Today, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2019 slate of finalists. This “short list” of nominees honors the year’s outstanding restaurants, chefs, and food-centric journalism, books, and broadcast media.

Community Change communications fellow Debbie Weingarten was announced as an official James Beard Award nominee in the Investigative Reporting category for her reporting on systemic racism in the agriculture industry.  “It’s Not Fair, Not Right”: How America Treats Its Black Farmers centers around Angie and June Provost, who are among the last of Louisiana’s Black sugarcane farmers. The Provost family once farmed nearly 5,000 acres, but were forced off their land in 2015. Alleging discrimination and fraud by a local bank and sugar mill, the Provosts are fighting tooth and nail to retain their land and livelihood as farmers, and to expose the systemic racism in their community.