Drop your fork, please

The readings for this week dive into the term "justice" (Alkon & Agyeman) but bring to light many facets of what it means in relation to food. In the articles, food access, migrant farm conditions, and alternative food options are discussed.

Just as the sub-urbanization of cities have driven people to the suburbs, supermarkets and grocery stores have followed suit, leaving urban centers as food deserts. This greatly reduces access to healthy options and pushes a heavy reliance on canned and processed goods, which in turn greatly limits the residents’ health. Through several case studies presented in Gottlieb and Joshi (2013), grocery gaps--"the lack of full service food markets with affordable items including fresh food, within walking distance" can be seen in low income neighborhoods (both rural and urban) across the United States. Though areas with large grocery gaps tend to be economically depressed, liquor stores, fast food chains, and quick marts flood the area. This combination proves to be dividing, as links have been identified between food insecurity and health related disparities based on race,ethnicity, and income (Gottlieb & Joshi, 2013). Despite the growing number of urban farms, farmers' markets, and food coalitions, grocery gaps can be seen in several neighborhoods throughout Tallahassee.

Often times when I hear the phrases “food justice” “food insecurity” “food gardens” and/or “food desert” the image that comes to mind is often a dense, urban area, swamped with liquor stores and fast food franchises. I never realized how often I forget about the people who grow the food that stocks the shelves at Publix or Trader Joes. A few months ago I went to an area on the border of Florida and Georgia where many farm and factory workers lived. As I looked around, I realized that food injustice is not only manifested in in poor urban centers, or even rural areas, but in the very same place where our food is grown, packaged, and shipped. Leaving the migrant farm, it left me emotionally drained (seriously, I slept the entire way home, condolences to my dear friend Jesse who drove me) and made me wonder how to continue choosing "alternative food" (Alkon & Agyeman) while supporting my farming brothers and sisters who are treated as modern day indentured servants?

Is the way to support them by boycotting Publix by growing my own tomatoes? How do we best support organizations like CIW?

Week 4 Reflection

Many people in the world still suffer from hunger even though plenty of food is produced in the world to adequately nourish the entire world population. So why are there still areas on the globe that suffer because of lack of food? Multiple factors contribute to this. For one, food cost money to import to nations that cannot produce it themselves. Most of the nations that need food are mostly developing nations that cannot afford to import large quantities of food for there population. Secondly, some nations are located in areas that are not adequate for starting an agricultural system of there own, and are also not located near any developed nations that can easily send them food.

According to the Feeding America Organization, 25 - 40% of food grown, processed and transported in the US will never be consumed. That is close to 70 billion pounds of food waste per year, just in the US. If we could find a way to eradicate all of that food loss, we could feed all of the hungry people that live in the US, as well as help hungry people in other nations across the globe.

Also, some poor nations should be able to follow the example that was set by Cuba. When the vast majority of Cuba's food imports were cut off due to political reasons; the people of Cuba turned to localized, small-time agriculture as opposed to large scale commercial agriculture. This move made it easier for people to obtain locally grown fruits and vegetables at a low price. Almost all of the food consumed by Cuba in that time-period was grown on local, urban farms. Other poor nations that are located in agriculturally viable areas should emulate this model. Developed nations alone will not be able to solve the world hunger problem; areas of low food production must innovate and find new ways to produce there own food locally.

Alternative Food Movements - Food Justice and Sovereignty

The 2008 Global Food Crisis in which food prices rose exorbitantly, resulting in record levels of global hunger combined with record profits for major agrifood corporations may have stemmed from various proximate causes such as droughts, high oil prices, and the huge amount of grain used to feed livestock, but it is clearly the underlying structure of the global food industry, the corporate food regime, at the root of the problem (Holt-Ginenez, 2011). “Like capitalism, the corporate food regime goes through periods of liberalization characterized by unregulated markets and breathtaking capital expansion, followed by devastating busts.” - like the 2008 food crisis- “These are followed by reformist periods...in an effort to restabilize the regime” (Holt-Ginenez, 2011). Thus, in order to avoid such “busts” in the future, which could include increasingly severe food crises, the entire structure of the global food regime must be transformed. The reformist trend which focuses on food security, through such institutions as the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, is not a part of the alternative food movement as it only serves to prop up the current, inequitable system.

Progressive trends in the food movement, focusing on citizen empowerment and food justice, seek a more equitable and environmentally sustainable food system in which issues of access to healthy food in underserved communities, wages of agricultural workers, and local food production are addressed. These initiatives are much needed and many have been very successful, For instance, the food justice organization, Nuestras Raices, based in Holyoke, Massachusetts has “...demonstrated that it is possible to rebuild and empower communities by creating alternative approaches to growing and producing food” (Gottleib & Joshi, 2010), and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has organized multiple successful campaigns aimed at improving the wages and working conditions of agricultural workers.

The only problem here is the need to also restructure the global food system, which the progressive trend does not tend to address as its focus is typically based on a more local scale. The radical trend, however, is concerned with the global food system. This trend focuses on the human right to food sovereignty and the democratization of the food system, and seeks to break the corporate monopoly and redistribute land and rights to water and seed. While the progressive trend is often active in practice, the radical trend is active more so through advocacy to raise awareness of the inequalities and injustices present in the current system. It is noted, however, that these trends are not necessarily fixed and have diverse interests and positions on many issues, and that alliances can be made across these somewhat fluid categories. Holt-Ginenez suggests that for true success of the alternative food movement, a transformation of the corporate food regime, the progressive and radical trends need to align.

Week 4: Culture and Farming

I hadn't considered the human side to "Food Justice." In the Gottleib and Joshi Growing Justice chapter, it is interesting to read about the various organizations throughout history that have attempted to improve the lives of farmers. I am shocked to see the term "slavery" thrown around and realize how unaware I am of these horrific conditions some farmers faced.

I found the immigrant farmers piece to be the most interesting. Farming culture, being one of the themes, is unique and different depending on where on Earth you are. When immigrants migrate from rural areas to the U.S., they often turn to their agricultural skills, even if it is in a bustling city. It is something that allows them to retain part of their culture, and as with the NIFI conference, explore other cultures as well. The National Immigrant Farming Initiative (NIFI) really seems to be effective in creating an organization that all U.S. immigrants can look to for support. The "open space technology" approach to a conference is an awesome idea that NIFI used in its conference. The whole "make your own workshop schedule with no keynote speakers or panelists" idea allows the diverse conference members from different nationalities to share with one another, not just their agriculture skills, but also their heritage.

To me, this idea of cultural understanding among farmers best links to the Alkon and Agyeman reading as an example of communitarianism. This theory is "linked with tolerance of other cultures and practices in a community, as with the Amish communities." Not that these immigrant communities are exactly like the Amish. But I do think the same willingness to farm to express culture here connects with communitarianism.

Are there any other theories that are brought up in the Alkon and Agyeman reading that might also connect to the immigrant organizations? What can national organizations like NIFI do to promote local pushes in agriculture?

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.

Just Food: It's Not Just, Food

I was pleased to be able to read more about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in the Gottlieb & Joshi article this week, because my introduction to my undergraduate's association with this the CIW was similarly an introduction the issues migrant farmworkers face. My first-year book at New College was, of all things, Omnivore's Dilemma. Thus I entered with a bunch of students eager to learn more about food justice, and joined a community that was active within this movement. One of my first community meetings at New College was to hear a CIW-affiliated farmworker speak about the organization's efforts in the region. He spoke specifically of the organization's victories with fast food giants like Taco Bell, and about their current efforts to get Publix to "pay a penny more" for each pound of tomatoes a farmworker picks. While he was at New College to garner support for the CIW and for a march that was coming up, what struck me most about his presentation was the organization's focus on building autonomy among the farmworkers themselves. What a lot of people don't know about organizations like the CIW is that they are not lead by an advocate, someone that perhaps is more able to bridge the gap with the "outside world" but has never lived the life of those they are advocating for. The CIW is, as its name strictly tells you, an organization for farmworkers and by farmworkers. They appreciate and, in some cases, rely on allies to their cause but are by no means driven by them.

This could, and should, cause us to reflect on our roles in the food justice movement. Many of us are never  going to know the extreme hardships that farmworkers face: racial discrimination; low wages and poor living conditions; and even, in some horrifying instances, enslavement. I found myself wondering in these early days of being aware of migrant farmworkers issues, what should I do then? Do I boycott Publix? Do I throw myself into organizing, even though this is a cause that I can't personally relate to? Would that be disingenuous? To be honest, I still have not answered these questions. I guiltily buy tomatoes at Publix and think about all of the members of the CIW I encountered. I am aware of these issues and yet, I do nothing. Something I found lacking in the rather dense discussion of different philosophical approaches to "justice" is how to engage oneself meaningfully and genuinely into the food justice movement. While the communitarian approach resonated with me, what should I do when the "community" that seeks justice is not my own? How do we juggle not wanting to encroach upon the safe spaces the disadvantaged have built for themselves, through hard work and incredible passion, with wanting to advocate for their cause, in their name?

I like to think I believe in food justice. I believe food should be grown with integrity, by respected, well-paid, and well-treated workers in a system that does not try to purposefully oppress them, in such a manner that nourishes both the environment and human beings, body and soul. I believe healthy food access is a fundamental right. But...where do I, as a privileged person, play a role in creating this reality, without stepping on the toes of those I want to help?

Making Justice With Your Fork

Globally, one billion people starve every day due to a lack of access in foods. Many times I have seen on the media that more deforestation and new technologies rise in order to cease world hunger. However, data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2007 suggests that there is enough food to feed the world. The trend observes that food production increases by 2 percent each year whilst population growth rate decreases by 1.4. Thus, the concern does not really lie in making enough food, but rather in where food is being sent to.

Data from the World Food Program also mentions that 90 percent of people who starve is because of lack of money to buy enough food to sustain themselves and their family on a daily basis. Therefore, it can be assumed that the issue is not food production, but money and wealth. While many countries starve and suffer from high poverty rates in the southern hemisphere, obesity rates increase steadily in nations across the northern hemisphere. This shows the unevenness of food distribution, which is ultimately linked to the monopolization of corporations that take over entire sectors of the global economy. In the case of food, power is distributed among very few corporations.

As a citizen, a student, and a person, it can be overwhelming to see all the issues that affect our food system, especially since the scale of the problem is worldwide. Still, I have learned to make small changes that can have a positive effect in fighting food injustice and monopolization. Localism, as DuPuis and Holt-Giménez mention in their article, is a tool that brings power back to food growers that are independent from corporate networks, and provide food security that would otherwise be affected by global crashes or inflation.

Although localism is an effective alternative, it does not address the issue of food equity. Even when a local food system can be enhanced, some other areas and communities lack of one in the first place, either due to its environmental conditions or lack of income to purchase food. As an open ended question to readers, how can individuals and/or organizations reach out to famished areas? What are some effective ways of self-sustaining those communities? Are there any examples that you have seen or read about?