Tag Archives: systemic

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.

The Collective is Made of Individuals (Re: Contemplating Climate Complexity)

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I’m writing in response to Aisling’s post about contemplation, numbness, and the idea that our individual efforts do nothing other than make our personal selves feel better. I’m here to argue against that last point.

She is correct that, numerically speaking, one person doing something isn’t going to matter on a global scale. One person not eating beef isn’t going to eliminate the emissions produced by those cows. One person not getting their driver’s license isn’t going to be noticed by any politician or lobbyist. One person buying fair trade isn’t going to make trade fair.

It takes policy. It takes systemic change. It takes corporate and governmental action. But you know what makes up those corporations and governments? Individual humans. You know what makes up those masses of tens of thousands of protesters? Individual humans. You know what began the Organic Farm Movement in western culture? Individuals. You know who began to advocate women’s rights in the United States? Individual women. And together, those individuals had and have a voice. They have strength. Together, their individual actions created a tidal wave that started an international movement, that changed long-standing laws and discrimination, that brought us to where we are today because if each of those individuals said, “my choices and my voice don’t do anything, so why bother?” then it would have been a self-fulfilling prophecy. I think we often forget no massive change has happened wide-scale out of nowhere. It grows.

I want to be clear that I’m not saying everyone has the ability to speak and act equally: that’s a part of our inherently exploitative society. But those who have the ability and knowledge shouldn’t be silent because others can’t speak. If anything, we owe it to those who are disadvantaged and silenced to fight for a better future for us all. As a whole, we are not powerless.