Edible Activist

Two hundred episodes. And it is not lost on Melissa L. Jones what it took to get here. For this milestone, Melissa hands the mic to the community, answering your questions and reflecting on what 200 conversations have taught her about food systems, Black land ownership, and what edible activism truly means. She also gets into what’s next: a new home at Eaton Radio, an intentional break, a future series on Black farm-to-table chefs, clean energy and agriculture, archiving these stories for future generations, and a deep desire to write. In celebration of Episode 200, enjoy 20% off the Edible Activist Okra + Pepper tee — valid through Sunday, October 11th at 11:59 PM EST. Visit the link in bio to shop.

Stephanie Franklin didn't set out to become a farmer. She set out to find her purpose and the vines answered. In this conversation, the founder of Franklin Vines takes us from corporate America to a Napa conference where she coined the phrase that changed everything — Louisiana made me, Texas raised me, the vines saved me — to the ancestral land in Shankleville, Texas, where her third great grandparents Jim and Winnie Shankle became some of the first African Americans to purchase land after emancipation. Stephanie is now preparing to plant a vineyard on that same soil. She talks about what it takes to build a vineyard from the ground up with no master plan, the science behind growing grapes in deep East Texas, the myths around wine she wants to dismantle, and a vision that goes far beyond the bottle — tasting rooms, educational hubs, women's empowerment spaces, and possibly the first food and wine festival in Shankleville, Texas. This is a love story between a woman and her land.

DeVonne Jackson Perez left a decade in television production to become an urban farmer — and she has never looked back. In this conversation, the founder of Good Ground Farm takes us from a childhood spent collecting worms and studying insects, to an illegal fire escape garden in Brooklyn during the pandemic, to a 17-acre farm in Argyle, New York, where she and her family are growing callaloo, heritage peppers, pink eye beans, and other Afro-Caribbean heritage crops that remain largely inaccessible to her community in Brooklyn. DeVonne speaks to the soul of this work — the right to farm and who actually has access to it, what soil teaches us about reciprocity and grace, the food supply chain's deep lack of diversity, and why right now is the most important moment for Black, queer, and Indigenous farmers to get on the land.

Editor's Note: In this episode, Phylicia references Vietnam in the example of inter-country agritourism collaboration with Indonesia. The correct country in that example is Taiwan.

Asmeret Berhe-Lumax turned a single community fridge in Brooklyn into one of the most recognized food access movements in the country and she did it by centering three things above all else: respect, dignity, and health. In this conversation, Asmeret takes us inside the origin of One Love Community Fridge, which began as a family project during the height of the pandemic, and has since redirected over 11 million pounds of food to thousands of individuals across New York City and beyond. She opens up about the design philosophy behind the fridges, why human connection is at the core of everything they build, and what it really means to fight food insecurity without stigma. This one is a masterclass in community building, intentional design, and what it looks like when a movement is truly built for the people.

V. Sheree Williams didn't set out to build a legacy — she set out to tell stories. But over a decade of centering Black chefs, food culture, and the African diaspora through Cuisine Noir, that's exactly what she's done. In this conversation, Sheree takes us inside the origin of Cuisine Noir — from Chef Richard Pannell's 1998 vision to the digital reimagining she launched on September 1, 2009 of the first media outlet in the U.S. to pioneer Black food media — at a time when Black food stories were essentially nonexistent in mainstream media. She gets real about advertising dollars, the difference between preserving and amplifying, and why she founded the Global Food and Drink Initiative to carry the work even further. This is a conversation about legacy, integrity, and what it means to stay true to your mission.

She was the originator of the farm to table movement. She just never got the credit. In this episode Melissa L. Jones sits down with Deb Freeman — food anthropologist, writer, podcaster and executive producer and host of the Emmy award winning, James Beard nominated PBS documentary Finding Edna Lewis. Deb's life work is giving names, faces and stories to what Black people eat — and Finding Edna Lewis may be her most profound contribution yet. They explore how a photograph of Black women picking crabs in a museum set Deb on an irreversible path, what it meant to finally hear Edna Lewis speak in her own voice on reel to reel tape, and why the New York Times named The Taste of Country Cooking the most influential American cookbook of the past hundred years. They also wander beautifully into Virginia food ways, four generations of women in one house, yellow cake at church repasts and the invisible thread connecting Black communities across the country through food.

Joy is the strategy. Fresh food is the medicine. And Philadelphia is the proving ground. In this episode Melissa L. Jones sits down with Jiana Murdic — wellness warrior, health justice advocate and founder of Get Fresh Daily, a Philadelphia based initiative working at the intersection of farm fresh food, culturally rooted education and community joy. For over 15 years Jiana has been reshaping how communities relate to food — from inner city classrooms to city policy, from CSA boxes to pop up markets rooted in West Philadelphia. They explore what it really takes to make healthy food accessible and appealing without shame or judgment, why the food system's collapse may actually be the opening communities need to rebuild something better, and what Philadelphia looks like when the vision of Get Fresh Daily fully succeeds.

Every part of the animal. Every part of the story. Amethyst Ganaway grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, where food and land were never separate — fresh seafood, garden vegetables from neighbors, and what you were eating tomorrow was already part of today's conversation. In this episode, the chef, food writer, and cultural archivist takes us inside her Gullah Geechee heritage, how leaving South Carolina and working in restaurant kitchens brought her into whole animal cooking, and why she wants Black people to come to Charleston not with heaviness, but with pride. Amethyst also gets into the disconnect between chefs and farmers, what gets lost when Black food traditions get repackaged without context, and the story behind her forthcoming book From tha Roota to tha Toota — written entirely in her own voice, on her own terms.

In this episode Melissa L. Jones welcomes back Pastor Heber Brown III — founder of the Black Church Food Security Network — eleven years into a movement now spanning 300 congregations. He does not come to celebrate. He comes to tell the truth. They go deep on what it really takes to activate a Black church around food sovereignty, why he refused to hand Black data to a PWI, and what we stand to lose if our generation does not step up before the elders who carry living memories of Black self sufficiency are gone. Pastor Brown also shares what he is building next — a refocused Black church census with Morgan State University, Freedom School inside Sunday school and a succession plan rooted in abundance. He is not stepping back. He is planting seeds for what comes next.