The Activists Working to Remake the Food System The Activists Working to Remake the Food System They’re committed not just to securing better meals for everyone, but to dismantling the very structures that have long exploited both workers and consumers. From left: Jamila Norman of Patchwork City Farms, Karen Washington of Black Urban Growers and Dara Cooper of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance, photographed at Norman’s farm in Atlanta on Jan. 18, 2021.Credit...Photograph by Nydia Blas. Set design by Beth Pakradooni. Set designer’s assistant: Harry Smith. By Ligaya Mishan Feb. 19, 2021 AN ALTAR IS a sacred space, but you can make one anywhere, out of anything; out of what you’re given. On Dec. 5, a small group gathered in downtown Springdale, Ark., to line the cement steps of a public square with Our Lady of Guadalupe candles, chrysanthemums and white cards bearing the handwritten names of local poultry workers who had died of Covid-19. Under each name was the legend “¡Presente!” (“Here!”) at once invocation and exhortation, used in Latin America to proclaim the continuing presence of the dead among us, particularly victims of oppression. White helmets were set beside the cards, and blue vinyl aprons hung from the railings: part of the uniform the workers once wore as they stood shoulder to shoulder, breaking down up to 175 birds a minute even as the pandemic raged, in a city dominated by chicken and turkey plants and decreed by the state to be the Poultry Capital of the World.