I'm in San Francisco because of the energy, the ideas, and the fact that this is a great place for me to land. When I'm traveling and working nationally, I love coming back here.

I'm in San Francisco because of the energy, the ideas, and the fact that this is a great place for me to land. When I'm traveling and working nationally, I love coming back here.

I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee; I went to college in New Orleans before moving to New York City for graduate school. Both sets of my grandparents grew up in rural Mississippi and brought a lot of agrarian knowledge to Memphis, which is an urban center in the South. Both sets had amazing backyard gardens. My paternal grandfather, practically every inch of available space was green.

I think it's an injustice that most consumers going to the supermarket have so few options for fruit and vegetables to feed their families. There might be the appearance of abundance, but it's an illusion.

I don't necessarily think veganism is going to save the world.

I got a call one morning from Oran Hesterman, who was the president of the Fair Food Foundation, saying that the Fair Food Foundation was shutting down effectively as of that day, because they'd been caught up in the Madoff scandal. It affected me because the fellowship that I had was actually funded in part by the Fair Food Foundation. That meant that my fellowship was pretty much null and void.

In terms of addressing some of the most impacted communities and historically excluded communities - often of color, often low income - there is this adage in specifically African American communities that on every corner in low income neighborhoods you'll find a liquor store.