Food Security in Oaxaca, Mexico

Kiera Lane is a second-year Master of Arts in Public Ministry student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Her concentrations are in both ecological regeneration and pastoral care and counseling. Kiera is from Lake Zurich, IL yet has a broad community in Oaxaca, Mexico. In undergrad, Kiera spent her summers in this southern state of Mexico where she eventually met her spouse, Miguel. The two of them have long dreamed of partnering with Oaxacan communities to preserve sacred Oaxacan traditions and food practices in a way that allows communities to thrive, additionally addressing the pressing need for access to healthy foods. Kiera’s academic work is focused on food justice for rural Oaxacan farming communities that are experiencing food insecurity and health injustices due to ecological degradation and industrialization. 

These essays were written for the three following courses: Theories and Theologies for Public Justice, Methods, Models, and Tools for Social Change, and Regenerative Ethics. The first essay is about naming the harmful theoretical and theological implications that lead to food insecurity and dreaming of theoretical and theological visions of justice. The second essay is about a more specific vision for how food justice can be realized, utilizing specific methods and tools to dream up a model for social change. The second essay additionally outlines a regenerative project for a piece of land that Kiera’s in-laws own.