Top Labor Videos

Ricardo Salvador | “A Healthy, Sustainable, Fair, Humane and Affordable Food System is Within Reach. How You Can Make It Happen.”
January 24th, 2017 A Healthy, Sustainable, Fair, Humane and Affordable Food System is Within Reach. How You Can Make It Happen. The U.S. food system has become the model replicated globally. Unfortunately, the system selectively serves those wealthy enough to command its benefits, while perversely creating hunger, chronic disease, environmental damage and suffering for others.

Saru Jayaraman | “Forked: A New Standard for American Dining”
March 14, 2017 With over 12 million workers, the restaurant industry is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the US economy, but also the lowest paying. Restaurant workers in Michigan toil for a little over $3 an hour and suffer from the worst sexual harassment of any industry in the state. Saru Jayaraman will speak about new initiatives moving in Michigan and nationwide to change the industry, and how these intiatives are even more critical under the Trump Administration.

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 farmers of color.
All Labor Videos
- Book Talk: Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice DriverSession 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,… Read more: Book Talk: Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice Driver
- Panel of City-Level Urban Agriculture DirectorsThis 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,… Read more: Panel of City-Level Urban Agriculture Directors
- 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… Read more: Anthony Flaccavento: “To Build a Healthy Farm and Food System, We Must Overcome the Rural-Urban Divide”
- Dr. David Ortega on Food Price Inflation and Tariff ImpactsFood 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… Read more: Dr. David Ortega on Food Price Inflation and Tariff Impacts
- 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
- Navina Khanna & Mónica Ramírez | “Organize”April 15, 2021 Food Literacy for All featured a second session featuring Navina Khanna & Mónica Ramírez. This series is co-led by Andy Jones (School for Public Health), Devita Davison (FoodLab Detroit), and Lilly Fink Shapiro (UM Sustainable Food Systems… Read more: Navina Khanna & Mónica Ramírez | “Organize”
- 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… Read more: Pakou Hang | “Racial Justice and Equity in the Food System: Going Beyond the Roots”
- 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,… Read more: Mónica Ramírez | “Seeding Justice: Ensuring Just Conditions for Those Who Feed the World”
- 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… Read more: Josh Slotnick | “Cheap Food Nation and the Countervailing Force of Community Agriculture”
- Saru Jayaraman | “Forked: A New Standard for American Dining”March 14, 2017 With over 12 million workers, the restaurant industry is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the US economy, but also the lowest paying. Restaurant workers in Michigan toil for a little over $3 an… Read more: Saru Jayaraman | “Forked: A New Standard for American Dining”
- Ricardo Salvador | “A Healthy, Sustainable, Fair, Humane and Affordable Food System is Within Reach. How You Can Make It Happen”A Healthy, Sustainable, Fair, Humane and Affordable Food System is Within Reach. How You Can Make It Happen. The U.S. food system has become the model replicated globally. Unfortunately, the system selectively serves those wealthy enough to command its benefits,… Read more: Ricardo Salvador | “A Healthy, Sustainable, Fair, Humane and Affordable Food System is Within Reach. How You Can Make It Happen”
- Peter Rosset | “Food Sovereignty as a Social Movement of Struggle”University of Michigan Food Sovereignty Conference: Local Struggles, Global Movement (May 28-29, 2015). Hosted by the University of Michigan Sustainable Food Systems Initiative http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/sustainabl…












