b'asked & answered ROOTED IN RACISMIs localness important? Where are you on thatTheres a need to have really resilient dimension of the workfood systems. And one of the great that were talking about? advantages to local, agroecological, I mean, I think local is extremely important amongsmall-scale, diversified food systems is other important things, right?theyre quite nimble and resilient. And I think, in the start of the pandemic, the brittleness of the food system became sois theyre quite nimble andabout a local food system, its apparent. Theres just not a lotresilient. If the farmers marketresilience and adaptation. of slack in our supply chainscloses, thats okay because weAt the same time, is there in the industrial food system.know our customers, and wea place for international fair If one thing goes wrong, youcan quickly set up a farm standtrade? For my Haitian family see this domino effect andand do no contact delivery.to be able to send moringa suddenly theres no meat onAnd we know the school downfor our tooth powders and the shelves and people arethe street, and they need sometheir mangoes up here for our dumping milk and buryinglettuce for their free lunches,smoothies? Absolutely. Should produce, and folks arent ableand we can do that. We sawthat adhere to standards of to get their basic needs met.small farms being able to adaptecological care, as well as Theres a need to have reallyand fill in needs locally, whereasrights for workers? Absolutely. resilient food systems. Andthese big industrial foodSo theres a place, I think, for one of the great advantages tochains were absolutely unablenonlocal and international. But local, agroecological, small- to cope. I think that is one ofdo we absolutely need to make scale, diversified food systemsthe most important thingssure that we have a strong, local, resilient food system? Of course. Otherwise, were not going to make it for another generation.I know you talk about soil quite a bit. Its part of the reason for farming, right? Im really into soil farming, personally. Yeah. So taking a little walk back in history, within just one generation of taking the plow to the Great Plains, European settlers burned up or oxidized half of the organic matter in the soil, which hasnt been put back, right? And the organic matter, for those who arent science nerds, this is the carbon-based compounds, the life of the soil. Its the food for all the microorganisms. Its a 14| SPRING 2021'