Our Commitment to Justice and Fairness

The Wallace Center commits to fostering fairness and addressing systemic barriers in our programs, operations, and culture. Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities have been violently displaced, enslaved, and disenfranchised to build the foundation of modern farming, fishing, and food systems. Many of these same communities continue to face interpersonal and systemic discrimination resulting in cycles of land loss, exclusion and economic and health disparities. The Wallace Center recognizes that by not actively addressing systemic injustices over the past 40 years, our complacency has perpetuated harmful systems of inequality. As an organization striving to enact systems change, we recognize the role that race and bias play in the modern food system and are therefore making a public commitment to addressing these challenges through our work.

We manifest this commitment by:

  • Deepening our understanding of the history and enduring impacts of systemic barriers on our farming, fishing, and food systems,
  • Identifying and naming our own biases and blind spots,
  • Creating spaces for open dialogue, feedback, discovery, and shared learning on race and bias,
  • Intentionally challenging detrimental power structures and centering the representation of communities of color,
  • Respecting and learning from the vision, voices, and leadership of people of color,
  • Upholding an intersectional approach by recruiting individuals from various backgrounds, including different races, classes, and other identities, at all levels of our organization,
  • Naming and supporting the disruption of cycles of disinvestment,
  • Creating an institutional culture that celebrates our shared humanity and cultivates empathy, humility, and accountability.
  • Recognizing and celebrating the food cultures, traditions, and contributions of diverse communities to the U.S. farming, fishing and food system.

The journey towards our collective liberation has no endpoint. We are learning. We will make mistakes. As we grow, we need the honest feedback of our community to enact this vision. Please contact us with your questions, ideas, and input or submit feedback anonymously through this form.

To learn more about our history and our approach to incorporating justice and fairness in our work, please reach out to us.

Guiding Resources

Throughout our long journey toward becoming a multi-cultural organization focused on equality and justice, we have been guided by the learning resources and tools created by leaders and organizations advocating for fairness and the dismantling of systemic oppression. We have also created some foundational documents that we use and revisit regularly as an organization.

Some of the many resources and tools that serve as compasses for learning and transformation include: