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Nina F. Ichikawa (formerly Nina Kahori Fallenbaum) is an American writer, agricultural activist, and the executive director of the Berkeley Food Institute.[1]
As the executive director of the Berkeley Food Institute, Ichikawa has spoken with a variety of news outlets about a range of topics related to sustainable food, including the importance of urban farming "for elders, for low-income families, for immigrants,"[19] and the history of backyard and rooftop gardening in Asian American communities.[20] She also discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as "an opportunity for meat-eaters to join together with sustainable producers of meat, and with meat and dairy industry workers, to all unite together and say we want a better system."[21] She has also been featured in an article written and sponsored by the nonprofit organization CUESA,[22] and quoted for her expertise by KQED[23] and Prevention magazine.[24] In 2017, after the California Values Act was passed to provide new safeguards for undocumented immigrants, Shakirah Simley of the San Francisco Chronicle asked "chefs, farmers and advocates" about the meaning of the word "sanctuary," including Ichikawa, who said:
"There is no food without sanctuary. How can you purport to provide food to someone with an equal serving of fear, duress, humiliation or exclusion? For food and agriculture spaces to go another way, we need to reject the politics of discrimination and division at every level — in hiring, ordering, selling, distributing, land purchasing."[25]
In 2021, after the Berkeley Food Institute collaborated with the nonprofit advocacy group Restaurant Opportunities Centers United on a study on racial and gender bias in the restaurant industry, Ichikawa spoke with The New York Times about how "there are biases that lock people into certain positions."[26]
Ichikawa is currently a member of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative.[27]
A photograph of Ichikawa's family, including her grandmother, on a trip to Yosemite National Park in the 1930s is featured in an NBC News article about Asian Americans and the travel industry.[28]
In 2019, the San Francisco Chronicle profiled the efforts of Ichikawa and her husband to house her mother, Betty Kano, an artist and educator, in a "tiny home" on their shared property.[2]
References
^"Team". Berkeley Food Institute. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
^Kim, Whizy (May 26, 2020). "Asian Snacks Are More Popular Than Ever In America. Here's What That Says About Asian-Americans". Refinery29. Retrieved February 15, 2021. food writer and activist Nina F. Ichikawa argues in an essay published in Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader that Asian-American farmers, greengrocers, and entrepreneurs have been instrumental in the U.S. health food movement — a role that has been obscured if not misremembered. In particular, she points to Japanese-Americans Aveline and Michio Kushi, who opened the natural foods store Erewhon back in 1966 — long before Whole Foods existed — and inspired a host of other natural food stores to pop up.