by Marcelo Garzo

On March 4, 2012, over 130 Oakland residents came together at the Bethany Baptist Church to imagine and organize a better North Oakland community. This event was held and facilitated by Phat Beets Produce with the support of dozens of community partners and volunteers, in order to build relationships and bring our collective minds together to create solutions to the most pressing problems in our communities. We wanted to hold a space to listen, exchange directly, face-to-face with our communities, asking for people to bring only 6 things: 3 big concerns and 3 big ideas or visions for the beloved community. These were recorded as folks entered the space, written on butcher paper that lined the walls as the community arrived.

While we shared nourishing food prepared by dedicated Phat Beets volunteers and local businesses including Dorsey’s Locker, we had the honor of opening the space with long-time North Oakland resident and feminist of color elder, healer, and storyteller Luisa Teisch. She brought the teachings and songs of the Yoruba ancestors in order to call us to the sacred task of building community and sharing food and ideas. We were then introduced to the site of Bethany Baptist Church by Pastor John Leggett, who reminded us we were in a home of the black revolutionary tradition, a place where both Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton attended services with their families as children. Coming from the South, Pastor Leggett knows and embodies the long history of the Baptist church as a place of healing, community and political action. We were overwhelmed by the support from the Bethany Baptist Church and are grateful they offered their sacred space for us to have these conversations and build relationships that will be bring about real change on the streets in North Oakland.

    Soon after honoring the space, we began our day of dialogue and exchange with 6 thematic breakout groups. The themes for the groups were decided after tallying the results of the 3 big ideas and 3 big concerns the community brought with them. The groups discussed: Community Safety (Gang Injunctions, Policing, Violence), Affordable Housing (Foreclosures, Accessible Homes), Transportation, Food and Health, Education (School Closures, Alternative Ed) and Community Beautification. We then began our community visioning exercise, imagining what our ideal neighborhood would look, feel, and taste like before drawing these images in a collective art practice. We closed the space with the palabra/word of Chicano elder, activist and poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez. He reminded us that in coming together as a community we had mobilized the most sacred force of all: the power to love.

    We express our deepest gratitude to everyone who came out to make this event possible and are looking forward to continuing the dialogue at future community forums. March 4th was only our first effort to facilitate North Oakland residents in building new relationships and deepening existing ones in order to cultivate justice, health, safety and power in the community. Stay tuned for follow-up meetings and ways to stay involved!

MARCH 4th North Oakland Flatlands Community Brunch and Forum

What do you want to see in the North Oakland Flatlands? Join Phat Beets Produce for a Free Community Brunch and Forum to meet your neighbors and to share your vision for a healthier, safer,  more resilient North Oakland community.  Bring 3 concerns, 3 big ideas and 3 of your neighbors (or more) to Bethany Baptist Church on 54th and Adeline to break bread, share ideas, dialogue, and organize a healthier North Oakland.

Topics to include: community health, urban greening, affordable housing, food justice and beyond.  Information from these breakout sessions will be used to shape the direction of community based work in the neighborhood by Phat Beets Produce and community partners.   A community resource fair will also be held in the lobby of the church.  Full meal will be provided including vegan and gluten free options.

Who: North Oakland Farmers’ Market Group and Phat Beets Produce

What:  North Oakland Flatlands Community Forum and Brunch

Where: Bethany Baptist Church 5400 Adeline, Oakland 94608

When: 2-5pm Sunday, March 4th

Why: Join us for a free community meal and break out discussion to vision what we want our North Oakland community to look like and how we will get there! All North Oakland residents welcome! Topics to include community health, urban greening, affordable housing, food justice, and more.  Bring a 3 concerns and 3 big ideas to discuss and 3 of you neighbors neighbors.  Music and open speaker TBA

Cost: FREE!! Meal and speaker included.  RSVP by phone at 510-250-7957 or http://tinyurl.com/798b6s7

Contact: max@phatbeetsproduce.org or 510-689-3068, www.phatbeetsproduce.org

**If you can help cook, provide dessert, or help with outreach by becoming a community outreach block captain then please hit us up at info@phatbeetsproduce.org or 510-689-3068.

Phat Beets Produce runs on a very small budget, this is our wishlist for 2012.  Please hit up max@phatbeetsproduce.org if you have something to donate (tax deductible):

• Laser Printer
• Macbook laptop or 2006+ Mac Desktop
• Small pickup truck with less than 100,000 miles
• Wheelbarrows
• Working Fridges
• Shovels
• Gloves
• Technical Service (business plan)
• Office space in North Oakland
• Leading a workshop for our Food N’ Justice Workshop Series

THANK YOU!

The Yanomami people of the Amazon Rainforest who live along the border of Venezuela and Brazil have one of the lowest recorded blood pressure readings around the world with an average of 90/60.

Yes, they live in a society free from the stressors of the modern world, yet their culture has been described as one “that encourages aggression and a life of chronic warfare with violence and tension.” The key to their low blood pressure is their dietary salt intake. It is <0.5 mg per day. They represent the ultimate human example of the relationship between dietary salt intake and high blood pressure.

Among the Masai people of Kenya in East Africa, there is not one person suffering with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease or obesity. Studies confirm that many who live in rural tribes and villages throughout Africa and other parts of the world have much lower blood pressure than those living in urban areas.

The key common denominator is maintaining a balanced diet that is naturally low in salt.

Heart disease or cardiovascular disease associated with high blood pressure is the leading cause of death for people of all races and cultures around the globe. Unequivocally, around the globe, in every demographic group, research confirms that ADDING SALT TO YOUR DIET INCREASES BLOOD PRESSURE.

Humanity has known this for thousands of years. The earliest medical comment that relates dietary salt to blood pressure was recorded in 1700 BC and comes from Chinese physician Huang Ti Nei Ching Su Wein who stated, “. . . therefore if large amounts of salt are taken, the pulse will stiffen and harden.” (Translated by Wan Ping, AD 762.)

There are other contributors that could also increase and compound high blood pressure in addition to dietary salt as well. Stress, a magnesium deficiency, lack of exercise and movement of the body, obesity, and a poor diet that is high in fat and includes too many packaged, processed and prepared foods can cause high blood pressure and lead to other chronic health problems.

The daily-recommended sodium health intake is:
Under age 51: 1,500 mg per day
Ages 51-70: 1,300 mg per day
Ages 70+: 1,200 mg per day.

The average American consumes 3400 mg. of sodium per day, way over the recommended amount. To give you an idea of how much this is, 1 teaspoon of table salt is 2325 mg.

Some foods naturally contain sodium like dairy, meat, shellfish and vegetables. They do not contain a high degree of salt but it contributes to your overall salt intake. 1 cup of milk has 107 mg. of sodium. And, sodium is essential for our body functioning in small amounts. Sodium, salt is harvested in the sea and on land. Some people think sea salt is better for you than iodized salt, but research shows and many health professionals say sea salt impacts our body the same way. The vast amount of sodium in the American diet comes from processed and prepared foods that typically have high sodium content.

Many prepared foods from restaurants market themselves as healthy alternatives but have high sodium content. Six-inch subway sandwiches have very high sodium content that exceeds or almost meets our recommended daily dosage in one serving! Some of these readings are below.

Italian sandwich 1640 mg of sodium
Chicken fillet 1123 mg. of sodium
Tuna 998 mg. of sodium

A Chick Fil A Hard-grilled Chicken Club sandwich contains 1460 mg. of sodium.

El Pollo loco Jalapeno Chicken Sandwich contains 2017 mg. of sodium.

You can’t always tell how much sodium foods contain by tasting them. To help lower your sodium intake, get in the habit of reading the nutrition facts label found on packages. You can also find nutrition guides of most common restaurant chains online.

Below is a list of salt and sodium-containing compounds in most packaged and processed foods.

When you see these products on the label, you know the sodium content is high: Baking soda, Baking powder, Monosodium glutamate (MSG), Disodium phosphate, Sodium alginate, Sodium nitrate or nitrite

These terms and condiments also indicate high sodium content: Pickled, smoked, marinated, teriyaki, soy sauce, broth, au jus, gravy, ketchup, mustard, mayonaise, tobasco, barbeque, cocktail sauce and salad dressings.

WATCH OUT FOR HIGH SODIUM MEDICINES

Surprisingly, medicines such as the antacids Alka-Seltzer and Bromo-Seltzer have rich sodium content. A two-tablet dose of Alka-Seltzer contains 995 milligrams of sodium while Bromo-Seltzer contains 761 milligrams in just one tablet. These two “medicines” contain more sodium to your diet than many processed foods.

OTHER WAYS TO LOWER AND MAINTAIN HEALTHY BLOOD PRESSURE LEVELS:

Black folk medicine remedies:

Joe Hayes, legendary water-diviner of Paradise, North Carolina, regularly harvests YELLOW ROOT aka GOLDENSEAL and makes a water infused tea that he sips on daily to maintain normal blood pressure and to ward off illness. Hydrastine, a chemical in goldenseal is shown to reduce blood pressure. Goldenseal also contains the chemical berberine which may have the opposite effect. If you start using goldenseal, make sure you take your blood pressure to see how it affects you and if it is elevated, stop using it; goldenseal is not for you. Joe Hayes also takes a daily swig of cod liver oil, rich with Omega 3′s, which help prevent heart disease and lowers blood pressure.

Wild harvested YellowRoot tonic recipe:
Harvest a bunch full of yellow root, pulling up the plant from the root.
Clean off the dirt with luke warm water.
Break the root into 1-2″ size pieces and fill a pint sized mason jar 1/4 to 1/2 with the root.
Fill the jar with luke warm water and let sit for a day until the water turns deep yellow.
Take a sip, 1-3 times daily until all gone.
Wait a week and repeat process.

Or, you can buy the Yellowroot tincture known as Goldenseal and swallow a dropperful under the tongue or in a cup of warm water 1-3 times a week. Follow recommended dosage and if your pressure elevates, discontinue use.

EAT 2 CLOVES OF GARLIC DAILY
Eating 2 cloves of garlic daily will lower your blood pressure. Just chop it up and sprinkle it on your meals. Add a raw clove as a condiment to your meals or add it to your dish.

Ma Mare Mamie Cerre (aka Salena Gray, b.1888, d. 1960) of New Orleans, Louisiana added several cloves of garlic and bay leaves to her meals regularly. She would also tie garlic cloves around her head and let them hang from her neck to ease headaches.

BAY LEAF REDUCES BLOOD PRESSURE AND RELIEVES MIGRAINE HEADACHES. Add 3-4 leaves regularly to dishes like stews, soups, casseroles, meats and vegetables. Make a tea using 2-3 dried or fresh bay leaves, letting them steep in 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes. Drink 2-3 times a day.

SEASON WITH COLORFUL HERBS INSTEAD OF SALT TO BOOST FLAVOR. The herbs and spices below enhance any meal and are also medicinal. Ginger, cayenne, garlic and bay all reduce blood pressure. garlic, cayenne, ginger, cinnamon and bay leaf, basil, oregano, chives, marjoram, cumin, tumeric, curry, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger (grated, sliced or dried), garlic, onions, shallots, chives, basil, bay leaves, vinegar, lemon, orange, apple (fruit or juice) and SPIKE, DASH and other seasonings.

WAYS TO PUNCH UP THE FLAVOR WITHOUT SALT

- Marinate meats in vinegar, citrus or pineapple juice

- Use balsamic, apple cider and plain vinegar to flavor greens and salads

- Cook and flavor with wines, the alcohol will evaporate with heat and the flavor stays.

- Season with SPIKE, DASH and other salt alternatives you can buy in the store.

- Adding celery to your diet regularly lowers blood pressure. Eating ¼ cup a day, about one stalk, will help to treat your high blood pressure.

FINALLY, Exercise and . . .

Eat more fresh foods, fiber rich foods and fruits and vegetables.

LIVE HEALTHY!!! The world loves you and needs you!

It starts with that scratchy throat, then dread: “Uh-oh, I’m getting sick.” I used to consider it a good thing, it meant a few days away from the rigors of school. But now I don’t have that luxury, I need to work. And my immune system’s efforts to defeat the infectious agent will likely result in additional symptoms. So, in order to continue working, I need to both reduce the symptoms and speed up my recovery. I’ve learned over the years that medications for suppressing these symptoms actually suppress my immune system and only prolong the suffering. They also allow for a false sense of wellness. So I think back to those times of illness and recovery that my mother and others have helped me through and they all tended to include soups and teas.

Just soup?

Commercial food establishments, originating in France in 1765, were called “Restaurants” (meaning “(something) restoring”) and they served highly concentrated simple soups that were advertised as an antidote for physical exhaustion. In fact, every culture that we know of has for centuries included in their diets some form of nourishing soups. Making soup, that is, cooking a variety of ingredients together to make them safe, easily digested and tasty could arguably be one of the most important inventions that helped civilization to grow and spread. So simple soups are all but simple in their effect on our health and culture.

We are always learning more about our health and food, but what we know from tradition and current science is that whole foods, herbs and spices cooked together in liquid form, have some excellent regenerative properties (see article link below). This could likely be due to multiple factors, such as the knowledge that I am being cared for by the person making me the soup; the break down and dispersal of nutrients and minerals in liquid form (making them easily absorbable and transportable around my body); the synergistic effect of multiple phytonutrients and their effects on my immune system, and even the sheer soothing pleasure of a delicious meal.

Chicken soup study
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/diet.fitness/10/17/chicken.soup.reut/

Quality or quantity?

As with all therapeutic foods, the quality of the soup’s ingredients is of the utmost importance. We need more nutrients and less toxins. (http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/nutrition.html)  So we choose fresh, local and organic produce, pasture raised animal products and organic herbs and spices. And we remind ourselves that slightly higher prices we pay for quality ingredients will result in lowered health care costs down the road. Let’s not short change our health for a few dollars in savings.

Soup recommendations
-Fresh homemade: Avoid canned soups and ingredients. Cooking from scratch will insure the best tasting and healthiest soups. Plus to save yourself the effort when you are sick later on, you can make extra and freeze it for later.
-K.I.S.S.: (Keeping it super simple) By nature, soups are simple. And it helps me to motivate myself to make a batch of soup, if I just stick with a few ingredients that I enjoy. With time and experimentation, you’ll find yourself adding more foods from your fridge and pantry and spicing the soup the way you want it to taste.
-Delicately cooked: To prevent oxidizing oils, add them towards the end of cooking. And to avoid the creation of other toxic compounds which form at high temperatures, avoid high heat roasting and sauteing. If you like your veggies sauteed, try cooking them in a dry pan, adding small amounts of water.
-Therapeutic ingredients These include: Miso and other fermented foods, Alliums (onions, garlic, leeks, etc.), carrots, celery (these three make a great soup or broth all on their own), mushrooms, seaweed, leafy greens, herbs, spices, oil (olive, coconut, or butter, avoid others), acid (vinegar, lemon juice, etc) and protein (meat w/bones, soaked/sprouted beans, eggs, etc.).

So before you reach for that medication in your cabinet, reach for the miso in your cupboard. And when you hear of someone’s illness, offer to cook them a nourishing soup like this one below. Practicing the art of making home-made soups could be the healthiest thing you do for your health as well as your community.

Recipe:
Primordial Chicken Soup
According to Webster’s, primordial soup is “a mixture of organic molecules in evolutionary theory from which life on earth originated.” This basic and nourishing soup is titled after this substance, because by making it (and other soups) the foundation of your nourishment in times of illness, it will likely lead to more life for you!

Makes about 1 gallon soup

Ingredients
2 pastured chicken legs (or other parts)
3 quarts filtered water
1/4 cup vinegar

1 lb carrots
1 head celery
3 onions
5 cloves garlic
1/2 head small cabbage
1 bunch kale
1/2 lb shitaki mushrooms

1/4 cup dulse seaweed (or any other kinds)
1 bunch fresh thyme (or 1.5 T dried)
1 bunch parsley
2 T curry powder
1 t black pepper
2 T coconut oil or butter

Sea salt and vinegar to taste

Instructions:
-Simmer chicken with water and vinegar for at least 1 hour (ideally overnight in the oven at 170F) then strain stock, saving the liquid. Remove the meat from the bones, chop the meat and return to pot with the saved liquid.

-Chop all the veggies to bite-sized pieces and add, along with the remaining spices and ingredients, to the pot of meat and broth and bring to a simmer for 1-2 hours.

-Season with salt and vinegar to your liking (you should say, “yum, I want more”, if not, add more seasonings). Serve it warm and jar and freeze the rest.

In the past year, I’ve been laid off from my job, lost my health insurance, downsized my living situation and turned in my car. Like I said, life happens. And, on the other hand, my son graduated from college, my daughter is starting high school and they are both healthy and happy. I’m a full-time urban bicycler. It’s great exercise! I sleep through the night and wake up rested. I am grateful!

At 52+ years young, I am infinitely thankful for my good health and strong physical ability.  No pills, aches or pains and I still get my “Moon” like clockwork. And now, I have another opportunity to expand who I am.

In the meantime, I am without health insurance, like so many of my kindred global beings. So, I heartily embrace the healing and healthy living traditions of my ancestors who stretch 7 generations back in New Orleans and Mississippi.

I face the same situation they did which is having no health insurance or limited access to it. I do what they did and take care of myself by maintaining a routine of preventative health care so I don’t get sick. And if I do fall ill, I use natural remedies to treat the ailment. Our healthcare industry is not based in preventative care or holistic healing but rather relies on “drugs” to mask the symptom and other aggressive treatments. I’m afraid of “them” and besides, I do a better job at my healthcare than they would anyway.

It’s time to start using some of the preventative health care routines the wise ol’timers did to stay healthy. My grandmother, Maw-Maw, is a testament to that. She’s 104 years young. MawMaw is a New Orleans native who moved up to Oakland, in the 1940s. She lived on 54th street below San Pablo Ave. for over 50 years. She cooked with garlic in everything and had her occasional garden of seasonal veggies like peppers, collards, tomatoes and milliton (chayote squash). Here are 10 Healthy Living Routines to maintain good health:

1. The Daily dose of Cod Liver oil or another omega-3 like Flax seed oil.
   Cod Liver oil has omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, is an immune booster and is anti-inflammatory which keeps your body oiled and joints from aching. It also helps prevent dementia, alzheimers and degenerative conditions associated with aging.
2. Apple Cider Vinegar tonics.
   Cuts the mucous from your system, maintains healthy intestinal bacteria so you poop regularly, anti-inflammatory, kills viruses and bacteria to ward off colds and flu, helps regulate blood pressure. Granny from North Carolina would take regular vinegar shots after she’d eat dinner to “cut the mucus.” Use 1 tablespoon in a 1/4 cup of warm water and drink.
3. Castor oil.
   Cleanses your colon to eliminate toxins and tone your intestines and help ward off colds. Take 4 times a year at the beginning of each season. Take one tablespoon and wait.
4. Eating chalk or clay from the side of the road.
   Pulls toxins and heavy metals from your body. Your body does not digest it, so it expands and pulls toxins and metals from your body and is eliminated in your poop. You can get it today in the form of bentonite at any health food store.
5. Eating a lot of vegetables, fruits and beans, which were organic back in the day.
6. Eating minimal meat, which was also organic back in the day. Folks used to say “I knew what was in my cow, chicken or hog because I fed it.”
7. Cooking with healing foods and spices such as tons of garlic, onion, peppers, cayenne, vinegar, bay leaves, basil to name a few. Garlic and onions are natural antibiotics and antiseptics. Cayenne and peppers move the energy through your body and eliminates mucus. Eating collard, kale, mustard and turnip greens and drinking the pot liquor are very nutritious.
8. “Sip” on or take your seasonal tonics such as yellow root (aka goldenseal), mullein or sassafrass in the fall. All strengthen your immune systems to ward off colds. Mullein is also an expectorant and a great decongestant that can be sipped on or smoked. Also used in baths to reduce swelling and pain from inflammation.
9. Make your body more alkaline by drinking plenty of water with a lemon squeezed in it. Many people have a high acidic ph in their bodies which contributes to dis-ease.
10. Move it our lose it! Move your body by dancing, exercising or doing your regular chores. Even mopping, washing and hanging your clothes, vacuuming, carry your own groceries, gardening, hiking, walking the hood or the lake are good ways to exercise.

Breathe deep and slow and give thanks for the journey you’ve had so far. We all have amazing stories to have made it this far.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this. I canvassed the North Oakland area yesterday promoting Phat Beets farmers market (Saturday’s on the corner of 57th and Market Streets in Oakland) and “chopped it up” with many of my neighbors. A few houses from where I live on 57th Street, I met a southern born 90 year old gentleman who was sitting on his porch. He has lived in his house on 57th Street since 1961. I found out he was a merchant marine who has travelled the world 3 times. What experience and stories he had and has to share. Many of our elders live among us and have valuable things to share. Let’s engage our elders and learn from their wisdom.

I wonder what were on the minds of those first 13 young Freedom Riders, six white and seven black, the day before they got on that Greyhound bus in D.C. headed to the South fifty years ago in spring 1961.  Were they nervous, for themselves and their future, that the law to desegregate interstate commerce wouldn’t uphold in a still-segregated South?  Did they feel any pride for their anticipated acts of non-violence, soon capturing the attention of the world and cementing themselves in the history of racial equality?

I’ll soon find out.  It’s the day before I get on a bus in Birmingham, Alabama with 12 other young folk from across the country of all different backgrounds to seek another form of civil rights.  The Freedom Riders sought racial justice.  We are seeking real food justice. We’re changing the food system in our own communities and meeting others who are doing the same, whether it’s increasing access to affordable healthy food for low-income communities, getting better conditions for food chain workers, or reclaiming traditional food cultures.

The first 12-day Food and Freedom Ride – from the ‘hood to the heartland – starts in the South with Alabama and Mississippi, heads into the Midwest with Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa, and ends in Michigan.  The second ride, one week later, will go through America’s salad bowl – California.

I’m nervous, and I’m proud.  I’m nervous because freedom for real food away from the industrial food system is at an all-time high, whether it’s a massive recall on turkey, raid on raw foods and needs for retail permits, or getting supermarket chains to sign onto fair farmworker rights.  I’m proud because I’m excited to meet and share the stories of youth, food producers, and community leaders who understand the problems and are manifesting real food solutions.  The past efforts of the Freedom Riders and other social movement leaders give me hope that my nervousness will override with strength and my pride with even more so.

Our hope is that the rides will bring to light the need to change the structural systems currently in place that prohibit people hurt by the industrial food system from growing, eating, affording, and accessing this basic civil right.  On our rides, we’ll engage youth and communities on a recently drafted Youth Food Bill of Rights, sending the message to our representatives as we approach the 2012 Farm Bill that real food is a real solution and that it’s the norm, not the exception.

We’ll share stories, actions, and reflections daily on the road from different riders.  Ride for Food and Freedom with us online, on Facebook or Twitter @liverealnoworg (#foodandfreedom), or e-mail info@liverealnow.org to join us if you’re on route.  We’re also nearing our campaign to fund a video documentary of the rides and complementary curriculum.  Chip in $5(+) for #foodandfreedom!

**The California Food & Freedom Ride will finish in the San Francisco bay area September 1^st.  Plans include visiting US and state representatives in San Francisco and events in Oakland.  Stay tuned!

——————————-

Hai Võ grew up in Orange County, California soon after being born and sponsored with his Vietnamese immigrant parents and older brother by a family in Sioux City, Iowa.  Hai began seeking food and social justice when at 18 years old and 250 pounds with Type 2 diabetes and autoimmunity, his doctor told him that he’d live to be 30 if he continued eating and living the way he did. He’s passionate about evolutionary nutrition and reclaiming traditional foods and foodways.  

510-689-3068

MEDIA ADVISORY

PROTECT FRUIT TREES IN OAKLAND PUBLIC PARKS AND REQUEST POLICY CHANGE TO ALLOW PUBLIC FOOD PRODUCTION IN PUBLIC SPACES
North Oakland Neighbors are encouraged to join Oakland’s Phat Beets Produce and the Dover St. Neighborhood Group Wednesday, June 8th at the Oakland Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC) to support the nation’s first clinic based community orchard and garden.  The Healthy Hearts Youth Market Garden and Orchard is located at Dover St Park on 57th and Dover St. in North Oakland.
The project is a partnership between the Dover St. Neighborhood Group and the food justice collective Phat Beets Produce in collaboration with the Healthy Hearts (obesity prevention and weight management) Clinic at the Children’s Hospital Oakland.  Over the last year, with permission from the city, the neglected and unused perimeter of this public park has been transformed by the Dover St. Neighborhood Group and Phat Beets Produce.  Replacing overgrown weeds are a 4000 square foot vegetable and herb garden and a recently planted 25 tree fruit orchard.  Also added over the past year is a large food justice themed community mural created by the Community Rejuvenation Project.  The project receives no money from the City of Oakland.  All of this activity has contributed to far greater use of the park by the neighborhood and a heightened sense of community.

Now, a year later, Oakland Parks and Recreation have recommended the removal of 1/3 of the fruit trees and to limit future edible landscaping on most of the park perimeter.  Concerned neighbors are invited to speak up for food justice and to demand much needed policy change regarding local, sustainable food production in Oakland Public Parks.

When: Wednesday, June 8th, 4:30pm
Where: Lakeside Park Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Avenue – next to Lake Merritt
What: Tell the City of Oakland and Parks and Recreation that fruit trees and gardens belong in public parks, are not a “danger” or “liability”, but an asset to Oakland and our communities.

###

Phat Beets Produce is a food justice collective. The collective was started in the North Oakland Flatland in 2007 as a guerrilla produce stand in a North Oakland park.  We now support two certified, clinic based farmers’ markets, two youth-led school farm stands and community nutrition hubs, and a youth market garden in partnership with a local hospital obesity prevention program. As a collective, we strive to connect small farmers and farmers of color to urban communities.

Am I a “Poverty Pimp?” I heard Davey D, a local media activist and political hip hop host, use the term, and I was really taken aback by it. The phrase really says it all, someone who is getting rich by riding the moving story of the nation’s poor, or as one urban dictionary defines it, “Any social worker, do-gooder, social service agency, or faith-based organization who comes into a hood not their own and plays at being the savior to folks that don’t need savin’.” I am an urban horticulturalist and organize around food sovereignty and food justice locally in Oakland as well as in Madagascar. Being that most of my work falls under the non-profit umbrella, I realized that if I wanted to get projects “for the community” funded, then I needed to learn how to tell a story and beg for the crumbs fallen off of the corporate plates of foundations such as Rockefellers, Gates’, and others. This begging is also known as grant writing.

So after finding a mentor and reading a book, I was capable of telling the story of the “urban poor,” who disproportionately suffer from diet-related diseases such as type II diabetes, heart disease and hyper tension, in contrast to our more affluent brothers and sisters. Recently I read a book about environmental justice and added to my repertoire asthma, cancers and the whole gamut of afflictions that the urban poor face. I got my rhetoric down for the communities that I was trying to advocate for: “53 liquor stores, 14 fast food restaurants and no grocery store”; “One out of three children in California suffers obesity and the percentage is higher for children of color”; “There is approximately one liquor store for every 450 people in West Oakland (The Flatlands) and one for every 7,000 in Piedmont (The Hills)” and so on. So now all I needed was a camera and some shots of overweight kids eating Hot Fries, a few poor folks pushing shopping carts and rummaging through garbage bins, and footage of freeways and neighborhood liquor stores. Then, finally, my portfolio would be finished.

After scouring the web for foundations, I narrowed down my list, wrote my outline and summed up the harsh conditions of the poor people of Oakland and digitally put out my cardboard sign and started begging for money for a story that wasn’t my own. All the people I interact with on a daily basis in North and West Oakland became a statistic, and to the foundations they were all the same “poor people of color.”  That is when I knew that I was what Davey D was talking about: a Poverty Pimp. The wealth, passion, history and diversity of the communities I thought I was advocating for was summarized in a five-page document with charts, metrics and statistics with no humanity nor humility. In fact, I was asking the same corporate foundations whose founders became rich off of the exploitation of the poor for crumbs to help mitigate .05% of the social mess they caused (urban pollution, intense extraction of natural resources, exploitation of the working class, etc). One thing lead to another and I found myself writing grants to General Mills, reading requests for proposals for community food security projects from ConAgra, and asking for obesity prevention money to put in clinic-based garden programs from Dryer’s Grand Ice Cream.

So what does this mean for me? I have recognized that I may be a Poverty Pimp, which is the first step toward turning my life and career around. My second step was to buy some flip cams and have the people I work with and for tell their own stories via digital media. Finally, my last step was to educate myself about the history of foundations and how they operate by reading American Foundations: An Investigative History by Mark Dowie.

After reading this thorough critique of American philanthropy, the game and hustle that I’m engaged in makes a lot more sense when you realize the power and control, secrecy and sheer lack of democracy that American foundations operate under. In fact, did you know that foundations only operate on the interest they earn on their original endowment? Their portfolios, decision-making process and investment strategies are hidden from the American people and shrouded in secrecy and hypocrisy. Take for example the investment portfolio that the Gates Foundation has in oil-rich Nigeria. The 35 billion dollar Gates endowment invests heavily in an Italian Oil firm ENI. This firm’s oil flares in the Niger Delta have caused, as one local doctor puts it, “an epidemic of bronchitis in adults and asthma and blurred vision in children.” So as the Gates Foundation tries to immunize Nigeria’s poor, they also fund these efforts through investments in external corporate entities that blanket their target communities in environmental injustices, polluting the air and the ground water and creating fertile grounds for disease to spread. This is just one example of foundations’ sleight of hand.

I don’t like to unfairly focus simply on the negative, as I often get my kicks as a pure pessimist. Through further research I learned of some innovative foundation leaders and granting models such as “flow funding,” which allows people working on the ground and in the streets to recommend programs for foundations to fund rather than having communities that may have not mastered the grant writing language have to jump through the hoops. I also learned of foundations such as Aokandi that fund racial justice initiatives, as well as funds that are distributed by community-guided granting boards.

I feel like we need to bite the (foundation) hand that feeds us and ask more questions and point more fingers, but then again we all want to get paid. When we really get down to it, the money is right in the neighborhoods we are working in. Pimpin’ for six-digit grants can be partially averted by communities canvassing and raising money to meet community needs. Just look at the most successful self-funded institutions in a good portion of the affected communities, often the religious centers.  Take look at the facts and see who really gives a larger percentage of earned income and you may not need to look further than your next door neighbor.  There is a tremendous amount of wealth and social equity to build independent community-driven institutions outside of the foundation funded, non-profit industrial complex.

“Hello my name is Max Cadji and I am a Poverty Pimp.” Though I have come to say this, I have been challenged by counterparts in the movement with another, slightly different definition from an urban dictionary of a poverty pimp: “Any self-appointed minority leader, who extols the perpetual poorness of their ethnicity, yet is quite well off stemming from their efforts.” In this context, however, I am not a poverty pimp- just a misguided, privileged do-gooder. A former coworker told me, “I love you Max, but you’re not rich. Is making any money at all off of this process poverty pimping?” These are great questions and things to chew on while in the game. I have taken my first step towards my recovery, and I challenge those working as advocates and allies in the non-profit sector to look in the mirror and ask themselves “Am I a poverty pimp?”

We look back to see why there are so few African-Americans on the land.  African-American slave labor built the wealth of this nation through agriculture and “king” cotton. Though we tilled and cultivated the land, there was little to no ownership of land. All of this was on the brink of change when om January 16, 1965 as Sherman’s Union March to the Sea to defeat the Confederacy was complete, Maj. General Sherman issued Special Field Orders 15, to give all freed slaves 40 acres of land and a mule for cultivation on 400,000 acres of arable land in Georgia and South Carolina.  Forty acres was seen as an “ideal” family farm and a means of giving some power and economic self-determination to the freed slaves on the land of former southern slave owners.  On April 16, 1865 President Lincoln was assinated and his successor, Andrew Johnson became the 17th President of the United States.  President Johnson overturned the order and returned  this arable land to the former white owners, destroying many hopes for economic self-determination.  The term “40 acres and a mule” has come to represent the failure of the US to to pay and support retribution to the former 3.5 million black southern slaves that it owns.

Fast-forward 150 plus years and most black folks now live in urban areas surrounded by concrete.  African Americans are still left with little or no land. Now in the 21 century gentrification has left many African American communities in food deserts. A food desert is defined as areas were there is little or no access to grocery stores or fresh food.  There is a emerging movement sweeping across urban areas from West Oakland to Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago to the Bronx.  It is an urban agriculture movement that is a call to arms to reclaim post-industrial abandon lots, underserviced public parks, and vacant lots to grow food for the people.  The term “Food Justice” is often given to this movement, the idea that healthy food for our people is a human right and not a privilege and that economic development and soveriegnty must be on the table to turn the tide.

My name is Brent Walker. I’m a 31-year-old black farmer, originally  from Memphis, Tennessee. I’ve been farming and living in the East Bay for three years. Farming has been part of my life since childhood. My grandmother, being the first small farmer I knew, made me participate in day-to-day chores. I didn’t understand the chores or why my grandmother farmed and did not just go to the grocery store.  As I got older and far away from farming, it started to make more sense. Farming is hard work! It also can be the most rewarding work. Being a witness to the cycles of small farming,  I became aware that farming brought together family and community, in a common cause to nurture. This has been part of our culture for thousands years and will always be away to connect all people. Having the opportunity to be educated at the Center of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, I learned tested techniques of sustainable, organic farming.  The center also had a dedication to food justice,  upon graduation I was able manage a 3.5 acre farm for Peoples Grocery (a non-profit organization that has a mission of food justice.) Then went on to work on a six-acre commercial farm.

Urban farming has become a way to help bring  life back to gentrified areas in Oakland and other cities throughout the U.S. Farms and gardens are set up on vacant lots and abandoned land. This model has been proven to be efficient and effective. Giving communities a since of  pride and fresh food. There are many organizations that are helping bring back communities through urban farming such as , Peoples Grocery, Oakland Food Connection, City Slicker Farms, Phat Beets Produce just to name a few. These organizations have motivated me to help the problem, by starting a urban farm  to help the community were I live West Oakland.  Growing produce in backyards throughout the East Bay will help support small urban farmers, and make fresh produce more accessible to our often marginalized communities.  We can not only support consumer, but also the farmer as well.

Written by Brent Walker.