Category Archives: Political Ecology

Sharing systems thinking in our ongoing advocacy

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As our world grieves in the aftermath of the horrific murder of George Floyd, I have become extremely grateful for the knowledge about systematic racism my education at UW has afforded me. My greatest takeaway from this class was learning to think systematically about the world food system, which allowed me to realize how everything from climate change to land grabs to severe income inequality in the food distribution chain levies a disproportionate impact on people of color in their struggle to access affordable and healthy food. Through course content such as Lester R. Brown’s “Full Planet Empty Plates” we have learned that there is an abundance of food in America, yet the reason so many of our citizens go hungry is because of a lack of income, and ultimately, a lack of privilege in our capitalist system leading to the harshest impacts of food insecurity to be felt by POC and BIPOC communities.

Systematic impact of the Pandemic on our food system.

                         

Examples of the disproportionate impact felt by communities of color.

 

Much of my undergraduate education has been focused on race relations in the America, and I was able to incorporate this knowledge into my group work with Our Climate this quarter. We were given the opportunity to meet with Representative Tina Orwall, who has been a champion for racial equity throughout her career. We were able to advocate for bold, equitable climate change policy with a focus on the disparate impact of climate change on poor people of color. Representative Orwall was extremely receptive to our goals and told us that we had taught her new things about racism in the ecological system. From this, I became cognizant of my power of advocacy and sharing information, as Representative Orwall was able to get us in contact with other relevant politicians and added that she would further research and incorporate our findings into her agenda. Now as we are in the midst of a widespread Black Lives Matter movement, I find myself again as an advocate, and I have similarly been able to share useful information about the systematic racism in the world food system as part of the widespread sharing of resources against racism we are seeing. Just as we have achieved recent policy changes by educating our fellow advocates and putting pressure on our politicians, we are slowly dismantling systematic racism, and I am confident that if we can keep pressure on, we can one day create a just and equitable ecological system for all.

Political Lands and Foods; Indigenous Communities in Brazil as Land Defenders

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Bananas, sugar cane, palm oil, soy– theses are just some of the foods tied to the deracination of indigenous communities from their ancestral lands. Land rights for indigenous peoples in Latin America have always been contentious as territories have been appropriated for use of farming, natural resource and extractive industries, and other uses not originally intended by their original populations. While companies like the United Fruit Company quickly and other multinational agricultural companies took over in places like Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica, agricultural development projects in Brazil’s Cerrado and Amazon ecoregions have quickly displaced indigenous populations in Brazil, leaving an estimated 13.8 percent of land as formally designated for these communities, according to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, and 31% as agricultural land (USAID).   

Image by the Rights and Resources Initiative: depicting the RRI’s Forest Tenure Database four land tenure categories. (click here to see enlarged image)

For me, this research makes clear the nexus between land rights and access for indigenous communities, and mismanaged foreign investment which has disrupted local livelihoods and economies. To think systemically about land rights is to understand the ways that vulnerable communities are negatively affected by land grabs (particularly by governments to address food insecurity), or indirectly through foreign direct investment (FDI). 

Land rights are directly tied to our course ideas of transparency, food justice, and sustainability. Through networks like the Rights and Resources Initiative, organizations, governments, and others are vying to increase transparency with access to land globally. Food justice is inherently tied to transparent access to land: when we don’t know where our food is coming from, it’s difficult to identify who’s rights are violated at different stages of cultivation, harvest, processing, and transportation of these foods. Many rights are violated in the simple acquisition of land before it is even developed for agriculture. 

In the case of Brazil, this rings true. Thirty-eight large companies now control much of Brazil’s agricultural land, including large companies like Cargill and Coamo, which have faced significant backlash for their deforestation practices which have primarily displaced indigenous people in the Center-West region. In March 2020, Indigenous leaders from the Yanomami tribe testified in front of the UN security council warning against the genocide of indigenous and uncontacted groups in the region.   

Yanomami indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa denounces deforestation and indigenous land invasion in Brazil, via Conectas Human Rights

Systems thinking connects this course to fundamental ideas of land and food justice. Unpacking what transparent and equitable food systems will look like in the future will require serious action to protect indigenous habitation of land in addressing egregious issues of climate change, food security, and sustainability within the food chain. 

 

Colonialism, The Environment, and The Global Search For Justice

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More than anything this quarter, I have learned that problems do not exist within a vacuum—that the greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy industry are symptomatic of the same system that has allowed for the rise in obesity in America. Additionally, issues surrounding the environment and climate change do not exist in a separate world from social issues, and are in fact magnified by racism, sexism, and classism. The systems thinking approach that was modeled to me has allowed me to gain a new perspective on my role in the world food system, but my role in the global social system as well.

 

My work with Landesa this quarter has emphasized the relationship between the environment and social systems, especially how that relationship can be manipulated to bring about better living conditions to tackle poverty on a global scale. Much of their work involves securing land rights for farmers so that they are able to exercise more agency over how their land is used. Owning land is essential to the maintenance and development of wealth, because property rights “mold the distribution of income, wealth and political influence”, as scholar Gary D. Libecap writes for the Hoover Institute. By increasing the access to land rights, Landesa aims to counteract the widespread poverty in developing countries around the world.

From ThisIsAfrica.me. The Legacy of the Berlin Conference. By Socrates Mbamalu.

However, in looking at the work that Landesa is doing, it struck me that the racial problems that are disrupting the U.S. today are outcomes of the same historical system that created the massive wealth disparity between developed countries and developing countries. The intersection of white supremacist and capitalist ideologies encouraged imperialist nations to take Africans as slaves and use their labor to build their empires, wiping out indigenous populations as they did so. The same ideologies encouraged the Scramble for Africa, where the largest European players divided up spheres of influence in Africa based on available resources to exploit. Thus, the legacy that slavery has left on the United States is linked to the legacy that imperialism has left on many African nations. The struggle for racial justice, then, must continue on a global scale. 

Enacting change on a global scale is virtually impossible for the individual. One of the most important things I’ve learned in this class, though, is that I have power as an individual and a citizen to fight for the better world I want to see. 

Closing The Gap Between Consumers and Their Food Source

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Taking on the action project has been one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had this quarter. Before starting the project, I had already envisioned some of the work we may be assigned to do with the Salish Center. However, about a week in I came to realize that the nonprofit was not as far along in their journey as I had previously assumed they were. This gave our group the unique opportunity to work with our NGO to build a solid base for the organization. At first this task seemed quite daunting and I wasn’t sure if I had the proper skill set to help my team and the NGO accomplish such a large task. Nonetheless, as the weeks led on our group worked hard to set goals and achieve them. It started with us doing some research and coming to the consensus that it would be in the organizations best interest to establish a PDO (protected designation of origin) rather than an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Protegee). From there, we brainstormed and came up with a number of ways we could achieve this goal for the organization. Then, we split up the tasks and each of us put our efforts towards getting our individual responsibilities completed. My role in the group was to email other NGOs in Washington, to notify them of the Salish Centers mission and to also ask for their support in our endeavors.

Salish Center Medallion (another goal was to place this medallion on all sea-food caught from Salish Sea)

Unfortunately, I had not received as many replies as I was expecting, but I suspect it may be due to the current pandemic. The lack of responses to all our emails did pose as a massive obstacle, and at times made me question if we were going to make a tangible impact in our community. Towards the end of the quarter, I realized that even if I was not able to make as large a contribution as I was hoping to, I can still utilize the knowledge, communication and tech skills I gained through this experience and apply it to any opportunity I am presented with in the future. Initially, when reflecting on the connections that existed between the work we’ve done with the Salish Center and the topics we’ve discussed in class, it was difficult for me to make any clear connections. This was until professor Litfin mentioned how beneficial it can be for local businesses and consumers to be aware of where their food comes from. In a society where we often can barely pronounce the ingredients in our food, it is clear that there has been a massive strain put on the relationship between consumers and the food that fuels them. The Salish Center is one the many organizations that are actively working to narrow the gap that exists between consumers and their food source. The Salish Centers strategy for tackling this issue is to educate the public about sustainable fishing practices, and the health of the Salish Sea, while simultaneously show-casing the quality of the seafood that hails from the Salish Sea. Ultimately, they are working to rekindle the

This map is a great visual depiction of the “12 centers of diversity” (aka the regions, or hotspots, that harbor a disproportionately high percentage of all plant, livestock, and cultural diversity.)

connection between consumers and their food source by first strengthening the relationship that consumers have with the environment that harbors the food source. Thus, further incentivizing individuals to protect and cherish the habitats that shelter the very wildlife that fuels their bodies.  

 

Link to Salish Center Website: https://salishcenter.org/#chefs

 

Link to SeedMap: http://seedmap.org/where-does-our-food-come-from/   The site provides information on how virtually all of the foods we eat today– our major crops and most livestock species – have their origins in the tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. The way to safeguard our food supply is by protecting these centres of diversity, as well as using and continuing to adapt the plant and genetic diversity carefully bred and nurtured by farmers.

 

 

Food is a Political Subject

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One cannot ignore what is happening in the US right now. Peaceful Protests have turned to rightful riots against police brutality when militarised cops decide violence is an “okay” response to anything they deem threatening. Racism is what built this country and it what it continues to stand on today, from the genocide of native people and the slave trade to mass incarceration and unfair representation in media. Food is a building block of life, and it has been a building block of the United States, as we will always be an agricultural and cultural powerhouse to the world, but how that food is produced and shared is how it becomes political.

Thanksgiving is one of the only true American Holidays, and it is built on lies, deceit, and the mass burial grounds of Native Americans. The hallmark story told in schools is that the pilgrims and the native peoples came together on this day and shared food, teaching each other how to grow different plants like maize, and became the first sharing of culture amongst the peoples. It was a day of a “peace treaty” following the massacre of the Pequot people in 1637, to which the native people were not even invited. The native people did teach the pilgrims how to farm American crops, but the teachers were sold into slavery or died of smallpox introduced by the Pilgrims themselves. It is impossible to partake in this holiday without recognising the false stories used to sweeten the history of the beginnings of American agriculture as we know it. 

Cotton and Tobacco are not food crops, but their agricultural value drove the slave trade in the United States to a massive extent. Black and brown people, primarily from Africa, were treated as livestock to work on farms to make money for their owners. The generational trauma and erased generational wealth of the slave trade have built the culture of racism that is still prevalent today. The ability to own a human being is something that should be looked upon in shame but is still revered by statues of confederate generals, including ones in my own neighbourhood (sign the petition to remove it). Agriculture is what drove slavery to exist and be as prolific as it was in the United States, and without it, the culture of black oppression would certainly not be the same as it is today.

These incidences seem an infinite distance from us, as the past is something we do not have the ability to change, but racist practices exist in food and food culture today. Bon Appetit, a highly respected and revered food magazine, has just fired its Editor in Chief after BIPOC staff accused (rightfully) Adam Rappoport of racist hiring practices, paying BIPOC staff significantly less than white counterparts, not featuring black and brown cuisine as much as Asian, European, and American, and of false allyship by putting BIPOC on camera as just a display of diversity. Black and Brown people’s food is not seen as complicated, mainstream, or high cuisine as its white counterparts that have dominated the food industry, such as French or Italian cooking, when they are often just as complex, and honestly better tasting. Food is inherently political, especially when influence over it is filled with racism. 

Food is important for our health and culture, but when these areas are filled with racism and racist practices, it becomes hard to separate them. Food should be something created with love, not hate or intent to harm. Changing this is how racism can start to become less prevalent in our daily lives, as food and the practice of cooking is something people do every day. Dismantling individual ideas about food and food culture and the racism that is inherently a part of it is important as it will help us move forward.

How are you challenging yourself and the racism in your food system today?

Systematic Racism

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     Racism is a long-term product of history. The enslaved Africans have become symbolic of slavery’s roots. The Africans were sent to the western world and exploited. Under the domination of white people, they couldn’t fight against the injustice. This historical issue lasts till now that people of color often suffer low wages and exploitative conditions. But black people are not passive victims and they acted. African American communities provide crucial support for activists working for change in voting rights and fight against segregation. 

black cotton farming family

Black cotton farming family

     Racism is not an issue floating on the surface. The racism problem is imbedded in the systems. If we look at the food system, white farmers dominate as operator-owners, while farmworkers and food workers are overwhelmingly people of color. In a restaurant, it is common to see people of color working at the back kitchen and white people serving at the front desk. These people of color are hidden from people’s view, just like the systematic racism problem. At least six out of every 10 farmworkers is an undocumented immigrant (Patel, 2011). Under the pandemic, Migrant farmworkers are experiencing the hardship of low hour pay, inaccessible health care services, bad living conditions and fear of deportation. Racism is almost never mentioned in international programs for food aid and agricultural development. Undocumented farmworkers are excluded from Fair Labor Act of 1938 and the National Labor Relations Act of 1835.      

    Equity is difficult, but not impossible. To fight against racism, we have to understand that racism is not simply prejudice or individual acts, but an historical legacy that privileges one group of people over others. Recently, the Food Chain workers Alliance fought for higher wages and workin conditions. The participation of people of color in local food policy councils is changing the food system. There’s light in the path of ending the systematic racism. 

Moving Forward

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My action group this quarter was given the opportunity to work with Our Climate. Our Climate is a non-profit organization that is working with young people to help put together a Green New Deal. This opportunity combined three things that I am incredibly passionate about: the climate, politics, and food. My group was able to integrate what we learned in this class into our work with Our Climate. The reality is that we cannot address climate change without making changes to our food system which will require political action. We were able to bring up our food system in our discussions with fellow interns and make sure that it will be included in the Green New Deal.

I often find myself focused on the personal changes that I make in my day to day life in order to do what I can to help reverse climate change. I recently convinced my family to try out a vegan diet after learning about the staggering effect that animal agriculture has on the environment. My sister and I have been sharing our cooking projects on an Instagram that we made together in the hope of spurring others into giving veganism a try.

Infographic from Cowspiracy

However, in working with Our Climate it was amazing to see what a vast community of people there is fighting for systemic change. My personal actions do make some leeway to combat climate change, but I was able to make a much more significant difference by advocating for policy change. Personal changes are the first step, but systemic and political change is necessary for large scale change. 

Working with Our Climate and taking this class helped shift my perspective towards understanding systems theory and looking beyond my personal actions and experiences. I do what I can in my own life to alter the course of global warming, but I’m also continuing to push for change at a systemic level. Moving forward, this class has shown me how interconnected our world is and has given me the tools that I need to enact change. 

Soil Conservation in Brazil & The World Food System Beyond

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Blue and Yellow Globe

Brazil is one of the largest agricultural exporters in the world. In my research group, we found that land rights and soil conservation are key issues within the context of Brazil’s agricultural production. If the trend in poor land management of degraded pasturelands and encroachment into the Amazon region continues, it appears soil erosion—and nutrient loss along with it—could increase by up to 20%, according to this study’s findings.

Trade, Self Sufficiency

In chapter 3, “Agricultural Trade Liberalization,” of Jennifer Clapp’s book Food, it’s clear that international trade in the food system is a marketplace rife with inequalities and contradictions, often at the expense of people lower on the socioeconomic ladder, and especially those in developing countries whose main trade output is agriculture. However, even for an industrial nation such as Japan, boasting one of the highest GDPs in the world, the nation’s reliance on food imports point to the fact that money alone cannot buy independence.

In a 2012 article from the United Nations University publication Our World, Japan’s low food self-sufficiency (60% of their calories are from imports) was discussed and ramifications contextualized. It’s notable that the goal to increase the self-sufficiency to 45% by 2020 have since been pushed back to 2025. What it means for food to be “Japanese” has changed over the decades alongside changing consumer preferences and decreasing domestic output. This is an issue the world over, as the Columbian exchange of the 21st century has seen hamburgers and big gulps from the U.S. in Mexico City, to Bangalore, to Riyadh, to Tokyo and beyond.

People Standing Near Restaurant chain

Once native to the United States, the seeds of McDonalds have now been sown across the globe thanks to the 21st century ship called globalization

 

In Brazil, food self-sufficiency, ecological damage, Indigenous rights, resource management, and economic concerns all come into consideration when we talk about food and agriculture. Perhaps, as has been suggested in the UK, farmers can be part of the solution. Something will have to change if Brazil is to remain ecologically viable for agriculture in the decades to come.

 

Person Digging on Soil Using Garden Shovel

Soils are both the lungs and the womb of our earth. They are responsible for the sustenance that comes out of them and our mistakes (C02) that go in

 

The Big Picture

In considering the food on our plates, Michael Pollan makes it sound simple. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.” While I don’t disagree with his prescription, the fact of the matter is that the food in the grocery store, and in markets around the globe, are products of, and tools in, the political ecology of the world food system. A system which is itself comprised of ecologies and systems.

The world has increasingly become a web of interconnectedness. Understanding it requires the ability to constantly look at micro and macro structures thereof. Our world food system is no different.

 

 

 

The food system is not failing people, it is working how it was invented  

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Before I took Political Science 385, the relationship between the food system and racism was not an explicit connection I made. I was in a bubble of ignorance, clouded by my own privilege of being considered white passing, socioeconomically privileged, and cis-male. I asked myself, “how could the [United States] food system possibly be racist? – it’s food, right? It was not until I stepped back, flipped through a couple of history books, and put myself in a different vantage point that I connected the dots: the United States is built on oppression and systemic racism, the food system is just one of the many layers that it lurks.

Systemic racism can be traced back to the very creation of the United States. The brutal colonization of the indigenous population for their land, forced slave labor and unjust laws stripping people of color from land ownership are just the beginning of injustice that minorities have faced in our food system. The very backbone of our modern-day food system has been created by the very populations that are left behind.

Not only has the entire system been built on oppression, the very laws that are meant to protect people from harm has had a long history of dismantling Black and Brown empowerment. Before Jim Crow laws were enacted in the United States, African American’s owned 13 million acres of land in 1902, by the end of 1997 years of Jim Crow, they only owned 2 million acres. White land owners now pass on their externalities to people of color, while they reap the benefits of their new found land. Many working longer hours for lower wages than their white counter parts.

There is so much more happening behind the scenes than the average consumer might think. Buying something as simple as an avocado, a banana, or chocolate, it is easy to forget about the hundreds of miles, hours, and workers it took to get where it is now. The food system is not a farm to table concept like people may think, it is much more complex and inner connected.

One thing that I will always hold close to me from this class is that you cannot look at one part of the system and generalize about the whole. The history of oppression in agriculture cannot survive on its own, it is interdependent on a long and brutal history of colonization, institutionally racist laws, biased social norms, and labor.

The food system is not failing people, it is working how it was intended.

Work Cited:

Food Justice & Racism in the Food System

New Research Explores the Ongoing Impact of Racism on the U.S. Farming Landscape

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-15686731/cocoa-farms-in-ivory-coast-still-using-child-labour

Alien Land Laws in California (1913 & 1920)

Photos: https://communityfoodfunders.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/History-of-Racism-and-Resistance-in-the-Food-System-Visual-Timeline.pdf

Racism in the Food System

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Systematic racism is the basis of every aspect of the USA and the food system has no exception. In the 1600s, the first enslaved people were brought from Africa to America and were forced into labor. This included working on sugar, cotton, rice, and tobacco plantations. This brought on a sense of superiority to the white Americans, seeing anyone who is different from them as less than. The exploitation of many people of color were used to keep the social hierarchy going and it kept money in the white man’s pocket. This past of the United States has helped create the racist laws, actions, and institutions that are here today.

Now that forced labor is seen as immoral, even though it is still happening in the present, people have found a more covert way of keeping people of color oppressed. This is shown through wage gaps, the job market, the housing market, and so much more. A majority of minorities cannot find good-paying jobs with the only reason being simply that they are not white. Because of that, they find themselves working in factories, farms, and other jobs seen as undesirable and underpaying. This means that all the food being put on people’s tables are most likely being harvested or packed by people of color. While they are doing all of the hard labor, it is usually the white people that are in charge, gaining massive amounts of wealth.

Because of the unjust treatment of minorities, it makes it more difficult for them to support their families. It is harder to buy basic necessities, which can lead to a multitude of problems. This cycle continues on through generations because nothing is there to pass on to their children. However, most white people have the privilege and wealth to live healthy and have opportunities to pass onto generations of their families.

These disparities have magnified during the pandemic. For example, the wealthy have enough money to stop working while the poor continue to work in factories, farms or other underpaid jobs to keep food on America’s table and to keep their families afloat. Along with that, the systematic racism in the health care system keeps a lot of people of color from getting access to testing for COVID or getting treatment. 

Racism and oppression are at the very base of what America was built upon. With that, the food system cannot be ignored in this equation. It is often looked upon as a basic process of the way it gets to your fridges and pantries, but it is not that simple.