Tanya Kerssen

Co-Director

Tanya Kerssen has been doing activist research and political education for a decade and a half. Her research and solidarity work has taken her from coca fields in Bolivia to rice paddies in Mali to palm oil plantations in Honduras. She has worked on a range of campaigns in support of anti-militarism, freedom for political prisoners, and resistance to dam construction—but at the heart of all her work is a commitment to peasants’ rights and community control over land and resources. She is the author of Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food, and Democracy in Northern Honduras (Food First Books 2013) as well as numerous articles in the popular and academic press. She co-authored a chapter in the book The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action (UC Press 2017) looking at the intersections of land, race, gender, climate, and economic justice movements in the United States. She has also developed curricula focused on community-based food systems for several college courses and has designed and led dozens of international delegations focused on food, agriculture, and human rights. Tanya’s experience working with farmers and food sovereignty movements around the world makes her an asset to the Real Food Media team, where she conducts political analysis, provides strategy support to movement partners, develops educational materials, and supports several audio storytelling projects. Originally from Montreal, she holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and is currently based in Minneapolis, MN.