— Adante Hart

Super foodification that's a great point. This kind of goes into we talked previously about how Maisie and many other products have been. like recommodified Again, and appropriated. Um, so yeah, that's it fascinating fascinating question. Right and then it goes to quinoa, right which becomes the other right this super food that then yes takes from Andy and communities and cultures and then all of a sudden massifies it right and then leads to kind of growing mass production of mass mass production of it in ways that are yeah that that move it far feel from right indigenous peoples. Yeah, that's such an excellent point. And again, I think a lot of this right is is to be done in conversation with indigenous communities right with Native communities in conjunction with communities. And again, I remember Chris right back in the day you were doing really important work with communities in Baja, California. At the same time right you're working. In your degree and you really wanted to bring fish right there was coming from indigenous community in Baja, California and begin to Source it directly from them right in into the to the restaurant right? Maybe you might yeah for the it was for the undergraduate program in hospitality. Yeah, it was sort of like. For me, it was a no-brainer, but it's just there's there's no system in place that allowed that allowed for that. Okay, and you know it was to to do that to support, you know, an indigenous community in Baja, California the cucapah who first since time M Memorial have lived. In the Colorado Delta where the Colorado River lets out into the the Sea of Cortez and with you know, the development of big cities in in the southwest and urbanization. The Colorado River has been siphoned off to you know, generate, you know, electricity by way of the Hoover Dam and to also feed into the monocultural production of cattle feed animal feed in the Coachella Valley and and so that's over time that these were this was also known as the California Water Wars, but that has had devastating impacts on the communities South of the Border. Okay. I'm just south of the All-American Canal which runs horizontally North and the US side of the Mexican border and As a result the Colorado Delta has been drying up and making it very difficult for the kookaba and other surrounding indigenous communities to to you know, practice their ancestral fishing there. It's of striped sea bass that Corvina which is now on has been has become very popular in restaurants here in the US strikes the best specific Stripes striped sea bass, but 10 years ago when we were working to support these communities who cannot compete with the big Fisheries that come from other parts of the world and and over harvest the fish with big fishing nets. Yeah, I wanted to bring in some of the fish to you know to serve during my week of running the restaurant the student ran restaurant in my undergraduate program. And it was yeah, it was not allowed but you know obvious reasons we work with you know health department and you know, the just the infrastructure that we work, you know, the fishing Community needs to have their things in line their protocols so that it's all like a, you know supervised and and kind of authorities have it all you know checked. but you know what from like purchaser or a chef to the Fisher which is There, you know if you have the right permits, but kind of like on an individual basis. It's very difficult or even small businesses. So yes. But that has sort of changed over time a little bit. I think it's exactly I'm getting easier not for the kukapa, but I think for other communities are you know working to do that? Yes, right like in the in the Northwest the Northwest Northwest Fisheries with salmon and there's you know, the strong base of support for local Fisheries in Northwest that um that I that I've seen fish to like restaurant relationships. Right. I mean sorry just quickly right? I was gonna say yet in many ways going back to Dante's question, right the the way in which right folks have been sourcing food for a while from csas from Community sustainable agricultural centers one could right begin to make make those connections to local communities in ways that again are as well focused on more seasonal production. And and again, I think those are ways to be thinking about right as consumers as chefs as you are out there right to begin to ask that and and talk about that right that that propels it all forward. Right? So it's not as difficult as it was when Chris was trying to do it right 10 years ago. Right, right, and there's I mean there's many examples and new technologies that you know are. Trying to also protect some of these. I mean, I'm focusing right now still on the on the Fisheries because you know like Produce and and Grains, you know other other sources of food have been impacted by by these Global Food Systems of factory farming and farm farm raised fish. So there's a lot of efforts taking underway to to redirect those those Technologies to communities and rehabilitate environments and ecologies. That is run by the original caretakers of these food sources, which are the original people is that indigenous and native peoples all around the world who who have this technology? And so we're seeing part of agroe college as a response to this this Global Food system that is impacted the environment. In negative ways is returning to the ancestral knowledge. But also with the understanding and the and the very real. Situation that some of these ancestral Technologies don't work today because the climate and the environment has changed so much. So we see it with corn and in mesoamerica today that you know traditional farming practices that were were, you know cosmological and also in line with How like the Cycles the natural cycles with with the moon and planting Seasons, which were just knowledge is passed down generation after generation have shifted and so science is still required modern contemporary science needed is needed to to make adjustments but coupling that with this ancestral knowledge and science to to bring these, you know food production back to localized methods and localized consumption. So, you know, we could say this is a way of cutting out the the middle the middle person's structures that that is sort of what aggrocology does and and a very specific focus on cutting out the agrochemicals that kind of lock Farmers into Contracts that are just un not viable exactly it becomes inaccessible and almost like irrational. to have Farmers relying on purchasing agrochemicals that are destroying their land their health because it poisons the water it poisons their their lungs and and affects the children and the the women in the in the communities, so agroecology is really about you know, just doing away with all of that and and requires also a campaign to promote this technology throughout the communities as well because yeah are used to using the chemicals it's easier but the health implications kind of you know, Are what are really provoking right the communities to to make a drastic shift right now and and we're seeing that as communities reintegrate aggrocology the they become more resilient to that climate disasters. That's right, you know the devastating climate on changes that are happening hurricanes and whatnot. That's right. I mean so so the Agro called the agricological approach right is and kind of a bringing us back into a more holistic way of seeing and and doing things and reconnecting communities. And again, we connecting folks to the land in ways that can yes, slow it and make it as you said right more resilient too to the economic and the ecological disasters right that we're currently seen. Yeah, that's that's that brings it back. The whole list aspects right it then again sees us connected to the land. And it's not about commodifying the food in the same way, right? Because as you said with the agrochemicals with the growth of these large companies, right like Monsanto like others, there's a there's the commodification of life that happens right in the gene so that yes, the the chemicals are going in but pretty soon right does the farmer using those seed own The Offspring of those seeds? Right, it gets enough spring. It's animedication right? There isn't right. They're Terminator seeds. Really exactly what day? Yes, and so so again right that that that's all about that process of commodification that at one point begins to commodify Maison other food stuff, right, which is not the way they were intended to be initially and then it goes all the way up to the more recent period where we're commodifying right seed life and and then knowledge, is that that are there When then there are these other more Collective more sustainable right more holistic approaches, like agroecology that have always been in resistance and that are continuing and expanding and our right around in different communities all throughout the US and throughout the world again in you look for them in some cases, but it's it's much easier to find now than before.