Monica White’s research engages communities of color and grassroots organizations that are involved in developing sustainable community food systems. One of her challenges is that agriculture evokes strong emotions in urban areas.

“Young people, in particular, are aware of the trauma around growing food,” says White, who holds a joint appointment in CALS (community and environmental sociology) and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. “You’ll be on a farm in an urban area and you’ll hear children say ‘I’m not a slave’ or ‘Don’t treat me like a slave,’ and so this conversation around agriculture as oppressive, and the economically exploitive relationships of sharecropping and tenant farming, is something that is very much in the purview of people’s understanding of agriculture.”

White discusses her work in the new issue of Grow magazine.