Spring 2022 Common Read Events
Right to Harm film screening
https://youtu.be/Ti-0ZVceyKw
Through the riveting stories of five American communities, 'Right to Harm' exposes the devastating public health impact that factory farming has on many of our country's most disadvantaged citizens. Known formally as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations - or CAFOs - these facilities produce millions of gallons of untreated waste that destroys the quality of life for nearby neighbors. Fed up with the lack of regulation, these citizens turned activists band together from across the country to demand justice.
Working in Today’s Food System
Feb 23 at 9:30 a.m.
Today’s consolidated food chain creates injustices farm to table, from farmers and the primarily immigrant workforce at CAFO’s and meatpacking plants to the fast-food workers who prepare and serve food. Panel to include:
--Facilitator: Tim Gibbons, communications director with Missouri Rural Crisis Center
--Axel Fuentes, executive director of Rural Community Workers Alliance of mid-Missouri
--Terrence Wise--Stand Up KC and Fight for 15
--David Bentlage--Pres. MO Rural Action
Link to video recording with transcript
Learn more about Stand Up KC and the Missouri Workers Center by completing the form at this link.
Why Food Justice Matters for Everyone – Rural and Urban
March 9 at 9:30 a.m. and March 10 at 12:30 p.m.
EC019
Agriculture and agriculture/nutrition policy impacts everyone from city center to rural countryside. Topics to be covered
included urban agriculture, Black and other minority farmers (rural and urban), and food insecurity and food deserts
(urban and rural). Panel discussion to include:
•Facilitator: Carol Smith, board president and founding board member in 1985 of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center
•Rhonda Perry, executive director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center and fifth generation Missouri family farmer and
beef producer, has been a state and national leader on agricultural issues for over three decades.
•Ben Burkett, from Jackson, Mississippi, Ben is State Coordinator of Cooperatives for the Federation of Southern
Cooperatives. Founded over 53 years ago, the Federation advocates to protect and expand Black family farmers and for
cooperative economic development across the southeast United States.
•Brien Darby, executive director of Cultivate KC, and Ami Freeberg, Program Manager for Cultivate’ s Metro Farms &
Food Systems. Cultivate KC was founded in 2005 to advocate for and support viable farm and food businesses as well as
local food access in urban Kansas City.
Link to video recording with transcript
Passcode: oQR!AdG4
Women in the Food System
March 31 at 11:00 and March 31 at 12:30
Virtual only via Zoom
Women are responsible for half of the world's food production, yet their key role as food producers and providers and
their critical contribution to household food security is only recently becoming recognized. The panelists will speak
about the contributions of and special risks to women who work in our food system, from farm to table.
Link to video recording with transcript Passcode: 1rsGx^!a
Worker Rights in Today’s Meat Industry
April 13 at 9:30
ST101
Presenters will focus on meatpacking and CAFO workers on such topics as worker rights and/or lack of protections, as
well as worker health risks. Other specifics of the environmental and workplace dangers of meatpacking and CAFOs, and
other workers’ right issues, including lawsuits to defend worker rights and more. Panel to include:
--Facilitator: Carol Smith, board president and founding board member in 1985 of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center
--Axel Fuentes, executive director of Rural Community Workers Alliance of mid-Missouri
--Gina Chiala, executive director and founder of the Kansas City-based Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom
--Tim Gibbons, Communications Director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center
--Clare Murphy Shaw, McCrummun Immigration Law Group
Link to video recording with transcript Passcode: f3!u5Q?U