Tag Archives: coronavirus

Racism in the Food System

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I’m taking the liberty to focus on the food system and farm workers in Washington State. COVID-19 has served to peel back the layers of an incredibly unjust system. Farm workers, who are largely foreign and undocumented, have now been deemed ‘essential’ employees yet are not afforded basic safety measures. Currently, labor advocacy groups Familias Unidas por la Justicia and the United Farm Workers of America are filing a lawsuit against Washington State’s Health and Labor departments demanding regulated support for these farm workers who are too scared to speak for themselves because doing so could result in their H2-A visas being revoked and/or their information being given to ICE. Washington Health was reported issuing guidance that temporary worker housing facilities with a single room “should assign sick occupants to one side and occupants without symptoms to the opposite side.”

Speaking of housing, simply getting a roof over their heads is a challenge for many foreign farm workers. Not all farms are required to provide housing for their employees depending on the visas issued, and as Benton City has demonstrated, many local residents in farming areas push back hard against supplying farmworker housing. Residents of Benton City were recorded stating that they did not want Benton City to become like Mabton, a mostly Latino community. That was during complaints directed to the US Department of Justice in 2002. To this day residents are fighting against farm worker housing.

Perhaps one of the most telling cases of foreign farm worker discrimination was during the infamous 2018 Sumas Berry Farm case. The farm manager was quoted saying about the foreign farm workers: “They came here to suffer,” and that they were expected to work every day of the week “unless they were on their deathbed.” Despite H2-A visas not having a production quota in WA State, workers on this farm were expected to harvest two boxes of berries every hour or face deportation and paying their own way home. The conditions that brought on the allegations w

Sumas Berry Farm Protests

ere 12 hour shifts in hot, wildfire smokey conditions that led to severe heat stress, poor quality or portioned food, not enough water, expired visas that had yet to be renewed, and the death of a coworker, suspected from aforementioned conditions, which caused 70 employees to go on a one day strike and subsequently get fired. The farm was expected to pay a lawsuit settlement of $149,800, but a judge later cut that settlement cost in half.

These are just three examples of severe injustice and racism faced by foreign farm workers in the US food system, but it’s a systemic problem that infects every part of the country. Until we can strictly enforce basic human rights and regulations in the farming system, these injustices won’t stop. It’s one of the real costs of cheap food.

Our Society Was Sick Well Before Covid-19: The Elephant in The Room

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Thibault Cancel recently wrote about the link between Covid-19 and obesity in the United States. He cited a CIA statistic from 2016 that 36% of the adult population was obese, compared to around just 4% in Japan. Thibault makes a great point about the rise of obesity and how it relates to the rise of processed foods, which have been marketed with various health claims. Claims based on nutrition buzzwords like “protein” and “whole grain,” among others.

Michael Pollan touches on this point in an article for the New York Review of Books. Citing the CDC, he notes the strongest predicting factors of those hospitalized with Covid-19: 49% had pre-existing hypertension, 48% were obese, and 28% had diabetes.

Person Holding Pizza on Box

All are conditions we are predisposed to because of the standard Western diet of processed foods, large quantities of meat, and little fruit or veg. The food system in our country promotes the production of foods which, “are reliably supplying the supermarket shelves and drive-thrus with cheap and abundant calories, it is killing us—slowly in normal times, swiftly in times like these,” Pollan writes.

Please No Smoking, Littering and Radio Signage on Gray Wall

How many dollars and lives has it taken to get the PSA out on the toxicity of Tobacco products? When might we see a similar campaign to properly educate consumers about the foods we see every day on the supermarket shelf, or on that impulse-buy at the counter, which cause disease and increase the threat to viruses such as Covid-19.

It’s high time we address the elephant in the room; Not only do our food choices affect our health and happiness, they also are linked directly to inequities in our society. While I don’t expect everyone to have the resources to eat a healthy diet, we all have personal responsibility over our bodies, and it’s time we get them moving.

Person Running Near Street Between Tall Trees

For Essential Food Processing Workers, “Thank You” Won’t Be Enough

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When your health and possibly your life are on the line, a mere “thank you” from your employer won’t cut it. In an excellent blog post, Gregory Stine (gstine9) cites an article from The Fern reporting that as of May 1st, there have been 6,832 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 25 deaths among meatpacking and food processing workers across the country. This leaves me to wonder, is thousands of workers getting sick a business expense? Or did their employers make the age-old mistake of valuing profits over people, deciding that the costs of worker protections were simply too high. The question now – will they learn their lesson?

Gregory did a great job tying in what Michael Maniates’ piece, “Individualization”, taught us about the way in which large employers deflect responsibility for their own mistakes back onto the workers who suffer those mistakes’ consequences. This phenomenon has been especially evident during the pandemic. The New York Times reported how in a Tyson Foods pork plant that had over 1,000 confirmed cases, Tyson named “worker absenteeism” as a reason for having to temporarily shut down production, failing to recognize how their own practices had made going to work too dangerous for many of their workers.

A Tyson Foods factory in Waterloo, Iowa

A Tyson Foods factory in Waterloo, Iowa (Daniel Acker for The New York Times)

In Raj Patel’s “The Color of Food”, it was reported that food processing and meatpacking facilities across the country employ people of color at a disproportionate rate to the national population, as does every other sector of the food industry. Per the Food Workers Alliance, as well as being some of the most dangerous, 5 of the 8 lowest paying jobs in America are in the food system.

workers at a Tyson poultry plant in Georgia

workers at a Tyson poultry plant in Georgia (Tyson/AP)

Gregory’s post emphasizes the pressing need for structural change that the pandemic has only helped illuminate. When the dust settles, will employers continue to disregard health concerns in the name of profits or will this mark the start of a new age of food worker safety and empowerment.

In Response to “A Plague Overlooked: The locust crisis lurking in the shadow of COVID-19”

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In response to this blog post.

I chose to respond to Cameron’s blog post because it uncovers a serious crisis currently in the shadow of COVID-19 news. Their post describes the large swarms of locusts overtaking farmland throughout the Horn of Africa. As of May 13th the locusts continue to spread rapidly; officials warn they may migrate east as far as the Indo-Pakistan border and even to West Africa.   

Map showing possible Desert Locust Spread, fao.org

How international organizations are addressing this crisis closely relates our study of the global food economy. Developing countries (like those on the Horn of Africa) face comparatively more severe repercussions from an agricultural crisis like this than in developed countries. Agriculture comprises a much higher portion of their GDP and they lack sufficient resources to respond to such a disaster. The locust swarms are also infesting extremely food insecure nations like South Sudan. Then why has funding been slow and insufficient? Historically (and still today) international trade institutions are manipulated so that the world food system works in favor of developed nations. As discussed by Clapp,  developed countries dump their subsidized food in global markets while developing countries struggle to compete with the cheap costs. There seems to be little international movement towards helping the region during this crisis. Developing countries continue to lack influence in intergovernmental organizations like the U.N yet are facing increasingly devastating environmental crises like this one.

Locusts swarm through East Africa

This issue therefore clearly connects to the idea of “triple inequality” discussed in class. As Cameron mentions, climate change has been linked to the locust swarms. The affected countries have had little historical influence on global warming, yet pay the brunt of the climate costs while having little capacity to adapt and respond to this disaster. The “triple inequality” theory, in combination with the structuring of international organizations and the world food system overall, elucidates how the system is stacked against these developing countries. Sufficient funding should be provided in response to this crisis, but we must also think of larger reforms that reshape these global systems by putting power into the hands of climate change threatened countries. How can we reform these systems so that they are fair, just, and work for all, not just the most powerful?

A Response to “Migrant workers are the backbone of our food system, why don’t we treat them better?”

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Original Post: https://sites.uw.edu/pols385/2020/04/13/migrant-workers-are-the-backbone-of-our-food-system-why-dont-we-treat-them-better/

The United States has a long history of social inequity and it is coming to light more during the recent events of COVID-19. I do agree with Ag519 with the unjust treatment of migrant workers especially during this time and the fact that things aren’t getting better. I do have an answer to their question on why it is not getting better. Upper class society has a substantial amount of power over what happens in this world, and they do not want to lose this power. With that, all they worry about is how to gain more money and power and finding the quickest way at attaining that. In addition to that, there is barely any media coverage around big social problems in the world, so only a small amount of people knows what’s happening.

The video So Close to America: Undocumented Farm Workers & The Myth of The ‘Free Ride’ illustrates how migrant workers work just as hard, if not harder, than other people in America while doing the jobs no one else wants to do. During this time, migrant workers continue to work in close quarters with each other and do not have resources to stay safe while others can work from home or not work at all. A question that I think Ag519 does not ask that is very important is what can we do as a community to change this. What can we do as allies to support migrant workers and what can we do to change the system? This is an important question because it asks where we go from here. These answers can include educating others about the unjust treatment happening, especially during this pandemic and donating to foundations in support.

Change starts with everyone fighting together against inequity and unjust treatment.

Farmworkers harvesting zucchini in Florida, April 2020

Photo credit: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2020/04/23/483488/protecting-farmworkers-coronavirus-securing-food-supply/

Raisins are a Cover-Up Story

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When I was young, I would make these raisin apple cinnamon muffins. Biting into the delicious treat I made and tasting the sweet yet sour raisins on my tongue, I never realized how a such a simple food can represent something so immense.

The Sun-Maid Raisins commercial describes their raisin-making process as simply using grapes and sunshine. What they fail to convey, however, is the fact that there are people hard at work doing strenuous labor. If not, the industrialization of agriculture destabilized the the job market for a substantial amount of people. This kind of cover-up has happened and continues to happen all over the world. For example, while the world is focusing on buying toilet paper and stocking up on goods, minority groups are getting their organs harvested forcefully while still being alive. This has further reminded me that the media will do almost anything to create a distraction from things that need to be focused on as well. Some questions I will continue to ask myself from this point on is what other things are going on besides this that deserve attention additionally? How can I help bring these stories out for others to hear and be aware of?

 

This contemplative practice at first felt slightly unproductive to my time. However, creating these connections to the outside world and what I can do to help make this world a better place for everyone living in it. I did not find a lot of linkage between what I have learned in this contemplative practice and what we have learned in this class as a whole. Altogether, although these mediations and contemplative practices may seem ineffective, it can open your mind to a world of new ideas.

Works Cited:

Smith, Saphora. “China Forcefully Harvests Organs from Detainees, Tribunal Concludes.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 18 June 2019, www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-forcefully-harvests-organs-detainees-tribunal-concludes-n1018646.

A Sad Reality for Migrant Farmworkers in America

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In the United States 47 to 70% of 2.4 million farmworkers are undocumented. Undocumented farmworkers already faced adversity before Covid-19. Living in horrible housing conditions, working in labor camps, receiving questionable pay, exposure to pesticides, generally high rates of diabetes, little access to medical care, and discrimination are just some examples of the sad reality for migrant farmworkers in America. As Covid-19 continues to impact every part of society, migrant farmworkers are facing exploitation and possible public health disaster more than ever before.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images via https://fortune.com/2020/04/03/farmworkers-coronavirus-essential-workers-covid-19-agriculture/

Considering the history of exploitation of undocumented farmworkers in America, the coronavirus has put an already vulnerable group at an even higher risk, and on track to a public health and human rights disaster. Because labor camps have very little space to make social distancing possible, an outbreak is more likely to occur. Many undocumented workers are left without information about the virus from their employers, and without proper personal protection equipment and training for disinfecting or what to do when feeling ill.

Farmworkers are essential, and are now being recognized as “heroes”. But I would argue that in the context of Covid-19, they are martyrs. Undocumented farmworkers have little options, and are basically forced to accept the danger and risk in order to continue feeding America and the rest of the world, who until now didn’t even consider the conditions that workers have faced for many years. Undocumented farmworkers have little workers’ rights, little pay, little protection, little access to healthcare, and very little gratitude from the rest of society. It is apparent that undocumented farmworkers need and deserve better than what they have been given. Now is the time to protect those who have protected us for so long, with economic support, better access to health-care and worker protections, amongst many other reparations.

Additional Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/03/31/during-covid-19-pandemic-immigrant-farmworkers-are-heroes/

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03042020/covid-farmworkers-california-climate-change-agriculture

https://fortune.com/2020/04/03/farmworkers-coronavirus-essential-workers-covid-19-agriculture/

Uncovering a Crumbling Food System in a Global Pandemic

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Rice paddy in Vietnam shows prominence of staple crop, one of the most desired goods in the Coronavirus pandemic. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-25/vietnam-s-rice-trade-thrown-into-turmoil-on-export-halt-muddle

In the 1970s, the US increased production of agricultural goods drastically to add to their exports. Today, Chuck Abbott’s article, “Agriculture feels impact as pandemic reshapes U.S. diet, rattles producers,” outlines the current state of domestic agriculture and the impacts of the global food system. Since the year began, not only has the country’s ability to export declined, but imports and domestic sales have been affected as well. Families are buying chicken for easy home dinners, but beef is left on shelves with their businesses seeing food waste and closure; rice prices skyrocket because Vietnam plans on shutting down exports. What this illustrates is how fragile the US and global food system has become, and how a wide-reaching pandemic can cause them to crumble.

Widespread cornfield monocrop. https://www.agweb.com/article/proven-nitrogen-source-no-matter-weather

rom an economic perspective, the way food is produced around the world is efficient and makes the most people happy with the least sacrificed. The theory says that you take your most efficient products and make more and more and more. Production goes up, price goes down, consumption goes up, making production increase again. This cycle engenders specialization, bringing everyone the best goods at the best prices as countries trade.

But if consumer taste or world trade changes at the drop of the dime as it has with the current pandemic, will our current food infrastructure of monocrops and extreme meat production collapse? The surplus of domestically produced meat and the scramble for imported goods like grains are telling. As with the web of biodiversity in times of change, the most overly specialized will fail first. These past few months have only revealed how crippled the world has left its built food system. It no longer resembles a resilient web whose manifold connections sustain it for infinity, but a linear chain riddled with disintegrating links.

Tons of Hungry People and Tons of Wasted Food

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It is the age of a global pandemic and for many Americans, it is a time of heightened economic vulnerability. The services of food banks are in increasing demand from both old and new customers as food insecurity explodes as unemployment skyrockets amid the COVID-19 crisis. At the same time, experts predict that we will be seeing a stark increase in our already high levels of food waste. In a good year, America would see 40 percent of its food wasted – 63 million tons. 

Source: Getty Images

This is not a good year. This is a year of panic buying and closed down markets and cafeterias, meaning that we can expect to see more than 40 percent of our food go to waste. The interconnected problems of food insecurity and food waste are certainly not new, but with the rise of COVID-19 they have gained higher visibility and have more far reaching impacts than ever before. 

Food waste management stretches from farm to table. With farmers leaving up to half of their crops unharvested due to cosmetic imperfections and American households representing the largest source of food wasted, food and money are lost at every step of the food system. While it may be tempting to think that our individual choices about how we consume don’t matter within the larger food system, it is this type of thinking that yields high volumes of food rotting in refrigerators and leaves misshapen foods in grocery stores to go to waste.

By changing our individual behaviors, we can dramatically decrease the waste we contribute and thereby improve the food system. And instead of allowing imperfect foods to go to waste on farms, we should be supporting infrastructure that enables these foods to be transported to food banks. If we make change now, we will save lives.

 

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.