District of Columbia voters’ approval to end the subminimum wage for tipped employees highlights the momentum that worker advocates say could help them spread similar wage-law changes across the US even as the restaurant industry pushes back.

Legumes could be a powerful tool in building a more-sustainable agricultural system. But Nina Ichikawa and other researchers at the Berkeley Food Institute suspect that something is holding Americans back from eating more beans.

Soil contains about 2,500 billion metric tons of carbon. It’s the second-biggest carbon sink on the planet, currently holding about three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Some scientists and activists think it could do even more.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, bestselling author of “How to be an Antiracist,” speaks with Saru Jayaraman, the president of One Fair Wage, about the subminimum wage for tipped workers and its legacy of slavery and racism.

The Mendocino Voice caught up with Andrea Brown, the Hopland Scholar for the year 2022-23, and Monica Donegan, who does research on a grant through the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Both are studying Pierce’s Disease in the Almeida Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

DC’s restaurant industry has defeated efforts to raise the minimum wage for restaurant workers before. This year, advocates believe they have a winning campaign.