What happens to the foods that we don’t eat? Composting is a vital part of our food cycles, but it's so much more than recycling our food scraps. This episode takes us on a journey through New York City to explore how this age-old practice is thriving in even the densest of urban spaces, while uncovering how composting can hold the key to food sovereignty for so many.

More about Earth Matter @ https://earthmatter.org/

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Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org

Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/

In the imaginations of some folks, movements towards food sovereignty live primarily in idyllic community gardens, small-scale organic farms, local farmers’ markets, and farm-to-table restaurants. But the work of sovereignty lives within spaces of deeper complexity – spaces woven together by the seeds of joys, suffering, commitments, creativity, and resilience. Derrick McDonald and Shephali Patel call in the stories and voices that remind us that sovereignty lives in our past, present, and futures.

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Learn more and support Black Star Farmers @ blackstarfarmers.org

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Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org

Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/

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• Derrick McDonald: https://www.hackerarchitects.com/derrick-mcdonald

• StoryMap of the initial seeding of Black Lives Memorial Garden in Cal Anderson

• Coverage on 2021 Black Lives Matter protests and CHOP/CHAZ:

• https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/11/seattle_activists_create_autonomous_zone_near

• https://crosscut.com/focus/2020/11/seattles-cal-anderson-park-microcosm-national-upheaval

• Watch the documentary “As Long as the Rivers Run” to learn about Bernie Whitebear and a legacy of indigenous land and food sovereignty movements in the Pacific Northwest

• Overview of Daybreak Star and the Fort Lawton occupation: https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/online-exhibits/daybreak-star-indian-cultural-center

• Omari Garrett and the occupation of the Colman School

• Overview: https://www.historylink.org/File/8602

• A complex history:

• https://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-culture/2008/12/1008-feat-divided

• https://africanamericanheritagemuseumandculturalcenter.org/synopsis/

• Stay connected with Shephali at shephali.earth

Recommended Reading List inspired by Derrick

• Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

• Kindred by Octavia Butler

• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

• Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna J. Haraway

For the folks behind BK Rot, showing love to their community looks a lot like piles of old orange peels, used coffee grounds, and last week's leftovers — in other words, it looks like compost. BK Rot is New York City's first bike-powered composting and hauling service, run almost entirely by youth of color. It was created in response to the city's failure to bring curbside composting services to their neighborhoods — and to this day, the group plays a key part in their local food cycles.

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Learn more about Food Culture Collective @ https://foodculture.org and HEAL Food Alliance @ https://healfoodalliance.org

Take action with HEAL on the U.S. Farm Bill: https://healfoodalliance.org/farmbill/

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