#190: The Community Creates the Market: Brooklyn Supported Agriculture

The community creates the market! For Chef Mu that is not a tagline -- it is what he witnesses every time he shows up. In this episode, Melissa L. Jones sits down with Mustafa Abdul Rahim -- known as Chef Mu — culinary professional, food justice advocate, Chopped finalist, and market manager for Brooklyn Supported Agriculture, a Black-led worker-owned food cooperative rooted in the heart of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, celebrating 10 years of impact. Chef Mu speaks candidly about what it means to build a food system that puts people first — from a sliding scale model that considers wealth not just income, to showing up as a "veg tender" who knows his community by name. He challenges the way we think about where our food comes from, who profits from it, and why the most radical thing you can do is choose differently.