Author Archives: tkaitis

2020: Here’s To Resistance and Not Going Back to Normal

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So far, 2020 has afforded society and chance to toss worn bandages from its wounds and address the source of injury. For our class, it’s been an especially important time to examine the socioecological systems in which our food system is embedded. The coronavirus pandemic is revealing weaknesses from distribution bottlenecks to unjust working conditions. It’s also reminding us that intense animal agriculture such as CAFOs are breeding grounds for future pandemics. The recent murder of George Floyd has set yet another alarm demanding a reckoning with, and dismantling of, institutions built upon a legacy of racism and inequality – our food system not being exempt from these ills. Being a class discussing food using a systems-thinking approach, these breakdowns across Earth and social realms unfolding at warp speed can be understood as the result of generations of exploitation. The universe is begging us to examine our relationship with our food and with each other.

Grappling with these system imbalances, I recall our discussion of Gaia theory, which sees Earth as a self-regulating macro-organism, it’s biotic and abiotic elements functioning and evolving together. Wondering how to feed ourselves on a finite planet, Gaia theory offers solutions in the way of thinking cyclically. As industrial agriculture requires increasing inputs to compensate for soil degradation and other externalities, we can learn from nature’s non-linear models, where output becomes input. Waste from one = food for another.

This “thinking in circles” held presence as our action group partnered with the Center for Food Safety, a non-profit organization resisting the factory farm model by advocating for organic, sustainable, and restorative agriculture. Our goal was to research and develop criteria for a sustainable shellfish scorecard, which will inform consumers about pesticide use and tending/harvest methods. Washington state is the leading national producer of farmed oysters, clams, and mussels, generating around $270 million annually. Bivalves filter phytoplankton, clearing water for photosynthesis, essential for eelgrass, which provides nutrients and predation refuge for fish and crustaceans. When done responsibly, shellfish farming can compliment an ecosystem. Done irresponsibly, it can throw an ecosystem out of balance.

Is this balance? Geoduck farm in Puget Sound. Photo: Sean McDonald, University of Washington

This work gave an up-close look at the potential within our food system for restoring some balance. I gained appreciation for the work CFS does to positively impact human and environmental health by standing up to powerful corporate and government interests, like speaking up for unprotected meatpacking workers, taking on the EPA and Dow Chemical, and helping shut down CAFOs.

It’s all connected. ~Image Source

Food is embodied energy, solar power transformed into calories nourishing bodies, minds, souls. It is deeply personal and political. Food is power. As we call ourselves out on unjust systems of power and call for reform, let us include those systems which feed us and our Earth as one. To heal our wounds will require not more sutures but a bloodletting. We cannot and do not wish to go back to “normal.”

Food Lines: A Response to “Hunger and the Hungry”

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Having had time to reflect on a post by wisdaub entitled “Hunger and the Hungry,” a thoughtful contemplation of spiritual fasting, hunger, and food system shocks amidst the coronavirus pandemic, I will try to extend the conversation using a systems thinking approach. If we put “food insecurity” in the center of a systems map, the maze of feedback loops is dizzying, even without considering the effects of the current pandemic on the food supply network. Factor in the pandemic crisis and the triple inequalities multiply as those already least prepared for catastrophe are hit with another wave of hardship. There is no single cause or solution to global hunger, and many causes have complicated relationships among themselves.

Food System Map                                                                                     Image Source: thebigraise.fr

Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen, an expert in issues of famine, declares poverty and lack of democracy as primary drivers of hunger, and suggests increased trade, tariffs and democratization as solutions, and self-sufficiency as a less powerful solution other than in times of war. A different view from physicist and food sovereignty advocate Vandana Shiva sees globalization and lack of import regulations as some of the larger systems responsible for poverty and displacement in the first place. Both perspectives would be appropriate in a systems-thinking map – the 135 million currently facing food shortage are victims of systems that cause or perpetuate poverty.

Children wait in line for food                                                      Image Source: weforum.org

If food is a human right (which, of course it is), how can we prevent projected estimates that the number of hungry may double by the end of 2020? Part of the answer is that people can’t afford food, especially with the economic fallout from the pandemic. Another is that nations who rely on imports are feeling food supply shocks deep in their bellies without the resources to grow or secure food closer to home. Increasing food sovereignty can build nimble resilience as shock absorbers for current systems vulnerable to price fluctuation and supply bottlenecks.

Widaub’s post describes fasting as “a way in which we recognize our common human fragility.” This is both humbling and empowering. Humbling in that the fragilities within  the food system are wounds pulled wide open during Coronavirus. These wounds may heal not by applying bandages of food aid and imports alone, but by empowering the world’s hungry with land, the resources to feed the land, and their children. Poverty is a reason many will not eat today. The systems perpetuating poverty are reasons many may not eat tomorrow.

Farmers in Indonesia
Image Source: viacampesina.org

 

On Contemplation and the Complication of Chocolate

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Learning that contemplation practice would be part of this course brought me some anxiety. As one who struggles when invited to “focus on the breath,” mindfulness goals are slain by an internal battle of brain versus lungs. My Zen façade hides a bar brawl of distractions fighting for my attention. Our class has contemplated hunger, exotic foods, a raisin… As the course progresses, I’m realizing these sessions aren’t necessarily a quest for Zen or epiphany as much as they are a space to ask. To feel. To notice. I am reassured by Professor LItfin’s insights into the mind’s natural tendency to roam and how contemplative practice works to “encourage students to actively integrate their subjective experience into their objective learning.” We are connected to the goings on “out there.” Our experiences are relevant and even essential for deep learning.

A recent contemplative practice was done after having viewed clips where cocoa famers in Africa’s Ivory Coast taste chocolate for the first time and another revealing persistent child labor in cocoa farming. Thoughts after watching:

  1. What a way to illustrate inequities and ironies of the global food system
  1. Is chocolate ruined forever? 

I’m joking about #2. Kind of – chocolate is considered an essential business in my house. But paying attention to the lives behind food brings awareness and hopefully, action. Look yourself and your food in the eye, acknowledge that it was planted, tended, harvested, and processed by people.

Who’s lives are behind this square of chocolate? Does fair trade mean new improved taste with less guilt?

A young boy uses a machete to break cocoa pods at a farm on Africa’s eastern Ivory Coast. Image Source

Sometimes the clarity we seek in the moment eludes us only to be realized later. For me, the questions multiply. Having had some room to reflect upon our contemplative sessions, I continue grappling with my place in the food ecosystem. How can I be more than a consumer? If further contemplation of food, hunger, and our role in food systems can guide me towards understanding, or at least deepen my appreciation for food, I’ll keep practicing.

I discovered this chocolate scorecard which ranks brands according to fair labor practices and environmental impact.

Sources

BBC News. (2011, November 10). Cocoa farms still using child labour [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-15686731/cocoa-farms-in-ivory-coast-still-using-child-labour

Green America . (n.d.). Child Labor in Your Chocolate? Retrieved May 4, 2020, from https://www.greenamerica.org/end-child-labor-cocoa/chocolate-scorecard

Litfin, K. T. (2020). The Contemplative Pause: Insights for Teaching Politics in Turbulent Times. Journal of Political Science Education, 16(1), 57–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/15512169.2018.1512869

O’Keefe, B. (2016, March 1). Bitter Sweets. Retrieved May 2, 2020, from https://fortune.com/longform/big-chocolate-child-labor/

VPRO Metropolis. (2014, February 21). First taste of chocolate in Ivory Coast – vpro Metropolis [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEN4hcZutO0

 

Wasted Bounty: A Tale of Food All Grown Up and Nowhere To Go

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Squash left to rot in the field. Florida City, Fla. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images via Politico

A wedge of purple cabbage is rediscovered at the bottom of the crisper drawer, wilted and slimy. I feel guilty for having forgotten its existence as I toss it into the compost bucket. What a luxurious problem to have – food going to waste. During an already stressful and scary time, the coronavirus pandemic is revealing both weaknesses and potential strengths in our food system, particularly in terms of food insecurity and waste. In a recent article published by the Food & Environment Reporting Network, author Elizabeth Royte discusses a shift in U.S. food waste patterns and rising food insecurity. More people are relying on food banks during this economic crisis, but grocery stores and food producers are selling what would have historically been surplus donated to food banks. School closures and reduced restaurant operations mean broken channels for farmers and falling prices for things like milk and asparagus, resulting in product dumping and produce left to rot in fields.

Is worrying about food waste trivial given everything else going on right now? Perhaps this is an opportunity to strengthen food networks and food justice. We can’t ignore so much wasted bounty at a time when the number of those in need is rising daily. It’s a time to demand higher working and living conditions for those who grow our food. Might we grow from these challenging times and advocate towards living wages and a future of food security? As market channels are disrupted and the future of food supplies are vulnerable, we must find ways of strengthening localized food networks to increase system resilience

There are on-the-ground and top-down efforts underway. Grassroots organizations across the country are working to connect surplus with need. The recent stimulus bill included aid for the USDA to purchase and deliver food to banks. This is not a drill. This is an opportunity for identifying system breakdowns and rebuilding a stronger, healthier food future.

 

 

 

 

Sources

Purdy, Chase. “Asparagus Prices Show How the Coronavirus Is Nipping at the Global Food System.” Quartz, Quartz, 11 Apr. 2020, qz.com/1836376/falling-asparagus-prices-show-coronavirus-impact-on-global-food-system/.

Royte, Elizabeth. “Food Waste–and Food Insecurity–Rising amid Coronavirus Panic.” Food and Environment Reporting Network, Food and Environment Reporting Network, 31 Mar. 2020, thefern.org/2020/03/food-waste-and-food-insecurity-rising-amid-coronavirus-panic/.

Yaffe-bellany, David, and Michael Corkery. “Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food Waste of the Pandemic.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/business/coronavirus-destroying-food.html.