Introducing Our 2013 Food Sovereignty Tours Fellow!

Katie Brimm | 08.26.2013

This year we received a generous grant from The Small Planet Fund to sponsor one emerging leader to participate on our Food Sovereignty Tour to South Korea that started August 24th 2013. We decided to launch a Food Sovereignty Tours Fellowship Program, and in the first year of the fellowship, we were delighted to receive such a remarkable group of applicants!

Meet Sunyoung Yang, our 2013 Fellow!

First inspired by the food and land struggles of the Quechua Lama People in Peru, Sunyoung has been involved in political organizing ever since, and now works as a Lead Organizer and Researcher with the Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC) in Los Angeles.

She helps lead the Bus Riders Union, LCSC’s transit justice organizing project, which over the last 18 years has built a grassroots base of over 2,000 black, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islanders and low income members who advocate for a first class affordable bus system in Los Angeles. She also heads up the Clean Air Campaign that focuses on public health and climate justice research, education and advocacy.

She was born in Korea, and raised on the Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan and Guam, until high school when she came to Los Angeles. Fluent in Korean and Spanish, she studied in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru focusing on bio-cultural diversity and sustainable development. She is a graduate of the National School for Strategic Organizing 2004 and holds a B.A. from Smith College. Prior to LCSC, she worked with the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) focusing on climate change and environmental justice.

Sunyoung is passionate about food sovereignty and plans to incorporate what she learns from the delegation into her work for climate justice, as well as strengthen ties with the South Korean movements for peace and reunification.

In particular, she wants to meet the Korean Women’s Peasant Association and explore in depth how the food sovereignty movement fits into the context of climate adaptation and work to strengthen alternatives both in the US and internationally.

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Food Sovereignty Tours and The Small Planet Fund are thrilled to give Sunyoung the opportunity to connect with her international counterparts in South Korea and strengthen her activism advancing food sovereignty. We look forward to hearing about her experiences and attending her Report Back!