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This is Climate to Action.

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A California State University San Marco Student Podcast focus on climate action, indigenous

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knowledge and climate justice.

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My name is JJ, a co-producer here on the podcast.

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And before we begin, we'd like to acknowledge that CSUSM is located on the traditional territory

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of the Luceño and Payom Cohechon people.

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The university and its surrounding areas are still home to the six federally recognized

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bands of La Jolla, Paula, Palma, Pachanga, Rincon and Zapoba, Luceño, Payom, Cohechon

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people.

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And this land remains the shared space among the Cumpeno, Cumeay and E-Pai people.

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So again, welcome to Climate to Action.

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Today's episode is a class project production focused on climate and food justice.

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It's hosted by two environmental studies students, MyroRamos and Darby Sward, who interviewed

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our very own environmental studies professor, Gabriel Valle.

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Let's hear what they have to say about climate and food justice.

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Hello and welcome.

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My name is Darby Sward.

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And my name is MyroRamos.

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And we are both environmental studies majors at California State University San Marcos.

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And today we are sitting down with Dr. Gabriel Valle to talk about climate justice, food

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justice and the sustainable food project garden.

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My name is Gabriel Valle.

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I am an associate professor of environmental studies.

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And most of my research currently revolves around the intersection of race, place and

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power, particularly with food and agriculture, as well as the ways or the different ways

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people understand and come to terms with their sense of place.

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So first let's talk about this sustainable food project garden.

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The sustainable food project garden was started in 2012 with the original plans of turning

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an unused road into a class-based garden.

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Now the garden is practically doubled in size and works in conjunction with the Cougar

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pantry to provide produce to students in need, addressing food justice and food scarcity,

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which is a prevalent problem in college campuses.

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So one of the things that it really focuses on is on organic farming.

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So how is organic farming different from industrial farming and how does that tie in with climate

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justice?

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Well there's a couple of things in that.

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There's organic farming is simply using or not using, I should say, industrial chemicals.

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It's a style of farming that particularly uses open pollinated seeds.

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It doesn't use pesticides, it doesn't use herbicides, it doesn't use genetically modified

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seeds in that sort of realm.

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So that's kind of what organic farming is and that often times kind of gets mixed up

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with sustainable farming.

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Sustainable farming is more of a full approach that looks at more than just the actual practices

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or I should say what you don't do but more about kind of what you do do in terms of the

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farming practices that are used.

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And how would you say organic farming addresses food justice?

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Yeah, well there's a lot of things that organic farming does and particularly because when

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we think about farming or we talk about gardening, typically what we're concerned about is the

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end product.

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Right?

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We're thinking about yields and how much a garden or farm can produce.

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And the idea is that the more food we can produce, the more bodies we can get that into

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and that's great.

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But another aspect that organic farming does is because it doesn't use pesticides, herbicides,

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is that when we're talking about food justice, really what we're talking about is food justice

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along the entire food chain.

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And that's from the seeds we plant to the food we eat and that includes the farm workers,

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that includes transportation, that includes the processes of production, distribution,

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all those little pieces that are involved in it.

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So organic agriculture, one way, at least that it does that, that it addresses that,

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is that it doesn't necessarily expose farm workers to conditions of pesticides or herbicides.

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We know that as more and more research kind of comes out that pesticides and herbicides

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have dramatic effects, not just on the environment in terms of what they can do in terms of

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insects and pollinators, but also the human populations that work there and that they

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can cause long-term health effects from respiratory to cardiovascular issues.

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So it does a lot of different, organic farming can do a lot of different things involved

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in that.

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And would you say that you tried to install these organic farming practices on the Sustainable

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Food Project Garden on campus?

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Yeah, the Sustainable Food Project is 100% organic.

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We use only open pollinated seeds and starts that we purchase.

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We try to grow our own starts, started plants in the hoop house.

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The biggest challenge of organic farming and sustainable farming is that it's a lot more

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labor intensive because you don't have the ability to use herbicides to suppress weeds.

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So it requires a lot of students to get on their knees and kind of start picking down

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at weeds, which is a fun part of it, I think.

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Getting dirty.

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Yeah, but it does require more labor.

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Typically, but I mean, the scale that we're farming to, we don't really use heavy equipment

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anyway, aside from a tiller on occasion, but most of the labor that we do is manual anyway.

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So would you say that the goal of the Sustainable Food Project Garden then is food sovereignty?

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To an extent, I would say what the goal of the Sustainable Food Project is to replicate

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a food system.

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So any food system, you think about it from the moment of the seed going in the ground,

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right, the very beginning part, or actually before the seed goes in the ground, which

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is thinking about soil health, right?

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That's like the foundation of everything without healthy soil.

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You don't have all the benefits that come with, that can come with farming beyond just

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the food.

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So we're trying to replicate the production of healthy soils, producing nutritional food,

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and then reducing the food miles, so to speak.

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Oftentimes our food travels incredible distances to get to us in the industrial model.

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So what we're trying to do is reduce that food miles and reduce the steps in the food

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chain to go from farm to pantry and then to students.

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So our food literally travels about a half a mile from the farm, from the garden, I should

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say, to the food pantry and to students.

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And it does, at least my awareness, that that could be a little bit different, is a lot

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of the food that's purchased, or I should say taken there, goes to students in the dorms

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or living near campus.

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So then again, it also isn't traveling too far from where it's grown.

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So really what we're trying to do is improve food security, encourage a level of food sovereignty,

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of course, but also really trying to replicate a food system so that we can understand how

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these systems and processes work as you magnify that to a larger scale.

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Which is ultimately what food justice is all about.

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Food justice's community is exercising their right to grow, sell, and eat healthy food.

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And so the Sustainable Food Project Garden really encapsulates that with all the work

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that they're doing, not only in the garden, but in conjunction with the Cougar Pantry.

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How would you say that food justice addresses climate justice or climate issues?

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I think the number one way that food justice does this is through the, well, there's a

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lot of ways.

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But the one that comes to mind for me most importantly is the style that we do in our

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farm, at least as we embody or we attempt to practice what's referred to as agroecology,

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which is really the marriage of agriculture using ecological principles of kind of mimicking

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natural processes.

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So what that means in our garden is that as we build soil health, we're helping the biodiversity

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in the soil.

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We're encouraging plants to flourish, to draw pollinators in.

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We're encouraging the retention of water.

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One of the biggest issues that industrial farmers have is erosion.

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A lot of that has to do with the deep tilling that they do and the herbicides and pesticides

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that could put on there.

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But we know as we build organic matter through the practices of agroecology, we can retain

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water better and we can absorb water.

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In Southern California, that becomes really important, especially for climate change.

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As we go through spells of incredibly dry hot periods and then all of a sudden we get

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hit with water or with a rainstorm that would cause erosion.

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But because of our soil health, because we encourage the development of organic matter,

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our soil can absorb that water and retain it for longer periods of time.

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So that's, I think, climate-wise, I think that's what food justice can do when it's

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practiced in a certain way.

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And also really what, at the end of the day, the distribution of it, we know that the changing

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climate change is increasing the cost of food, in part because of the industrial model is

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centered on fossil fuels.

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And as fossil fuels go up, so do the prices of food.

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So growing food that alleviates those issues of food insecurity is a huge benefit.

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And to do that while also sequestering carbon, improving water filtration, encouraging biodiversity

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both from pollinators, but also when the soil are all aspects and benefits that farming

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through an agri-ecology model can do.

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Now would you say with food justice and climate justice reaching the point that it is at,

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would you argue that it's extending beyond a scientific issue into like a social justice

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issue now?

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Yeah, I think one of the benefits with what we do in the garden is that in the past, agri-ecology

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has typically unfortunately been used as a science, as a technological solution.

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So oftentimes, I mean, there's dozens of cases that people have looked at, say, crop rotation,

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or they've looked at hedgerows or some of these other issues that are central, or I

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should say practices that are central to farming in this form.

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But when we begin to look at the intersection between climate change, food justice, what

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we realize is that when you farm a particular way, you're not just, the practice is part

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of it and that's an important part, but you're also in effect part of a social movement.

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The politics of what is happening are evident.

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Of course, policy needs to be a part of it.

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It's a key part of the discussion that is still in some ways lacking.

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But it's also about empowering people to farm in ways and garden in ways that force change

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within the food system.

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Amazing.

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It sounds like amazing work.

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In what ways would you hope or like to see the garden grow in the future or any big dreams

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for the garden?

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Well, the garden has been an ever-changing process.

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As you mentioned early on, we have about doubled its original size, at least doubled

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its original size.

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And currently right now, we have expanded quite a bit and we are attempting to prepare

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that soil to grow food.

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It's a long process to build organic matter to grow food.

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So the long term, what I would love to see is that the new area, which is all in all,

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once it's all done, we'll be growing on about a quarter of an acre of land, a little bit

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shorter than that.

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But what I would like to see is for us to continue to produce food for the food pantry

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so that we can help alleviate, also as you mentioned, CSU students.

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We know that CSU students have a high number of food insecure students.

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That's CSU-wide, but also here on our campus.

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So to produce food for the food pantry, but then also try to work towards what we've been

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taught and referring to as a, rather than a community-supported agriculture CSA, a cougar-supported

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CSA.

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So thinking about ways that we could actually sell the food to students in a food justice

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approach where it would kind of be pay what you can.

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So some people might be able to give a dollar.

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Some people may be able to give $5 or $20 or whatever.

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And that money can be used or applied towards resources, equipment, seedlings, seeds, all

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the things that can help sustain the farm or the garden over the long term.

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That's kind of, I think, the end goal, I think.

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Amazing.

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Increasing accessibility and affordability for the people on campus.

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I think that's a key issue in food justice food issues.

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A lot of students that are ENVS majors do have classes in the garden, but for any students

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that are listening, what are some courses that are available for them that they can

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experience this as well?

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There are three courses that happen in the garden.

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There's a geography class.

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There's a geography, I want to say, 460, I believe, taught by Professor Greg Guthey.

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That is an emerging market course that really explores sustainable farming as an emerging

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market and really explores the food system in detail while also farming.

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And then I teach two separate courses, alternating semesters.

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One on food politics and the environment, really looking at agroecology as a science,

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as a practice, and as a social movement.

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And then I teach another course, Environmental Studies 361, called Diet and Planet.

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And that class is really about understanding how we eat and what we eat, how that then

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impacts the environment or it encourages levels of climate change or actions against climate

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change.

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Awesome, thank you so much.

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Thank you for joining us today.

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It was great talking to you and thank you for all your work in the garden and within

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this community.

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Wow, thank you, Myra Ramos, Dwarby Sward, and Professor Gabriel Valle for that interesting

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and valuable information.

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Want to hear more from Climate to Action?

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Listen wherever you get your podcast and follow us on our socials, at climate2action,

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on Instagram and X, that's climate2action.

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Visit for updates and behind the scenes content and more.

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Finally, Climate to Action wants to remind you to take action.

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This week, we want to encourage you to email us if you're interested in joining our podcast

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team, or like Myra and Darby, if you'd like to produce an episode for a class project.

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Our email address is climate2action at csusm.edu.

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Until next time, this is Climate to Action, a CSUSM student podcast, signing off.