Tag Archives: racism

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. 

No System is Immune: Structural Racism in the American Food System

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This past quarter I had the opportunity to work with a Washington organization fighting to empower the youth of the state to fight for bold, equitable, and science-based climate policies. Through my work with Our Climate, coupled with my politics of the world food system course, I became more educated about the concentrations of power in wealth that dominate and dictate the processes and practices of the world food system.

The richest fifth of the population control 90 percent of the world’s wealth and emit 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.[i] This block of people is mostly white. This fact does not exist without substantial consequences for the rest of the population. For example, 10 percent of white households experience hunger in the United States, Black households experience hunger at rates of 20-25 percent.[ii]

Source: https://alliancetoendhunger.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Hill-advocacy-fact-sheet__HUNGER-IS-A-RACIAL-EQUITY-ISSUE_Alliance-to-End-Hunger.pdf

Food insecurity, as we know can and does lead to inability to attend school or jobs, decreased health and health outcomes, disease, shortened life expectancy, and more. Systemic racism does not solely exist in our legal and governmental institutions. It shows up in the global food system, especially in the American food system. Systemic racism is not isolated to a few systems or institutions, food insecurity is not the only manifestation of systemic racism. Private agricultural land ownership is dominated by white people.[iii] Only 1.3 percent of farmers in America are Black.[iv] Black farmers receive less assistance from the government than white farmers.[v] The list goes on and on.

Source: https://foodfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DRnumber2_VF.pdf

Systems are inherently interconnected and organized to achieve a function. Yet, our national food system fails Black Americans. Change in systems is inevitable and we must leverage this inherent change to ensure that food systems serve Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color just the same as they serve white people. We must call upon our politicians and listen to Black activists to address these issues.

Lastly, I want to share some important resources, activists, educators, and organizers to turn to during this time.

END NOTES:

[i] Political Ecology of the World Food System Lecture, April 16, 2020

[ii] https://alliancetoendhunger.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Hill-advocacy-fact-sheet__HUNGER-IS-A-RACIAL-EQUITY-ISSUE_Alliance-to-End-Hunger.pdf

[iii] https://foodfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DRnumber2_VF.pdf

[iv] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/29/why-have-americas-black-farmers-disappeared

[v] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/29/why-have-americas-black-farmers-disappeared

– Sophie Stein

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.

The Importance of Standing Together Against Injustice Anywhere

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” those are the now iconic words from the deeply moving letter from Birmingham jail written by MLK Jr. in 1963.

While those words are powerful by themselves, just as powerful is the sentence which follows it: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” While MLK Jr. was specifically talking about racism in America and the necessity of all people to stand up for injustice wherever they see it, I think that the idea presented resonates at a much deeper level. As we have learned through systems thinking throughout this quarter, we are all connected in many more ways than we think.

We are connected to the cacao farmers in West Africa who grow the beans that become our chocolate but who can’t afford the finished product,

We are connected to the meat packers in the Midwest who are dying of Covid-19 because of a lack of adequate protection,

We are connected to the communities who can’t drink their water because they live downstream from under-regulated dairy CAFO’s in our very own Washington state.

Global food system, Criminal Justice System, Contaminated Water Systems, all just different names for the same oppressive system fueled by the colonial legacy of institutionalized racism. We may have abolished slavery 155 years ago, but most of our food is still picked, packed, and shipped by black and brown hands. We are all part of a system which consumes marginalized bodies, and which leaves those who benefit from it confused, guilty, and angry; A system which has injustice as its very core.

So, what can we do? How we can possibly break out from these systems that entwine, confine, but hopefully won’t continue to define us.

Through my group project with the Center for Food Safety working on building a social media campaign to demand the stronger regulation of dairy CAFO’s within Washington communities, I got a glimpse of the power of the collective. Individually, none of us had the skills or the energy to create a platform on which this issue could be addressed, yet together through the synergy of our skills and knowledge we were able to create a comprehensive platform that included social media pages, petitions, lobby tool kits, and letters to the editor.

Society so often tries to divide us, because a people divided are easier to suppress, but when we awaken to the injustices which surround us and come together in the form of collective action we can challenge the very fabric of society. In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” In these unprecedented times it is crucial we come together and use our collective leverage to make a difference because if we don’t, who will?

 

Where is Freedom, Justice, and Sovereignty in America?

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During this quarter, I participated in an action project with the Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ), a local non-profit who advocates for community-based movements that strengthen local economies, promote diversity and autonomy, and combat unjust trade and agricultural policies. For the project, we did email and phone outreach to ask for donations from local businesses for their annual SLEE (Strengthening Local Economies Everywhere) silent auction dinner event. We also researched extensively for the CAGJ’s new Fair Trade page on their website.

The most specific topics that stood out in the course material and connected to my action project were trade liberalization, racial justice, and food sovereignty. I was able to connect these subjects extensively with the course material through readings such as Freedom Farmers and my project research and discussion, ultimately deepening my understanding of the complex issues present in our global and local food systems.

Trade liberalization (and sometimes unfair, “Fair Trade”) in many ways, has led to the demise of developing nations and smaller local economies. While learning about how the CAGJ fights against many of the actions of the WTO, I was able to connect what I was learning about in class in terms of how the global system is currently shaped to benefit big business and big agriculture, leaving “the little guy” behind. 

In addition, the topics of food and racial justice, along with food sovereignty played into many aspects of my action project. We talked about Food Empowerment Education & Sustainability Team (FEEST), who works in South King County promoting, “healthy food access, racial justice, and youth empowerment to create food justice in low income communities of color and develop leadership for lasting change” (FEEST, pg 3). This stood out to me and made me think about how systemic racism contributes to inequitable health outcomes for POC, and currently, has contributed to increased cases of COVID-19 for the Black community who disproportionately work low paying jobs in the food industry, lack access to health care, and live disproportionately in food swamps.

While discussing racial inequity in the food system with the CAGJ and in class, it is important to consider the effects of systemic racism also in schooling, income, job access, opportunity, and health outcomes.

If there is one thing that I can walk away from this class with, it is the understanding that a nation is not truly free until its citizens stand in solidarity and fight for those who lack justice, equity, and freedom from oppression.

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.