Tag Archives: COVID

Climate Change and Everything Else

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Throughout my experience participating in the Our Climate Action group, I have acquired new skills that enhanced my learning. My project members and I participated in multiple listening sessions run by other fellows from the Our Climate activists explaining the Evergreen New Deal:  a comprehensive climate change reform policy that will introduce greener solutions to current predicaments. All of this exposure to the bits and bolts of how our state and country runs in regards to introducing laws and regulations has added to my sense of citizenship and provided me with a clearer path to contribution. Before this experience, I felt like I was staring at the system from a distance, and it was too entangled in itself for me to get involved.

One interactive portion of our activism involved spreading a survey to Washingtonians under the age of 30 focused on collecting opinions on what prominent complications must immediately be addressed in our direct environment here in the state. During role in lobbying to Tina Orwall, spreading the voices of concerned residents, I especially made an emphasis on how COVID-19 should not get in the way of climate change policy because the underprivileged community is affected negatively by both COVID and climate change, and these two issues interacting creates an even bigger obstacle.

Climate change is obviously a complicated interconnected system woven through everything from our bodies interaction to the weather, to how our climate changes drastically in the atmosphere. There’s an undeniable chain of consequences between our climate and food. For example, “As reserves are depleted, changes in production would have a bigger impact on the price of food….Scientists have warned hotter temperatures and more erratic rainfall could increase the frequency and intensity of droughts (Reuters).” Droughts will affect how much food is yielded and therefore affect how people will be able to sustain themselves globally. Learning about connections between climate change and the food system, as well as climate change and COVID-19, it was easy for me to realize that underprivileged communities are not only affected by certain disadvantages individually, but also how all those disadvantages come together and create increased adverse challenges. This is why climate change needs to be addressed among the other issues, taking out one factor of damage out at a time, we can salvage what, and who, we are hurting and destroying.

Please watch this short animation on how climate change interacts with the causes and consequences of other global dilemmas:

Applying course lessons and action project results to the real world

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For my action project, my group developed a set of news media and social media content to engage the public with the issues of dairy CAFOs in Washington. This included Facebook and Twitter posts, which had info graphics and in the future will have political tool kits for citizens to contact their representatives and the WA Department of Ecology during the legislative session, and letters to the editor which were sent to multiple local newspapers.

Figure 1: Example post from my action projects Facebook page
In this class we have discussed the impacts of COVID on the world food system. These impacts have largely been to processing and distribution. Our project was also impacted by COVID because we had less of an opportunity to spread our message. Our social media posts did not do as well as we had hoped because there is currently a lack of interest for this kind of content currently given both world an domestic events. This is not something that only we faced. During the pandemic, I have noticed that most environmental groups have shifted their focus from traditional targets to focus on causes related to the pandemic and more recently racial justice.

Figure 2: This image, posted on Greenpeace USA’s Facebook page, is an example of the shift in focus from environmental groups
This is a unique issue that ties into the other impacts of COVID on the world food system which we discussed in class. The difference is that the impact of decreased pressure from advocacy largely affects production, and not as much processing or distribution. Production has been negatively impacted by the disruptions to processing and distribution however, unlike processing and distribution where COVID has pretty much only been a detractor, the production portion of the world food system has been avle to operate unchecked.

Figure 3: The recent increase in the rate of deforestation of the Amazon is an example of the impacts on the food system as a result of a distracted world. Source: NBC news
While advocacy from environmental groups may not play into the typical model for a world food system, a basic understanding of systems thinking, the discussions we have had in class, and my experience with my action project have allowed me to better understand the connections in our food web I didn’t know existed.

Response to: Boxed in a Paradox

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Response to: Boxed in a Paradox by ash_marie

Since the start of the pandemic, I have been scared to go out to get groceries or other essentials for fear of contracting the virus and/or bringing it home to my loved ones. Because of this, I have chosen to seldom go to the store, going only every few weeks to buy in bulk. But on occasion I still need something that I have run out of or forgot to purchase. Rather than risk the trip to the grocery store, I chose to order the product online, often kicking myself as I use amazon. While deliveries are not risk free, they have reduced risk compared to in person sopping. I took my ability to do this for granted until I read ‘Boxed in a Paradox’ by ash_marie.

‘Boxed in a Paradox’ explains the reality of a lack of access to online orders for many Americans as well as the immense amount of wealth that online ordering has been generating for companies like Amazon and Walmart while their workers suffer. In the blog post, ash_marie discusses the need to reform the system to make it more equitable for workers and consumers.

Food System Map. Source: https://kumu.io/monicapc/food-system-vision-2050-oct2019

To make reforms, it is important to fully understand the system to begin with. As we have touched on in class, mapping out a system is an effective way to achieve this. Monica Price Cohen develops system maps, such as the food system map, which allows the viewer to gain an in depth understanding of the system that they are investigating by demonstrating connections that the viewer may never have thought of before. Developing a system map of the online ordering system, which would fit within the larger food system map, is a great place to start to understand the next steps to take to make effective change.

-Nathan Mock

Boxed in a Paradox

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Not everyone seems to be in agreement to following the guidelines of the stay at home order, reports of protest and sheer defiance of these safety precautions have been surfacing across the US. And with tensions rising, as well as anxieties building to reopen economies, many states are beginning to lift restrictions. But, there are still many who are not yet prepared to dive back into everyday life, aware that COVID’s threat still lingers, and wish to minimize their exposure and maintain healthy boundaries. A common practice many Americans have partook in, even in the thick of the stay at home order, has been the use of online and delivery platforms. Having their groceries and other essentials delivered,  can be seen as a much safer alternative – and it can be assumed that many will stick to this mode of action even as states begin to reopen. Unfortunately, only a few states such as New York and Washington have made this option available to those who rely on the federally funded SNAP program. And with the majority of SNAP beneficiaries being households with disabled individuals and/or individuals ages 60+, these demographics hold those most at risk to COVID, and would benefit the most from home delivery. This being said, wouldn’t be ideal for all states to adopt this option in the face of our current crisis, and beyond?

But let’s take a deeper dive into this topic, because as much as I am a supporter of making doorstep delivery an accessible option to these millions of Americans, it is not something should be mistaken as an easy fix. Let’s take into account that states who have included SNAP benefits through online platforms, have limited these available services to Amazon and Walmart; in other words corporations large enough to quickly and efficiently take on this new “infrastructure.” And this is where we find ourselves boxed in a paradox, which is ever present within our food system along all lines of production and consumption. Much like we can accredit big agriculture for its efficiency in mass production, a necessity seen to feed the world’s population, we also struggle to simultaneously hold this system accountable for its countless negative social and environmental impacts. A paradox parallel to this current situation. While Amazon and Walmart hold the capacity and capital to adopt platforms that can support SNAP beneficiaries, and meet the needs of at risk populations, this capacity has been made possible through the exploitation and mistreatment of their employees. Not unfamiliar to the reality before the COVID crisis, Amazon and Walmart have made major headlines related to labor strikes in response to the companies’ mistreatment of their workers. Low wages, long hours, unsafe working conditions, and heightened risks during this pandemic are all characteristics that are shared not only among these corporations but also among many of our essential farm workers.

Migrant farm worker and Amazon worker protest working conditions among the COVID crisis. Protest sign translation from Spanish to English: “Without peasants THERE ARE NO APPLES”

Just as the exploitation of migrant farm workers play their role in making cheap food a “possible” option for us all, the exploitation of Amazon and Walmart workers have made it “possible” to quickly adjust to the inclusion of SNAP payments. And so, we wake up to another groundhogs day of maddening paradoxes that many are fighting to break down. I believe it is viable for us to have affordable food and growing technologies that help to meet the needs of those living in disadvantaged states without exploitation and mistreatment making it “possible.” But, in order for us to achieve this we must go farther back down the chains of events and commands, around and through the loops and feedbacks, which all act as mechanisms within our complex food system. As maddening as these paradoxes are, we may only achieve breaking them down by stepping out of the box, and focus on restructuring our systems as a whole.