A household with a single mother and two constantly hungry growing girls meant that my mom was always trying to find the best option at the lowest price. Our town was split down the middle by a major highway, yet the only two options were Walmart and Publix. Even though shopping at Publix is a pleasure, their prices are not. Obnoxious fluorescent lights, unhappy workers, and a constant overflow of customers always made shopping at Walmart an exhausting experience; but yet you knew you were getting the best deal. Even though my family was lucky enough to live close to these markets and have a reliable mode of transportation, I could imagine low income families that lived a just a little farther out having a really difficult time.We didn't have any successful public transport system; however, there were tons of gas stations and liquor stores for quick "food."
It seems that the truth of the matter is that social inequality, environmental injustice, and food instability are innately related to each other. When I realized these links is when I really became passionate about what I'm studying. The people that tend to live by environmentally unstable areas like chemical plants, pollution, or waste disposal areas tend to be both people of low socioeconomic status and people of color. The people who do not have sufficiently fresh and healthy food options are people in this same situation. Having a safe environment and food to eat is not an economic issue, it is a human rights issue.
I found that the readings drew some great points on the parallel between the roles of the private and public sectors in maintaining the right to food. It made me wonder, is it possible to address food inequality without first relieving poverty in an area? Can you have both people in poverty and food equality? How can we help food deserts, especially those in Tallahassee?
I believe food equity can be addressed without first relieving poverty in an area. Although limited or no access to food is associated with poverty, I think the structure of some community gardens and community markets address food inequality and poverty at the same time. There were many examples in the readings of urban agricultural models which simultaneously addressed food inequity, economic conditions, and skills training (or job preparation). This kind of model does not eliminate or relieve poverty first, but it certainly creates a more positive economic atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you when you bring up the connection between kindergartners, processed foods, and obesity. It must be hard for parents of kids in this age group (especially if one, or both, work full time) to purchase foods that are 1. "good" and 2. affordable. Issues of access--transportation as well as business choice are all apart of the broken food system. The suburbanization of grocery stores while liquor stores and quick marts lay their roots leave people in poverty systematically disenfranchised yet again. I think addressing food inequality is addressing poverty. Food is foundational to school performance as well as physical and mental health. I think we need to use much more than urban gardens and farmers' market. I think we need to incentivize grocery store owners through policy and other mandated initiatives.
ReplyDeleteThe way that I believe we can help food deserts, especially in Tallahassee, is by creating sustainable farmers markets that addresses the underlying problems as to why food deserts exist in Tallahassee. For example, a sustainable farmers market would be benefits to both the consumer and the farmer, because the consumer would have access to fresh local produce and the farmer would have a market to sell their goods to. Also, a scalable farmers market would be able to address sustainability within an integrative context of social, environmental, and economic. For example, social sustainability for a farmer's market would develop an intimate culture of the consumer getting to know their farmer and vice versa. Environmental sustainability would address the fact that the consumers buying local food could possibly help to reduce their carbon footprint by not buying into the globalized industrial foods market. Lastly, the economic sustainability of a farmer's market in a food desert could keep the economy of the community up, because money is generating within the community due to the benefits that the consumer and farmer receives from the local farmer's market.
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