The APA Food Systems Planning Division stands in solidarity with the Black community and with those protesting racial bias and racialized violence. Racism is a primary cause of structural food system inequities and disparities that our profession strives to undo. Our work necessitates that we dismantle white supremacy and endemic racism to create a just food system. 

 We commit to centering and amplifying Black voices in the struggle for racial justice and food justice.

We commit to listening for understanding, to hear with our open hearts and minds, to follow the lead of Black leaders in the food justice movement and in planning. We commit to applying our individual and collective skills and privileges to uproot racism.

We commit to employing the platform of this Division in service to Black communities, and to identifying and disassembling the policies, laws, practices, attitudes, and assumptions that perpetuate violence against Black bodies. In this, we include both physical violence and subtler forms of violence that have led to vast inequities in economic, health, and environmental realities that intentionally and disproportionately obscure, devalue, and cut down Black lives.

We commit to continuing the work of fighting systemic racism and lifting up the work of so many across our networks and regions who are doing the same. We condemn ongoing racist and white supremacist acts across our country and in our own regions.

In solidarity,

Andrea Petzel
Ben Kerrick
Kara Martin
Laine Cidlowski
Marcia Caton Campbell
Megan Bucknum
Molly Riordan

Resources for Racial Equity in Food Systems:

 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge

Dismantling Racism in the Food System

Dismantling Racism in Community Food Work

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (article about book here)

Uprooting Racism Training from Soul Fire Farm

The Groundswell Center has an excellent resource page on racism and equity across the food system.