The Lexicon of Sustainability recently released a Story Bank with insightful interviews from leading experts and advisors in the sustainability movement. We’re honored to be featured as the first interview with RAFI’s Just Foods Director Michael Sligh.
Michael articulates his history in this work and, in turn, RAFI’s roots in justice for people and the planet.
“I got involved in the farm crisis in the early 80’s, helping stop farm foreclosures,” Michael discusses in the Lexicon. “We set up hotlines to help deal with farmers who were contemplating suicide. I witnessed farm workers being sprayed with aerial pesticides in their camps when their children were outside playing. I witnessed farm workers in Central America carrying home empty paraquat containers for water. It was an accumulative chipping away at the veneer of what we thought the food system was, and realizing that the veneer was really thin and a very harmful approach. We realized we needed change and that we had to be the change if we wanted to make a difference.”