Sustenance is our birthright
We are nourished by the elements
Nourished by one another
The hands that till the soil
The hands that reap the harvest
We craft this project
Our food justice newsletter
Remembering ancient wisdom
Innovating new practices
Imagining revolution and liberation
Our roots go deep
We draw energetic water from subterranean oases
Reservoirs preserved by the Piscataway people
Sustaining a vision of sustainability
We live in a toxic system
We live amidst food deserts
Food is a commodity
Not acknowledged as a right
Yet another vehicle for profiteering
Denying our fundamental relationship
Our sacred compact with mother earth
Like a vulture
Capitalism feeds on our labor
Like a parasite
Our system propels us towards destruction
Yet we must sustain hope
Urban farmers restore our relationship to the elements
We see co-ops advancing food justice
We see food vendors invested in mutual aid
A radical reinvention of what it means to be in deep relationship
We reintegrate trauma
Our violent separation from the earth
The crushing of sovereignty
The legacies of slavery and indigenous displacement
We must conjure a new world
Imagining the architecture of evolution
Listening to the elements
Harmonizing with the earthWe must move like mycelium
Brewing subterranean magic
Inspired by fungi nurturing the crops that feed us
We taste the unexpected
Embracing biodiversity
Reimagining cooking and sharing food
Viewing all of these as spiritual rites of passage
We must craft a sacred covenant
Committing ourselves to the practice of solidarity
Integrating new webs of holistic practice
Sustenance is indeed our birthright
Let us build and transform
Manifesting our sacred mission
Amplifying food justice
Gestating and transforming
Imagining a system where we are not parasites
A system that honors the planet
A world that restores indigenous wisdom
A new interweaving that can sustain us all
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Image by Skye Ellis
–BYPO PHOENIX c)2024
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