COVID-19 has revealed fundamental cracks in the integrity of the food system. As outbreaks occur in meat packing plants across the country, the supply chain has broken down, revealing how reliant we are on just a few suppliers for our food. Indeed, in the face of a potential meat shortage, Costco, among other retailers, has limited members to three meat items per transaction. Kroger, and its local satellite chain Fred Meyer, temporarily placed restraints on the number of egg and dairy products available for purchase in a single transaction, as well. 

These examples are simply microcosms of the real issue at hand – a society lacking food sovereignty.

On the surface, this breakdown reveals how much agency we have been dispossessed of, as consumers. However, a more judicious inspection shows that those who produce and process the food we eat have also been adversely impacted. 

It’s true, as gstine9 writes: the burden of production and processing has been shifted onto majority minority communities (see Raj Patel:The Color of Food, “Workers of color comprised almost half of the workers in this sector… We suspect that the actual numbers may be higher”(12)). Diffusion of responsibility rides shotgun, while the protection of workers has taken a backseat, during the pandemic. A recent podcast by The Indicator from Planet Money evinces the food production paradox: low-wage farm workers (and meat packers) are essential workers, who are economically obliged to continue their work (not to mention holding the burden of trying to keep the ever fruitful American food cornucopia/system running); however, in doing so, they risk creating even greater contraction/transmission positive feedback loop (remember systems thinking?).  

Via Campesina. Via Global Justice Now, https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.globaljustice.org.uk%2Fblog%2F2017%2Fjul%2F27%2Fmy-week-la-campesina&psig=AOvVaw1-9wdDaxQmpFXbEFW1clFN&ust=1589639795603000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCOCi4e-LtukCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

I think the messages of Via Campesina, and Monica White, ought to be heeded. A reclamation of food sovereignty is in line. Monica White’s prescriptions for minority communities are relevant too – regaining economic autonomy, by way of subversion of industrialized food. These might be realized in a switch to more community based farming, in which all inputs are known, and there are fewer middlemen in the production and processing of food.

Some pumpkins I’ve planted recently 🙂
Photo by me.