Category Archives: Contemplative Practices

To Maximize Your Food Choices or Not: That is the Question

Posted on by
5

Thinking about food choices now more than ever, I find myself at a crossroads ethically. I wanted to connect my two favorite contemplative practices (Hunger and Exotic Foods) because I wanted to discuss them both, but I didn’t know how. I realized seeing as though they’re closely linked, I could find a bridge.

I noticed, as I went downstairs the day after listening to the Exotic Foods contemplative practice, how much diversity I saw in my kitchen. I saw pineapples, pears, snap peas, coffee beans, etc. I saw in that kitchen a link to countless different countries, which really amazed me. I had produce from all around the world. But as I should’ve been in awe I felt in my bones, it was a lot of regret and shame.

Over-exploitation has been a big topic in our class and I wanted to investigate more. I looked over the Conventional Supply Chain vs. the Free Trade Supply Chain and saw how utilizing middle men (while it was getting more people paid domestically) was hurting already-underprivileged farmers. If you use a Conventional Supply Chain, it takes more money away from the producers of exotic foods, which leads into the hunger aspect. Thousands of farmers, because they are being slighted financially, are unable to feed their families. Argentina, for example (a large exporter of foreign foods) reported that thousands of their inhabitants are undernourished or malnourished, even though “Argentina is one of the largest exporters of exotic fruits/foods” (BBC, 2011). With the main driver of this phenomenon being generation of revenue by exporting foods to more well-off countries, I didn’t know how to react.

Argentinian Farmer growing food for foreign export, while his own country harbors a malnutrition problem.

The act of a contemplative practice, to me at least, it thinking about something in a way that you never have. Trying to enrich your mind, if you will. By expanding your scope of thinking to overseas interests, you become more in touch with the food in your kitchen and start to think about things on a deeper level.

Photo: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/policy/trade/article222257655.html

In-Text Citation: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-12973543

The Time to get to Know What’s in My Cup

Posted on by
11

There are many types of meditation, while riding the calm wave of one’s breath. A contemplative practice is but one form of meditation. It serves as a moment for critical thinking, noticing, wondering, etc. Questions of how and why, and whatever else comes up along the way. This intentional moment to explore can be applied to anything in the imagination.

 

Dark beans…

 

I don’t usually think “exotic” when I think of coffee. Strange, because it’s possible that the coffee I drink comes from the same place my bananas do. In writing this blog, I also noodled around google images and found that raw coffee cherries have a color as vibrant and varied as a bag of Skittles. So why a disconnect between the two? Coffee is experienced through aromas, the sounds of grinding and brewing; dark beans, or dark powder. Now with coffee pods, you don’t even see the coffee.

 

In considering coffee and bananas, and tropical foods in general, during our class’s contemplative practice, it became very clear how     interdependent I am on world food systems for both sustenance and pleasure. Technically I don’t need coffee, but a life without my cup of Joe is not one I’m interested in. This process made me more appreciative of what I have in respects to coffee. In that sense I think that a contemplative practice is great, though I don’t necessarily know what to do with that recognition.

 

The world coffee trade is something I feel I have little control over, aside from buying organic and hoping that a rainforest wasn’t cut down for the sake of my morning ritual. But, in order to take care of something, it has to be valued. Perhaps with recognition and a willingness to pay a little more for coffee, that can make some difference.

 

Hunger and the Hungry

Posted on by
3

Right now millions of Muslims across the globe are fasting for the holy month of Ramadan. Fasting is a time of “spiritual discipline—of deep contemplation of one’s relationship with God, extra prayer, increased charity and generosity, and intense study of the Quran.” Fasting encourages compassion for those without food by reminding you what it’s like to suffer from hunger.

Muslims wait to break their fast on the 21st day of the holy month of Ramadan at Jama Masjid on June 6, 2018, in New Delhi, India.

Breaking fast in Jama Masjid, New Delhi (2018)

Therefore fasting—practiced across many religions and cultures—is a way in which we recognize our common human fragility. From participating in the “Feeling Hunger” contemplative practice I was reminded of how we are all at the mercy of our own bodies. For that day I was forced to confront the discomfort of scarcity. As I focused on the uncomfortable yet grounding ache at my core I realized my dependency on all the interconnected systems I subconsciously rely on—the grocery stores, the truck drivers, the farmers, and the money in my pocket that gives me the power to satiate that hunger. Underneath the inequalities we are all ruled by that most basic instinct of self-preservation.  Reconciliation with that feeling, then, should underpin our decision making in the realm of world food system’s political ecology.

Heartbreaking' scene in Iowa as mountains of potatoes are laid to ...

A mountain of dumped potatoes in Picabo, Idaho

During the contemplative practice I found my mind wandering to the events of these past few months. It’s hard to ignore the mounting concern about COVID-19’s impact on food systems. The pandemic could cause a colossal spike in hunger—hunger not out of spiritual or religious practice but out of a failure to connect the surplus potatoes being dumped and families struggling to put food on the table. On a global scale, developing countries are expected to be hit hard with widespread food shortages, creating a “crisis within a crisis” of coronavirus outbreaks compounded by hunger.

Hunger is not an issue of the past but an issue of today. Some people are stuffed while others are starved. Food waste, population growth, price fluctuations, distribution networks, natural disasters, and power disparities combine to perpetuate hunger. Remembering the pain of hunger highlights the injustice of a world food system that still leaves millions hungry. We all know the feeling of hunger, but only some of us are the 820 million suffering from undernourishment—the hungry.

The Blissful Oblivion to the Bitter Journey of Chocolate

Posted on by
2

Striking my spoon against the delicate layer, reveals a precious crevice oozing with a rich velvety chocolate sauce. Despite the popular choice of pizza off the Domino’s menu, my item of choice is the chocolate lava cake. Indulging in the decadent, sweet sensations, I have become blissfully oblivious to the bitter journey this chocolate has undergone. 

The children working in the cocao farms along the Ivory Coast

The children working in the cacao farms along the Ivory Coast. Photo belongs to: https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/child-labour-cocoa-production

For such a sweet pleasure, chocolate possesses a complex, commodity chain. This journey begins at its oppressive roots within the African cacao farms employment of over 800,000 children along the Ivory Coast. This mass scale child labor workforce has prompted me to question who should be held accountable for this injustice. Is it the chocolate mega corporations who have plenty of resources to rectify the immorality of their success? Or does this responsibility fall onto me and other consumers, contributing consumers that provide dollar incentive to continue the unjust practices of the chocolate industry?  

It would be a lie to say that I will stop eating chocolate now that I know of the inequalities occurring. This new found knowledge has given me the drive to do my own research on ethical chocolate companies that stand against child labor business practices. To combat the guilt I feel, I want to target my consumer dollars on principled businesses. Through these contemplative practices, I have gained insights into my own 

Labels on chocolate bars indicating their ethical company values. Photo belongs to: https://blog.equalexchange.coop/child-labor-in-the-cocoa-industry/

personal autonomy. I have the power to support organizations, movements, and companies that I am morally aligned with. These contemplative practices evoke questions, bring cognizance to disparities present in the food system and how my actions make an impact. I would like to end this post by reiterating a lesson from my favorite childhood movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: don’t let tempting, gluttonous vices cloud your vision of acting virtuously. 

 

The Real Cost of Chocolate

Posted on by
3

As I sat at my dining room table, with the fluorescent blue-light of my laptop staring back at me, I felt consumed by guilt. The video I had just watched completely transformed my perspective on America’s favorite candy forever. Although I was instructed to place the chocolate on my tongue, I found myself hesitating; I suddenly saw the delicious morsel in my hand through a completely different lens. Before this film, when I thought of chocolate, I would think of the small joys it had brought me as a child; all of the Valentine’s days, Halloweens and movie nights where the main appeal to me was the chocolate involved. It’s decadent texture, rich flavor and comforting aroma were no longer the main qualities I associated with this treat. Rather, I thought of how I purchased the product of another sleepless night for a small farmer, wondering how he would make ends meet. I would bite

A young boy uses a machete to break cocoa pods at a farm near Abengourou in eastern Ivory Coast in December. PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN LOWY

A young boy uses a machete to break cocoa pods at a farm near Abengourou in eastern Ivory Coast in December. PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN LOWY

into the calloused hands of a child who instead of sitting in a classroom was in the fields, having to slash open cocoa pods with a machete. I would have to unpackage the systematic exploitation of Africa’s people and resource rich land. Ultimately, I would have to come to terms with the fact that by purchasing the chocolate, my money went towards the exploitation of human beings.

Globalization has greatly altered our relationship with food in many ways. We are now able to be completely disconnected with the source of our food, and in turn disconnected with the many horrors and injustices that take place in the world food system. Dismantling these systems will not be an easy feat, especially since multi-billion-dollar corporations are at the heart of the issue. However, we can work towards a better future for small farmers and children by purchasing from companies that value the health and wellness of their employees before their bank accounts. For example, Theo is a chocolate company based in Seattle that prioritizes purchasing from smallholder farms, and produces ethically sourced, fair-trade and organic chocolates. In 2019, all of the 1,225 metric tons of cocoa they purchased came from the community of Watalinga in the Eastern Democratic

A woman holds up one of Theos chocolate packaging

A woman holds up one of Theos chocolate packaging

Republic of Congo. You can explore their 2019 Theo Impact Report for more information on the impact of their business practices.

Contemplative practices highlight the lack of compassion in America in the time of COVID.

Posted on by
3

Amidst the uncertainty and frustration in the time of COVID, I found my reactions to our contemplative practices to reflect these emotions. During the “like a raisin in the sun” exercise, I felt agitated by the Sunmaid Raisins Hollywood commercial. The commercial associated California raisins with the glamour of Hollywood, but much like its’ glowing description of Hollywood, it failed to account for their deeply troubling underlying issues. As we learned through our coursework, the modern production of raisins relies on the routinization of labor, including the exploitation of migrant workers. One of the raisin production videos showed individual workers harvesting raisins, but the subsequent video depicted the Korvan mechanical grape harvester doing the work instead. This made me consider the fate of the migrant worker, while their jobs may be unpleasant, they are still being displaced by the mechanization of labor and are losing what little work they can find.

Direct capture

Finally, hearing Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” written in the face of horrific oppression during the Civil Rights movement made me think about the bravery exhibited by black activists during that time and made me frustrated with the rampant anti-quarantine protests occurring today. Privileged people throughout our country are protesting for their “freedom” amidst lock-down orders, and what saddens me is that they have mistaken science-based, lifesaving measures as oppression and are mobilizing against it while many of them stand idly by while our political system facilitates hunger amongst racial and economic minorities. I am especially disturbed by these issues now with the virus exacerbating the systemic food insecurity of vulnerable people. Though I am hopeful that one day we will remedy these issues, I am disappointed in the priorities of our fellow Americans, and know we have a ways to go.

Link to Sunmaid Raisins Hollywood commercial: https://youtu.be/cJZcFq8ige8

My Guilty Pleasure

Posted on by
9

Out of all the contemplative practices, my attention was captured particularly by chocolate. I have always appreciated and indulged every single chocolate I have laid my hands on – up until recently. It is both haunting and disturbing; the inhumane activities such as exploitation of workers and child labor associated with something that brings most people pleasure. This contemplative practice made me feel  empathetic to those children who are impoverished and stripped away from their childhood – which prevents them from attending school and living a normal life, spending most of their time working in cacao farms. 

source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/

After witnessing the video of Ivory Coast cacao growers tasting chocolate for the first time and child labor in cacao production, I instantly felt guilt – being a consumer supporting products that are sourced from people that are exploited and had been taken advantage of. Eating chocolate suddenly becomes difficult, thinking about farmers’ lack of privilege to taste chocolate – when their product is its number one ingredient.

Cacao is a multi-billion dollar industry, and yet growers in Ivory Coast are employing children (free labor) but still struggle to make enough profit to provide for their families. Considering the amount of money and power the chocolate industry possess, they most certainly have the upper hand to prevent child labor and exploitation of farm workers by providing a fair and just wage in exchange for their product.

This situation in the chocolate industry is something that I was not aware of prior to the contemplative practice addressing it. This shows that these practices may be difficult to understand for most people like myself, but it is a very useful tool to contemplate the big picture behind things. This specific contemplative practice about chocolate encouraged me to see through a bar of chocolate and think about the unjust practices associated with it as well as the actions that should be implemented to resolve it.

 

A Culture of Chocolate

Posted on by
7

The chocolate I drink is still grown, processed, and sold from the province my grandparents are from. Ancient Mexican tradition regarding chocolate involves no sugar, but plenty of cayenne and cinnamon bark mixed for a bitter warm beverage with unprocessed cacao. My Dad instead enjoys cloyingly sweet Chocolate de mesa as a snack instead of melted to make hot chocolate or Mole. Ibarra is superior to any imitation of hot chocolate, as the large granules of sugar and cocoa melt perfectly into warm milk and the cinnamon smells warm and comforting. Jalisco, the agricultural heart of Mexico, was home to the first cacao beans over 3000 years ago where they are still grown today, albeit far more industrialised and worldwide now than even when my grandparents immigrated to the US. Ethical labour standards and sustainability for the community and peoples producing chocolate are tenants of the chocolate production in this cult-followed product, but unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the chocolate I eat.

I ate a piece of old easter candy for this contemplative practice, a dark chocolate caramel-filled bunny. This is my mom’s favourite chocolate; she is white. Ghiradelli, as part of the Lindt & Sprüngli Group, sources 100% of its beans from Ghana where it is making albeit small strides but strides nonetheless in creating safe and sustainable working conditions and practices for their workers. Providing mosquito nets, investing in community education centres, and training and capacity building for sustainable farming practices. The information available is spotty, and workers are not guaranteed competitive wages or benefits or protection from exploitation that middlemen between the farmers and chocolate producers. The palm oil used for the caramel filling is World Wildlife Foundation certified sustainable, but these certifications are never followed up upon and are often falsely handed out. I feel guilty about eating this piece of chocolate.

Chocolate is part of my culture, my ancestors having drunk it thousands of years before being exploited by the people who made the chocolate we now eat. How many people were hurt in the long history of Chocolate to feed me right now, and how many were people I share blood and history with? As a mixed-race person, I feel guilty that one half of my family is descended from pillagers while the other half were pillaged, but at least it came to a somewhat happy end with me…? The diminution of bad actions and effects ignored in favour of the good outcome is a disservice to those hurt along the way. I am a bit like chocolate in that way.

Me and My dad 🙂

 

 

 

The New Normal

Posted on by
3

In response to Cat Kelly’s “How are You?”

I scrolled through nearly all, and read many, of the blogs thus far posted in search of something to respond to. Many topics, paragraphs and links earned my attention and over an hour later I felt overwhelmed with choice. But then I read Cat Kelly’s reflection on our very first contemplative practice. This meditation was the simplest, Professor Litfin simply asked us to explore our feelings in the present moment. 

Cat’s reflection was piercing to read. I too have felt the need to slow down and (even before this pandemic) the need to “enjoy my life the way I like to enjoy it, not how America trains us to enjoy it”. Cat hit every nerve with me, writing about the desire to not over-achieve or over burden herself with work. She wondered if she could just live for herself right now and peel away all the expectation. 

I want to yell to Cat and to everyone “Do it! Slow down! This is a hard moment! And this is a big moment!!”. You see Cat, I believe that this pandemic has given you the pause and opportunity to let go of some of those socially imposed expectations that you normally hold on to. This is wonderful. But also, I do not believe that the overwork, over-achievement, overproduction and over-consumption you are normally pressured into participating in is a good normal, nor should we be desperate to return to it. 

A friend recently sent me an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure”. Distilling the message of this piece into a sentence would go something like this: slow down and take a breath because all of your panicked productivity is an expression of your desire that the world get back to normal, but the truth of the matter is we are living through a world-changing-crisis and what we all need to be doing is processing the fact that our world will not go back to what is was before… ever. While this message is tough to swallow and difficult to process, there is also enormous potential in this reality. As the author Aisha Ahmad writes,

Be slow… Let it change how you think and how you see the world. Because the world is our work. And so, may this tragedy tear down all our faulty assumptions and give us the courage of bold new ideas.

What could these bold new ideas hold? 

To turn to our food system, as we all slow down perhaps we will see the world with fresh and adjusted eyes now brave enough to face what is crumbling. Hopefully some of the most unjust, dangerous and corrosive aspects of our food system will reveal themselves to be no-longer ignorable in the fabric of a new world shaped by greater understanding of the potential for catastrophe. As Paolo Di Croce, the secretary general of Slow Food International, said in a recent video “this fight to change the food system is more important now than ever”. 

An Image from a World Economic Forum web page entitled “COVID-19 is exacerbating food shortages in Africa” — Many systemic food problems may come to a head during this crisis, revealing our broken system

Perhaps if we all slow down, as Cat suggested, adjust to the harshness of this crumbling world and emerge on the other side of our individual emotional struggles with renewed bravery, we will then have the courage to take up good fights to change this new world for the better. 

In some ways, this could be a fresh start. But first we must slow down and accept that it is happening.

-Aisling Doyle Wade

Sources:

Ahmad, Aisha. 2020. “Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 27, 2020. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-You-Should-Ignore-All-That/248366.

Contemplating Complicity in Global Food Injustice

Posted on by
2

Figure 1: Granlund, 2011

With ever constant demands for my time, energy, and thoughts, I usually don’t stop and think deeply about where and how the food I consume is produced. A reoccurring theme of my feelings after contemplative practices were complicated emotions around my own complicity in global food injustices.

Never was this clearer to me than during the contemplative practice on chocolate. Watching the cocoa farmers experience eating chocolate for the first time, I knew it was just one of the many global food injustices propagated by a global trade system which values consumers in developed countries, over producers in developing countries. From countries experiencing famine contractually forced to export their food (Carolan, 2018), to rice originally smuggled and planted by West African slaves, returned to these countries in the form of contingent and domestically damaging “food aid”(Lecture 4/30), the systemic inequalities that I implicitly benefit from are all around me.

Initially, these contemplative practices filled me with a feeling of guilt and ineptitude considering the miniscule impact my individual actions could make on these globally propagated problems. Yet, as they progressed, I eventually came to a feeling of resolve.

Figure 2: Campesina 2020

While I can’t help cacao farmers in West Africa and may not be able to change global trade agreements on my own, I can still do something. I can acknowledge the privilege that I have and help bring these issues to the attention of my fellow citizens, who collectively can more effectively demand for more equitable international food politics and purchasing agreements such as getting more involved in the Food Sovereignty and Beyond Fair Trade movements.

Overall, these practices have shown me that I can and need to slow down and appreciate all the people whose lives went into supporting my own and do my part to make their lives a little bit better.

Sources:

Campesina, La Via. “Till, Sow and Harvest Transformative Ideas for the Future! Now Is the Moment to Demand Food Sovereignty – #17April.” Focus on the Global South, 16 Apr. 2020, focusweb.org/till-sow-and-harvest-transformative-ideas-for-the-future-now-is-the-moment-to-demand-food-sovereignty-17april/.

Carolan, Michael. “Cheap Food and Conflict.” The Real Cost of Cheap Food, Routledge, 2018, p. 78.

Granlund, Dave. “Dave Granlund – Editorial Cartoons and Illustrations>.” Dave Granlund Editorial Cartoons and Illustrations RSS, www.davegranlund.com/cartoons/2011/07/27/obesity-and-famine/.