Thursday, December 11, 2025
Reaping What She Sows: How Women are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System
Women at the Forefront of Food System Change
Author Nancy Matsumoto will moderate a panel discussion with four women changemakers who appear in her book, Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System. Panelists Sam Garwin of the regenerative ocean farming non-profit GreenWave; Lisbeth Pacheco co-founder and chief coffee + impact seeker of Ethos Coffee Roasters; grainshed builder June Russell, director of regional food programs at Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming; and Olivia Watkins, co-founder and president of Black Farmer Fund will discuss the challenges and rewards of rebuilding and financing local and regional food systems, or building new regenerative supply chains from the ground up. Also on the agenda: How do their short, direct, and equitable food supply chains differ from the long, extractive and opaque supply chains of Big Food? How can we support and grow this alternative, or “alt” food system?
Museum of Food and Drink
55 Water Street, 2nd Flr Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Thursday, December 11, 2025
6:00 PM 9:00 PM
Courtesy of our partner bookseller Kitchen Arts & Letters, copies of Reaping What She Sows can be pre-purchased in a ticket bundle and during the program.
Visitors can explore MOFAD's Street Food City exhibition from 6pm to 7pm before the program begins. Refreshments will be served.
Museum of Food and Drink
55 Water Street, 2nd Flr Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Thursday, December 11, 2025
6:00 PM 9:00 PM
Courtesy of our partner bookseller Kitchen Arts & Letters, copies of Reaping What She Sows can be pre-purchased in a ticket bundle and during the program.
Visitors can explore MOFAD's Street Food City exhibition from 6pm to 7pm before the program begins. Refreshments will be served.
Museum of Food and Drink
55 Water Street, 2nd Flr Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Thursday, December 11, 2025
6:00 PM 9:00 PM
Courtesy of our partner bookseller Kitchen Arts & Letters, copies of Reaping What She Sows can be pre-purchased in a ticket bundle and during the program.
Visitors can explore MOFAD's Street Food City exhibition from 6pm to 7pm before the program begins. Refreshments will be served.
Museum of Food and Drink
55 Water Street, 2nd Flr Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Thursday, December 11, 2025
6:00 PM 9:00 PM
Courtesy of our partner bookseller Kitchen Arts & Letters, copies of Reaping What She Sows can be pre-purchased in a ticket bundle and during the program.
Visitors can explore MOFAD's Street Food City exhibition from 6pm to 7pm before the program begins. Refreshments will be served.
Program Hosts
Nancy Matsumoto
Nancy Matsumoto is a third-generation Japanese American writer and editor based in Toronto. She writes about agroecology, food sovereignty, food, drink, and Japanese American culture and history, and is the co-author of the James Beard award-winning Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake (Tuttle Publishing, 2022). Her latest book, Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System (Melville House Publishing, 2025), tells the stories of women changemakers who are forging shorter, direct, and more transparent "alternative" food supply chains to the long, extractive, and exploitative chains controlled by Big Food and Big Agriculture. Her book, By the Shore of Lake Michigan (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2024), a translation of a volume of Japanese tanka poetry published in 1960 by her grandparents Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto, was awarded an American Book Award in 2025.
Nancy Matsumoto
Nancy Matsumoto is a third-generation Japanese American writer and editor based in Toronto. She writes about agroecology, food sovereignty, food, drink, and Japanese American culture and history, and is the co-author of the James Beard award-winning Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake (Tuttle Publishing, 2022). Her latest book, Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System (Melville House Publishing, 2025), tells the stories of women changemakers who are forging shorter, direct, and more transparent "alternative" food supply chains to the long, extractive, and exploitative chains controlled by Big Food and Big Agriculture. Her book, By the Shore of Lake Michigan (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2024), a translation of a volume of Japanese tanka poetry published in 1960 by her grandparents Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto, was awarded an American Book Award in 2025.
Nancy Matsumoto
Nancy Matsumoto is a third-generation Japanese American writer and editor based in Toronto. She writes about agroecology, food sovereignty, food, drink, and Japanese American culture and history, and is the co-author of the James Beard award-winning Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake (Tuttle Publishing, 2022). Her latest book, Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System (Melville House Publishing, 2025), tells the stories of women changemakers who are forging shorter, direct, and more transparent "alternative" food supply chains to the long, extractive, and exploitative chains controlled by Big Food and Big Agriculture. Her book, By the Shore of Lake Michigan (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2024), a translation of a volume of Japanese tanka poetry published in 1960 by her grandparents Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto, was awarded an American Book Award in 2025.
Nancy Matsumoto
Nancy Matsumoto is a third-generation Japanese American writer and editor based in Toronto. She writes about agroecology, food sovereignty, food, drink, and Japanese American culture and history, and is the co-author of the James Beard award-winning Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake (Tuttle Publishing, 2022). Her latest book, Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System (Melville House Publishing, 2025), tells the stories of women changemakers who are forging shorter, direct, and more transparent "alternative" food supply chains to the long, extractive, and exploitative chains controlled by Big Food and Big Agriculture. Her book, By the Shore of Lake Michigan (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2024), a translation of a volume of Japanese tanka poetry published in 1960 by her grandparents Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto, was awarded an American Book Award in 2025.
Olivia Watkins
Olivia Watkins is a social entrepreneur and impact investor. She has financed, developed, and operated environmental and social impact projects across the US. She currently serves as a co-founder and President of Black Farmer Fund. She also serves as a board member for Iroquois Valley Farmland Real Estate Investment Trust. Prior to founding Black Farmer Fund in 2017, Olivia worked in several farm production roles at Soul Fire Farm Institute and Kahumana Organic Farms and financial research analysis positions at Croatan Institute and NC Idea, leveraging her environmental biology background to manage and grow environmentally regenerative and socially impactful business operations.
Olivia has an MBA from North Carolina State University in Financial Management, and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Environmental Biology. She was also recognized on the 2021 Forbes 30 under 30 Social Impact list and The Grist 50.
Olivia Watkins
Olivia Watkins is a social entrepreneur and impact investor. She has financed, developed, and operated environmental and social impact projects across the US. She currently serves as a co-founder and President of Black Farmer Fund. She also serves as a board member for Iroquois Valley Farmland Real Estate Investment Trust. Prior to founding Black Farmer Fund in 2017, Olivia worked in several farm production roles at Soul Fire Farm Institute and Kahumana Organic Farms and financial research analysis positions at Croatan Institute and NC Idea, leveraging her environmental biology background to manage and grow environmentally regenerative and socially impactful business operations.
Olivia has an MBA from North Carolina State University in Financial Management, and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Environmental Biology. She was also recognized on the 2021 Forbes 30 under 30 Social Impact list and The Grist 50.
Olivia Watkins
Olivia Watkins is a social entrepreneur and impact investor. She has financed, developed, and operated environmental and social impact projects across the US. She currently serves as a co-founder and President of Black Farmer Fund. She also serves as a board member for Iroquois Valley Farmland Real Estate Investment Trust. Prior to founding Black Farmer Fund in 2017, Olivia worked in several farm production roles at Soul Fire Farm Institute and Kahumana Organic Farms and financial research analysis positions at Croatan Institute and NC Idea, leveraging her environmental biology background to manage and grow environmentally regenerative and socially impactful business operations.
Olivia has an MBA from North Carolina State University in Financial Management, and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Environmental Biology. She was also recognized on the 2021 Forbes 30 under 30 Social Impact list and The Grist 50.
Olivia Watkins
Olivia Watkins is a social entrepreneur and impact investor. She has financed, developed, and operated environmental and social impact projects across the US. She currently serves as a co-founder and President of Black Farmer Fund. She also serves as a board member for Iroquois Valley Farmland Real Estate Investment Trust. Prior to founding Black Farmer Fund in 2017, Olivia worked in several farm production roles at Soul Fire Farm Institute and Kahumana Organic Farms and financial research analysis positions at Croatan Institute and NC Idea, leveraging her environmental biology background to manage and grow environmentally regenerative and socially impactful business operations.
Olivia has an MBA from North Carolina State University in Financial Management, and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Environmental Biology. She was also recognized on the 2021 Forbes 30 under 30 Social Impact list and The Grist 50.
Lisbeth Pacheco
Lisbeth Pacheco is the co-founder of Ethos Coffee Roasters, a craft roastery based in Lakeland, FL, on a mission to champion the best coffees from small farmers since 2016. Every coffee is sourced intentionally, and features world-class quality and long-term relationships that change lives. Every single order is lovingly packed and shipped within hours of roasting, always seeking to offer unrivaled quality, freshness, impact, and value for those who want to brew both a better cup, and a better world. Learn more at ethosroasters.com and follow them on IG @ethosroasters
Lisbeth Pacheco
Lisbeth Pacheco is the co-founder of Ethos Coffee Roasters, a craft roastery based in Lakeland, FL, on a mission to champion the best coffees from small farmers since 2016. Every coffee is sourced intentionally, and features world-class quality and long-term relationships that change lives. Every single order is lovingly packed and shipped within hours of roasting, always seeking to offer unrivaled quality, freshness, impact, and value for those who want to brew both a better cup, and a better world. Learn more at ethosroasters.com and follow them on IG @ethosroasters
Lisbeth Pacheco
Lisbeth Pacheco is the co-founder of Ethos Coffee Roasters, a craft roastery based in Lakeland, FL, on a mission to champion the best coffees from small farmers since 2016. Every coffee is sourced intentionally, and features world-class quality and long-term relationships that change lives. Every single order is lovingly packed and shipped within hours of roasting, always seeking to offer unrivaled quality, freshness, impact, and value for those who want to brew both a better cup, and a better world. Learn more at ethosroasters.com and follow them on IG @ethosroasters
Lisbeth Pacheco
Lisbeth Pacheco is the co-founder of Ethos Coffee Roasters, a craft roastery based in Lakeland, FL, on a mission to champion the best coffees from small farmers since 2016. Every coffee is sourced intentionally, and features world-class quality and long-term relationships that change lives. Every single order is lovingly packed and shipped within hours of roasting, always seeking to offer unrivaled quality, freshness, impact, and value for those who want to brew both a better cup, and a better world. Learn more at ethosroasters.com and follow them on IG @ethosroasters
Sam Garwin
Sam Garwin is the Director of Market Development at GreenWave, a nonprofit that builds scalable, equitable equitable markets for regenerative ocean farmers. Through education, commercial R&D pilots, and value chain support, she enables companies to get kelp from sea to sale as ingredients in food, beauty, and beyond. Since 2019, Sam has led Seaweed Source, an app with wraparound business development support that connects over 100 seaweed across eleven U.S. states and Canadian provinces. The new Kelp Innovation CoLab, launched in September 2025, connects beauty brands with kelp farmers to develop powerful, ocean-driven formulas that are better for people and the planet. Sam draws on more than 14 years of experience building sustainable supply chains and socially responsible business models. Before GreenWave, Sam was the CEO of Fleishers, a pioneer of pasture-raised whole-animal retail butchery; and an early employee of Maya Mountain Cacao, a direct-trade bean-to-bar cocoa supplier.
GreenWave works to replicate and scale regenerative ocean farming – a zero-input kelp farming model that breathes life back into our oceans. Through farmer-forward training and support, climate subsidies, and infrastructure and market development, GreenWave partners with coastal communities across North America to create a thriving blue economy. GreenWave has been featured in 60 Minutes, CNN, the BBC, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, and is the winner of the 2021 Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize.
Sam Garwin
Sam Garwin is the Director of Market Development at GreenWave, a nonprofit that builds scalable, equitable equitable markets for regenerative ocean farmers. Through education, commercial R&D pilots, and value chain support, she enables companies to get kelp from sea to sale as ingredients in food, beauty, and beyond. Since 2019, Sam has led Seaweed Source, an app with wraparound business development support that connects over 100 seaweed across eleven U.S. states and Canadian provinces. The new Kelp Innovation CoLab, launched in September 2025, connects beauty brands with kelp farmers to develop powerful, ocean-driven formulas that are better for people and the planet. Sam draws on more than 14 years of experience building sustainable supply chains and socially responsible business models. Before GreenWave, Sam was the CEO of Fleishers, a pioneer of pasture-raised whole-animal retail butchery; and an early employee of Maya Mountain Cacao, a direct-trade bean-to-bar cocoa supplier.
GreenWave works to replicate and scale regenerative ocean farming – a zero-input kelp farming model that breathes life back into our oceans. Through farmer-forward training and support, climate subsidies, and infrastructure and market development, GreenWave partners with coastal communities across North America to create a thriving blue economy. GreenWave has been featured in 60 Minutes, CNN, the BBC, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, and is the winner of the 2021 Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize.
Sam Garwin
Sam Garwin is the Director of Market Development at GreenWave, a nonprofit that builds scalable, equitable equitable markets for regenerative ocean farmers. Through education, commercial R&D pilots, and value chain support, she enables companies to get kelp from sea to sale as ingredients in food, beauty, and beyond. Since 2019, Sam has led Seaweed Source, an app with wraparound business development support that connects over 100 seaweed across eleven U.S. states and Canadian provinces. The new Kelp Innovation CoLab, launched in September 2025, connects beauty brands with kelp farmers to develop powerful, ocean-driven formulas that are better for people and the planet. Sam draws on more than 14 years of experience building sustainable supply chains and socially responsible business models. Before GreenWave, Sam was the CEO of Fleishers, a pioneer of pasture-raised whole-animal retail butchery; and an early employee of Maya Mountain Cacao, a direct-trade bean-to-bar cocoa supplier.
GreenWave works to replicate and scale regenerative ocean farming – a zero-input kelp farming model that breathes life back into our oceans. Through farmer-forward training and support, climate subsidies, and infrastructure and market development, GreenWave partners with coastal communities across North America to create a thriving blue economy. GreenWave has been featured in 60 Minutes, CNN, the BBC, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, and is the winner of the 2021 Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize.
Sam Garwin
Sam Garwin is the Director of Market Development at GreenWave, a nonprofit that builds scalable, equitable equitable markets for regenerative ocean farmers. Through education, commercial R&D pilots, and value chain support, she enables companies to get kelp from sea to sale as ingredients in food, beauty, and beyond. Since 2019, Sam has led Seaweed Source, an app with wraparound business development support that connects over 100 seaweed across eleven U.S. states and Canadian provinces. The new Kelp Innovation CoLab, launched in September 2025, connects beauty brands with kelp farmers to develop powerful, ocean-driven formulas that are better for people and the planet. Sam draws on more than 14 years of experience building sustainable supply chains and socially responsible business models. Before GreenWave, Sam was the CEO of Fleishers, a pioneer of pasture-raised whole-animal retail butchery; and an early employee of Maya Mountain Cacao, a direct-trade bean-to-bar cocoa supplier.
GreenWave works to replicate and scale regenerative ocean farming – a zero-input kelp farming model that breathes life back into our oceans. Through farmer-forward training and support, climate subsidies, and infrastructure and market development, GreenWave partners with coastal communities across North America to create a thriving blue economy. GreenWave has been featured in 60 Minutes, CNN, the BBC, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, and is the winner of the 2021 Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize.
June Russell
June Russell is the Director of the Grains and Staples program at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming. June has acted as a value chain coordinator and strategist for the revival of grains, beans and other crops in the Northeast for more than two decades.
June previously spent 17 years with GrowNYC where she spearheaded GrowNYC Grains, an initiative begun in 2007 that utilized a multi-sector strategy to develop a market for regional grains. The initiative has supported the development of dozens of regionally adapted small grain varieties, including dry beans and other staple crops that have come to the consumer market in the Northeast. The initiative has helped to provide farmers with opportunities to diversify crops, rural economies to invest in infrastructure and jobs, and to strengthen our regional food system.
In her role at Glynwood, she continues to work with stakeholders to build markets for emerging crops in tandem with climate adaptation strategies that improve our soils, our health and our communities.
June Russell
June Russell is the Director of the Grains and Staples program at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming. June has acted as a value chain coordinator and strategist for the revival of grains, beans and other crops in the Northeast for more than two decades.
June previously spent 17 years with GrowNYC where she spearheaded GrowNYC Grains, an initiative begun in 2007 that utilized a multi-sector strategy to develop a market for regional grains. The initiative has supported the development of dozens of regionally adapted small grain varieties, including dry beans and other staple crops that have come to the consumer market in the Northeast. The initiative has helped to provide farmers with opportunities to diversify crops, rural economies to invest in infrastructure and jobs, and to strengthen our regional food system.
In her role at Glynwood, she continues to work with stakeholders to build markets for emerging crops in tandem with climate adaptation strategies that improve our soils, our health and our communities.
June Russell
June Russell is the Director of the Grains and Staples program at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming. June has acted as a value chain coordinator and strategist for the revival of grains, beans and other crops in the Northeast for more than two decades.
June previously spent 17 years with GrowNYC where she spearheaded GrowNYC Grains, an initiative begun in 2007 that utilized a multi-sector strategy to develop a market for regional grains. The initiative has supported the development of dozens of regionally adapted small grain varieties, including dry beans and other staple crops that have come to the consumer market in the Northeast. The initiative has helped to provide farmers with opportunities to diversify crops, rural economies to invest in infrastructure and jobs, and to strengthen our regional food system.
In her role at Glynwood, she continues to work with stakeholders to build markets for emerging crops in tandem with climate adaptation strategies that improve our soils, our health and our communities.
June Russell
June Russell is the Director of the Grains and Staples program at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming. June has acted as a value chain coordinator and strategist for the revival of grains, beans and other crops in the Northeast for more than two decades.
June previously spent 17 years with GrowNYC where she spearheaded GrowNYC Grains, an initiative begun in 2007 that utilized a multi-sector strategy to develop a market for regional grains. The initiative has supported the development of dozens of regionally adapted small grain varieties, including dry beans and other staple crops that have come to the consumer market in the Northeast. The initiative has helped to provide farmers with opportunities to diversify crops, rural economies to invest in infrastructure and jobs, and to strengthen our regional food system.
In her role at Glynwood, she continues to work with stakeholders to build markets for emerging crops in tandem with climate adaptation strategies that improve our soils, our health and our communities.
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Stay updated on food culture with us
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
MOFAD
What’s going on
©2025 MOFAD. All rights reserved.
Stay updated on food culture with us
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
MOFAD
What’s going on
©2025 MOFAD. All rights reserved.
Stay updated on food culture with us
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
MOFAD
What’s going on
©2025 MOFAD. All rights reserved.