THE KITCHEN ACTIVIST

ACTIVISM IS DREAMS MADE VISIBLE

• Florencia Ramirez • Episode 90

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Episode Description:
In today's inspiring episode of the Kitchen Activist podcast, Florencia Ramirez reflects on the transformative power of dreaming. Drawing from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have a Dream" speech, Florencia shares her vision for a more sustainable, equitable, and thriving food system. She dives into six powerful dreams for the planet and connects them to actionable steps we can take as Kitchen Activists.

From the power of regenerative agriculture and soil health to reimagining school cafeterias and advocating for clean water and air as basic human rights, this episode will motivate you to make your dreams for a better future visible.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

  • The critical role of regenerative agriculture in sequestering global carbon emissions and healing our planet's soil.
  • Eye-opening stats on the exploitation of food workers, including farm laborers and meatpackers, and the urgent need for fair wages and dignity in the food industry.
  • The alarming health impacts of food additives and pesticides, including chronic diseases and environmental injustice.
  • How school lunch programs can wield their purchasing power to transform the food system and inspire future generations of Kitchen Activists.
  • The devastating effects of agricultural runoff on rivers and the global crisis of untreated wastewater.
  • The human rights crisis surrounding access to clean water and air and how policy changes undermine environmental justice.

Key Stats and Facts Mentioned:

  • Less than 1% of farmland in the U.S. is organic, yet regenerative practices could sequester all current carbon emissions.
  • 40% of rivers worldwide are too polluted to support aquatic life due to pesticide and agricultural runoff.
  • The average farmworker in California earns under $30,000 per year, with 25 million people globally trapped in forced labor, many in agriculture.
  • Ultra-processed foods account for 57% of calories consumed in the U.S., while pesticide exposure raises risks for neurological and respiratory diseases.
  • School cafeterias collectively represent billions of dollars in purchasing power, offering a transformative opportunity for the food system.
  • 1.2 billion people globally lack access to clean water, and 7 million deaths annually are attributed to air pollution.

Resources and Links:


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Reach me at info@eatlesswater.com

Speaker 1:

Welcome. I'm glad you're here. Together, we will turn our shared concern about the state of our environment into a force for change. It will require you to reimagine the role of your home kitchen as more than a warehouse of food or a room where we cook and gather to eat. The time has come to enter your kitchen with eyes open to the transformative power it harnesses for the planet and you. The home kitchen has always been ground zero for positive environmental and social change. Waiting for you to take your position as a kitchen activist Now that you arrived. You will change the world with what you eat.

Speaker 2:

Hello Kitchen Activists. Welcome back to another episode of the Kitchen Activist podcast, where we explore how our daily choices in the kitchen ripple outward to create a more sustainable, equitable and thriving world. I'm Florencia Ramirez, your host and author of the book Eat Less Water, and soon, next year, before you know it, I will also be the author of the book the Kitchen Activist. Today's episode is inspired by one of the most powerful speeches in American history, which is Dr Martin Luther King Jr's. I have a Dream speech. Today is MLK Day, january 20th 2025.

Speaker 2:

But this speech was delivered 61 years ago, on August 28th 1963, to over 250,000 people who were gathered on the Washington Mall. His words, dr King's words, resonate deeply, not just me, but so many people around the world and for so many years, not just because of their eloquence but because, I think, their radical hope. In this speech, he reminded us of the promise embedded in the Declaration of Independence. When I read over the words, the transcripts of the speech this morning, this was what was coming to me, and what he was speaking to is like how much further we had to go to get to the vision, to the dreams that formed the Declaration of Independence and where we, as a country, want to reach, which is this that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Dreaming is a revolutionary act. It's the first step to making the invisible visible, to turning possibility into reality, and that's what I want to talk about today Dreaming for the planet, for our communities and for this food system that nourishes us all.

Speaker 2:

January 20th, as today, not only is it MLK Day, but it also falls on the day that Trump has inaugurated our 47th president of the United States, and maybe you voted for him, maybe you didn't, but it's important for us to realize, as individuals, that it doesn't really matter. There's certainly a lot of policies that are done and then undone, and then done and then undone, so it stops the momentum of things that we care about, and for me, it's the environment, and so we've just stepped out of the Paris agreements. As of today, we've also rolled back some of the programs, or at least that's the intention of this new administration is to roll back on some of the programs, not some of the programs, all of the programs that fund environmental justice around the country that protect under-resourced communities from pollution from industry. It's just very fascinating to me that both things have collided today Martin Luther King Jr, which was very much about hope and inclusion and justice and equity and wanting freedom, and for us to move towards the founding father's vision of what can be next or what we can become through this collective dream. And still, we will wait to see what this new administration has in store for us. But so far, when it comes to the environment specifically, it's turning back the clock and it is stalling momentum from that level, but it doesn't have to stall the momentum that we have at the individual level. Nobody's coming into our kitchen, no one's coming into our house to tell us how and what we can buy or whether or not we can meal plan. What are those small little choices that collectively make and add up and make a huge difference and start to start a course forward towards our own dreams?

Speaker 2:

And as I'm thinking about these dreams, I'm recording this episode. I'm in Santa Fe, new Mexico, and it is a home, it's a second home that my family and I call Casa de Sueños, house of Dreams. The reason we named it this was because it was born out of a daydream that I had in may 2020, when I had the first idea around having a home in santa fe. Actually, the the first idea started in taos, and then it quickly moved to santa fe, and michael joined me on the couch as I was starting to look at real estate and just wondering huh, I wonder what things cost and what it would be like. And thankfully, he's such a phenomenal partner in so many different ways, and one of them a big way is that he doesn't thwart my dreaming, but instead he joins in that action with me. She helps me to turn dreams into reality over and over again, and that was certainly the case with this house, casa de Sueños, to the point where and it just blows me away whenever I think about this but from the moment and or we really just clarify, because things happen way before they happen, right, there's like the seed that hits the soil, but you can't see it yet. And then finally, it sprouts up. And then you're like, oh yeah, I, I, that would be really cool to have a home in New Mexico, right, but the seed was already there. From that point of having the idea, or the sprout of the dream, to signing the papers, or rather to get into escrow, was one week. One week. It's a constant reminder for me, especially when I'm here, of the power of dreaming and that if you have the clarity that comes from the dream and you pair that or align that with action, you can be unstoppable.

Speaker 2:

After I read the transcript this morning of the I had the Dream speech. I just started to jot down what are my dreams, not just the personal dreams but like the larger collective dreams in the way that Martin Luther King had for the United States the dream of equality for all people, especially people of color in the United States. I was really focused in on the dreams that I hold for this planet and how they connect to the work we do as kitchen activists. So I really encourage you on this day when there's this energy around Martin Luther King and uncertainty and unease around what is to come, to really clarify for yourself what are your dreams, because it is empowering when we are actively participating in what we want to envision for our world and not wait for somebody else or wait for the right administration, because the administrations are always changing for one you like, one you don't like, but that doesn't have to change what we each are doing in our daily round. So these are the dreams that I came up with this morning as maybe as an inspiration for your own dreams that you would write down as well, or maybe they're the same. This is my first one.

Speaker 2:

It's a world where 99% of agriculture is organic, so right now, the number is less than 1% of farmland in the US is certified organic. The rest relies on synthetic chemicals and practices that deplete our soil and waterways, and healthy soil is essential for life, and research shows that regenerative agriculture practices can sequester all current global carbon emissions. I need to say that again, because this is key as to why I'm doing the work that I'm doing. When we build soil health, so that means when we align ourselves with food practices, agricultural practices that are building healthy soil, whether it's on farms or on public lands, or even on our own land, our own front yard and backyard, and we're not spraying it with Roundup Ready, for example we then are aligning ourselves with practices that can sequester all global carbon emissions, which is the cause of climate change. It's huge, and it's just little things that we can do to further this dream, where it would be amazing right If it was. If we flip the script, and instead of it being 99% conventional and 1% organic, it is 1% conventional and 99% organic. That's a dream that I hold.

Speaker 2:

Dream number two that I have is that there's dignity and fair wages for food workers, and the reason I have this dream is because food workers are among the most exploited in the global economy. In California, which is where I'm from and where I live most of the year, the average lifespan of a farm worker in California is 55 years old. They often endure backbreaking labor for less than $30,000 a year, without benefits. In meatpacking plans, conditions are notoriously dangerous, with workers facing high rates of injury and exploitation rates of injury and exploitation. Globally, there are an estimated 25 million people trapped in forced labor, many of them in agriculture. My dream is a food system that values the hands that feed us, offering dignity, respect and living wages at every point in the supply chain. Point in the supply chain.

Speaker 2:

My dream number three is for nutritious, chemical-free food that's accessible to everyone, that everyone has the budget for good, nutritious food. Today, ultra-processed food makes up 57% of the calories consumed in America, and I know for teenagers that's even higher. These foods are often loaded with additives that are linked to chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, cancer, and the list keeps going. People who work or live near fields sprayed with pesticides face higher risks of neurological disorders and respiratory illnesses. And recently the FDA announced a long overdue ban on red dye number three. You might have read about it I think it was in last week's news but it won't take effect until 2027.

Speaker 2:

I dream of a world where everyone, regardless of income or geography, has access to fresh, nutritious food grown without harmful chemicals. My next dream is that regenerative food is served in every school cafeteria. Could you imagine if every public school cafeteria served meals sourced from local, small-scale regenerative farms? These are farms that heal the land rather than harm it. School lunch programs when you start to think about just that, one niche of our economy, or that segment of our economy, holds tremendous power to shift the food system, because it represents billions of dollars spent on food. This dream ties directly to the activist work I do as the director of the Pesticide-Free Soil Project, which was another dream that I had, and collaborated with other dreamers to make it happen, and this project, which takes place where I live and grew up in the Oxnard Plain, which is near the ocean in California, called Rio School District, has a 10-acre regenerative farm with animals now that supply food to its nine school cafeterias, and the students are working on the farm they're learning about the connection between food, planetary and human health. As I always say, if it's good for the river, it's good for our bodies and if it's good for the soil it's good for our guts. I dream this reality for every school district around the globe and for school districts that don't have the land, like we do in Ongstad, to grow your own food, that they would be partnering with small-scale farmers in the community or in the region who are, and supporting the dreams of those farmers who have dedicated their life to growing nutritious food and planetary health.

Speaker 2:

My next dream is to for clean rivers and abundant water. Currently, more than 80 percent of the world's wastewater flows back into the environment, untreated, polluting rivers and ecosystems. Agricultural runoff, including waste from large-scale dairies, is a significant contributor of water collusion in our rivers. My dream is for rivers to run clean and abundant, delivering life-sustaining water to all living beings. My next dream is for clean water and air as a human right. In too many places, access to clean water and air is treated as a privilege rather than a right. Globally, 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 7 million deaths annually are attributed to air pollution. Here in the US, policies like those I mentioned earlier are, literally as I speak, are under attack with the Trump administration, will erode environmental protections and take us steps backward in the fight for environmental justice. My dream is for leaders to recognize clean water and air as fundamental human rights and take bold action to ensure they're available to all. These dreams can feel overwhelming, but change happens one step at a time.

Speaker 2:

Here's how I work towards these dreams in my daily life. Every time I write a meal plan, it is reducing food waste. I'm making my dream of sustainable food systems visible, because not only am I reducing food waste, but I'm also aligning myself with those farmers who are growing well-being on this planet, who are aligned with the dreams that I have for the future of this planet. Every time I visit the farmer's market, it allows me to support those farmers who are growing food regeneratively. That's also part of my dreams made visible. Right now, I'm working on a dream that has been years in the making, which is the Kitchen Activist Collective. It will be an online community which will bring together people like you to learn, connect and amplify our collective impact. Stay tuned. I'll share details in the coming weeks.

Speaker 2:

Now I want to turn the microphone over to you. What are your dreams for the planet, for your community and for our shared future? Dreams for the planet, for your community and for our shared future. Today, take a moment to reflect on what you envision and how your daily actions can bring those dreams closer to reality. I invite you to check out in the show notes a way to get your hands on the meal plan template that I've designed specifically with the planet in mind, of how to bring all of the pieces of these dreams together in a very tangible, visible and easy to implement action that we can take every single week. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode and please share it with your friends or family members. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and let's grow this movement, one kitchen activist at a time. Thank you for listening. I'm Florencia Ramirez, and this has been the Kitchen Activist Podcast. Until next time, keep dreaming and keep taking action. Be well.