Today’s food system is built upon our nation’s history of agriculture that relied on slave labor. The extractive practices that we see in today’s food system — from the exploitation of Black and brown workers to food corporations’ license to pollute land, water, and air at the expense of Black and brown communities — have come into existence through that legacy. Actively dismantling racism is critical to transforming our food system.
Because we use the law as our primary tool to seek justice, we must also recognize the role of the law in defining and upholding white supremacy. In order to ensure our work is truly serving the communities most impacted by an inherently racist system, we must partner with and follow the lead of Black-led organizations, and allow them to hold us accountable.
We can’t have justice in our food system without racial justice.