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My journey into the global food movement began on a Black family farm in Madison County, Kentucky, located at the foothills of eastern Appalachia. Long before I ever traveled to Italy, met Carlo Petrini, or sat across a table from Edie Mukiibi, I learned lessons about food, land, family, and community from people whose names would never appear in newspapers or history books but who laid the foundation for my work as an agrarian, intellectual activist. Those lessons from my ancestors1 eventually carried me from Appalachia to Terra Madre, the global gathering of farmers, food producers, Indigenous leaders, educators, cooks, and community organizers convened by Slow Food International in Torino, Italy.