Maria Cadenas, to La Cocina’s relief fund for the immigrant and women-owned food businesses they support, to the Latino Community Foundation’s Love Not Fear Fund that supports undocumented families in the Central Valley. And so many more. 

Then there’s what we’re seeing in the community of organic and regenerative farmers we support. A Latinx immigrant farmer in Watsonville who has had her 3 largest farmers markets close. A queer Asian-American farmer who is scrambling to adapt since 80-90% of her sales have been to restaurants. An immuno-compromised Latinx farmer pivoting from farmers markets to a CSA to try and secure his livelihood and protect his family’s health. A Southeast Asian immigrant farmer juggling caring for her grandkids, declining market channels, and the stress of a looming USDA farm mortgage payment on the property she was recently able to purchase. These farmers are resourceful and adaptable, but face huge challenges. 

As we stand with sustainable farmers to continue to provide the advising and connections that are core to our work, we’re seeing our community show up in ways that serve an immediate need as well as stitch together new pathways for a resilient regional food economy. 

• Organic farmer and regenerative rancher clients Green Thumb Organics Farms, Oya Organics, Fifth Crow Farm, Markegard Family Grass-Fed, Sol Seeker Farm, Mariposa Ranch and more quickly pivoting their business models to get more healthy produce and meat to families by starting CSAs early, delivering to homes, expanding online stores, and bolstering healthy food access to low-income families.

• Partners like FEED Sonoma, a food hub that will soon be owned by workers and farmers (including several of our clients), adapting to the moment by accelerating the launch of a multi-farm CSA-like weekly vegetable box that increases distribution of healthy food directly to consumers while also supporting farmers’ economic viability.

• Collaborators like Mandela Partners organizing a relief fund that supports their grower network by purchasing harvested produce then distributing it through their emergency response food program, which offers free produce boxes, CSA-style bags of mixed fruits and vegetables, and lightly processed meal kits to community members most at risk.

All around us, we are finding glimmers of hope in our community.

REIMAGINE

As we take a step back and reflect, it is not news to us that the context, marketplaces, and systems related to food and agriculture are broken, that they simply do not work for the sustainable small farms and ranches that operate within them. Or for women, the queer community or people of color. Or for the health of our planet and folks prioritizing ecological responsibility and climate resilience.  

And we are collectively taking note. Taking note of all the ways our food system is failing our farmers, ranchers, and other frontline food chain workers; failing our food insecure neighbors and health workers; all the ways it is failing to live up to the food system we envision. 

We are also noting the ways our community is responding. The ways our community is working across regions and across the food chain--forming new or leveraging existing coalitions--that will be necessary for our reimagined food system to be collaborative and interdependent. The ways BIPOC-led organizations and leaders like farmer Mai Nguyen and Urban Tilth are rising up to support the most vulnerable in their communities when all other systems fail to do so. And how, amidst all the heartbreak humanity is experiencing, our planet is being given a moment to heal.

When we have the privilege of mental and emotional space these days, we dream and reimagine what just and resilient regional food economies could look like. And we are not alone. From Dr. Vandana Shiva and indigenous Ecuadorian communities, to some of our friends closer to home (such as First Nations Development Institute, Movement Generation, HEAL Food Alliance, Common Future, Justice Funders), leaders throughout our food system and interconnected movements are also re-envisioning what our society and culture can become. 

Core to what we want to reimagine here at Kitchen Table Advisors is this: a world where regenerative farmers and ranchers have thriving livelihoods in community-based economies with an equitable distribution of power and resources.

At a recent board meeting, a few Kitchen Cabinet members articulated what this might mean. Ryan Power, an organic vegetable farmer (and KTA alum) with New Family Farm, imagined a dominant culture where buyers prioritize sustainability and ecological stewardship of the land. Maria Cadenas, an organizer and nonprofit leader with Santa Cruz Community Ventures, talked about a world where the voices and perspectives of working class families, rural communities, queer communities, women, and people of color are included and centered. Esther Park, an innovator in impact investing and philanthropy with No Regrets Initiative, dreamed of a world where we acknowledge, respect, and pay a premium for food grown with bio-cultural practices that black, indigenous, and people of color communities have stewarded for many, many years. Regardless of how the details of our visions may differ, we invite you to explore what is most important for you and your community in a reimagined regional food system.

REBUILD

And as we move from reimagining to rebuilding, we know that there is no singular answer nor silver bullet. At the same time, we can draw upon the seeds that have already been planted and cultivated in our communities, following their path from farm to table in a vision rooted in justice and resilience. We recognize the individuals and organizations who have long been advocating for and sowing a new food system while knowing there are even more changemakers out there doing this work in their respective communities.

Learning from the legacy of the black-led New Communities land trust in the South in the 1960s, we can collectively rebuild towards a world where crops are planted, cultivated and harvested on land held by the commons, and where we are in right relationship with indigenous communities.

Support + Amplify + Get Inspired

Minnow // Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust // National Black Food and Justice Alliance

Standing on the shoulders of labor movements, including those led by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez with UFW, we can collectively rebuild towards a world where crops are planted, cultivated and harvested by farmers, farmworkers, and land stewards that have economic and ecological self-determination.

Support + Amplify + Get Inspired
Javier Zamora at JSM Organics // New Roots Cooperative Farm // California Harvesters

Following the wisdom of indigenous communities who have been leading climate adaptation and resilience for so long, we can collectively rebuild towards a world where crops are planted, cultivated and harvested in harmony with nature. We can learn from the farmers and ranchers who integrate organic vegetables and flowers, orchards, and livestock; and who practice no/low till farming, seed-saving, and intensive rotational grazing.

Support + Amplify + Get Inspired
Píkyav CQ Field Institute // Full Belly Farm // Kristyn Leach at Namu Farm // Doniga Markegard at Markegard Family Grass-Fed

Building upon the traditions in many communities of collectively stewarding resources (including money), we can collectively rebuild towards a world where land, farms, and value chain enterprises are financed with capital that is democratically governed by communities on the ground.

Support + Amplify + Get Inspired
Seed Commons // Southern Reparations Loan Fund //   Equitable Food Oriented Development collaborative // CA Tribal Fund at First Nations Development Institute

Learning from the successes and failures of myriad farmer cooperatives over the years, we can collectively rebuild towards a world where harvested crops are processed and distributed by enterprises that are owned, governed, and/or accountable to farmers; and that respect, value, and compensate all that the farmers put into the products and the land.

Support + Amplify + Get Inspired
Agri-cultura Network // Indian Springs Farmers Association // Hmong American Farmers Association // Capay Valley Farm Shop

Drawing upon the wisdom of the natural world, we can collectively rebuild towards a world where all of us - as consumers, as employees or employers, as voters - acknowledge our interdependence, recognize what regenerative farmers and ranchers do in stewarding our land and what they need to have thriving livelihoods, and make choices that prioritize ecological responsibility, justice, and resilience to build the world we need.

Support + Amplify + Get Inspired
Reem Assil at Reem’s California // Soleil Ho // Bryant Terry // Sean Sherman // Aileen Suzara // People’s Kitchen Collective // Radical Xchange

This vision we’ve shared for just and resilient regional food economies continues to evolve and be influenced by farmers, partners and friends. And we invite you to join us to collectively reimagine and rebuild. What does a just and resilient food system look like in your mind? How might you contribute? Which leaders, businesses and organizations can you support? Let’s challenge the idea of "normal" to which we're expected to return and step into our reimagined food system together.

Photo credits: Nicola Parisi, Jonathan Fong, Brenton Gieser