“Our biggest goal for the conference was for people to feel hopeful,” said Ren Luevano, steward of the UC Santa Cruz community herb garden.
Luevano was a speaker and primary organizer for Raíces y Futuros, a student-led conference focused on combining food justice and abolition that took place on April 18 at the UCSC Farm. The event was organized by the Food System Working Group (FSWG) — which Luevano is a part of — a student-led organization that brings sustainably-grown produce to campus dining halls and educates students on food systems.
Ren Luevano leads the opening plenary for the Food Justice and Abolition Conference.
At Raíces y Futuros, meaning “roots and futures,” attendees explored how the political framework of abolition can be applied to food systems to imagine a world where everybody has access to quality produce.
Student organizers expressed that in a time when hope isn’t freely given and the future of our food system seems bleak, carving out places for community is tremendously important.
“It’s probably the most ambitious thing that the students have done since coming back from the pandemic,” said Francis Ge, the basic needs coordinator for the FSWG. “They haven’t done a student-hosted conference here before.”
After participating in a panel, attendees split into practical student-led workshops covering everything from learning about decolonial farming practices, to creating seed bombs to distribute within their own communities.
Antonio Roman-Alcalá, a professor of geography and agroecology at CSU East Bay, further emphasized ties between food justice and abolition.
“It’s not just about destroying prisons and policing, but actually creating an entirely different world,” he said.
After working up an appetite in the workshops, attendees devoured the menu of seasonal salad, lime rice, roasted cauliflower and potatoes, corn tortillas, grilled tofu, and the three sister’s roast: corn, squash and black beans. FSWG focused on four core principles when piecing together the menu: seasonality, locality, organic certification and cultural relevance.
“It’s really been a labor of love for the students,” Francis Ge said. “I’ve just been so impressed with the students’ initiative and their vision and all the hard work they put into it.”
