Most of us are engaged in food justice work because we seek a radical change in the world and are attempting to make that change through the food system. We also know that labor within the food system has a long history of being exploitative, especially for people of color. Therefore, we contend that dismantling racism within the food system requires radical change in the valuing of food system labor. And yet, many food justice or urban agriculture projects rely, out of seeming necessity, on under-compensated labor from underpaid staff, unpaid interns and volunteers. The financial pressures are particularly great on projects that are seeking to improve access to healthy and fresh foods within low-income communities. We will facilitate conversation around the following broad questions: what is preventing us from being able to pay people well? And what can we do about it together?
