My son Wade was born with severe food allergies. His allergies did not become apparent until he was several months old. At first my husband and I noticed a little fussiness after mealtime but we dismissed it. One day when we went out for breakfast, I gave my son a little bit of milk with some cereal. I watched as his face swelled up, his eyes swelled shut, his face filled with tears. He was obviously in pain, but I could not do one thing to make him comfortable.

As we raced to the hospital, I began to wonder if my son was going to die. My husband and I were to repeat that scenario at least six or seven more times over the next several months and it was always the same. My son would be exposed to the allergen, the allergic reaction would cause him to wheeze, the wheezing could not be controlled unless we took him to the emergency room and then my son would be hospitalized for at least a week.

The last time my son was hospitalized, the medication to control his wheezing was not working fast enough. The doctors transferred my son to an intensive care unit and asked to put him on a machine that would help him continue to breathe in the event that his little lungs decided that they could not continue. I had only one prayer. Sweet Orisha please, please let my son live.

The day that I saw my son on that machine I made a promise that if he lived we would never, ever be back there again because I would learn all I could about food. I would learn how to feed my son. As a result of skin tests we found out that my son was allergic eggs, all dairy products, peanuts and shellfish. When we went home I did what I do best, I read. I read all that I could on food and food production, ecology and the environment. Eventually that evolved into a study on land and land stewardship.

I found out that the best thing for my son was to have a diet that avoided highly processed, pre-packaged foods basically because it contained one of his allergens. I didn’t want our fresh food to have—to be genetically modified. I didn’t want pesticide residues in it. I discovered we could buy organic food. Our meals at home are very simple. They consist of whole fruits, vegetables, grains, fish, chicken—all organic when possible.

My journey to feed my son turned into quite a chore. Pregnant with my second child, I would drive all over the city of Chicago to find organic food. Living on the West Side of Chicago meant leaving my community to get food. Shopping trips to get food were expensive in two ways: the cost of the food and the hours that it would take to complete a shopping excursion. I had to search for the simplest items needed for meal preparation. All I wanted was fresh food—produce without harmful pesticides, meat without antibiotics.

Then it dawned on me that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if I could buy this food closer to my home. But I realized, of course, that I couldn’t buy any food really close to my home, let alone healthy food close to my home. So the community organizer in me wanted to learn more about the organic food movement. I began attending local organizing meetings. Most times I was the only person of color in the room.

Too often the food access issue was treated as if it’s some sort of social service issue, one that could be solved by government programs or food donations. But in my neighborhood, I can buy designer gym shoes, every kind of fast food, every kind of junk food, all kinds of malt liquor, illegal drugs and maybe even a semi-automatic weapon, but I cannot purchase an organic tomato. When other communities are considered, the same food access issue is looked upon as a profitable business opportunity. If we are truly going to develop sustainable food systems, then everyone must be included as a potential end user of that system. If we want sustainable communities then we must talk to everyone about how that will occur. Diversity is critical to sustainability.

Cultural diversity is crucial to the sustainable agricultural movement, yet we must remember that diversity is about much more than race and ethnicity, it is about class, sexuality and gender. Sustainable food is for everyone. We need to build a coalition of people concerned about communities of color and food systems. We have to come together and develop a policy analysis and action plans that are reflective of the concerns of communities of color. This will impact the economic, social and environmental needs of our communities.

At this point, access to organic foods is not the focal point of my activism. I believe that food must come from local sources. Pesticides and fertilizers are important considerations, but as long as organic food is priced only for wealthy people it just isn’t a viable solution to the health needs of my community.

We are working to develop local solutions to the issue of local food access. My husband and I formed a non-profit organization and we obtained several vacant lots, and converted those lots to urban farm sites, and we hire people from the community to work on those sites. We have a group of parks called the Chicago Food Systems Collaborative and we are building a grocery store that will provide access to food in our community.

We want to get even closer to the community. I want to have something where we grow and prepare food. Folks come by and they eat the food and then we can have a practical conversation about the food system. The key to that activity is the people who actually would sit around the table and enjoy a meal together. Certainly there would be people there in my community, but it would people like you as well in my community, eating together and talking together about the solutions that we need to create for all of our communities.

Before my son was born, I didn’t care where food came from. I didn’t care where it was grown or who grew it. My son’s illness has given me an awareness that I’m sure I would not have had without him. My son is teaching me that protecting his potential means that I must protect and nurture my own.

Excerpted from a Bioneers Conference presentation by LaDonna Redmond, founder and president of the Institute for Community Resource Development in Chicago, Illinois. To purchase recordings of LaDonna’s Bioneers plenary “The Color of Sustainability” and her other Bioneers workshops, visit the Bioneers store.