GUEST: Leah Penniman, educator and food justice coordinator for the Soul Fire Farm, a sustainable farm near Albany, NY, talks to us about how radical farmers are using food to fight racial injustice and the New Jim Crow.
Leah was such an interesting guest, with connections to indigenous resistance groups in Mexico and Haiti.
Yes, food production is an important part of the resistance against Neoliberalism in the Third World. What isn't clearly understood is that farming can effectively expose the evils of Neoliberalism in the belly of the beast, the very epicenter of the American Empire.
We can produce our own food without poisonous chemicals and untested genetic modification of seeds. We can open access to homegrown products and give consumers freedom of choice for themselves and their families. We can work together to increase awareness of the lunacy of our corporate dominated power structure, hell-bent as it is to destroy life on earth through global warming and nuclear conflagration.
Leah is an articulate and creative activist, dedicated to restoring democracy in America, one plant at a time. Just think if Obama had gone in a different direction. If he hadn't gone to Harvard to learn how to be an elite, privileged, white male. If he hadn't done the Daily Machine's dirty work in running against black progressives in Chicago. If he hadn't privatized public housing in the city, throwing blacks out to gain favors from white real estate developers. If he hadn't quoted Martin Luther King's words to cover up his warmongering and betrayal of working people. If he done anything other during his president than serving the military industrial complex.
Some liberals are even defending Obama today, based on the color of his skin. Scoundrels come in all colors. We are what we try to accomplish for peace and justice in the world. The rest is racial stereotyping that preserves the status quo.
