Meat+Poultry - December 2018 - 18

COVER STORY

"We really
believe that
diversity is
a part of our
M.O. as an
organization,
so when we
recruit we
are thinking
about
diversity as
well as many
other things."
- DEB SINTA

POSITIVELY CHANGING
This past July, the Cultivating Change
Foundation held its fourth annual summit
for LGBTQ agriculturists and their allies.
The inaugural Cultivating Change Summit
was held in Atlanta in 2015. The event began
as a project spearheaded by Jesse Lee
Eller's Studio 5 team, a San Francisco-based
creative learning firm specializing in people
development, which he founded and leads
as CEO. His longtime friend, Hollan, works
as chief operating officer of Studio 5 and
the two launched the foundation after the
first summit in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
The summit was started with aspirations of
laying the groundwork for the long overdue
conversations about valuing and elevating
the presence of members of the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community
in the agricultural industry. That summit
drew about 33 attendees. The next two

MEAT+ POULTRY | 12.18 | www.meatpoultry.com

Tyson Foods Inc.

proud to be part of the industry's progression.
"It is kind of nice to feel like we are breaking
those boundaries a little bit," she says, "not
only being two women that own a beef jerky
business but two women that are married to
each other."
The couple doesn't go out of their way to
flaunt their marital status, but the name of the
company and its logo depicting the silhouetted
profiles of two women facing each other serve
as not-so-subtle hints.

annual events were held in Sacramento and
attendance grew each year and in its fourth
year, that number grew to about 200.
According to Hollan, the foundation's
co-founder and current executive director,
the summit provides a venue for agriculturists
in the LGBT community to network and
bring together business leaders to educate
them on how to make their workplaces more
LGBT friendly. Presentations and educational
sessions during the summit tackle issues not
typically addressed at most other industry
conferences and workshops, but also include
discussions about production practices,
sustainability and education.
Both Eller and Hollan grew up in California
in rural areas and were exposed to agriculture
and participated in programs such as 4-H and
Future Farmers of America. Both recall the
struggles of pursuing careers in agriculture
as gay men. The summit was started to help
people like them navigate those struggles.
Hollan says a key goal of the organization
is to answer the question: "What are we doing
to sustain talent within the industry and not
creating a space where people feel like 'I have
to choose whether or not I stay in agriculture
or I become my authentic self as an LGBT
individual in that community.' There's a divide
that still exists today and I think it's going to
exist for some time. I think we are helping
alleviate that." Eller adds that the foundation
is "encouraging people to be their authentic
selves and to stay in the industry, celebrating
agriculture and all the people that are affiliated
with it."
The 2018 summit was held for the first time
in the Midwest. It was also the first time Tyson
Foods sent a representative to not only attend
but also participate in a panel discussion.
Tyson was also one of the corporate sponsors
of this year's event, along with other ag-based
companies such as DowDuPont Inc. and
Monsanto in addition to the US Dept. of
Agriculture, which has participated since 2015.
Justin Ransom, senior director of
sustainable food strategy at Tyson, says
representing the company at the three-day
summit spotlights Tyson's commitment to
diversity. Ransom participated in a panel
discussion with representatives from other agrelated companies to detail Tyson's strategies
and programs specific to the LGBT community.

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Meat+Poultry - December 2018

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