"We are 'creating the new ancient future' using imagination and rootedness as we take that long view backward and that long view forward. It’s a sacred responsibility to learn and heal and move forward in a different way. We can’t do that if we are not even acknowledging the reality of where we are at. The reality of Indigenous people and Black people and people of color across this country with relation to land and plants and animal kin. " -Rubi Orozco Santos
On February 20th 2024, Food & Farm Communications Fund and Animal Agriculture Reform co-hosted a compelling discussion on decolonizing approaches that are catalyzing the shift away from factory farmed products and heavily processed plant-based foods, through business and agricultural alternatives to factory farming, and advocating to end factory farming. Take time to listen to Lucille Contreras of Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, Jessica Swan of Agri-Cultura Network and Rubi Orozco Santos of la Semilla Food Center share effective strategies that address climate justice and agriculture reform via cultural respect and preservation, with emphasis on Indigenous systems and land-based practices. From organizing to narrative approaches, featured speakers will highlight the significance of sacred plants, food as medicine, and respect for the ecosystem and all relations.
Esperanza was raised in California where she spent her childhood in the Bay Area, the Central Valley and the Tuolumne mountains. She is an Indigenous descendant of the Caxcan of the Nahua Nation of Northern Mexico and Southwest U.S. She has worked with nonprofits for over 20 years with an emphasis in leadership, systemic change, and policy advocacy. Her priority is to use the power of movement-led investments, cultural organizing and storytelling to strengthen the network of land-based practitioners who are fostering political leadership and community economic power through the lens of ancestral ecological practice. As Executive Director of Food & Farm Communications Fund, a movement-led participatory grantmaker, Esperanza is committed to community-controlled capital structures, narrative shift and emboldening transformative food and agricultural systems change.