Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at San Francisco Roundtable on Food Sovereignty System

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined local education and nutrition experts for a food sovereignty system roundtable to discuss the need for communities to be able to grow and take control of their own food supply at the Florence Fang Community Farm. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Ted. And thank all of you. This is so inspiring, for many reasons, and I'll go into some of them. To call attention to some of what you've already said and what it means globally. This is a model.

But let me first talk about Florence. She's been my friend for decades. She was the first person to support me when I ran for Congress 35 years ago.

[Applause]

She and her husband, John Fang, whom I love; their son, James, who is my dear friend; and Ted has been just a champion in so many ways in our community, especially on the forefront on health care issues relating to HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, every subject you can name. But he saw food as a health issue. And eight years ago, when we were here for the groundbreaking – I don't know if my son Paul is here yet, but he was here he was – he was telling me everything that was said that day. This morning – remember when they said this? Remember when they said that? And we don't have to remember because we can see the fruit of all that labor here today.

It was wonderful to be with Faheem and to see how he has brought so much to what happens here, and it's not his day job. It's not his day job. As was mentioned, he works at Lick Wilmerding, where we – obviously we heard from Shima about what this means to her, her teacher who was here, Katie, thank you for showing how this has unified the community with the union – with the Junior League. Simone your work here, you look like you really enjoy it. You are – you are really a good example. And thank you to Pastor Leggett for how you framed it in a community based way as well.

The – all of our guests have, you have to know what an honor it is for us to have Martha Guzman here. She's a very big deal. The region nine – tell them what region nine covers.

Martha Guzman. Absolutely.

It covers the state of Arizona, Nevada, California, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands all the way out to Micronesia and 148 federally recognized tribes.

Speaker Pelosi. So that's – thank you for honoring us with your presence today in recognizing the importance of all of this. As Marcus said, enlarging the issue to values and community and the rest and AARP. Thank you, Sophie, for being here because – Faheem was talking about the intergenerational aspects of this, so important, children learning from older people, older people learning from children. Children are our teachers and we want to know how they want to make these decisions.

And again, I said to Martha — now, congratulations on being a pioneer, the first, I'm glad you'll be back. And to Allen Curry. That was very good news. The NRCS, doing more in communities like this, but learning from each other. So I thank all of you for your participation.

I saw Andre, Johnny, Faheem, so many others that I have met along the way, taking great pride, even the beekeeper and he had on shorts and like a tank top and I don't know he seemed pretty brave out there. But it's the most amazing thing because Florence has always been about growing things. Growing community, growing opportunity, growing the arts for people to learn from and also contribute to, and this is such an example.

We planted a bamboo tree eight years ago, together, it seems like yesterday. But here's the thing. This is an example. This is an example of something so very special, about an idea to grow, but listening to the community as to how. Listening to how. And as was said earlier by – Shima said Asian and African American, different foods and learning how to – from each other in that respect.

So I'm absolutely thrilled. Yes, I have responsibilities nationally. There's no honor greater than to go to the Floor of the House and speak for the people of San Francisco, no matter what other honors my colleagues may bestow upon me. And why? Because of our beautiful diversity, which is truly our strength. The strength we draw from other ideas, so that it's not just incrementalism, building on what we've done — it's thinking in new and fresh ways about it by listening to the future generations which will take charge, but also learning from those who have been involved for a while.

So it's – this is a model to the nation, it's of national significance. And let me tell you something about our President. He has said that in all the bills that we passed this year, whether we were starting with the Rescue Package or the Infrastructure bill, or the – any of the bills that we pass most recently – the Inflation Reduction Act – that he wanted to seek justice. You want to see fairness, you want to see a fresh new way to do things.

If we're building a highway: not to split a neighborhood, but to build infrastructure that unifies a neighborhood. If we're going to do that building, we want to hear from the community how it should be built, and we want the jobs and the ownership of businesses to be from the community.

You want it to be about environmental justice, to erase a long time, but communities having more asthma than another. Why? Why should that be? So everything that we've done, he always subjects to the test of justice, fairness, inclusiveness, diversity and this project, the Florence Fang Community Farm, certainly not only measures up to that, but leads the way in that regard — long before the President took office and pronounced all of these things. You all know that, who work in the USDA, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the rest. And as we address the climate issue, it's important to note how communities want to do that.

I'll just end by saying we were honored that Ted was at the White House Conference on Food – on Hunger. That was a real recognition of what's being done here. And we're all very proud that Florence has been at our meetings with Jim McGovern, the Chair of the Hunger Caucus in the Congress – you were there. And we talked about food as not just sustenance, but as medicine, as medicine. As you said, healing. It's about healing.

And so this is so much of healing, springing from the ideas of the community, meeting the needs of the community, but in a way that so many other communities can learn from. It's pretty exciting. It's about results. It's about inspiration. It's about community, which has the word unity, right in it. So thank you for healing. And we had the mayor of Fremont, right? Mayor of Sonoma here. And Mayor of Fremont here.

But again, hopefully other communities. Now, let me just close by saying this. When I was first elected to Congress, 35 years ago, there was one farm in San Francisco. It was a mushroom farm, which meant it was dark. I don't know whatever happened to it, and you don't want to go into how you grow mushrooms. But this is a vast improvement on that. A vast improvement on that. But just to see the excellence of the product. So in any case, congratulations and thank you. And thank you to the Fangs for the leadership.

[Applause]

I'm going to yield now to the distinguished Florence Fang.

***

Q. As we know, this farm is a role model of the Chinese American community. How do you think this farm has contributed to the San Francisco Bay Area community?

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you. Thank you very much. I love the question. I do agree with you that Florence Fang is a model of Chinese American leadership in our community, and that's very important. I said earlier, I've known Florence a very long time. She and her husband John Fang, both of them leaders in the community, and I had the honor of speaking at his funeral years ago. James was my dear, dear friend, probably the only Republican I ever endorsed.

[Laughter]

I believed in his leadership, and of course, the contribution that the Fangs have made to the community is a great one, to our country is a great one. But they're – I know they take the greatest pride in the contribution of their family to the community. Ted Fang has been there on every front in terms of meeting the needs of the community, as I said, whether it's health or whether it's food, and of course, they are connected. Whether it's unifying the community and the rest. So their contribution is, of course about Florence, but it's about her family as well.

Q. How do you plan to provide more safety and security to the Asian communities during a time of increased case –

Speaker Pelosi. Well, I'm happy to answer that question. I'd rather stay focused on here, but I'll answer that and then let's see if we can focus on what's happening here today. And this is related.

What is happening in our country, ginned up by certain rhetoric that is unacceptable in our country, but nonetheless at the highest level in our country a few years ago, about turning attention to the Asian Pacific American community – Pacific Islander community, is something that has no place in our society and in our country.

I'm very proud of our President Biden, when he became President, to push that aside and say to the Department of Justice: we want you very much to take a proactive role and make – in stopping this these assaults on the Asian Pacific Islander community. And we say to the Pacific Islander community, you are who we are, we're all Americans. And the fact is, is that if you happen to be assaulted, we want to know the date and what the person said so there can be prosecution. We need the date.

Now, lots of times people don't have – they have a language challenge as to what was said. And so we want spectators to come – people who saw it, to give us that information. This is all systems go to stop this. A couple of days ago, I was in New York with my colleague, Grace Meng. Congresswoman Grace Meng, Chinese American Member of the House of Representatives. She passed legislation that addresses — the hate crimes legislation. In the Senate, Mazie Hirono from Hawaii passed the bill as well. Overwhelmingly bipartisan, I'm proud to say, overwhelmingly bipartisan, passed to address this challenge.

So from the standpoint of the Congress, from the standpoint of the President's Executive Branch, and the Department of Justice, from the standpoint of the Courts, we just must make sure people know this has no place. But it's stunning to see the brazenness of some of the attacks and we've seen them right here in San Francisco, where you would expect that that would – can be considered totally nonexistent, not to even mention unacceptable. But thank you for your question. It is of the highest priority for us and at the – President, from the White House, to the Congress, to the Courts, to our communities here, we must make sure that justice, justice is done so that it will, it will stop. So thank you for your question.

[Applause]

But I do want to keep reminding people, when you see it happen, mark the time of day and the day and what the person said, so it can be tried as a hate crime. And not just as an occasional burglary or something, you know, just make sure it can rise to the level of hate crime, if that is indeed what it is by what the person said.

Q. I have a question, now that the January 6th footage is out, can you share your thoughts now and then, now that the public has seen the video?

Speaker Pelosi. I'm happy to answer that question. It's about January 6th and what the Committee put forth two days ago. But if we can – may just focus on what we're here for right now, I think that that would be important. Does anyone have any – yes, ma'am?

Q. My question is, what impressed you the most today?

Speaker Pelosi. But you know, I was going to say when you start to ask the question, I thought I'm going to yield to Florence right away, but if you're asking me what impressed me the most, I'll have to answer that myself.

[Laughter]

What is exciting for me is to see community coming together. I always say our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power. And to see the communities coming together, to listening to the communities as to how they would like to see their farm go forward. Not, ‘Oh, we have an idea. This is what it is who wants to help?' No. You're helping means you have to create the idea and how we go forward. So it's inter – in the communities, one community and another coming together. It's also intergenerational. And it's bringing other parts of the community as, as was said earlier, when, when we talked, when Katie talked about the Junior League, saying we hadn't been so involved in the community. This farming is a universal thing.

And I always do believe that teachers learn from their students, as well as students learning from their teacher. So we're all teaching each other. And we're all listening here. So what was impressive, I mean to hear Faheem talk about what motivated him to come here, he really personalized so much of the intergenerational interaction among different communities, and really to hear Shima talk about being part of both communities. That was a beautiful thing.

But the whole experience is very inspiring, including the produce. Have you seen the produce? Have you seen the results? That's inspiring as well. I'm never surprised about the leadership of the Fang family. And I see that my dear son has joined us. He's a big fan of the Fangs as well. Thank you. Hi, Paul.

Any other question about why we gathered – yes, ma'am?

Q. So for factory farm workers – so will you be working on the factory farms, community farms. You need more farms in the community?

Speaker Pelosi. Yeah, well, let me just tell you what I would have said if I read my notes.

[Laughter]

Is that, here's the thing — because as our distinguished Director of Region 9 EPA, Martha Guzman has said, a regional administrator, this is part of a bigger thing and as was mentioned about the Department of Agriculture, in these bills, we have a good deal of resources that are there. And funds are always competed for by what your proposal is. But this President has made justice and fairness and inclusion and diversity, a part of the standard of what will happen. So that means it's different. You have to show how you're bringing a community together by listening to the community. So we have, again, for – just in this thing, we have $300,000 to expand operations from the USDA, $75,000 for environmental justice from the EPA. But understand this also, and this is part of billions of dollars for the whole country for a variety of purposes relating to the environment and farming and saving the planet.

But what is interesting, what I think it's important for everyone here to know is that what you were doing proves the point. So it enables us to get more, not only for you, but for others, because you were model to others. And the best argument we can make about doing more is to show examples of success. So that's why I said this is an example of, a model of an initiative of national significance, because others can see this, be encouraged, have confidence that it works and it works because it listens to the community. Okay

So if you wish, or – I can just come talk to you about January 6th. The – my daughter, Alexandra, who's a filmmaker, she had brought her son who was in eighth grade, for him to see a lesson in civics, on how we would have a peaceful transfer of power. It was having no thought that we would have an instigation incited by the President of the United States and violence, an assault on the Capitol, an assault on our Constitution, because the Constitution required that day that we act to ratify – certify who would be president and vice president of the United States.

So it was about Congress, it was about the building, of course, this temple of democracy for the world to see under assault. So it was horrible. And they asked me if I was scared, I said: ‘I wasn't scared for me. I was scared for my staff, I was scared for the maintenance people who keep the Capitol going, I was scared for the press who was covering, I was scared for my colleagues, my colleagues who didn't have the same kind of security I had.'

So it was really quite frightening. But the trauma that it caused, that is ongoing. And the message that it's sent to the world, with the crudeness and deprecation, verbal and otherwise, that was there was – it was a horrible thing.

So Alexandra, who was there to just witness civics, a civics lesson was then – could show what was happening, where we were pleading with the Administration, pleading with them to send the National Guard to stop what was there. And they would say, ‘Well, it takes planning and we've got to get approvals,' and we're saying, ‘Just send them, okay? Just send them.'

It was, it was good for the world to see. Now, the reason that happened is other people were coming forth with videos that they had, and she said, ‘Well, I feel compelled to give them what we have, so that people can see what we saw that day.' It turns out to be quite historic, because they've never had that close up video recording of what happened.

And one of the things that I hear the most about is – two things one, about the Vice President. When I spoke to him, I said, ‘I'm so afraid for you to be in the Capitol still. Just, I hope nobody finds out that you're there. Be safe. Why are you still here?' I don't think this was in the film. And he said, ‘Well, the Secret Service thought it might be – call more attention if we left with the, with the Vice President's entourage.' But Lord knows what might have happened if that entourage went out there.

And the other thing was, and this gets a lot of reporting, I'm told, I haven't had time to watch it, but, is that I said that, ‘Suppose this was happening at the White House, or this was happening at the Pentagon, you would have forces there to stop it. Now send them to the Capitol. Now send them to the Capitol.' So if there was a resistance for a long time, the Secretary of the Army who approves that said, ‘Well, I've got to get permission from my boss.' Go in and ask him. The Secretary of Defense, all these people are acting and of course they were holding it up.

So anyway, that's what was new about what was happening that day. What was happening behind the scenes. This is the first time I've talked about that, so we're home. You're my bosses, I'm sharing that with you.

[Applause]

But it's all about the children. And that's why I love seeing the children take part in all of this growing and Jake coming up with his basket of flowers and fruit and honey. And he said he liked working with the bees. So let's remember that we're always here For The Children.

Thank you, Florence. Thank you, Ted. Thank you to each and every one of you.

[Applause]