Food. Justice. Work.
The Checkout centers the voices and efforts of essential workers on the frontlines of our food system. Now more than ever, our food system is in a constant state of flux, radical change and crisis. From political economy and supply chain analysis to public policy, labor organizing and community struggles, The Checkout will expand the horizon of what is necessary to create a just, equitable and progressive food system.
The Checkout is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.
Episode 24: Nishiki Maredia on Retail Innovation and Social Justice Organizing
“The cooperative is great in that you are able to get the best prices but at the same time is a good way to foster community.”
Nishiki Maredia is an Austin, TX based retail professional and a prolific social justice activist and organizer. Her family owns and manages Marigold Market Cafe in Southwest Austin (https://www.instagram.com/marigoldmarketcafe/), a suburban grocery store that caters to a community that craves convenient, trendy and ethically produced foods and beverages. Like many grocery establishments, Marigold Market belongs to a business services cooperative that creates efficiencies and connections for its stakeholders. Nishiki’s efforts to make Austin a more just and inclusive community include organizing with Sunrise Austin (https://www.instagram.com/sunriseatx/), Austin Mutual Aid, DefundAPD, ATX Free Fridge Project, Protect Montopolis, The 2020 ATX Winter Help Guide (https://docs.google.com/document/d/19HgBCE5hUDZFgaHwykSRrcezAbMuOzsR_mfRPWf0bCs/edit ), as well as the Bernie Sanders 2020 Presidential Campaign. Follow Nishiki at https://www.instagram.com/nishikimaredia/ .
Episode 23: Ma'raj Sheikh and Good Food Policy Action in Chicago
“What we’ve learned is that food justice is really racial, economic and land justice.”
From https://www.chicagofoodpolicy.com/our-staff : Ma’raj Sheikh is a daughter of immigrants, descendent of liberation leaders, and a Castanea Fellow. Land, food, and justice are in her blood. Ma’raj has worked across many areas of food system development including soil bioremediation, bioenergy, stakeholder relations, consulting in the edible insect industry, and advancing racial equity in land, food, and water access. As a National Science Foundation Fellow, Ma’raj moved to Iowa from Southern California to learn about industrial agriculture from the belly of the beast - studying Sustainable Agriculture and Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University. Prior to starting at CFPAC in January of 2020, Ma’raj served as Director of Equity and Community Engagement at Community GroundWorks (now Rooted), where her work focused on improving stable land tenure for Hmong refugee farmers and leading Gardens Network, a partnership with the City of Madison and UW-Extension, that provides support services to a member base of 65+ community gardens across Dane County, WI.
From https://www.chicagofoodpolicy.com/services : CFPAC co-develops, facilitates, advocates for, and supports implementation of policies that advance food justice and food sovereignty in Chicago and across the region. CFPAC envisions a food system where all Chicagoans, regardless of race, class, gender, and/or social identity, have the right to healthy and culturally-appropriate food produced through community-driven, ecologically regenerative, and economically viable processes. The Council recognizes the history and modern maintenance of structural racism in Chicago and across the country that have led to massive inequities in land access, food business ownership, food security, and political power along lines of racial identity. CFPAC works to address these inequities and dismantle racist structures in the food system by building local political power, supporting frontline workers throughout the food system, and facilitating Black/Brown partnerships and understanding.
Donate: https://chicagofoodpolicy.z2systems.com/np/clients/chicagofoodpolicy/donation.jsp?campaign=1&
Episode 22: Michelle Akindiya of Farmshare Austin
“The Black preachers coming out of the Civil War were very clear eyed about the priority of land for the Black community to help us move forward with our aspirations for freedom and self-determination…
“Black folk can’t go into any other space and enjoy the autonomy they do in the Black church… it’s a powerful incubator space. ”
From https://www.heberbrown.com/about and https://blackchurchfoodsecurity.net : Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III is a Community Organizer, Social Entrepreneur, Base Builder, and Network Weaver and Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the Founding Director of Orita’s Cross Freedom School. Based on the Freedom Schools of the 1960's, Dr. Brown works to reconnect Black youth to their African heritage while providing them hands-on learning opportunities to spark their creative genius and build vocational skills. In 2015 he launched the Black Church Food Security Network a multi-state alliance of congregations working together to inspire health, wealth and power in the Black Community. The BCFSN accomplishes this by partnering with historically African American churches to establish gardens on church-owned land and cultivates partnerships with African American farmers to create a grassroots, community-led food system. Dr. Brown's dedication to service has been widely recognized. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Ella Baker Freedom Fighter Award and The Afro American Newspaper’s “25 Under 40 Emerging Black History Leaders” award. In 2018, Baltimore Magazine named him a Visionary of the City and the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights presented him with their Food Justice Award. In 2019, he received the coveted Emerging Leaders Award from the Claneil Foundation and has presented and lectured at many institutions of higher learning including Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), Drew Theological School, Wake Forest School of Divinity, and the Black Theological Leadership Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary.
The Black Church Food Security Network utilizes an asset-based approach in organizing and linking the vast resources of historically African American congregations in rural and urban communities to advancing food and land sovereignty. They are on a mission to organize the strength and focus the assets of the Black Church toward advancing health (physical and spiritual), economic opportunity and self-determination in the African American community.
To Donate or support the BCFSN: https://blackchurchfoodsecurity.net/donate/
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Episode 21: Benjamin Lorr and The Secret Life of Groceries
“The trucker is emblematic of shifts that have happened throughout the industry whereby the lionization of the consumer has resulted in cuts to the laborer.”
From https://www.benjaminlorr.net/bio/: BENJAMIN LORR is the author of The Secret Life of Groceries, an expose of the dark underbelly of the American food industry, and Hell-Bent, a critically acclaimed exploration of the Bikram Yoga community that first detailed patterns of abuse and sexual misconduct by guru Bikram Choudhury. Lorr is a graduate of Montgomery County public schools and Columbia University. He lives in New York City.
Episode 20: Rev. Heber Brown of The Black Church Food Security Network
“The Black preachers coming out of the Civil War were very clear eyed about the priority of land for the Black community to help us move forward with our aspirations for freedom and self-determination…
“Black folk can’t go into any other space and enjoy the autonomy they do in the Black church… it’s a powerful incubator space. ”
From https://www.heberbrown.com/about and https://blackchurchfoodsecurity.net : Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III is a Community Organizer, Social Entrepreneur, Base Builder, and Network Weaver and Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the Founding Director of Orita’s Cross Freedom School. Based on the Freedom Schools of the 1960's, Dr. Brown works to reconnect Black youth to their African heritage while providing them hands-on learning opportunities to spark their creative genius and build vocational skills. In 2015 he launched the Black Church Food Security Network a multi-state alliance of congregations working together to inspire health, wealth and power in the Black Community. The BCFSN accomplishes this by partnering with historically African American churches to establish gardens on church-owned land and cultivates partnerships with African American farmers to create a grassroots, community-led food system. Dr. Brown's dedication to service has been widely recognized. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Ella Baker Freedom Fighter Award and The Afro American Newspaper’s “25 Under 40 Emerging Black History Leaders” award. In 2018, Baltimore Magazine named him a Visionary of the City and the Baltimore City Office of Civil Rights presented him with their Food Justice Award. In 2019, he received the coveted Emerging Leaders Award from the Claneil Foundation and has presented and lectured at many institutions of higher learning including Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), Drew Theological School, Wake Forest School of Divinity, and the Black Theological Leadership Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary.
The Black Church Food Security Network utilizes an asset-based approach in organizing and linking the vast resources of historically African American congregations in rural and urban communities to advancing food and land sovereignty. They are on a mission to organize the strength and focus the assets of the Black Church toward advancing health (physical and spiritual), economic opportunity and self-determination in the African American community.
To Donate or support the BCFSN: https://blackchurchfoodsecurity.net/donate/
Follow The Checkout on Facebook - Instagram - Twitter.
Stream The Checkout on Apple Podcasts - Spotify - Stitcher - Google Podcast
Episode 19: Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm
“We appreciate the legacy of George Washington Carver at Tuskegee University, who convinced an entire generation of farmers in the late 18th century to practice regenerative… cover crops, mulching, composting, diversifying their crops…
“ It’s a tragedy to rob Organic of it’s proud history to imagine that it is new, an innovation of the West. ”
From https://www.farmingwhileblack.org/team and https://www.soulfirefarm.org : Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. She co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection to land. Leah holds an MA in Science Education and BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a Manye (Queen Mother) in Vodun. Leah has been farming since 1996 and teaching since 2002. Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Their food sovereignty programs reach over 10,000 people each year, including farmer training for Black and Brown growers, reparations and land return initiatives for northeast farmers, food justice workshops for urban youth, home gardens for city-dwellers living under food apartheid, doorstep harvest delivery for food insecure households, and systems and policy education for public decision-makers.
Indispensable resources from Soul Fire Farm:
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/media/publications/
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/portfolio-items/food-sovereignty-action-steps/
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/portfolio-items/equity-guidelines/
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/media/farming-while-black/
Take Action:
Policy demands: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/get-involved/take-action/
Reparations: https://m4bl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reparations-Now-Toolkit-FINAL.pdf
Fairness for Farmworkers Act: https://www.harris.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Fairness%20for%20Farm%20Workers%20Act%20One%20Pager.pdf
Justice for Black Farmers Act: https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/11/black-farmers-have-been-robbed-of-land-a-new-bill-would-give-them-a-quantum-leap-toward-justice/?fbclid=IwAR1unD-AUvcnYkDBkV2dHBVxUyyiaZS8NtpYTq1O490XAqucUMT3yznQVu4
More on George Washington Carver: https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/george-washington-carvers-legacy-went-beyond-peanuts
Donate: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/support/
Follow The Checkout on Facebook - Instagram - Twitter.
Stream The Checkout on Apple Podcasts - Spotify - Stitcher - Google Podcast
“ It’s a tragedy to rob Organic of it’s proud history to imagine that it is new, an innovation of the West. ”
From https://www.farmingwhileblack.org/team and https://www.soulfirefarm.org : Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. She co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection to land. Leah holds an MA in Science Education and BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University, and is a Manye (Queen Mother) in Vodun. Leah has been farming since 1996 and teaching since 2002. Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Their food sovereignty programs reach over 10,000 people each year, including farmer training for Black and Brown growers, reparations and land return initiatives for northeast farmers, food justice workshops for urban youth, home gardens for city-dwellers living under food apartheid, doorstep harvest delivery for food insecure households, and systems and policy education for public decision-makers.
Indispensable resources from Soul Fire Farm:
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/media/publications/
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/portfolio-items/food-sovereignty-action-steps/
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/portfolio-items/equity-guidelines/
https://www.soulfirefarm.org/media/farming-while-black/
Take Action:
Policy demands: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/get-involved/take-action/
Reparations: https://m4bl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Reparations-Now-Toolkit-FINAL.pdf
Fairness for Farmworkers Act: https://www.harris.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Fairness%20for%20Farm%20Workers%20Act%20One%20Pager.pdf
Justice for Black Farmers Act: https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/11/black-farmers-have-been-robbed-of-land-a-new-bill-would-give-them-a-quantum-leap-toward-justice/?fbclid=IwAR1unD-AUvcnYkDBkV2dHBVxUyyiaZS8NtpYTq1O490XAqucUMT3yznQVu4
More on George Washington Carver: https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/george-washington-carvers-legacy-went-beyond-peanuts
Donate: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/support/
Follow The Checkout on Facebook - Instagram - Twitter.
Stream The Checkout on Apple Podcasts - Spotify - Stitcher - Google Podcast
Episode 18: Brian Yazzie On Cooking In Two Worlds
“We’re fighting for our indigenous rights, we’re fighting for what is beneath our feet, what is our food…
“I use the philosophy of cooking in two worlds, having that ancestral memory but with the modern techniques, with the modern times.”
From https://www.yazziethechef.com: Brian Yazzie (a.k.a. Yazzie the Chef) is a Diné Chef from Dennehotso, Arizona which is located on the Northeastern part of the Navajo Nation. He currently resides in Saint Paul, MN and has a degree in Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Culinary Arts from Saint Paul College. Yazzie focuses on bringing together hyper-local indigenous ingredients from the streams, rivers, and forests to revitalize healthy indigenous cuisine.
Episode 17: Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez On Organizing Essential Workers
“We have a system that is happy to accept undocumented workers’ labor but not their full humanity…
“ We can create a system that understands essential work should be paid as such, that if you risk your life to take care of society, you should be paid more.”
From https://www.cristinatzintzun.org: Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez founded and led two of Texas’ largest voting and civil rights organizations: Jolt, a Texas-wide organization focused on energizing the Latino vote, and Workers Defense Project (WDP), winning the passage of local and state laws protecting the rights of hundreds of thousands of workers. Cristina is a former 2020 US Senate candidate. She was named “Hero of the New South” by Southern Living Magazine and her work has been featured on NPR, Vogue, The New York Times, MTV, USA Today, Univision, MSNBC’s Up Late with Alec Baldwin, among others.
Episode 16: Errol Schweizer on Taste Radio
“We have the most work to do in the food industry.”
We started The Checkout for a few reasons. One, we are food industry lifers and wanted to do a show about food from an insider’s perspective. Two, we felt we needed to center the efforts of working class and BIPOC folks on the frontlines. Three, there is so much injustice and inequity in the food industry and we need to change that. And four, we feel a deep sense of love and solidarity with our colleagues and want to recognize and give a voice to the work they do everyday of the year to feed the world. We hope you enjoy The Checkout and this interview with Ray Latif on Taste Radio.
Episode 15: Chris Smalls and The People Vs. Amazon
“Our mission is to create a rank and file democracy of essential workers… to get enough workforce behind us that we have more power than Congress itself…
“Until we have enough power to tell Amazon or any employer we’re not going to work unless you meet our demands.”
From tcoew.org : The Congress of Essential Workers (T.C.O.E.W.) is a collective of essential workers and allies across the United States coming together under a common goal: to support each other in a fight for better working conditions, better wages, and a better world. T.C.O.E.W. was founded by Chris Smalls, a former Amazon warehouse manager who was fired by the company after organizing a protest against the company’s abysmal handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has put hundreds of thousands of workers at risk without proper PPE and social distancing regulations.
The TCOEW Vision:
A living wageAll workers are shareholdersJob securityPaid sick leave and hazard pay at full pay rate Free healthcareNo wage cap1-hour lunch breaksPPE to be provided at all timesChildcareMonthly bonuses
To support Chris Smalls: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-chris-smalls-who-was-fired-by-amazon
For more info: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/02/dear-jeff-bezos-amazon-instead-of-firing-me-protect-your-workers-from-coronavirus , https://twitter.com/Shut_downAmazon and https://tcoew.org/about/
Episode 14: Leah Douglas on Covid19, OSHA and meat plant workers
“There’s definitely a need for the private sector to step up in reporting this info and making it publicly available.”
Leah Douglas has been doing Pulitzer-worthy reporting on Covid19 and here she gives us the big picture on the pandemic, OSHA and the meat racket.
From thefern.org: Leah Douglas is an associate editor and staff writer at FERN. Prior to joining the team, she worked for three years as a reporter and policy analyst with the Open Markets Institute, where she researched economic consolidation and monopolization in the food and agriculture industry. She founded and wrote Food & Power, a first-of-its kind resource on food sector consolidation. Her writing on food, agriculture, and land policy has appeared in The Nation, CNN, Fortune, Time, Slate, Civil Eats, and more. For more, see: https://thefern.org/2020/10/could-the-food-system-face-a-new-covid-19-wave-ahead/ and https://twitter.com/leahjdouglas .
Episode 13: Dr. Naya Jones on Food Sovereignty and Collective Healing
“The movie has an easier time envisioning the end of the world than the end of capitalism.”
We asked Chris Newman of Sylvanaqua Farms to share his analysis of “Kiss The Ground”, a new documentary that highlights the need for regenerative agriculture to repair our food system. The movie raises some very important points, but also has some troubling omissions and assumptions that we need to further scrutinize.
For more information on Chris Newman, or to become an investor in Sylvanaqua Farms, please check out: https://www.instagram.com/sylvanaquafarms/ , https://www.sylvanaqua.com and https://www.sylvanaqua.com/invest .
Other stuff we discussed: https://gather.film , https://kissthegroundmovie.com , https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww , https://twitter.com/sarah_k_mock , and https://twitter.com/grocery_nerd .
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Episode 12: Lorig Hawkins of Middle Ground Farm
Lorig Hawkins, Owner and Founder of Middle Ground Farm in Austin, TX, joins Errol for a discussion of local food, growing food, and the politics of food in Texas. Growing food in Texas is hard, and Lorig has many years of experience to share on the challenges and successes of doing just that.
Episode 10: Chris Maestro, Founder of Bierwax
“We are one of the early adopters of this idea in the States”
Chris Maestro spent twenty years as an educator until he decided to follow his passion and open up one of the most iconic bars in New York City, the Hip-Hop themed craft beer bar, Bierwax. Inspired by his visits to jazz and Hip-Hop bars in Amsterdam and Tokyo, Chris decided to create his own vision of this format in Brooklyn, NYC. Frequented by craft beer lovers, Hip-Hop aficionados and the occasional famous DJ or MC, Bierwax is also one of the few BIPOC-owned pubs in the city. Now with the Covid-19 pandemic regulations in effect, Bierwax continues to break new ground in the craft beer scene, while also giving Hip-Hop heads and vinyl lovers a place to call home.
Bierwax is located at 556 Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn, NYC.
Episode 9: Alexa Delwiche, Center for Good Food Purchasing
“Resiliency is about up’ing our game on how much food is produced, processed and stored locally”
David Zuckerman is the Lt. Governor of Vermont and is currently running to be Governor of Vermont. Dave is a lifelong activist, farmer, hemp and cannabis advocate and GMO labeling pioneer. He has held a variety of local and statewide political offices in Vermont for over 25 years. His policy positions on employment, agriculture, healthcare and the environment are compelling and applicable in Vermont and beyond. Dave also brings a great deal of common sense, humility and empathy to a fractured and divisive political campaign season. Vermont is lucky to have David Zuckerman!
Episode 8: David Zuckerman: Gubernatorial Candidate and Lt. Governor of Vermont
“Resiliency is about up’ing our game on how much food is produced, processed and stored locally”
David Zuckerman is the Lt. Governor of Vermont and is currently running to be Governor of Vermont. Dave is a lifelong activist, farmer, hemp and cannabis advocate and GMO labeling pioneer. He has held a variety of local and statewide political offices in Vermont for over 25 years. His policy positions on employment, agriculture, healthcare and the environment are compelling and applicable in Vermont and beyond. Dave also brings a great deal of common sense, humility and empathy to a fractured and divisive political campaign season. Vermont is lucky to have David Zuckerman!
Episode 7: Tom Philpott On A Food System In Crisis… and How To Fix It.
Tom Philpott is an Austin native, a columnist for Mother Jones and is the author of Perilous Bounty, a hard-hitting analysis on the industrial food system and it’s fragility, from California’s Central Valley, to Iowa’s Corn Belt. Tom got his start as a financial journalist and was smitten with the food movement during the campaign to save NYC’s Community Gardens over twenty years ago. Tom has also worked on a small farm and has published hundreds of articles on the food system, all with an eye towards social justice and a healthier, more resilient food supply.
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Episode 6: Farming While Black in Austin, TX with Tiffany Washington
Tiffany Washington is an Austin-based combat veteran and Organic farmer, and runs Dobbin-Kauv Garden Farm. Tiffany served in the U.S. Navy and was trained as an Organic farmer by Farmshare Austin, an 18-week farmer education program, as well BattleGround to Breaking Ground, a one year Texas A&M program that helps veterans get into farming as a business. Tiffany is also an Organic Intellectual whose family has lived in the Austin area for over 150 years. Tiffany has done extensive research into the lives of Black farmers and Freedman colonies in Austin and Central Texas, including the insidious history of land theft and dispossession that gave rise to the current wave of gentrification and food apartheid in one of the country’s most segregated cities. Tiffany is an heir to the agricultural legacy of such luminaries as George Washington Carver, who trained thousands of Black farmers in regenerative farming methods, and Booker T. Whatley, the founder of community supported agriculture. We feel honored to have spent time with Tiffany to hear her story. To support Tiffany, check out her GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/veterans-urban-farm-needs-your-help.
Episode 4: Jose Oliva on Building a Worker-Centered Food System, Part 2
Jose Oliva joins us for a two part episode that dives into labor organizing, land reform, his family’s legacy and much more. Jose is currently the Campaigns Director for HEAL Food Alliance. Jose is a longtime food sector organizer and has served in leadership positions at Chicago Interfaith Workers’ Center, Interfaith Worker Justice’s National Workers' Centers Network, Center for Community Change, and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United - the national organization of restaurant workers. Jose was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a national coalition of food-worker organizations that collectively represents over 350,000 workers. Jose is also a 2017 James Beard Award recipient and a 2018 American Food Hero Awardee. We had an amazing conversation with Jose and he has excellent taste in literature as well!
