This is Climate to Action.
A California State University San Marco Student Podcast focus on climate action, indigenous
knowledge and climate justice.
My name is JJ, a co-producer here on the podcast.
And before we begin, we'd like to acknowledge that CSUSM is located on the traditional territory
of the Luceño and Payom Cohechon people.
The university and its surrounding areas are still home to the six federally recognized
bands of La Jolla, Paula, Palma, Pachanga, Rincon and Zapoba, Luceño, Payom, Cohechon
people.
And this land remains the shared space among the Cumpeno, Cumeay and E-Pai people.
So again, welcome to Climate to Action.
Today's episode is a class project production focused on climate and food justice.
It's hosted by two environmental studies students, MyroRamos and Darby Sward, who interviewed
our very own environmental studies professor, Gabriel Valle.
Let's hear what they have to say about climate and food justice.
Hello and welcome.
My name is Darby Sward.
And my name is MyroRamos.
And we are both environmental studies majors at California State University San Marcos.
And today we are sitting down with Dr. Gabriel Valle to talk about climate justice, food
justice and the sustainable food project garden.
My name is Gabriel Valle.
I am an associate professor of environmental studies.
And most of my research currently revolves around the intersection of race, place and
power, particularly with food and agriculture, as well as the ways or the different ways
people understand and come to terms with their sense of place.
So first let's talk about this sustainable food project garden.
The sustainable food project garden was started in 2012 with the original plans of turning
an unused road into a class-based garden.
Now the garden is practically doubled in size and works in conjunction with the Cougar
pantry to provide produce to students in need, addressing food justice and food scarcity,
which is a prevalent problem in college campuses.
So one of the things that it really focuses on is on organic farming.
So how is organic farming different from industrial farming and how does that tie in with climate
justice?
Well there's a couple of things in that.
There's organic farming is simply using or not using, I should say, industrial chemicals.
It's a style of farming that particularly uses open pollinated seeds.
It doesn't use pesticides, it doesn't use herbicides, it doesn't use genetically modified
seeds in that sort of realm.
So that's kind of what organic farming is and that often times kind of gets mixed up
with sustainable farming.
Sustainable farming is more of a full approach that looks at more than just the actual practices
or I should say what you don't do but more about kind of what you do do in terms of the
farming practices that are used.
And how would you say organic farming addresses food justice?
Yeah, well there's a lot of things that organic farming does and particularly because when
we think about farming or we talk about gardening, typically what we're concerned about is the
end product.
Right?
We're thinking about yields and how much a garden or farm can produce.
And the idea is that the more food we can produce, the more bodies we can get that into
and that's great.
But another aspect that organic farming does is because it doesn't use pesticides, herbicides,
is that when we're talking about food justice, really what we're talking about is food justice
along the entire food chain.
And that's from the seeds we plant to the food we eat and that includes the farm workers,
that includes transportation, that includes the processes of production, distribution,
all those little pieces that are involved in it.
So organic agriculture, one way, at least that it does that, that it addresses that,
is that it doesn't necessarily expose farm workers to conditions of pesticides or herbicides.
We know that as more and more research kind of comes out that pesticides and herbicides
have dramatic effects, not just on the environment in terms of what they can do in terms of
insects and pollinators, but also the human populations that work there and that they
can cause long-term health effects from respiratory to cardiovascular issues.
So it does a lot of different, organic farming can do a lot of different things involved
in that.
And would you say that you tried to install these organic farming practices on the Sustainable
Food Project Garden on campus?
Yeah, the Sustainable Food Project is 100% organic.
We use only open pollinated seeds and starts that we purchase.
We try to grow our own starts, started plants in the hoop house.
The biggest challenge of organic farming and sustainable farming is that it's a lot more
labor intensive because you don't have the ability to use herbicides to suppress weeds.
So it requires a lot of students to get on their knees and kind of start picking down
at weeds, which is a fun part of it, I think.
Getting dirty.
Yeah, but it does require more labor.
Typically, but I mean, the scale that we're farming to, we don't really use heavy equipment
anyway, aside from a tiller on occasion, but most of the labor that we do is manual anyway.
So would you say that the goal of the Sustainable Food Project Garden then is food sovereignty?
To an extent, I would say what the goal of the Sustainable Food Project is to replicate
a food system.
So any food system, you think about it from the moment of the seed going in the ground,
right, the very beginning part, or actually before the seed goes in the ground, which
is thinking about soil health, right?
That's like the foundation of everything without healthy soil.
You don't have all the benefits that come with, that can come with farming beyond just
the food.
So we're trying to replicate the production of healthy soils, producing nutritional food,
and then reducing the food miles, so to speak.
Oftentimes our food travels incredible distances to get to us in the industrial model.
So what we're trying to do is reduce that food miles and reduce the steps in the food
chain to go from farm to pantry and then to students.
So our food literally travels about a half a mile from the farm, from the garden, I should
say, to the food pantry and to students.
And it does, at least my awareness, that that could be a little bit different, is a lot
of the food that's purchased, or I should say taken there, goes to students in the dorms
or living near campus.
So then again, it also isn't traveling too far from where it's grown.
So really what we're trying to do is improve food security, encourage a level of food sovereignty,
of course, but also really trying to replicate a food system so that we can understand how
these systems and processes work as you magnify that to a larger scale.
Which is ultimately what food justice is all about.
Food justice's community is exercising their right to grow, sell, and eat healthy food.
And so the Sustainable Food Project Garden really encapsulates that with all the work
that they're doing, not only in the garden, but in conjunction with the Cougar Pantry.
How would you say that food justice addresses climate justice or climate issues?
I think the number one way that food justice does this is through the, well, there's a
lot of ways.
But the one that comes to mind for me most importantly is the style that we do in our
farm, at least as we embody or we attempt to practice what's referred to as agroecology,
which is really the marriage of agriculture using ecological principles of kind of mimicking
natural processes.
So what that means in our garden is that as we build soil health, we're helping the biodiversity
in the soil.
We're encouraging plants to flourish, to draw pollinators in.
We're encouraging the retention of water.
One of the biggest issues that industrial farmers have is erosion.
A lot of that has to do with the deep tilling that they do and the herbicides and pesticides
that could put on there.
But we know as we build organic matter through the practices of agroecology, we can retain
water better and we can absorb water.
In Southern California, that becomes really important, especially for climate change.
As we go through spells of incredibly dry hot periods and then all of a sudden we get
hit with water or with a rainstorm that would cause erosion.
But because of our soil health, because we encourage the development of organic matter,
our soil can absorb that water and retain it for longer periods of time.
So that's, I think, climate-wise, I think that's what food justice can do when it's
practiced in a certain way.
And also really what, at the end of the day, the distribution of it, we know that the changing
climate change is increasing the cost of food, in part because of the industrial model is
centered on fossil fuels.
And as fossil fuels go up, so do the prices of food.
So growing food that alleviates those issues of food insecurity is a huge benefit.
And to do that while also sequestering carbon, improving water filtration, encouraging biodiversity
both from pollinators, but also when the soil are all aspects and benefits that farming
through an agri-ecology model can do.
Now would you say with food justice and climate justice reaching the point that it is at,
would you argue that it's extending beyond a scientific issue into like a social justice
issue now?
Yeah, I think one of the benefits with what we do in the garden is that in the past, agri-ecology
has typically unfortunately been used as a science, as a technological solution.
So oftentimes, I mean, there's dozens of cases that people have looked at, say, crop rotation,
or they've looked at hedgerows or some of these other issues that are central, or I
should say practices that are central to farming in this form.
But when we begin to look at the intersection between climate change, food justice, what
we realize is that when you farm a particular way, you're not just, the practice is part
of it and that's an important part, but you're also in effect part of a social movement.
The politics of what is happening are evident.
Of course, policy needs to be a part of it.
It's a key part of the discussion that is still in some ways lacking.
But it's also about empowering people to farm in ways and garden in ways that force change
within the food system.
Amazing.
It sounds like amazing work.
In what ways would you hope or like to see the garden grow in the future or any big dreams
for the garden?
Well, the garden has been an ever-changing process.
As you mentioned early on, we have about doubled its original size, at least doubled
its original size.
And currently right now, we have expanded quite a bit and we are attempting to prepare
that soil to grow food.
It's a long process to build organic matter to grow food.
So the long term, what I would love to see is that the new area, which is all in all,
once it's all done, we'll be growing on about a quarter of an acre of land, a little bit
shorter than that.
But what I would like to see is for us to continue to produce food for the food pantry
so that we can help alleviate, also as you mentioned, CSU students.
We know that CSU students have a high number of food insecure students.
That's CSU-wide, but also here on our campus.
So to produce food for the food pantry, but then also try to work towards what we've been
taught and referring to as a, rather than a community-supported agriculture CSA, a cougar-supported
CSA.
So thinking about ways that we could actually sell the food to students in a food justice
approach where it would kind of be pay what you can.
So some people might be able to give a dollar.
Some people may be able to give $5 or $20 or whatever.
And that money can be used or applied towards resources, equipment, seedlings, seeds, all
the things that can help sustain the farm or the garden over the long term.
That's kind of, I think, the end goal, I think.
Amazing.
Increasing accessibility and affordability for the people on campus.
I think that's a key issue in food justice food issues.
A lot of students that are ENVS majors do have classes in the garden, but for any students
that are listening, what are some courses that are available for them that they can
experience this as well?
There are three courses that happen in the garden.
There's a geography class.
There's a geography, I want to say, 460, I believe, taught by Professor Greg Guthey.
That is an emerging market course that really explores sustainable farming as an emerging
market and really explores the food system in detail while also farming.
And then I teach two separate courses, alternating semesters.
One on food politics and the environment, really looking at agroecology as a science,
as a practice, and as a social movement.
And then I teach another course, Environmental Studies 361, called Diet and Planet.
And that class is really about understanding how we eat and what we eat, how that then
impacts the environment or it encourages levels of climate change or actions against climate
change.
Awesome, thank you so much.
Thank you for joining us today.
It was great talking to you and thank you for all your work in the garden and within
this community.
Wow, thank you, Myra Ramos, Dwarby Sward, and Professor Gabriel Valle for that interesting
and valuable information.
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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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Our email address is climate2action at csusm.edu.
Until next time, this is Climate to Action, a CSUSM student podcast, signing off.