Gretchen Groenke is a mother, poet, birth worker, and student of the plants and Earth. She was raised on an orchard in the vast industrial agricultural landscape of Washington state, where she learned to love rich soil, fresh food, plants, people, and language. It was also in this place that she came to know injustice and exploitation of land and people as inherent to a corporate globalized food system. These formative experiences set her life’s course to try to understand and dismantle oppression and injustice wherever she has reach. Gretchen has spent her life working with plants, agriculture, and community. Currently she facilitates and supports community-based education and organizing specific to food and racial justice, with an emphasis on building strength, dignity, and justice from the land up. She has served as the Co-Director of Mancos FoodShare and is a co-founder of the Four Corners Food Coalition, co-founder of 4 Corners Collaborative, a Raise Colorado Steering Committee member, and is a co-creator at 4th World Farm. You can find her writing, poetry, and latest adventures at @flamesinherveins.