Public Talk: Food Justice is About More Than Growing Food and Feeding People

Presented by UA Center for Regional Food Studies

In this free public talk, Karen Washington will discuss how food justice refers to more than just transforming how we grow food and feed people. She will describe how notions of food security that revolve solely around changes to how people grow food, eat, and exercise fall short of creating lasting change in the food system.

About the speaker:

Since 1985, Karen Washington has been a community activist, striving to make New York City a better place to live. As a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens, she worked with Bronx neighborhoods to turn empty lots into community gardens.

As an advocate and former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, she stood up and spoke out for garden protection and preservation. As a member of the La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, she helped launched a city farmers market, bringing fresh vegetables to the community.

Washington is a board member of Why Hunger, a grassroots support organization, and Farm School NYC leading workshops on growing food and food justice across the country. In 2010, Washington co-founded Black Urban Growers, an organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings.

In 2012, Ebony magazine voted her one of their 100 most influential African Americans in the country, and in 2014, she was the recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award.

Since retiring from physical therapy in 2014, Washington is co-owner/farmer at Rise and Root Farm in Chester, New York.