Sustainable Communities Network

Seeds for Community Resilience, Friday December 1, 2023, 9:00 AM – 11:45 AM (Two Sessions), Cumberland University Alumni Hall

Jim Embry considers himself stardust congealed in human form that represents the billions of years of Earth’s evolution. As an evolutionary being, his purpose is to contribute to a paradigm shift towards Sacred Earth consciousness and refers to himself as a Sacred Earth Activist. Often times called an “eco-activist” or labeled as Black & Green, as an activist Jim has for the past 50 years participated in most of the major social movements of his era: Civil Rights, Student, Black Power, Environmental, Anti-war and Peace, Women’s, Disability, Inter-faith, Food Justice and Local Foods. In 1972 Jim was a founding member of Good Foods Co-operative and in 2018 helped establish the worker co-operative Wild Fig Bookstore, both in Lexington, KY. Jim now serves as director of Sustainable Communities Network (sustainlex.org) and cultivates collaborative efforts at the local, national and international levels with a focus on food systems.

Jim believes that we need some big ideas that connect humans in a sacred relationship with the Earth which will require us to think not just “out of the box” but “out-of-the-barn.” He is at home at every level, whether as a six time USA delegate to Slow Food’s Terra Madre in Italy, a visitor to Cuba to study organic farming, an organizer of urban agriculture projects, or serving as a land steward on a 30 acre family farm. Jim maintains that the local food and sustainable food/agriculture movement is the foundation of a sustainable community. Jim was a key contributor of the Slow Food USA Equity, Inclusion and Justice Manifesto. Working now on two books, Jim has contributed articles and photographs to the Sustainable World Sourcebook, Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky, the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia, Latino Studies, Biodynamics Journal, Stella Natura calendar, the African American Heritage Guide and numerous other publications.