Today, Americans are more aware than ever of their food choices—where the food comes from, its locality, how it was produced, and its health quotient. But back in the 1970s, local food movements were largely nonexistent. It was the Japanese Americans living in California who began advocating for local, organic farming—and despite systemic racism, were able to make America better.
This comic tells the story of one of my case studies, Bill Fujimoto, a Japanese-American food retailer. Berkeley-based Fujimoto was the first person to source locally grown and specialty produce for Alice Waters’ revolutionary California Cuisine restaurant Chez Panisse when it opened.