Why Food Justice?
Food is everywhere. We all need it to survive, we cannot avoid it. It is energy, it is community, it is culture. Food is one of the only things we think we have control over. Or do we?
We receive a paycheck of $100.00. 'This month," I think to myself, "I am going to be really healthy!" I don't know much about health and nutrition but I know enough to know that I gotta up my intake of fruits and veggies, maybe cut back on red meat and some pouring the cheese on every dish...I know that things that say "organic" are automatically better for me. Fine, well done, sir. Feelin better already. I walk into Whole Foods in Union Square, after all, isn't there where people go to get healthy food? (Click here for an interactive map on finding real cheap, healthy, local eating in for area).
I walk into Whole Foods with my $100.00 in hand. Feelin fine. Woah! It is crowded in here! Maybe I will make myself some lasagna, that sounds fun...
I let my eyes find the produce that is labeled "organic." Organic tomatoes or "conventional" ones? The organic stuff is so much more expensive! Why is this? Interesting that the non-organic peppers are labeled "conventional?" Has it become conventional to spray crops with pesticides and other harmful herbicides and chemicals that have been proven to cause cancer, learning disabilities and have been linked to hundreds of other lethal side effects?
So I pick up an organic tomato. From...Florida? So I am taking care of my own body but what about all of the pollutants and gas that is required to fly all of this organic produce over here?
Beyond Organic: The organic food movement is rapidly changing how America eats and grows its food. Between 1997 and 2001, farmers added a million acres of certified organic land, doubling the amount of organic pasture and more than doubling organic cropland. This reflects not just a rise of speciality retailers like Whole Foods. By 2003 organic products could be found in 73 percent of conventional grocery stores according to a USDA study, and last summer, the retail giant Wal-Mart began selling organics. But Erika Allen, development director of Growing Power, saying the organic label doesn't tell the whole story, "There are organic farmers on the walls of Whole Foods who have some atrocities labor practices- atrocious. They're just like plantation owners. People don't know that." Whole Foods shoppers also don't know the process of attaining organic certification.
Watch this video to learn more about the journey that your food takes from farm to table:
and click here to Meet some of the people who grow your food!
Introduction to Food Systems:
"They don't want us, as consumers, to think about how our food is made and whats in it."
What is a Food System?
The term food system refers to all the "food chain events" from growing to processing to distributing that takes food from field to fork (Winne 2004). A global food system sources food from all over the world. It is not uncommon to find Chinese apples, and Chilean grapes alongside American potatoes in the average American grocery store. These foods converge at major distribution centers to be sold throughout the country by air, boat, rail, or tractor-trailer. While these systems supply Americans with inexpensive foods in any season, there are hidden health, social, and environmental costs.
At the turn of the 20th century, food systems operated primarily on a local and regional level. The development of a global, industrialized food system has significantly changed the way we eat and our relationship to where food comes from.
The concentration and centralization of farming has caused a tremendous drop in the number of farmers. In the United States, there are now more full-time prisoners (roughly 2.1 million) than full time farmers (roughly 960,000). As recently as the 1920's, nearly a third of our labor force were farmers; now, less than one percent are. Our challenge today is to grow resilient food systems that sustain and steward the long-term health of our environment, neighborhoods and physical bodies and selves.
What does a Globalized Food System Cost?
The predominant way of growing food in America is on large-scale industrial farms, owned by a few large corporations. Currently, just four companies control 84 percent of the U.S cereal market and it is estimated that just two companies, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland, purchase one-third of all the corn grown in the U.S. and own their entire line of production, from farm to table.
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