Arizona Americans Elect Party Leader Trey Young Introduces Yavapai County Co-Chairs Nina O'Neill von Stauffenberg & Dr. Alexander von Stauffenberg, Food Movement Activists, Who Will Fight to Reform Agriculture & the Food Industry

PRESCOTT, Ariz., May 15 -

Last evening Arizona Americans Elect Party leader Trey Young announced at a Prescott fundraiser and dinner party that food movement activists Nina O’Neill von Stauffenberg and Dr. Alexander von Stauffenberg would be the party’s new co-chairs in Yavapai County and would lead the party's vision for reforming agriculture and the food industry and providing Arizonans with safe, healthy and humanely-produced meals, locally sourced whenever possible.

The von Stauffenbergs live in Prescott, where they own Mekong Delta, a fusion Asian restaurant; Cookies and Scream, a vegan bakery; Artisan du Chocolat, an artisanal chocolate shop; and Top of the Hops, a tasting bar and culture center for craft and imported beers. 

Ms. O'Neill von Stauffenberg is also on the board of Arizona Meals on Wheels.  A native of Chicago, she graduated from Loyola University Chicago and received an associate degree in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America. 
 
Dr. von Stauffenberg is a former staff associate at the International Food Policy Research Institute, an organization in Washington that focuses on environmentally sound policies to alleviate hunger and poverty.  He received a doctorate in cultural studies at the graduate school of North American studies at the Free University of Berlin.  

Both Dr. and Ms. von Stauffenberg were major contributors last year in the effort to pass California's Prop 37, a measure that would have required most foods made with genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled.

"People by the millions have begun, as the slogan goes, to vote with their forks in favor of more sustainably and humanely produced food, and against agribusiness," said Mr. Young, leader of Arizona's fastest-growing political party, which has appeared on the ballot since 2012 with a slate of progressive candidates for state and local offices.  

"Dynamic young Arizona Americans Elect Party leaders like the von Stauffenbergs have revitalized local farming and urban communities," Mr. Young said, in introducing the couple.  "At the same time they have raised the bar on the food industry, which now must pay attention to things like sustainable farming and the humane treatment of animals."