Treatment of racism and social injustice in addressing complex topics: What we learned

First paragraph: Upon the initial release of our report, A Regional Imperative: The Case for Regional Food Systems (Ruhf & Clancy, 2022), we received criti­cism about our “treatment of racism and racial equity” from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG), the report’s original sponsor. While this criticism was unsettling to us and was not accompanied by specific feedback, we acknowledged that we could have done more on the racial justice aspects of regional food systems. Despite lengthy sections on social justice, refer­ences to oppressed communities, and suggested remedies throughout the text, our original report fell short in certain important ways, and we wanted to strengthen it. . . .