Labor – Sustainable Food Systems Initiative

Labor

Book Talk: Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice Driver

Session Description: Alice Driver is a James Beard Award-winning investigative journalist from the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. She is the author of Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company (One Signal Publishers, 2024). In 2024, the book won the Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize from Columbia Journalism School and […]

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A person wearing a yellow Justice for Farmworkers shirt stands in front of a large tree; next to it, an American worker’s hand reaches toward red flowers in front of a wooden fence.

Panel of City-Level Urban Agriculture Directors

This panel brings together urban agriculture and food policy leaders from Michigan, Connecticut, and Texas to explore how cities are shaping the future of equitable food systems. Panelists will share how their positions within municipal government influence land access, zoning, funding, and community power, highlighting both hard-won policy successes and ongoing structural challenges. Together, we’ll

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Anthony Flaccavento: “To Build a Healthy Farm and Food System, We Must Overcome the Rural-Urban Divide”

On Tuesday, February 24, 2026, Anthony Flaccavento joined Food Literacy for All for a powerful presentation titled “To Build a Healthy Farm and Food System, We Must Overcome the Rural-Urban Divide.” A farmer and rural development consultant from Appalachia, Flaccavento challenged us to think about how decades of “trickle down” economic policies have increased corporate

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screenshot from the beginning of anthony flaccavento's talk

Dr. David Ortega on Food Price Inflation and Tariff Impacts

Food prices shape everyday decisions. This talk examines the drivers and consequences of food price inflation in the United States. The lecture features case studies showing how specific tariffs affect food prices, illustrating how trade policy decisions translate into real-world impacts. Speaker Bio: Dr. David L. Ortega is Professor at Michigan State University who examines

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Screenshot from Dr. David Ortega's talk

Laura MacIntyre (ROC United), Laura Nadal (Community Organizer), Hannah Whitbeck (Starbucks Workers United), Celize Christy (HEAL Alliance) | “There’s Power in a Union: Organizing Workers in the Food System”

January 30th, 2024 In this Food Literacy for All session, Laura MacIntyre, Laura Nadal, Hannah Whitbeck, and Celize Christy, discussed “There’s Power in a Union: Organizing Workers in the Food System.” Register to attend future Food Literacy 2024 sessions here: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_diO8D1vIQVezN_hKY3FBhw#/registration

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Pakou Hang | “Racial Justice and Equity in the Food System: Going Beyond the Roots”

January 28, 2020 Pakou Hang is a Co-Founder and the former Executive Director of the Hmong American Farmers Association, a nonprofit in Minnesota that works with Hmong farmers to build intergenerational and community wealth. In this lecture, Hang spoke about the policies and practices that can feed a robust ecosystem and support the resilience of

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Mónica Ramírez | “Seeding Justice: Ensuring Just Conditions for Those Who Feed the World”

January 22, 2019 Famworkers pick, pack and plant the food that we eat, but they often do not have enough food for themselves and their families. Mónica Ramírez, a prominent migrant rights advocate with more than two decades of experience, advocating on behalf of farmworkers across the United States, will share information about the working

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Josh Slotnick | “Cheap Food Nation and the Countervailing Force of Community Agriculture”

January 23, 2018 This presentation will combine an interactive dive into our food system with a discussion of Community Agriculture. Our interaction will distill out the values inherent in our food system, then I will describe Community Agriculture as the source of a different set of values. The work of Community Agriculture, not the food

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