JAFSCD RELEASES STATEMENT ON ANTI-BLACK RACISM

After consultation and feedback from the JAFSCD Shareholder Consortium, we have released the JAFSCD Statement on Anti-Black Racism. This is a starting point and a way to remain accountable to the work that we need to do.

The ongoing systemic and systematic oppressions and anti-Black violence in the United States, Canada, and across the globe have once again been brought into the collective spotlight. These acts perpetuate historical systems of oppression and violence that are entrenched in the very institutions that are purportedly designed to serve and protect people. . . .

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The Lyson Center Welcomes New Advisors

November 5, 2019 -- The Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems is proud to announce that Dr. Gail Myers, Dr. Christine Porter, and Dr. Kareem Usher have joined its advisory board. 

Gail Myers is the chair of the North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN) and a co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc., a community-based organization in Oakland, California. She is a cultural anthropologist and a member of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, having served in the U.S. Air Force.

Christine Porter is the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Community and Public Health Associate Professor at the University of Wyoming. Christine has been an active member of the JAFSCD Shareholder Consortium, co-leading the "Not Just Another Equity Statement Committee," which has drafted a comprehensive equity and inclusion agenda for JAFSCD.

Kareem Usher is an Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning in the Austin E. Knowlton School at The Ohio State University. His research interests focus on the intersection of food access, social justice, regional governance, and community economic development. Kareem presently chairs the Lyson Center Advisory Board.

Debra Tropp spent more than 26 years at the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Transportation and Marketing Program, retiring in January 2019. During her career she served in a variety of roles, including agricultural economist, interim staff officer for the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (a competitive grant program that supports market research projects), team leader and chief of the Farmers Market and Direct Farm Marketing Research Branch, and finally as deputy director of AMS's Marketing Service Program, which focuses on local and regional food system research and development.

These four distinguish leaders join a group of long-time colleagues of Tom Lyson who are committed to supporting the Lyson Center's mission to bring the interests of scholars and practitioners, and bringing to fruition our vision of a just and sustainable food system.

Japanese Translation of Tom Lyson's Civic Agriculture Published

Shu Kitano, a former student of Tom Lyson at Cornell University, informs us that a Japanese edition of Tom's seminal book, Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community, has been published in Japan. Shu translated the original into Japanese and provides commentary. He reports that the translation has acquired a broad readership. Kitano is also author of Space, Planning, and Rurality: Uneven Rural Development in Japan (2009, Trafford).

Bibliographic data: Lyson, Thomas A., translated by Shu Kitano, 2012 (second print, 2017). Civic Agriculture: Reconnecting Farm, Food, and Community. Tokyo: AFSP Publishing (Norin Tokei Shuppann Co.).

Tom Lyson Colleague Gil Gillespie Receives Award at Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society Meeting