Andrés Oyaga Email & Phone Number

Burlington, Vermont, United States

Vermont, United States

Organizing work brigades and popular education exchanges on BIPOC farms with the Agroecology School Collective, leveraging deep relationships with farmers established during his time with the VT Releaf Collective.

Middlebury, Vermont, United States

The Climate Action Coordinator at Middlebury College provides operational and technical support for the implementation of programs and outreach efforts to support campus activities related to the Climate Action Program. This includes internal and external communications, coordinating the Climate Action Fellowship program, organizing events across campus, as well as performing administrative tasks for overall programs.

Vermont, United States

My work as an organizer for Releaf focuses on challenging the homogeneity of Vermont’s food system organizations. How can we hold food system organizations accountable to the principles of inclusion and diversity, and to BIPOC Vermonters who have not had a seat at the table? How do we create an environmental organizing space that is committed to environmental justice, multiplicity? Some of my responsibilities include: - Building relationships with potential and current Black, Indigenous, and other members of color with interests in food systems through community exchanges and skill shares with farmers, chefs/cooks, and other food systems organizers. - Represent VT Releaf in food sovereignty, food justice, and cultural food spaces and stay attuned to food related happenings in Vermont. - Host and organize community gatherings for mingling and connection, but also skill shares and other educational opportunities. - Facilitate and oversee collaboration opportunities with allies and external partners.My favorite part of this job is facilitating community spaces where folks can show up as they are, without masking or feeling unwelcomed, and creating safe spaces where BIPOC folks involved in land, environment, agriculture, and foodways can collectively voice their needs and concerns.

Winooski, Vermont, United States

The Flying Fish Fellowship at Conscious Homestead is a seasonal, all-immersive Afro-Indigenous, Afro-TransAtlantic-centered farming, herbalism, and homesteading program for BIPOC Vermonters to connect with the land, each other, and our ancestors spanning through space and time.We collaborate with black and brown land stewards, artists, wellness practitioners, and other ancestrally-informed specialists throughout the state to lead workshops and skillshares during the fellowship. The bulk of the curriculum at the homestead focuses on ethnobotany and growing food, making herbal medicine, chicken care 101, Afro-American/Afro-Diasporan history, land-based arts and crafts, plant identification, foraging, composting, community care shares, ancestral cooking, and more.

Bridport, Vermont, United States

Member and Volunteer for the Agroecology and Movement School, a project collaborating with Rural VT and the international farmer movement, La Vía Campesina. Our goal was to construct a farmer-to-farmer school that mobilizes farmers throughout Vermont and connects them to small farmers and peasants from around the world. Because this school is emerging, I supported the co-creation of the collective’s internal structure, thinking through principles, conflict mediation processes, and strategies for coalition building and massifying this project in Vermont. I leave with hard skills in creating decision-making processes that are horizontal, rotational, and equitable; some experience with grant writing and grassroots fundraising efforts; coordinating logistics for public-facing events; on-the-ground experience in cross-cultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, transnational organizing.

Organize with students and community members around economic, environmental, and social justice projects - namely, collaborating with farmworker-led organization, Migrant Justice Vermont. Consulted the college administration on integrating a Social Justice pillar in their Energy 2028 Sustainability initiative and integrate labor standards in their energy portfolio. Coordinated with various guest speakers and professors to facilitate conversations and workshops around climate justice and activism with the student body.

Middlebury, Vermont, United States

Completed necessary farm tasks including bed preparation, seed saving, plant care, and food processing with attention to ecologically sound practices like regenerative agriculture, no-till, and integrated pest management. Facilitated BIPOC affinity spaces at the garden for collective work, reflection, and other community building activities. Delivered food donations to community partners like H.O.P.E, the Abenaki Land Link Project, and dining halls on campus.

Bachelor'S Degree, Environmental Justice And Food Systems, Summa Cum Laude, Department Honors

National Science Foundation Research Experience For Undergraduates (Nsf-Reu)

Executed and independent research project “Amid Agricultural Transformations: Assessing the Extent of Seed System Neoliberalization.