Breaking Green Ceilings

One would think that food insecurity doesn't exist in one of the richest countries in the world - United Kingdom. Deidre (Dee) Woods who currently lives in London sheds light on the stark disparities that exist in the community she serves. As a food and farming action-ist Dee advocates for good food for all and a just, equitable food system, challenging the systemic barriers that impact marginalized communities and food producers. Having experienced food insecurity herself, Dee found a way to organize community to increase food access and eventually co-founded a food bank in London. Through policy action and decolonizing research and farming methods, Dee is committed to helping families struggling economically, often people of color, including immigrants and refugees. Of Trinidadian heritage, Dee talks about how her experiences of growing up on her father's farm in Trinidad made her passionate about food, farming and connecting to the land. In addition to being a food and farming action-ist, Dee is also an award winning cook!

Follow Dee Woods:

• Twitter: @Didara
• Instagram: @osunschild 
• Facebook: Deirdre Woods

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

• IG - @breaking_green_ceilings
• Website: breakinggreenceilings.com

In this episode we talk about the implications of free trade on African women especially from a food sovereignty perspective. Often free trade agreements are advertised to boost trade between countries, and ultimately encourage and strengthen economic growth in a geographic region. However, this is not the case, especially with African women farmers and small holder farmers who are the back bone of the agriculture sector on the continent. Susan Nacakwa and Leonida Odongo share their experiences of their work in Uganda and Kenya as it relates to helping empower small holder and women farmers to protect and preserve indigenous farming practices that are less harmful to the environment and ensure sustainable yields over the long term. Ultimately, Susan and Leonida want to help their farmers reclaim land to produce local and organic foods that achieve food and seed sovereignty not only in their home countries but also throughout other African countries struggling with similar threats from unfair government policies and corporate interests.

Follow Susan:

Email - [email protected] 

Website - https://grain.org/

Follow Leonida:

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/public/Nana-Odongo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nanodo2001

Blog: https://leoconversations715036889.wordpress.com/

Email: [email protected]

Leonida's Organisation - Haki Nawiri Afrika

Website :https://hakinawiriafrika.org/

Blog: https://hakinawiriafrica.wordpress.com/blog-2/

You Tube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc1ez4ndJ0IDhqU6gQgBEyQ/about

Email: [email protected]

This is the second episode of a two part series with three wonderful changemakers - Laura Diaz, Samrat Pathania from Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice or EC-EJ and Isabel Lopez and Raizes Collective. This is  yet another wonderfully informative and descriptive conversation with phenomenal environmental justice activists on what inspired them to create their own movements and how they are collaborating to help strengthen and empower their communities.

Topics Discussed:

Follow Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice (EC-EJ)

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This is the first episode of a two part series with three wonderful changemakers - Laura Diaz, Samrat Pathania from Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice or EC-EJ and Isabel Lopez and Raizes Collective. This is  yet another wonderfully informative and descriptive conversation with phenomenal environmental justice activists on what inspired them to create their own movements and how they are collaborating to help strengthen and empower their communities.

Topics Discussed:

Follow Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice (EC-EJ)

Follow Raizes Collective:

Follow Breaking Green Ceilings:

A queer farmer of color, Edgar Xochitl is the Farm Manager at Hummingbird Farm a collective farm in the Excelsior, San Francisco. Edgar focuses on cross-polinating traditional ecological knowledge.

In this episode we talk about:

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Why is modern conservation failing? And what can we do to improve its effectiveness?

As a social research consultant,  Leander Lacy notes that traditional approaches are fragmented, not adequately considering the social dimensions of environmental issues. His transformative solutions— rooted in empiricism and critical Human-Nature connectedness, help conservation groups and eco-minded businesses achieve optimal outcomes from conservation action: business growth, stronger community relationships, stakeholder engagement, and increased JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion).

In this episode we talk about:

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Billy Almon is an Astrobiofuturist. Billy helps people explore solutions to improve human experiences on earth and in space. He is an inventor and immersive storyteller who aims to reach the next generation of inventors, designers, scientists and engineers – showing them how to design the future they wish to see. Billy is also the co-host of Little Giants, a new TV series on Animal Planet that features some of his global explorations of the nature-inspired design process called Biomimicry.

In this episode we talk about:

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Benjamin Von Wong is an award-winning Canadian who's work lies at the intersection of fantasy and photography and combines everyday objects with shocking statistics. It has attracted the attention of corporations, like Starbucks, Dell, and Nike and has generated over 100 million views for causes like ocean plastics, electronic waste, and fashion pollution. Most recently, he was named one of Adweek's 11 content branded masterminds.

In this episode Ben talks about some of his conceptual photography projects where he tried to communicate the shocking impacts of pollution such as Strawpocalypse: a 10-ft sculpture made from 168,000 reclaimed straws to spotlight plastic pollution and the world’s tallest closet to encourage consumers to shop consciously.

He also talks about his podcast Impact Everywhere Podcast and how it's a means to continue amplifying the positive impact of other creatives, entrepreneurs, innovators, changemakers around the world.

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Stacey Isaac Berahzer, founder of IB Environmental, has spent more than 16 years in the environmental field, most of it immersed in water resource management as a senior project director with the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As a passionate proponent of clean, affordable water who is deeply connected to work in the water industry, she’s helps her clients overcome the constant challenges related to funding and managing these projects. Stacey’s passion for environmental work led her to earn a degree in Environmental Science from North Carolina Central University and a Master of Public Administration from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is past chair of the board of directors for the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership and teaches in the Georgia Association of Water Professionals Leadership Academy.