The Checkout

Dr. Sarah Taber discusses misconceptions surrounding food supply chains and the exploitation of people by the US business class. The importance of tracking and managing data in the merchandising job at Whole Foods is emphasized. The impact of labor cuts on store performance is discussed, along with the benefits of modest scale food processing for food justice. Wealthy individuals' influence on poor people's diets and the concept of a public food utility are explored. The inefficiencies of food hubs and experiences with editing, publishing, and clients are also discussed.

Ora Wise is a Brooklyn-based chef, community organizer, cultural producer, and educator whose current work invests in community controlled and regenerative food systems. For over a decade, Ora focused on media-based education, including co-facilitating the Palestine Education Project's high school program Slingshot Hip Hop: Culture & Resistance from Brooklyn to Palestine, serving as Youth Education Director for a progressive synagogue, and co-leading the Indigenous Youth Media Delegation to Palestine. In recent years, Ora founded The Dream Cafe, an experimental cooperative pop-up restaurant in Detroit as part of the Allied Media Conference and co-produced The Asymmetrical Table, a food sovereignty dinner series in downtown Manhattan centering the cuisine and activism of Palestinian women chefs. She currently co-directs the grassroots food justice collective FIG which operates political education and food distribution programs in partnership with frontline community organizations, farmers, and chefs.