Alex Zubia's guest appearances

Alex Zubia

The Ground Shots Podcast

Arizona Pipe Trades Podcast

Brandon Nelson

Jeff Nelson

Jeff Cook

Frank Medina

Mark Olea

Henry Brotzman

Grant McQuaid

Chandler Cortez

Thomas Reichenberger

Clint McBride

Chad Jesse

Robert Lampers

Solomon Galyon

Shelby Lewelling

Nia Leyva

OwlTail

read the entirety of the show notes for this episode here. Episode #73 of the Ground Shots Podcast is a conversation with Alex Zubia (XeF) out of Fresno, California. Alex Zubia, who goes by “Xef” is a Chef by trade. Born and raised in Fresno, CA (yokuts Land). Alex attended The California Culinary Academy in San Francisco (Ramaytush Ohlone land) in 2007. His passion for cooking came with his passion for eating. From 2008-2015 he worked at Community Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Room as a Patient Liaison. During that time he witnessed people from his community dying from diet related issues. That realization led him to opening his food truck, which  focused on healthier, farm to fork versions of familiar foods. In 2015, Alex moved to Santa Barbara (Chumash Land) to further his skills as a chef. There, he discovered that so much of the beautiful produce he was cooking with came from Fresno. He wondered why he never saw all this produce available in Fresno. Alex moved back to his hometown in 2021 to fight for food justice as a Food Sovereignty Director at Fresno Barrios Unidos. Alex’s goal is to bring his community back to eating and cooking their indigenous foods which are so plentiful in the Central Valley. In this conversation with Alex, we talk about:   food apartheid (or ‘food deserts’) in Fresno, California, which is in the Central Valley of California, a place where so much food is grown yet not a lot of local food is available for the folks who live there   food is medicine, culturally and physically   Alex’s journey doing work with food, cooking in Santa Barbara and Fresno   the corporate industrial food complex as it intersects capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy   Alex’s work as a patient liaison at the Community Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Room and how it changed their perspective and what they observed as harmful aspects of the hospital industrial complex   The importance of love, community, and good food for good health   Navigating the nonprofit world when trying to do food justice work   some raving on TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) Chico and Ali Meders-Knight’s model of land tending in California   regenerative agriculture stems from indigenous practices   The four R’s and more on Transition US (Resist, Repair, Reimagine, Regenerate)     Links: Sign up for Summer 2023 field ecology classes in the southern Rockies  Late Spring Terratalks Ecology study group, for late April and May   Fresno Barrios Unidos Transition US Alex/Xef’s Instagram: alexander_fresno Transition US’ instagram: transition_us Fresno Barrios Unidos’ instagram: fresnosbarriosunidos My Homie’s Kitchen instagram: myhomieskitchen Guest Music: “Walk Away” by Ambeeka

<a href="https://www.ofsedgeandsalt.com/podcastblog/alexzubia" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">read the entirety of the show notes for this episode here.</a> Episode #73 of the Ground Shots Podcast is a conversation with Alex Zubia (XeF) out of Fresno, California. Alex Zubia, who goes by “Xef” is a Chef by trade. Born and raised in Fresno, CA (yokuts Land). Alex attended The California Culinary Academy in San Francisco (Ramaytush Ohlone land) in 2007. His passion for cooking came with his passion for eating. From 2008-2015 he worked at Community Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Room as a Patient Liaison. During that time he witnessed people from his community dying from diet related issues. That realization led him to opening his food truck, which  focused on healthier, farm to fork versions of familiar foods. In 2015, Alex moved to Santa Barbara (Chumash Land) to further his skills as a chef. There, he discovered that so much of the beautiful produce he was cooking with came from Fresno. He wondered why he never saw all this produce available in Fresno. Alex moved back to his hometown in 2021 to fight for food justice as a Food Sovereignty Director at Fresno Barrios Unidos. Alex’s goal is to bring his community back to eating and cooking their indigenous foods which are so plentiful in the Central Valley. In this conversation with Alex, we talk about: <ul> <li> food apartheid (or ‘food deserts’) in Fresno, California, which is in the Central Valley of California, a place where so much food is grown yet not a lot of local food is available for the folks who live there </li> <li> food is medicine, culturally and physically </li> <li> Alex’s journey doing work with food, cooking in Santa Barbara and Fresno </li> <li> the corporate industrial food complex as it intersects capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy </li> <li> Alex’s work as a patient liaison at the Community Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Room and how it changed their perspective and what they observed as harmful aspects of the hospital industrial complex </li> <li> The importance of love, community, and good food for good health </li> <li> Navigating the nonprofit world when trying to do food justice work </li> <li> some raving on TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) Chico and Ali Meders-Knight’s model of land tending in California </li> <li> regenerative agriculture stems from indigenous practices </li> <li> The four R’s and more on Transition US (Resist, Repair, Reimagine, Regenerate) </li> </ul> Links: Sign up for <a href="https://www.layinggroundwork.org/ecologies-of-colorado/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Summer 2023 field ecology classes in the southern Rockies</a> <a href="https://www.ofsedgeandsalt.com/store/terratalk-sessions-early-spring-2023-how-can-we-cross-our-ecologies-6p4yf-sz6p4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Late Spring Terratalks Ecology study group, for late April and May</a> <a href="https://fresnobarriosunidos.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fresno Barrios Unidos</a> <a href="https://transitionus.org/about/transition-us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Transition US</a> Alex/Xef’s Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/alexander_fresno/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">alexander_fresno</a> Transition US’ instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/transition_us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">transition_us</a> Fresno Barrios Unidos’ instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fresnobarriosunidos/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fresnosbarriosunidos</a> My Homie’s Kitchen instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/myhomieskitchen/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">myhomieskitchen</a> Guest Music: <a href="https://hr-drv.lnk.to/SummerFALL22" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“Walk Away” by Ambeeka</a>

Alex Zubia on the importance of good food, community and love in Fresno, California

Ep 25 - Alex Zubia