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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and Stuff Media. I'm Ann and I'm Lauren vocal Baum

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Speaker 1: and today we have another Savor interview for you. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and this this is one of my personal faves. Oh yeah.

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Speaker 1: This was one of our New Orleans interviews. We got

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Speaker 1: to visit the city of New Orleans in UH November November,

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Speaker 1: and while we were there, we talked with one Sean

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Speaker 1: Pepper Bowen, who is an environmental food and water attorney. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and she was someone that was recommended to us from

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Speaker 1: our first interview, and so it was a very like

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Speaker 1: it happened quickly, very quickly, and she was so kind

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Speaker 1: to take time out of her day and especially time

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Speaker 1: out of all of our busy and conflicting schedules to

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Speaker 1: make it happen. We ran late on our first interview

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Speaker 1: and it was a whole thing. We were meeting her

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Speaker 1: at this lovely cafe and snowbar called up Porsche out

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Speaker 1: on Browne Street and which was delight by the way.

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Speaker 1: Um y'all go out there get the I think Dylan

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Speaker 1: had the rice and beans and he was so excited

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Speaker 1: about them. He was. I think it was gone in

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Speaker 1: less than a minute just devoured, absolutely and the po

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Speaker 1: boys were terrific. But yeah, Pepper, she is a consultant

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Speaker 1: and culinary activist. She's the founding director of the Culinaria

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Speaker 1: Center for Food Law, Policy and Culture. And it was

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Speaker 1: just this amazing resource about the current environmental and legal

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Speaker 1: uh culture of how food and water happens in New Orleans. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and it was just a delight. I'm glad it worked out.

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Speaker 1: Oh me too, so absolutely so glad. So yeah, without

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Speaker 1: further ado, let us get into the interview. So I like,

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Speaker 1: I like to start these things off with the with

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Speaker 1: the simple question of HI, who are you? It might

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Speaker 1: not be no, no, no, it's just you know, we've

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Speaker 1: been talking here for twenty minutes, and which sounds like

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Speaker 1: many conversations I've had on the street car. My name

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Speaker 1: is Pepper Bowen. I am a food and water attorney

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans. I'm founding director of Culinaria Center for

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Speaker 1: Food Law, Policy and Culture. I am also chair of

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Speaker 1: the New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Committee, which is the

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Speaker 1: official policy organization for the City of New Orleans by

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Speaker 1: resolution from the City Council. What what Yeah, yes, Well

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Speaker 1: that's a major accomplishment for us, but I wear many

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Speaker 1: many hats. But anyways, Um, yeah, well so one of

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Speaker 1: the as you may have guessed, one of the many

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Speaker 1: things that I do with most of my time is

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Speaker 1: work on food law and food policy, and food in

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Speaker 1: general is very near and dear to my heart. I've

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Speaker 1: been eating all of my life, and I am very

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Speaker 1: proud to say that there are many of those meals

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Speaker 1: that have been amazing. The better stories come for the

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Speaker 1: ones that really weren't. But many of my conversations we

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Speaker 1: revolve around food. So now that we have all joined

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Speaker 1: each other at a table in our waiting for lunch,

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Speaker 1: we can talk about food and many other things. Um,

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Speaker 1: did you are you? Friend? New Orleans? I was born here.

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Speaker 1: I did not graduate from high school here. They don't

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Speaker 1: claim me I was. It's very true. It's a it's

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Speaker 1: a moment of distinction. I missed that window. I was

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Speaker 1: born at Charity Hospital with eight of the population. At

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Speaker 1: one point, that was a mark of shame because I

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Speaker 1: went to Catholic schools where everybody else was born at

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Speaker 1: a holy name or an our lady or a saint

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Speaker 1: somebody's hospital, and I was born at Charity. And we

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Speaker 1: came back to moved to San Diego when I was

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Speaker 1: little uh and went elementary school there, came back in

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Speaker 1: junior high, and I went to high school in Southwest Louisiana.

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Speaker 1: Hence the moment that was missed college the first couple

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Speaker 1: of years in northern California, and then I've been back

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Speaker 1: here ever since, lived here before, after and after Katrina.

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Speaker 1: UM did evacuate. And they promised me, they that means

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Speaker 1: the natives, the ones who did go to high school here,

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Speaker 1: that if I came back after Katrina, that they would

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Speaker 1: say I was from here. They have not, And it's

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Speaker 1: okay because I got over that a while back. But

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Speaker 1: I've lived here my entire adult life. My kids are

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Speaker 1: from here, um and as long as they graduate from

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Speaker 1: high school year they will continue to be from here.

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Speaker 1: I love the specificity with which people insist, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a distinction. And you know it was actually talking

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Speaker 1: with the guy yesterday who's from Seattle, and he was

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Speaker 1: saying that it didn't used to be that way in Seattle,

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Speaker 1: but now with so many transplants into the area because

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Speaker 1: of tech, they are also becoming a little bit more

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Speaker 1: personickity about who gets to call themselves a Seattle ie R.

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Speaker 1: What kind of food memories do you have from growing up?

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Speaker 1: So many? So many? So my personal favorite is again,

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Speaker 1: we were living in San Diego when I was little,

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Speaker 1: and every year we would come back, that was my

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Speaker 1: mother's vacation. We would take it at Marty Cras. Didn't

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Speaker 1: matter when Marta Graffel, that's when we would come. I

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Speaker 1: was an only child to a single mother. She was

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Speaker 1: working on our masters. I can only imagine that things

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Speaker 1: might have must have been difficult for her because San

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Speaker 1: Diego is super expensive now and my lifetime, I can't

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Speaker 1: imagine you the cost of living is troubled or anything.

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Speaker 1: But um, that meant she didn't cook a lot. And

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Speaker 1: when she did cook, she cooked meals that would stretch, right.

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Speaker 1: So the pot of beans. You New Orleans is famous

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Speaker 1: for beans on Monday. We would have those beans until

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Speaker 1: Friday and then wow, look at that Monday's right around

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Speaker 1: the corner. And so she would cook for holidays, but

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Speaker 1: it was, you know, just the two of us, and

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Speaker 1: so it was never anything amazing. And it wasn't until

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Speaker 1: we would come down for Marty Graw that there would

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Speaker 1: be home cooked meals. Now, and it wasn't throughout the

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Speaker 1: entire week. So please don't misunderstand. My grandmother had been

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Speaker 1: a cook when the when her daughter was growing up.

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Speaker 1: But you know, as you know, she got older and

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Speaker 1: it was just her and her dog. There was really

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Speaker 1: no reason to do the cooking, and so she would

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Speaker 1: cook a bit when we were here. Um. But what

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Speaker 1: she did do, which was also not earth shattering, but

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Speaker 1: what she did do was to make breakfast. And so,

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Speaker 1: because the air is later and she lived in an uptown,

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Speaker 1: two story double house, the windows of cractice a little bit.

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Speaker 1: There's always a draft because you just can't get them warm,

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Speaker 1: and you could smell the bacon and eggs and grits

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Speaker 1: and coffee just wapping up the stairs, and that to

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Speaker 1: me just felt like home. And so my food memories

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Speaker 1: are all surrounded by some random event, but my favorite

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Speaker 1: is a the smell of breakfast in the technically renter

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Speaker 1: of New Orleans. Back when I was a kid. How

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Speaker 1: did you decide to get into food law and policy?

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Speaker 1: As you're okay? So interestingly enough, I had kids in

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Speaker 1: my own and the first one, right, the one that

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Speaker 1: you take all the time with and you you well,

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Speaker 1: and I'm taype A so it would have happened at

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Speaker 1: some point anyhow, but but it became really super important.

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Speaker 1: Not only family, uh that you know, he knew whose

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Speaker 1: family was and where he came from, because there's a

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Speaker 1: very strong sense of identity that comes with that cohesion

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Speaker 1: a cross generation, but also that every experience was an

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Speaker 1: amazing experience. Right. So, there are very few things that

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Speaker 1: you actually do need to live. Food is one of them.

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Speaker 1: And there's not a whole lot that you can do

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Speaker 1: to improve the quality of a drink or the complexities

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Speaker 1: of drinks for infants. Uh, it's all right. Air just

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Speaker 1: kind of happens to be what it is, unless, of course,

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Speaker 1: you live next to some sort of petroleum plant, and

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Speaker 1: that's a different conversation. But food, food is the one

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Speaker 1: thing that is across culture, gender, hierarchy. Everybody eats, and

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Speaker 1: whether you are eating something that is amazing or something

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Speaker 1: that is just this side of trash itself is really

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Speaker 1: up to you. And so because every experience for this

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Speaker 1: little bundle of goo was going to be a new one,

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Speaker 1: I wanted for them all to be incredible. Right. So, Um,

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Speaker 1: when I was little, my my mother had this thing

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Speaker 1: for strawberries and we lived in San Diego, and so

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Speaker 1: one would think that strawberries would be amazing, But I

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Speaker 1: grew up thinking that strawberries taste it very much like

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Speaker 1: cardboard um, mainly because she, like many other people and

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Speaker 1: contents who did then and still do now, would our

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Speaker 1: had a tendency to I produce out of season. And

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Speaker 1: if you are buying it out of season, it is

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Speaker 1: certainly not at the peak of fractions. It's not a

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Speaker 1: peak of flavor. It doesn't have the peak sweetness or sucrows,

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Speaker 1: and so it's made eating fruit less appetizing as it

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Speaker 1: were um. And so I wanted for him to know

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Speaker 1: what it was supposed to taste like. And because of

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Speaker 1: my first child, who began eating with the seasons, so

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Speaker 1: going to farmers markets or even identifying when things grew

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Speaker 1: and when they when they taste it the past, so

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Speaker 1: that if you know what it's supposed to taste like,

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Speaker 1: then you have a frame of reference for what it's

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Speaker 1: not supposed to taste like and when you're not supposed

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Speaker 1: to be eating it, and how it's supposed to be

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Speaker 1: tucked and what what are these things? What are all

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Speaker 1: of these amazing components that make the dinners of of

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Speaker 1: any age, or any class or any people. Incredible. What

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Speaker 1: are these components? Um? And so that solidified my love

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Speaker 1: of food in and out of self. But um, I

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Speaker 1: quit my job as a project manager after a number

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Speaker 1: of years that I will not disclose. I decided I

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Speaker 1: was going to law school logically to be an immigration attorney.

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Speaker 1: And so so, yeah, that totally makes sense food immigration. Yes, well,

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Speaker 1: I do like to equip. Which is pretty true that

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Speaker 1: the British were colonizing for takeout. But I'm so sorry

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Speaker 1: I should have waited until you weren't drinking. Yeah, um,

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Speaker 1: but that is partially true. So but the thing was

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Speaker 1: that I got into I went into immigration for a

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Speaker 1: number of reasons, and that when I was in law

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Speaker 1: school the first year, I figured out that it was

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Speaker 1: um family law across international borders, and screwing up would

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Speaker 1: be just the thing that would never let me look

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Speaker 1: myself in the mirror again. And so I looked around

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Speaker 1: for those things that, as any business magazine will tell you,

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Speaker 1: find your joy, find the thing you love, you'll never

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Speaker 1: work again. Follow your passion. And my passion led me

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Speaker 1: to cookbooks in the kitchen, and food magazines and food TV,

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Speaker 1: and the fact that I even learned how to peer

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Speaker 1: wine because I wanted to have great dinner parties. And

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Speaker 1: so I figured, all right, well, maybe is food like

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Speaker 1: a thing? And I wasn't sure, But what I did

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Speaker 1: know is that food comes from the environment. And so

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Speaker 1: I got, uh, put myself on a track to get

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Speaker 1: certificates in international as well as environmental law, and then

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Speaker 1: did a little bit more digging and came to the

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Speaker 1: understanding that yes, not only is food law a thing,

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Speaker 1: but there's also such a thing as water law, which

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Speaker 1: is not necessarily municipal or drinking water, but it is

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Speaker 1: still a thing. And most of our litigation has been

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Speaker 1: at the root of it somehow around food one of

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Speaker 1: the and there are so many, so many nuances that

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Speaker 1: you can look at for food, Like when somebody dies

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Speaker 1: of some sort of food poisoning, is that criminal food law?

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Speaker 1: It could be this is actually a thing add soda joke.

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Speaker 1: When you are buying a salmon that may actually be

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Speaker 1: perched only dyed pink, is that food fraud also a thing? Um?

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Speaker 1: And you know, just something that's probably a little bit

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Speaker 1: more tangible for a lot of people is when you

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Speaker 1: start thinking about electoral property around the seed itself. So

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Speaker 1: the genetic makeup of a seed, who gets to grow it,

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Speaker 1: who owns it, and how it is that it can

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Speaker 1: that it continues to proliferate through the generations, and that

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Speaker 1: is UM. You know around mon Santo DuPont car Guild,

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Speaker 1: the large pesticide makers and you know all of the

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Speaker 1: pesticides that go onto the food itself. And so I

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Speaker 1: got into food law because as I drank the kool aid,

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Speaker 1: as it were, that I would never work again, and

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Speaker 1: I hear that if I was going to do it,

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Speaker 1: that doing it here in New Orleans are probably a

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Speaker 1: great place to do it. But then I sort of

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Speaker 1: stumbled back aass words into UM, a place that seems

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Speaker 1: to be a road less traveled, so more around policy

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Speaker 1: and how to make the rules as opposed to just

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Speaker 1: following them and writing laws and legislation as opposed to

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Speaker 1: just figuring out which ones we can avoid. So it's

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Speaker 1: a very long winded way to say, UM. Kind of

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Speaker 1: by accident, Yeah, no, I think that's where all of

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Speaker 1: us are. Basically, each choice got me closer. But I

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Speaker 1: don't really know why I was making all those choices.

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Speaker 1: It's not where I started. UM. A lot of the

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Speaker 1: people we've been talking to our discussing food as sort

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Speaker 1: of like we've been talking about it as a as

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Speaker 1: a cell, as a celebration, and as UM and of

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Speaker 1: course it is. I mean, it's it's a beautiful part

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Speaker 1: of all of our roots and communities and cultures. UM.

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Speaker 1: But it's also a necessity UM. And it's also a

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Speaker 1: thing that you know, like we just spent like a

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Speaker 1: hundred bucks ahead on dinner the other night, and that

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Speaker 1: is a ludicrous amount of money to spend on food,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of people don't have any yeah, any money,

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Speaker 1: any food, just any Okay, can you speak a little

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Speaker 1: bit to to to that to um to the policies

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Speaker 1: surrounding UM hunger and sure. So, food access, for those

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Speaker 1: who don't know, is the ability to get to food, right,

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Speaker 1: So that would be food, healthy food that allows you

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Speaker 1: to sustain life you and your family. Of food security

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Speaker 1: is the constant access to food. And what people don't

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Speaker 1: recognizes that it's it's it's distinguished from food access and

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Speaker 1: that it may be cyclical. So UM. For those of

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Speaker 1: us who have been to UH Institutes of higher learning,

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Speaker 1: I think finals right, so you are after Thanksgiving, your

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Speaker 1: parents are just like, I'm not playing you home twice again.

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Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to anyway, You're getting

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Speaker 1: to the end of your meal plan, and you know,

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Speaker 1: you start pulling funds together, you and your roommate, and

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Speaker 1: we're really good friends. Because there's not enough money. That's

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Speaker 1: food insecurity, right, So it comes in waves. It's not

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Speaker 1: that you always don't have enough, but that at some

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Speaker 1: points you just really need to figure out some kind

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Speaker 1: of way to make ends meet. And fast forward that

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Speaker 1: into an adult life where it's you, maybe a partner,

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Speaker 1: a couple of kids, that becomes far more crucial, mainly

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Speaker 1: because the money that you're pulling with your partner, you're

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Speaker 1: already pulling that money where your partner and if there's

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Speaker 1: not enough to feed the family, then that becomes something

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Speaker 1: that's more dire. And that's when we find folks who

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Speaker 1: have full time jobs who are still eating at the

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Speaker 1: shelters or going to what people affectionately called soup kitchens

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Speaker 1: because they're just not making enough to to sustain themselves

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Speaker 1: and housing and shelter excuse me, shelter, food and clothing. Right. So, um,

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Speaker 1: the work that is being done here is multi faceted

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Speaker 1: and the reasons that they are multi faceted is because

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Speaker 1: we have finally gotten I hope, to a place where

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Speaker 1: we understand that food and in fact, no problem can

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Speaker 1: be addressed in a silo, and that they are all

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Speaker 1: interconnected in many, many ways. So you've spoken with a

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Speaker 1: lot of or at least sounds like you've spoken with

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Speaker 1: a lot of folks who work in restaurants. Um, beyond

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Speaker 1: the folks who own the restaurants, who manage the restaurants,

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Speaker 1: who maybe investors in restaurants, there's a lot of line staff.

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Speaker 1: There are folks who may wait tables, who may wash dishes,

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Speaker 1: who might mop the floor. These are folks who are

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Speaker 1: not pulling down Google gobs of money. Right, So if

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Speaker 1: you are, indeed, even after tips, and we won't even

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Speaker 1: get to my opinion on tips, even after tips, you guests, Yeah, right,

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Speaker 1: just exactly. Um, if you're not making a living wage,

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Speaker 1: then surely you find yourself in a position where you

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Speaker 1: cannot take care of yourself. And so that being one silo,

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Speaker 1: the access to food, being able to afford healthy food

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Speaker 1: is a whole different silo where we might find urban

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Speaker 1: farmers who are faced with the same issues. They don't

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Speaker 1: make enough to sustain themselves. And yeah, they might sell

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Speaker 1: you had a lettuce or a fancy bag of greens

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Speaker 1: for six dollars, but what is it cost them in

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Speaker 1: order to actually produce it, especially on a small scale.

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Speaker 1: And you know, to be fair to all concerned, they

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Speaker 1: have a tendency to grow the higher dollar items. So

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Speaker 1: they're not necessarily growing bell peppers that you'd be able

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Speaker 1: to buy at a grocery store three for a dollar.

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Speaker 1: They're buying. There's growing the things that you would spend

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Speaker 1: a premium for. And then we've also got all of

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Speaker 1: these other sort of bits and pieces of components around transportation.

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Speaker 1: So if you can't get to your job, how do

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Speaker 1: you keep your job? Um energy costs of electricity, costs

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Speaker 1: of heating when you have extremes and temperatures, even if

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Speaker 1: you can afford which is another silo, affordable housing, even

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Speaker 1: if you can afford somewhere to live, how do you

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Speaker 1: keep the lights on if it's ridiculously expensive to do so?

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Speaker 1: And so a lot of the groups that I'm working

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Speaker 1: with are working in collaboration and sharing information across sectors

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Speaker 1: so that there is a better understanding of how all

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Speaker 1: of these things tie into right your ability as a person,

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Speaker 1: just as a human walking around with inherent value to

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Speaker 1: support yourself and to sustain life. So some of the

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Speaker 1: work that we're doing is around access, and that would

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Speaker 1: be just the ability to get to fresh and healthy foods.

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Speaker 1: One of the collaborators that that we work with is

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Speaker 1: has been working on fresh food corner stores, where you

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Speaker 1: actually bring in fresh food to corner stores already in

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Speaker 1: the neighborhoods, so that folks who were there can have

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Speaker 1: access at a lower cost two foods that they ordinarily

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Speaker 1: would not be able to get to. UM. Also working

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Speaker 1: on larger policies that will allow people to be able

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Speaker 1: to will and then Jesus, there's a farm bill, which

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Speaker 1: is another thirty minute conversation if that UM that allow

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Speaker 1: us to understand how it is that we can make

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Speaker 1: food access far more sustainable for folks who are working

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Speaker 1: a living wage. So joining with people who are doing

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Speaker 1: or leading the charge on the fight for fifteen so

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Speaker 1: that folks will have money in order to spend. And

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Speaker 1: then I also spend a good bit of time educating

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Speaker 1: and explaining the folks that the idea of people living

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Speaker 1: in food deserts and now there's a food swamp, which

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Speaker 1: is exactly the converse, where you have a glut of

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Speaker 1: fast food restaurants that are in depressed areas for the

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Speaker 1: most part. And by depressed, they don't mean that they're sad.

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Speaker 1: I mean that they have a lower economic income level.

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Speaker 1: And this is across creed, culture, religion. It's just that

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Speaker 1: these are these areas. I spent a lot of time

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Speaker 1: at educating and helping people understand that the way that

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00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,080
Speaker 1: we have been seeing food deserts and even food swamps

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Speaker 1: is through a lens of charity, and instead of thinking

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Speaker 1: about these poor people if they only knew better, that

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Speaker 1: they would do better, if we would get to a

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Speaker 1: point where we understood clearly that the death the initiative

347
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:02,360
Speaker 1: of food desert is that you simply do not have

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Speaker 1: direct access to fresh fruit produced right So, whether it's

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Speaker 1: a fruit or a vegetable on a regular basis within

350
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Speaker 1: a mile from about a mile from where you live,

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Speaker 1: or where like a third of your neighborhood is on

352
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Speaker 1: a consistent basis, then if you happen to live in

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Speaker 1: a neighborhood where you have a lovely boulangerie, a butchery,

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Speaker 1: maybe a butchery, maybe even a wine cellar. The bottom

355
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Speaker 1: line is you are still in a food desert. You're

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Speaker 1: just in a really expensive food desert with a cheesemonger

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Speaker 1: next door. So so if instead of looking at it

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Speaker 1: again through a lens of charity, which is what I

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Speaker 1: and I love it when people are just like, oh, yes,

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Speaker 1: I get it, it's a food desert, it's like no, no,

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Speaker 1: Now what you get is that these you continue to

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Speaker 1: think that these people need to be educated. Right, So

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Speaker 1: what especially in areas like New Orleans where we do

364
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Speaker 1: have a consistent number of transplants, and these are folks

365
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Speaker 1: who are not necessarily coming from the north because they're

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Speaker 1: teaching school or because they were rebuilding houses. These may

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Speaker 1: be people who are coming from even as close as

368
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Speaker 1: four hours away, where they're living in rural areas and

369
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,880
Speaker 1: they're just coming to the city in order to find jobs. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is not an uncommon occurrence that happens in most cities,

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Speaker 1: even though we jokingly say that New Orleans is just

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Speaker 1: a big town. The idea of these people coming from

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Speaker 1: a rural environment and then miraculously arriving in the city

374
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Speaker 1: and have forgotten all about how to feed themselves and

375
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Speaker 1: what it looks like um. And I know that we've

376
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Speaker 1: got some folks who are very well meaning, and I

377
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,639
Speaker 1: respect that they want to help and do things that

378
00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:53,760
Speaker 1: are right and just and equitable for all. The problem

379
00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:58,920
Speaker 1: is that until we accept that many of the ways

380
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Speaker 1: that we discussed inequality and um inequity being not necessarily

381
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:09,800
Speaker 1: meaning that we all have the same, but that we

382
00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:12,720
Speaker 1: are treated on a level that is give us. Giving

383
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:16,919
Speaker 1: us justice in court systems and everywhere we go is

384
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:22,159
Speaker 1: usually through a lens of color, patriarchy and all of

385
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Speaker 1: the things that we that we have been really against

386
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Speaker 1: as a society for at least the past two years

387
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:34,360
Speaker 1: for reasons unknown. Uh. Then um, then we will continue

388
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 1: to walk down these paths where we are simply confused.

389
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Speaker 1: I had a great conversation with a woman who was

390
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Speaker 1: saying that she spends a lot of time working with

391
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Speaker 1: our on climate change, and there are many many things

392
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Speaker 1: that impact our food up to and including climate change. Right,

393
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:52,400
Speaker 1: so if you don't know when it's going to rain

394
00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:56,159
Speaker 1: or if it's suddenly too hot this summer, um, it

395
00:23:56,280 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: was everybody I know who's growing corn, there was no corn. Um.

396
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,040
Speaker 1: The squash leaves burnt up in the heat. But I

397
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,960
Speaker 1: can produce watermelons. For whatever reason, the oakre took off.

398
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,479
Speaker 1: But and ye know this is just a little garden, right, So,

399
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:11,919
Speaker 1: I mean worse comes to worse. There's a grocery store

400
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:16,440
Speaker 1: or three grocery stores within five miles because I live uptown. Um,

401
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,200
Speaker 1: what about those folks who are relying upon the weather

402
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,280
Speaker 1: and the soil in order to actually produce for a living.

403
00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:25,960
Speaker 1: And then things become slightly more complex, right, Um, A

404
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:27,879
Speaker 1: lot of folks who are working on climate change are

405
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 1: looking at it from a metropolitan boop. Right, So, municipalities

406
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 1: are suffering with stormwater management and rising waters, and globally

407
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:43,119
Speaker 1: where just increasing the temperatures and there's not really or

408
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,600
Speaker 1: rather's not often a clear line that is drawn to

409
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:51,120
Speaker 1: what does that mean? All right? So, so what we've

410
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: got an extra four degrees two degrees? What does that mean?

411
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:56,680
Speaker 1: I'm just turning up the heat, I'm turning up the air.

412
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,840
Speaker 1: What does this look like? Well for food, it is

413
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 1: clear that food is being impacted. And you know, even

414
00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 1: if you're not, let's not even talk about food. Let's

415
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 1: discuss your wine. Yes, So suddenly those cool temperatures that

416
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 1: you need in order to produce just the right balance

417
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:20,399
Speaker 1: that's off. And so instead of being able to charge

418
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: twenty of wine because twenty dollars a bottle, you're having

419
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 1: to drop it because now it's swill. It's three four

420
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,480
Speaker 1: dollars a bottle. Now the two buck chuck that was

421
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: a great thing was one off. But that's a different conversation. Um,

422
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 1: these are folks who are generally young, they are well educated,

423
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: there from suburbs, and they're often white, middle class or

424
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 1: or something that somewhere in that vicinity. Right, So think

425
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: suburban kid who has just grown up watching things on

426
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,120
Speaker 1: TV and not necessarily being up there on the front

427
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,160
Speaker 1: rows or front lines. Conversely, folks who have been living

428
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,959
Speaker 1: in the inner cities for generations, who could not afford

429
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,880
Speaker 1: to leave when the white flight happened, who have scratched

430
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:08,480
Speaker 1: out a living for you know, the past twenty years.

431
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 1: They are on the front lines of issues around food

432
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: security and food equity because they are the ones who

433
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,439
Speaker 1: are most impacted. And what they're not seeing is that

434
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 1: there is a clear common ground. And as soon as

435
00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 1: we get to a place where we understand that there

436
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:27,160
Speaker 1: is a common ground, we can move mountains together by

437
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:35,080
Speaker 1: building communities and organizing grassroots movements, entire movements that allow

438
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 1: us to see change. That is beyond just having a

439
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 1: grocery store. It is really more about having a an

440
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 1: echo system that is supportive for all of us. Yeah,

441
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: food is an infrastructure. We have a lot more topics

442
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:53,639
Speaker 1: to cover in this interview, but first we're going to

443
00:26:53,720 --> 00:27:04,439
Speaker 1: pause for a quick break forward from our sponsor and

444
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: we're back. Thank you. Spot there, Let's get back to it.

445
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:10,040
Speaker 1: Um So so yeah, so, so we've been we've been

446
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,679
Speaker 1: talking about access to food and all of the different

447
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 1: layers and the infrastructure that food really is and should

448
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:18,160
Speaker 1: be treated as. Are there other specific areas that you

449
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: are working in that our points of passion for you

450
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:28,920
Speaker 1: that are important for humans to know about. Yeah? So, um,

451
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: I suppose you're a two things. So first is in

452
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:35,399
Speaker 1: basis species. I'm a huge proponent basis species, not that

453
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 1: we should have them, but that we should eat them.

454
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 1: So think of Asian carp that is prevalent all up

455
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 1: and down the Mississippi River the states around the Mississippi,

456
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,960
Speaker 1: and they have been found in fresh an salt waters,

457
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:52,200
Speaker 1: great lakes all the way down to the practice waters

458
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:56,360
Speaker 1: of our values here and for those of you who

459
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,679
Speaker 1: are unfamiliar with Asian carp or silver fin as it

460
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,159
Speaker 1: is now being called, those are the jumping fish, not

461
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,640
Speaker 1: the California plant fish, but the jumping fish, the ones

462
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: that when you boat through an area that may look

463
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: very calm and you see a fish hurl itself out

464
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: of the water, that is an Asian carp or silver fin.

465
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: And the the way they do that is really you

466
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 1: evolutionary that there they have a rib cage that curves

467
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 1: under and so allows them compel themselves out of the water.

468
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,840
Speaker 1: They are voracious eaters, so please, please, please, if you

469
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,680
Speaker 1: ever see somebody who's got a giant fish, don't be

470
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: afraid eat it. Just pull out a fork and figure

471
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,440
Speaker 1: out a way. So this is we did Best to

472
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: Buy Catch, which is a cooking competition, and I use

473
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: that within airports because it's not very much of a competition.

474
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: It's really more about cooking and eating Asian carp two

475
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:54,560
Speaker 1: years and the summer at the end of June, we've

476
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 1: done those at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. This

477
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: year it was to end the Eat Local Challenge because

478
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: is the Avisian carpet is an is an invasive species.

479
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 1: Which makes it a local food that can be found

480
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 1: within two hundred miles. See it will make sense, I promise.

481
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: We invite chefs to come in and prepare it any

482
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 1: kind of way that they want to. We have had

483
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 1: everything from tacos, fish cakes and boudin um. Yes, there

484
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 1: was indeed a chef who made buddin out of the

485
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: fish out of the fish um, and all sorts of

486
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 1: great interesting ideas which I think are terribly necessary for

487
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 1: things that are underutilized. Underutilized species there and so on.

488
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 1: That list of underutilized species and invasives are farrel hawks

489
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 1: and wild boor um. If you are ever bored, I've

490
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: written a couple of articles on those and you can

491
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 1: pull those up. But short version, long story is that

492
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: the Farrell hogs are the ones who just got away

493
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: right so there, maybe there is a big farmer abandoned

494
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,920
Speaker 1: it for whatever reason, or the fence fell down and

495
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: they just lived in the wild and they're super adaptive

496
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: fince so they go wild within about six months. The

497
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: wild boar, on the other hand, are ones who had

498
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: been brought over for oh I cannot remember the name

499
00:30:16,200 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: of the entrepreneurs he brought them their way back when

500
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 1: and it was really just because he was trying to

501
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 1: entertain his guests, and it really Eurasian boor it was

502
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 1: imported in order to entertain his guests with hunting. And

503
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: we have been doing things as absurd since then. But

504
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 1: the point of the matter is that it's back in

505
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 1: the forties or so that there was a storm that

506
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 1: came through in the east on the east coast, fence

507
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 1: fell down and the boar got out. And so now

508
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: they've been, you know, having their own sense of manifest

509
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: destiny since. And the last thing is the Culinaria Water Project,

510
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 1: where we are attempting to identify the impacts that leads

511
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 1: and heavy metals have on in water have on urban

512
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: grown and sus foods. And since the U. S d

513
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 1: A defines processing as anything from washing to actually butchering,

514
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 1: that gives a pretty wide berth. But we have an

515
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:13,440
Speaker 1: opportunity to not only look at what the individual impacts

516
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 1: are on leads and or heavy metals in water, on

517
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: the soil, but also on the food and on the

518
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: people themselves. And the objective long term is that we

519
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 1: will bring the folks who are most impacted and not

520
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 1: most often divested to the table and so, and allow

521
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: them to share their ideas about how it is that

522
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: they want to combat the problem, whether it be through

523
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:41,320
Speaker 1: law or legislation or really just by asking for people

524
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 1: to be nicer to um, whatever it is that they

525
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 1: want to say, than we will go to bat for them.

526
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:52,000
Speaker 1: But it's all member directed and member sponsored. So yeah, yeah,

527
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 1: that's what we're doing. UM, that's those those sound like

528
00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: great projects, um around around New Orleans. What are the

529
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:05,360
Speaker 1: challenges or problems that you're working with here? Um, you're

530
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 1: trying to solve here that are different from anywhere else?

531
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: And or why New Orleans? Why why are you practicing here?

532
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:16,479
Speaker 1: So New Orleans for better or worse at home? And

533
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 1: I say for better or worse at its home because

534
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 1: for a long time I was trying desperately to get out.

535
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:26,720
Speaker 1: I wanted to be somewhere else more cosmopolitan, and it

536
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 1: just didn't work. So here I am in what people

537
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 1: often consider a cosmopolitan city who want to thunk it anyhow,

538
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 1: And so that's the reason why here. I it's why

539
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: here because this is where I live and this is

540
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: what uh, it's important to me to preserve. There are

541
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 1: not a lot of cities in the Continental US that

542
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 1: are as old as we are, have as deeper history

543
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: as we do, and who have held onto it as

544
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 1: well as we have. Now, there are many who would

545
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: say that we are not a part of the continental US,

546
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: but that we are the northernmost Caribbean city. And whether

547
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 1: that be true is I neither confirmed nor didn't I.

548
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:17,080
Speaker 1: What I will say is that we are very in

549
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 1: tune with who we are as a people, and I

550
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 1: think that it's super important that we maintain that culture,

551
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: whether it be in food or music, or clothes, or

552
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 1: whatever the case might happen to be, and something as

553
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 1: simple as just making sure that everybody you know knows

554
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 1: how to make a rue. These are the things that

555
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 1: I really truly believe should be passed down from generation

556
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:44,360
Speaker 1: and generation. There's so many things that are happening here

557
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 1: that may not be happening in other places, may not

558
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 1: be happening in other places because they may be situated differently. Now,

559
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 1: we along with Boston and Miami, are old, and we

560
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 1: are sinking, and so we have some of our challenges

561
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:08,319
Speaker 1: around water and poverty, and so we are all resilient cities,

562
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,880
Speaker 1: and you know, good better and different we find ourselves

563
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:15,319
Speaker 1: in situations where we are combating the same problems. We

564
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 1: are finding that some of our problems are exacerbated by

565
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 1: many of our questionable choices around activities. So, whether it

566
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:31,520
Speaker 1: be that we dump tons upon tons upon tons of

567
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 1: plastic beads into storm drains, or that we, in our

568
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 1: interest and intent to do the right thing by building

569
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:48,919
Speaker 1: up the uh the streets so that cars could drive

570
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,880
Speaker 1: on them, we have, as an unintended consequences in parts

571
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 1: of the city raise those levels of the streets so

572
00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 1: that they are above the sidewalks and thereby above the

573
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:03,040
Speaker 1: front doors. Folks live in neighborhoods, and so um. I

574
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 1: think that there are a lot of opportunities for us

575
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:10,239
Speaker 1: to do better before it turns into something that no

576
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:16,560
Speaker 1: longer has a soul. Um that and I mean there's

577
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:18,360
Speaker 1: I am a huge fan of big Box for a

578
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,840
Speaker 1: lot of reasons, but I don't want to live in

579
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 1: a place that's big box. I don't want to I

580
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:26,440
Speaker 1: don't want to look back on New Orleans and see

581
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 1: what it used to be. I want to be able

582
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 1: to continue to walk to places and and see those

583
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:36,359
Speaker 1: things as real time and right now. And I think

584
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:42,200
Speaker 1: that there are more people than I would like to

585
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 1: think um, and that I would like to admit who

586
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 1: like the idea of the facade, but don't necessarily want

587
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,239
Speaker 1: to get in and do the dirty work. And so

588
00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 1: it's easier to either leave or to complain that New

589
00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:02,800
Speaker 1: Orleans is back words and we don't want any different.

590
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:06,239
Speaker 1: And and that may be true in some ways, that

591
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: we really don't want to be a Hoboken. Maybe we

592
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:18,080
Speaker 1: really don't want to be of Vegas. We don't want

593
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: to change in those respects. And I have also been

594
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:23,960
Speaker 1: super critical of New Orleans for many, many years because

595
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:33,120
Speaker 1: there's been the corruption and um malfeasance and a lot

596
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:38,000
Speaker 1: of nepotism. But these are not crimes that are isolated

597
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:41,800
Speaker 1: or distinct to this town or even to this state.

598
00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,120
Speaker 1: I think that we get a lot of a necessary

599
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:49,160
Speaker 1: publicity around those issues because folks have a tendency to

600
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:52,440
Speaker 1: think of the South in general as a place for

601
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 1: backwoods hicks, where we walk around with bare feet and

602
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: talk with a drawl, and we don't in New Orleans.

603
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:02,840
Speaker 1: This has never been the place for that, um, because

604
00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:06,560
Speaker 1: nobody wants their feet slump just in the swamp. It's

605
00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:11,160
Speaker 1: just I swear, it's unpleasant and it smells funny, So

606
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 1: thank you. That's the that's the sound bite shoes, y'all.

607
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:27,239
Speaker 1: So the again, the water project that we're working on

608
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 1: is really to avoid a similar issue that happened in Flint,

609
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:37,680
Speaker 1: where they're there was enough information that could have been

610
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:39,800
Speaker 1: given to the public in order to make a decision

611
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 1: about where the water the source that they were using,

612
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 1: what the implications may have been, and what the possibilities were. No, no,

613
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,840
Speaker 1: they did not see all of us coming. They really didn't.

614
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: But give given the option between saving a couple of

615
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:59,240
Speaker 1: hundred dollars or you know, however many lives, it seems

616
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 1: to me that it made more sense just to ask

617
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:07,359
Speaker 1: these folks, well, what do you think, right, so we

618
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 1: could go up on your water bill and you know,

619
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,839
Speaker 1: we kind of break it even we try this other

620
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:18,959
Speaker 1: water source and I don't remember their water bills going down.

621
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:27,960
Speaker 1: But that being another conversation altogether. We have, especially post Katrina,

622
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:32,960
Speaker 1: we've had a number of challenges. Um there had been

623
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:36,000
Speaker 1: some studies that came out about toxicity and the soil.

624
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:41,320
Speaker 1: So many people when they saw the waters rise, didn't

625
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:45,920
Speaker 1: seem to quiet realize that wasn't pool water, that was

626
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: flooding houses and standing for weeks upon end that it

627
00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 1: was filled with things that might have been less amusing.

628
00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: But just as soon as those stories came out, they

629
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,440
Speaker 1: seemed to have disappeared. There was no follow up with

630
00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 1: what happened to the possibility that there was contamination of

631
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:10,640
Speaker 1: the soil by the waters that were contaminated in themselves. Um,

632
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:13,319
Speaker 1: what happened, because it's not like they know when he

633
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:15,799
Speaker 1: came along with buckets and just you know, dumped the

634
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:19,360
Speaker 1: water back into the river, that the it's subsided, it

635
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 1: was absorbed by the soil, and there had there was

636
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,320
Speaker 1: a small study that was done and folks were told

637
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 1: that there were elevated levels of leads and heavy metals,

638
00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:32,040
Speaker 1: and you know, there were some toxins, but it was

639
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 1: nothing that was going to kill you. Right. But then

640
00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 1: thegitality of the circumstances is that we have had a

641
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 1: number of really peculiar rises. Now these have correlated with

642
00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:46,759
Speaker 1: rises in public health over the country. Right, So if

643
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:52,240
Speaker 1: you look at school children, there has been a rise

644
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 1: in the numbers of black and brown children who have

645
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:59,680
Speaker 1: been suspended and expelled from schools, and this has set

646
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:02,400
Speaker 1: up a and I don't know when it was coined.

647
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:05,719
Speaker 1: But this has given traction to the whole idea of

648
00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 1: the school to prison pipeline. UM. There has also simultaneously

649
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:14,279
Speaker 1: been a rise in the number of children who are irritable,

650
00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: who are unable to sit still for long periods of time,

651
00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:23,120
Speaker 1: who may have difficulty learning, who may even need additional attention,

652
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 1: and by happenstance, these are the same reasons that these

653
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 1: black and brown children are being suspended. So what happened,

654
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 1: we don't really know. But what we do know for

655
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:41,200
Speaker 1: sure is that UM lead levels, when they present early

656
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 1: on set, those those are all the markers. And so

657
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,160
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that we that all of our children

658
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 1: are contaminated with lead. What I am saying is that

659
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 1: it just doesn't make sense that out of the blue,

660
00:40:56,480 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 1: after fifty seventy years of educating children, that all of

661
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:05,840
Speaker 1: a sudden, that black and brown children should have such

662
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:14,200
Speaker 1: a large propensity of these same characteristics. But we're not

663
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,640
Speaker 1: doing anything to fix it. We're incarcerating them, and we're

664
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:20,440
Speaker 1: putting them out, and we're out of schools, out of

665
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 1: support areas. We're creating a different problem. It doesn't fix anything,

666
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:30,800
Speaker 1: and we continue to send them through in this way

667
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 1: that again deserves another look. We need to start investigating

668
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,799
Speaker 1: how these things are coming about and how it is

669
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:42,680
Speaker 1: that would make more sense to unpack them because that

670
00:41:42,719 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 1: creates a more sustainable ecosystem as opposed to attempting to

671
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 1: continue to approach it in a silo. Absolutely, we have

672
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: a bit more interview for you, but first we've got

673
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:57,800
Speaker 1: one more quick break for a word from our sponsor,

674
00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:09,400
Speaker 1: and we're back. Thank you sponsor, and back to the

675
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:13,160
Speaker 1: interview with Pepper. Do you have any success stories, um,

676
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 1: from cases that you've worked on, policies that you've m well,

677
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,759
Speaker 1: I can tell you that this is completely selfish. I'm

678
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 1: going to say it. Anyhow, I actually wrote a bill

679
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:29,520
Speaker 1: that became law a couple of years ago. UM, and

680
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 1: I the so it was one of it was one

681
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 1: of two. Right, So my partner in this legal policy class, UM,

682
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 1: she was writing a bill that would raise the threshold

683
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 1: for uh uh food acquisition to go out the public bit. Now,

684
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 1: the objective was a farm to school pipeline that we

685
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 1: could make it easier for people who work at schools

686
00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:57,920
Speaker 1: who want to have fresh in the schools to be

687
00:42:57,960 --> 00:42:59,960
Speaker 1: able to get to it. But the reality of the

688
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,760
Speaker 1: situation is that there's was at the time a fifty

689
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:08,319
Speaker 1: threshold that once you got over fifty dollars, it had

690
00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 1: to go out of a public bid, and small and

691
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:13,799
Speaker 1: medium sized urban farmers simply couldn't keep up with that,

692
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:16,200
Speaker 1: and so her portion of it was to raise a

693
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,680
Speaker 1: threshold to the national threshold so that they would have

694
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:22,320
Speaker 1: more room to maneuver. Then once you raise it, that's great,

695
00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:26,200
Speaker 1: but now what so my abortion right, so it's a

696
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:29,879
Speaker 1: sister to it, was that we would create some sort

697
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:34,720
Speaker 1: of a database where UM schools could register, EMBARM school register,

698
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:37,759
Speaker 1: and they would be able to talk to each other

699
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:41,480
Speaker 1: and see what's available, what do you need, and there

700
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:45,920
Speaker 1: would be you kind of like a match situation. I

701
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:52,920
Speaker 1: won't call it, I won't call it online dating, but

702
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,360
Speaker 1: but what I will say is that the intention was

703
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: really more of a database structure where there would just

704
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 1: you you'd run a query, for lack of better way

705
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:03,560
Speaker 1: to put it, and that has actually been implemented at

706
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:08,040
Speaker 1: the state level. And um I'm speaking at some event

707
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 1: in Baton Bridge a couple of weeks back, the Louisiana

708
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:13,600
Speaker 1: Farmena School Conference conference a couple of weeks ago, but

709
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:16,719
Speaker 1: was it a month. Now, what day is this? It

710
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:24,200
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, is it? Have you really well, I'm glad

711
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:30,840
Speaker 1: because I didn't know. Yeah. So, UM, Louisiana Farmed School Conference,

712
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:33,919
Speaker 1: and the idea is that there were local farmers who

713
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:37,600
Speaker 1: were trying to get in. And my portion of the

714
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:44,840
Speaker 1: talk was really about explaining to early childhood educators, UM,

715
00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 1: the reasons that you would want to purchase local. And

716
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:54,560
Speaker 1: the short version, long story is that buying local is

717
00:44:54,640 --> 00:45:02,080
Speaker 1: really just a way for us to preserve our culture. Right. So, Um,

718
00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:04,920
Speaker 1: if you don't use it, you lose it. And to

719
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 1: be very crass about the whole situation, if you allow

720
00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 1: your culture to dissipate because you think something else is

721
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:14,359
Speaker 1: more interesting, then it really leaves the door open for

722
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 1: someone else to come in and to tell you what

723
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:20,399
Speaker 1: it is. And I I like driving that home by

724
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:27,359
Speaker 1: reminding people of the curfuffle a few years ago when

725
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:33,359
Speaker 1: Disney tried to make gumbo, and obviously somebody beyond me

726
00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 1: remembers that, Um, it was un precedented. It was the

727
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: one time that I can tell you that there was

728
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,400
Speaker 1: an outcry across the state Louisiana. It didn't matter what

729
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:48,399
Speaker 1: your politics were, it didn't matter if you were from

730
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:51,600
Speaker 1: North Louisiana or South Louisiana, we were all in the

731
00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:55,839
Speaker 1: same outrage or even what kind of gumbo you make?

732
00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:00,239
Speaker 1: True story, because it was whatever you make, it was

733
00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 1: not that I mean for crying out loud, it's freaky

734
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:13,560
Speaker 1: keen want at the end, thank you. I appreciate your

735
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:19,040
Speaker 1: righteous indignation. I can't even eat gumbo, and I'm offended

736
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:24,440
Speaker 1: as well. Everyone should be like, but yeah, it's I mean,

737
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 1: it's the same basic idea that when when you move away,

738
00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: when you step back from the idea of what it

739
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:33,320
Speaker 1: is that you are, who you are, where your people

740
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:37,399
Speaker 1: come from, and there are like incredible dishes that come

741
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 1: from all over the world, but you allow somebody else

742
00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 1: to walk in and say, okay, well it's now something else. Well,

743
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 1: one thing I found really interesting about our time in

744
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:52,959
Speaker 1: New Orleans so far is um, this whole community thing

745
00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 1: and neighborhood thing, because as I've said, I don't have that.

746
00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:59,840
Speaker 1: There's like no neighborhood where I am. Um And just

747
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 1: could you speak to have you experienced that? Is that

748
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:06,480
Speaker 1: something like how does food relate? I feel like food

749
00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:13,040
Speaker 1: is very important to that whole Yeah, well, so my grandmother.

750
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:18,840
Speaker 1: Um was originally from Plaqueman's and she moved here in

751
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:25,120
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, nineteen eighteen. Somewhere in the neighborhood. She was

752
00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 1: very very old. Um, No, that's not true. She well,

753
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 1: it was no, she really was very old. I'm sorry,

754
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:39,879
Speaker 1: that's not the That wasn't true. Um maybe it might

755
00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 1: have been the No, but it was before the before

756
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 1: the crash. It was just before the Stockholm Mars bash

757
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:46,960
Speaker 1: for the twenties and so this was, you know, the

758
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,279
Speaker 1: place to go, like I was saying earlier, for folks

759
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:52,800
Speaker 1: who were coming from rural areas in order to um,

760
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 1: you know, get jobs or what have you. Um. She

761
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:02,759
Speaker 1: used to live in the area that is now around

762
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,399
Speaker 1: Union Square, so where the Amtrak station is and all

763
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:12,920
Speaker 1: that jazz and that was torn down back in the fifties, fifties, sixties,

764
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:15,880
Speaker 1: somewhere in that neighborhood, perfore me. So I'm really just

765
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:18,960
Speaker 1: going off of you know, anecdotal information. Obviously, she and

766
00:48:19,160 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 1: she and her her then husband god Rest his soul

767
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: owned a dry cleaner and a beauty parlor. And she

768
00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:32,840
Speaker 1: used to speak of the neighborhood right. So it's before

769
00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:36,759
Speaker 1: the housing project went in it's before the overpass went in.

770
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:40,359
Speaker 1: It was back in a time where if you lived

771
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,959
Speaker 1: a new community, chances are you had moved there voluntarily

772
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:49,480
Speaker 1: and you were establishing a secondary family. Everybody was supporting you.

773
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:51,840
Speaker 1: You just trying to get on your feet. It was

774
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:56,840
Speaker 1: really all about community. And the city came in decided

775
00:48:56,880 --> 00:48:58,799
Speaker 1: that they were going to bulldoze that whole area build

776
00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 1: Union Station. So she was moving. She moved farther uptown

777
00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:05,319
Speaker 1: into that same house and Jim Jenna between Liberty and

778
00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:09,320
Speaker 1: the South. At the time, she was the only African

779
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,719
Speaker 1: American woman to be in that entire neighborhood. It was

780
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:19,840
Speaker 1: Jewish and she used to sit on this stoop, which

781
00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:21,480
Speaker 1: is what it was called, even though there was a

782
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 1: whole porch and there was more than just the stairs

783
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:26,560
Speaker 1: and do pop um that for those of you who

784
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:31,399
Speaker 1: did not understand, that is door popping, which means paying

785
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:35,120
Speaker 1: attention to somebody else's business. But every evening we would

786
00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 1: sit out on the front porch and she would slather

787
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:39,480
Speaker 1: me with avon skin so soft, and we would have

788
00:49:39,960 --> 00:49:45,640
Speaker 1: I'm Tommie, It's true. We would have big conversations. People

789
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:47,840
Speaker 1: who walked down the street, they would either be walking

790
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:53,040
Speaker 1: to the store from the store, um, and it was always, uh,

791
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:55,560
Speaker 1: there was something that was in the kitchen. It was all.

792
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,680
Speaker 1: There was always something in the kitchen. Now I don't remember,

793
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:01,880
Speaker 1: I honest to God, I don't remember her ever cooking

794
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:05,160
Speaker 1: up a storm. Right. So, as I got older and

795
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:08,759
Speaker 1: we went to um to more family that was out

796
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: in southwest Louisiana, north the Lafayette, I have vivid memories

797
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:17,960
Speaker 1: of the entire house smelling like whatever the catch of

798
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:20,960
Speaker 1: the day was, or if they've gone hunting, you know,

799
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:23,080
Speaker 1: if they were your grilling in the backyard and there

800
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:25,600
Speaker 1: was you know, there were maybe deer ribs or something

801
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:27,120
Speaker 1: like that, and it would come it was coming through

802
00:50:27,120 --> 00:50:29,959
Speaker 1: the house or um, maybe somebody had gone and picked

803
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:32,920
Speaker 1: the cons and so they're making pies or whatever. I

804
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 1: don't have any of those memories of my grandma's house.

805
00:50:35,520 --> 00:50:39,320
Speaker 1: But what would happen is that whenever I would ask,

806
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:44,920
Speaker 1: she would make um bread pudding, and on Sundays when

807
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:47,520
Speaker 1: they would do their little old lady get together. So

808
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:49,360
Speaker 1: she was always a little laid to me. So I

809
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:51,560
Speaker 1: don't know if she was really a little lady, but

810
00:50:51,600 --> 00:50:53,239
Speaker 1: she was always a little lady to me, and for

811
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 1: our little old lady friends would cook for Sunday picnics. Right, So, um,

812
00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,120
Speaker 1: it was that sort of thing, and it was all

813
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:05,719
Speaker 1: it was just the way it happened. It wasn't as

814
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 1: if it was constructed or it needed to be created.

815
00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 1: They had been living in the same space for so

816
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:17,680
Speaker 1: long that it just was. Um. I honestly don't know

817
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:20,800
Speaker 1: that that is any different than any other part of town.

818
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,520
Speaker 1: I can only say that based on my experience in

819
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:27,080
Speaker 1: uptown in my family, that's what happened. Um. I can

820
00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:31,359
Speaker 1: also tell you that around New Orleans that depends upon

821
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:35,239
Speaker 1: where your family immigrated from as to how it is

822
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:38,000
Speaker 1: that you do make things. So what did you bring

823
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:40,960
Speaker 1: with you when you got here? And we've always been

824
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:46,520
Speaker 1: a a city that, for better or for worse, that

825
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:49,040
Speaker 1: we are all about talking about food, just like you

826
00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:51,759
Speaker 1: long ago, Okay, anybody, you can stop anybody and you

827
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:55,200
Speaker 1: have a long conversation about food. We talk about what

828
00:51:55,239 --> 00:52:00,279
Speaker 1: you're eating for dinner, over lunch, we talk about where

829
00:52:00,280 --> 00:52:02,640
Speaker 1: you where you got the best, the best that you

830
00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:04,839
Speaker 1: ever had of the same thing while you're eating it.

831
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:07,319
Speaker 1: Because that's just it's very much a part of who

832
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:09,880
Speaker 1: we are now. I personally think, and I have absolutely

833
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 1: no evidence about this up. I personally think that it

834
00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:18,440
Speaker 1: comes from not having food, right. So, Um, if you

835
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:21,239
Speaker 1: go back far enough in any culture, there will be

836
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:24,399
Speaker 1: a point where, and it's a different point for most

837
00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 1: of us, Um, there will be a point where you

838
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:30,560
Speaker 1: had to grow your own and you would be completely

839
00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:34,440
Speaker 1: dependent upon the weather and other conditions as to whether

840
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 1: it would actually survive. And even I can attest for

841
00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:41,279
Speaker 1: having a fig tree now in my backyard that I

842
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:45,319
Speaker 1: am literally fighting with the birds. I never I used

843
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:48,879
Speaker 1: to like them, and they were so cute they would

844
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,279
Speaker 1: come and sit on my fence. And now I'm just

845
00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:57,280
Speaker 1: like I, I'm gonna have squab for dinner, apparently because

846
00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:02,120
Speaker 1: it's either me or this bird over these figs. So

847
00:53:04,600 --> 00:53:07,760
Speaker 1: so I think that, honestly, um, the sense of community

848
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:10,480
Speaker 1: came from not having. And when you don't you don't have,

849
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,279
Speaker 1: and I don't have. We pulled together and we can

850
00:53:13,320 --> 00:53:17,960
Speaker 1: make we can make stone soup. Um. What do you do?

851
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:19,439
Speaker 1: What do you have going on? What do you see

852
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:23,040
Speaker 1: in the future, What are you working on in the future.

853
00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: What are we doing? So f bax So New Orleans

854
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:30,560
Speaker 1: Fee Policy Advisory Committee, we are actually trying to identify

855
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:33,080
Speaker 1: now what it is that we will suggest or recommend

856
00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:35,400
Speaker 1: to the city council. We are looking at things around

857
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:40,840
Speaker 1: the Fresh Food f F Fresh Food Retailers Initiative f

858
00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:45,960
Speaker 1: r I grant, and there had not been a replenishment

859
00:53:46,040 --> 00:53:49,600
Speaker 1: of that grant at a city level for a number

860
00:53:49,640 --> 00:53:51,920
Speaker 1: of reasons. We just don't have a lot of grocery

861
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:58,440
Speaker 1: stores and to meet that need, which is unfortunate at um.

862
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:02,760
Speaker 1: For if anybody is looking at a list of grocery

863
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:06,319
Speaker 1: stores in town, you will see that the ones that

864
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:10,440
Speaker 1: survived could Trina, survived in uptown and the the original crescent,

865
00:54:11,160 --> 00:54:15,279
Speaker 1: so where the footprint of the city originally was. Over

866
00:54:15,360 --> 00:54:17,919
Speaker 1: time we expanded in and so it no longer looks

867
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:21,920
Speaker 1: like a crescent. But the original footprint of the city

868
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:24,279
Speaker 1: was just so right around the river, and so that's

869
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:26,400
Speaker 1: the reason it was called the Crescent City. And this

870
00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:30,000
Speaker 1: and the grocery stores that survived and reopened quickly were

871
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:33,680
Speaker 1: the ones that were uptown and around that original footprint.

872
00:54:33,880 --> 00:54:36,440
Speaker 1: The ones that were farther in now whether that would

873
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,120
Speaker 1: have been all the way out in Lakeview where they

874
00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:42,759
Speaker 1: actually had to drain it because it was swampland or

875
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 1: whether it was just really sort of boggy and marshy

876
00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:47,040
Speaker 1: and they had to figure out some sort of way

877
00:54:47,040 --> 00:54:49,279
Speaker 1: to live on it. Those were areas that did get

878
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,120
Speaker 1: hit by get Trainer and the flooding, and so it

879
00:54:52,200 --> 00:54:54,480
Speaker 1: took a while longer in order to get those back

880
00:54:54,560 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 1: up and running. But what that also means is that,

881
00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:01,759
Speaker 1: um these areas still are well some of them. I

882
00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:04,279
Speaker 1: won't say all because that's an overstatement. Some of these

883
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:06,959
Speaker 1: areas are still having some problems getting a toe hold

884
00:55:07,560 --> 00:55:12,840
Speaker 1: and rebuilding their their access to food through grocery stores,

885
00:55:13,200 --> 00:55:16,160
Speaker 1: and so there looking at it a little bit differently,

886
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:19,799
Speaker 1: instead of looking at opening grocery stores or even going

887
00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,400
Speaker 1: with a corn fresh food corner store initiative, that may

888
00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:27,000
Speaker 1: be partnering with existing, say dollar stores, where folks are

889
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:31,040
Speaker 1: already going and putting some sort of access to there.

890
00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:34,400
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the way to go. And so what f

891
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:36,759
Speaker 1: PACK is doing now again, it's really stepping back and

892
00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:39,239
Speaker 1: trying to identify what does it look like. Because we

893
00:55:39,280 --> 00:55:43,080
Speaker 1: have three working groups business development, Food production, and food access,

894
00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:48,720
Speaker 1: some of the objectives and mission um mission critical ideas

895
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:53,480
Speaker 1: are overlapping. If we can figure out a way to

896
00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:59,560
Speaker 1: utilize maximize our resources in the respect that we all

897
00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:02,080
Speaker 1: work on a single initiative, then we can make it

898
00:56:02,160 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: happen that much faster. Could you talk a little bit

899
00:56:05,120 --> 00:56:10,440
Speaker 1: about the business development side. Sure, So we've got a

900
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:15,200
Speaker 1: number of different ideas around business development, meaning, uh, whether

901
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:19,320
Speaker 1: it is that we are supporting small businesses that serve food,

902
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:25,160
Speaker 1: namely restaurants, or are encouraging people to go into those

903
00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 1: sorts of areas for professionally. One of the things that

904
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:34,120
Speaker 1: we have been discussing for a very long time and

905
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:36,160
Speaker 1: what feels like a very long time because we've had

906
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:39,600
Speaker 1: so many discussions around it is opening up a commissary

907
00:56:39,719 --> 00:56:43,279
Speaker 1: kitchen work uh here in town. So what that means

908
00:56:43,440 --> 00:56:46,480
Speaker 1: for those of you who are just like, hey, a

909
00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:50,040
Speaker 1: commissary kitchen is where you go as a small food

910
00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:53,280
Speaker 1: pervade a small food business and you rent space, rent

911
00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:58,600
Speaker 1: time at a certified kitchen that allows you to produce

912
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:03,040
Speaker 1: food to sell. Now, yes, there are cottage laws and

913
00:57:03,719 --> 00:57:06,240
Speaker 1: every state has him. And so if you don't produce

914
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:15,520
Speaker 1: a type of food that um is high risk yeah,

915
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:19,920
Speaker 1: has qualified by the U. S d A, then you

916
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,400
Speaker 1: can make it in your house. And if you don't

917
00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:26,960
Speaker 1: make or whatever, your state's threshold is if you don't

918
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:29,240
Speaker 1: make that per year, then you can continue to make

919
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 1: it in your house. But if you want to make

920
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:35,280
Speaker 1: something outside of that that is more high risk, then

921
00:57:35,520 --> 00:57:37,360
Speaker 1: those things will actually need to be produced in a

922
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:41,240
Speaker 1: commissary kitchen, very much like a restaurant style kitchen or

923
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:45,880
Speaker 1: a restaurant based kitchen. Uh. The idea is that if

924
00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:48,080
Speaker 1: you are selling food that is being if you are

925
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:51,400
Speaker 1: making food that is being sold for consumption, that we

926
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:54,160
Speaker 1: need to be sure that there that that that it's

927
00:57:54,200 --> 00:57:56,920
Speaker 1: safe and that you don't have you know, the random

928
00:57:57,040 --> 00:58:01,200
Speaker 1: cat jumping on your countertop or people walking through with

929
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:06,720
Speaker 1: a cigarette, but you know, just all of the things. Um, yeah,

930
00:58:07,840 --> 00:58:12,240
Speaker 1: now I have that cat. I know that kept very well. Um.

931
00:58:12,560 --> 00:58:16,760
Speaker 1: And the closest that we have to that, well, we've

932
00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:21,440
Speaker 1: got a number of places in town that range anywhere

933
00:58:21,480 --> 00:58:25,120
Speaker 1: from seventy five an hour in order to do those

934
00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:28,800
Speaker 1: sorts of productions. And if you can indeed afford to

935
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:33,000
Speaker 1: go to those places and pay that that fee per hour,

936
00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:37,040
Speaker 1: than so much the better. Um. If you've gotten to

937
00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:39,760
Speaker 1: a point where you need to scale up one more time,

938
00:58:40,080 --> 00:58:43,880
Speaker 1: and maybe it's that you've got a great recipe for

939
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:51,040
Speaker 1: pumpkin pie. Well, there's a pumpkin over there. You've got

940
00:58:51,080 --> 00:58:53,520
Speaker 1: a great recipe for pumpkin pie you can make like

941
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:55,920
Speaker 1: you're you're just gonna give Marae Calendars a run for

942
00:58:55,960 --> 00:58:59,840
Speaker 1: her money. Um, there's not a place in town where

943
00:58:59,840 --> 00:59:02,720
Speaker 1: you can create where you can make those on a

944
00:59:02,840 --> 00:59:06,040
Speaker 1: larger scale. There's no place where you can do packaging.

945
00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:09,720
Speaker 1: So if you did have the next best sweetener or

946
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:12,920
Speaker 1: an amazing sauce of some sort, you have to go

947
00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:17,240
Speaker 1: all the way out to Norco, which is not next door, right,

948
00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:20,160
Speaker 1: so it's just outside of the airport. And for anybody's

949
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:22,440
Speaker 1: ever been here, that's like forty five minute dribe. And

950
00:59:22,560 --> 00:59:27,280
Speaker 1: this if so in looking at things, all things created equal. Right,

951
00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:31,360
Speaker 1: if you have a car, and if you are doing

952
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:34,200
Speaker 1: this as your only business, if you do have a

953
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:36,280
Speaker 1: loan that may sustain you, or if you've got a

954
00:59:36,320 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 1: family that will support you through this venture, then those

955
00:59:38,960 --> 00:59:42,320
Speaker 1: things are super easy to get to it. It's very

956
00:59:42,400 --> 00:59:46,520
Speaker 1: low barrier to entry. Conversely, if you are pedestrian, you're

957
00:59:46,520 --> 00:59:48,680
Speaker 1: working in hourly wage. If this is a you know

958
00:59:48,760 --> 00:59:50,240
Speaker 1: you're just trying to do this on the side. If

959
00:59:50,280 --> 00:59:52,240
Speaker 1: this is a food hustle. Right, if you're a bit

960
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:56,400
Speaker 1: of an entrepreneur and you just want to you need

961
00:59:56,600 --> 01:00:00,120
Speaker 1: to sell something in order to make the bills, then

962
01:00:00,200 --> 01:00:05,040
Speaker 1: this becomes prohibitive. It is a barrier or entry, just

963
01:00:05,400 --> 01:00:07,360
Speaker 1: like just to get out to Norco. It is a

964
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:09,880
Speaker 1: barrier or entry with the amounts that they charge you

965
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:14,320
Speaker 1: to actually do the recipe modification right, because it's got

966
01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:16,320
Speaker 1: to be something that they can reproduce without you be

967
01:00:16,400 --> 01:00:20,880
Speaker 1: in there. And then there are all sorts of labeling issues,

968
01:00:21,120 --> 01:00:24,840
Speaker 1: so copyrights and trademarks and getting the labels, putting them on.

969
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:29,760
Speaker 1: They're doing what nutritional values that need to be there

970
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:33,800
Speaker 1: for for food, say for shelf stable stuff. Um. One

971
01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:35,240
Speaker 1: of the things that we would really like to do

972
01:00:35,480 --> 01:00:37,720
Speaker 1: is to have something that is in town, something that

973
01:00:37,880 --> 01:00:40,840
Speaker 1: is easy for folks to get to. And the reason

974
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:44,320
Speaker 1: is because again we've got a lot of folks who

975
01:00:44,560 --> 01:00:46,960
Speaker 1: don't have this sort of access. Now, this is in

976
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:50,000
Speaker 1: part because we do have people who have made careers

977
01:00:50,120 --> 01:00:54,400
Speaker 1: out of working in restaurants as waiters. And they to me,

978
01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:57,880
Speaker 1: it's amazing. I was such a crappy waitress. I did

979
01:00:58,040 --> 01:01:00,840
Speaker 1: not make it very long at all, But that these

980
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:03,680
Speaker 1: people have made entire careers out of it, I think

981
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:08,360
Speaker 1: is astounding and I applaud them for it. But um,

982
01:01:08,960 --> 01:01:13,480
Speaker 1: that means that we have folks who are not waiting

983
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:17,760
Speaker 1: for something else to break, that they are working a

984
01:01:17,920 --> 01:01:21,440
Speaker 1: job that they fully intend to have for the duration.

985
01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:24,640
Speaker 1: And these are people that we need to be cognizant

986
01:01:25,040 --> 01:01:28,120
Speaker 1: of when we start talking about well o North Coast

987
01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:31,400
Speaker 1: not very far or um, we really don't need to

988
01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:35,840
Speaker 1: make any changes because to fifteen an hour is not

989
01:01:36,120 --> 01:01:39,720
Speaker 1: a lot of oh, I'm sorry, we'll call something else,

990
01:01:39,760 --> 01:01:42,160
Speaker 1: something else. So it's no, you're you're you're making ex

991
01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:45,360
Speaker 1: excellent points. And yeah, for for those of us who

992
01:01:45,440 --> 01:01:49,120
Speaker 1: are fortunate enough, because it is it does really come

993
01:01:49,160 --> 01:01:51,520
Speaker 1: down to a certain amount of fortune. Um, no matter

994
01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:54,280
Speaker 1: how hard you work, like there there are those barriers

995
01:01:54,360 --> 01:01:58,440
Speaker 1: to access that absolutely yeah. And so one of the things,

996
01:01:58,520 --> 01:01:59,880
Speaker 1: like I said, we were working on is trying to

997
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:04,280
Speaker 1: to bring a commissary kitchen a U s C, A

998
01:02:04,560 --> 01:02:07,960
Speaker 1: f D, A approoped kitchen to town so that if

999
01:02:08,040 --> 01:02:10,280
Speaker 1: it is something that if you really do have the

1000
01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:15,680
Speaker 1: next best recipe for hot sauce or um whatever or

1001
01:02:15,800 --> 01:02:18,240
Speaker 1: tea even there is actually a guy from Pearl River

1002
01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:21,040
Speaker 1: who has figured out a way to make tea. If

1003
01:02:21,120 --> 01:02:23,720
Speaker 1: you really do have the next best thing, then we

1004
01:02:23,800 --> 01:02:26,040
Speaker 1: can do it here in town, as opposed to trying

1005
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:30,880
Speaker 1: to gather all your things, hop three buses and get

1006
01:02:30,960 --> 01:02:33,200
Speaker 1: all the way out to that part of town, which

1007
01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:39,680
Speaker 1: is again prohibitive. And that brings us to the end

1008
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:43,280
Speaker 1: of this interview. We hope that you enjoyed it as

1009
01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 1: much as we enjoyed it, Oh goodness, yes, or or

1010
01:02:46,400 --> 01:02:48,320
Speaker 1: even a fraction of the amount of the amount that

1011
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:51,040
Speaker 1: we enjoyed it, I think would still be high enjoyment.

1012
01:02:51,040 --> 01:02:54,320
Speaker 1: It would be so. Yeah. If you would like to

1013
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:56,720
Speaker 1: hear more from Pepper, she has her own podcast. It's

1014
01:02:56,720 --> 01:03:01,120
Speaker 1: called Green Pepper and Yeah. It discusses food policies and systems,

1015
01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:03,600
Speaker 1: where those systems are broken and how they can be

1016
01:03:04,080 --> 01:03:08,440
Speaker 1: improved in our communities. Yes, definitely recommend checking that out.

1017
01:03:08,600 --> 01:03:11,920
Speaker 1: Absolutely yes, And if you would like to get in

1018
01:03:12,040 --> 01:03:16,560
Speaker 1: touch with us, you can. You can Luken. Our email

1019
01:03:16,760 --> 01:03:19,280
Speaker 1: is Hello at savor pod dot com and we're on

1020
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:21,720
Speaker 1: social media. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and

1021
01:03:21,800 --> 01:03:24,720
Speaker 1: Instagram at savor pod. We do hope to hear from you.

1022
01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:27,160
Speaker 1: Savor is a production of I Heart Radio and Stuff

1023
01:03:27,240 --> 01:03:29,400
Speaker 1: Media from more podcasts from my Heart Radio. You can

1024
01:03:29,480 --> 01:03:32,080
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1025
01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:34,960
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Thank you, as always

1026
01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:37,880
Speaker 1: to our superproducers Andrew Howard and Dylan Fagan. Thanks to

1027
01:03:37,880 --> 01:03:39,600
Speaker 1: you for listening, and we hope that lots more good

1028
01:03:39,640 --> 01:03:40,600
Speaker 1: things are coming your way.