Week 4 Readings

Firstly, I liked how this week’s readings dealt with some of the other factors that are involved in our food systems besides the food: the workers and the accessibility. It seems to me that in our food system, emphasis is placed mostly on nutrition, secondly on animal welfare, and lastly on worker welfare. Everyone knows about the documentaries encouraging veganism, yet many of these documentaries only take into account animal welfare with no regards to the immigrant workers who harvested the lettuce.  (not a put-down to veganism, but rather an observation about documentaries). Although maybe not always the case, this issue can be diluted by buying foods from local farms where the producer and the customer have a transparent relationship (again, more backing to how the local farm may be a huge part of the answer to our food injustice). More local farms and community gardens in food insecure neighborhoods can also drastically reduce the problem of unhealthy and essentially inaccessible food. My favorite quote from Guthman’s chapters was “equity not charity.” For example, it’s definitely a stigma to receive free and reduced lunch at public schools, yet this is more so an attempt to equalize than to differentiate the well-off from the poor. I’ve always thought integrating a gardening program into national curriculum would help promote sustainability and self-sufficiency at a young, absorbent age—plus, kids love playing in dirt, c’mon.

I also enjoyed how the one article discussed political philosophy in how different views may think and feel towards other approaches towards “good” food. It’s important to remember that “good” is subjective and depends on values. Personally I identify heavily with communitarianism because I believe that the needs in each community will vary drastically, and working towards a common goal takes precedent over individual freedoms.