#25 – Towards a plant-based lifestyle in the Caribbean w/ Founder and CEO of Rethink Your Food Liz Ross

Greenhero

On this episode, Rikard is talking with Liz Ross, Founder and Executive Director of Rethink Your Food Inc., a nonprofit focused on change towards a plant-based diet primarily among Caribbean people in the Caribbean region and the diaspora. She is a recipe developer who has created over 90 recipes for the Vegan Caribbean Kickstart project and has worked with catering/food service companies interested in adding plant-based options to their menu.

Liz was born and raised in Trinidad & Tobago, where her family owns land and grows crops. With that background, Liz then went on to spend more time in the agriculture space when she completed the regenerative farming and food systems farmer apprenticeship program at the University of California Santa Cruz, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, on their 30-acre organic farm and intentional community, later getting her Bachelor in Science degree from James Madison University and studying permaculture at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.

With so many significant sources of influence, including her own experience with health changes, Liz continued her trend by making an impact through Rethink Your Food Inc. She also founded conferences where she truly saw the diversity within the plant-based community. She also saw a lack of initiatives and available resources of information. From those three pillars, she found the mission of Rethink Your Food Inc., acting as a way in which people can get reference information to help promote policy change and institutional change. In addition, she founded the project Vegan Caribbean Kickstart, a tool that enables people to make better food choices and help build a movement, while celebrating Caribbean and Caribbean-Latin American plant-based food culture. It provides a space in which people can experience going to the market, picking their food in the backyard, which is common in the Caribbean, and the experience of cooking and the experience of communicating with others throughout that process.

The experience for Caribbean people living in the US and those in the Caribbean is different, but shares a lot of the same trends. As the diets are primarily higher in meat products, it comes down to ease and education. In the US, there is access to Whole Foods and various plant-based products, whereas in the Caribbean there are myths surrounding plant-based diets. However, in both places, where there is convenient food, people will go. By adapting the Vegan Caribbean program to incorporate cooking, the menu becomes adaptable to what is available to better serve both the US, who may not have traditional ingredients and people in the Caribbean, who may not know what is available to them. The response has been positive and comes from all over the world, both Caribbean natives and immigrants.

The driving force for these individuals to sign up for the program varies across two major motives: health and animal welfare. All of Liz’s messaging surrounds the two and helps people connect their morals to the way they eat. It’s about a holistic connection to the community, the land, and those that inhabit it.

Things You’ll Learn

The experience for Caribbean people living in the US and those living in the Caribbean is different but shares a lot of the same trends. It comes down to ease and education.

Vegan Caribbean Kickstart provides a space in which people can experience going to the market, picking their food, and the experience of cooking.

Ethics play a major role for many–often individuals were vegan or pescetarian before they knew the words existed. It’s about a holistic connection to the community, the land, and those that inhabit it.

LINKS

https://vegancaribbeankickstart.com/

https://rethinkyourfood.org/