Imagine a world…

• Where every person in every community has equal access to food that we enjoy and sustains us
• Where food workers are guaranteed safety and respect as the providers of life giving sustenance
• Where owning and working our own soil is an attainable dream 
• Where systems of food sales and distribution are based on health for all and not on profit for a few
• Where our political and economic structures protect food as the human right that it is.

PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY

According to Feeding America, before the coronavirus pandemic, 35 million people in the United States experienced hunger.  More than 10 million of those were children.   Because of the pandemic millions of people are without stable employment and are less able to provide for their families.  The number of people experiencing food insecurity, at this moment, is projected to jump to 50 million. 17 million of those are children.

FOOD IS A HUMAN RIGHT

The pandemic has forced us to see parts of our country that make us uncomfortable, things that were “hidden” to many are now in front of us all. We have seen how interconnected we all are—how inequities for some ultimately impact the whole.  We are in a crisis and out of crisis can come change.  

The “Food Movement” had already been brewing as various groups globally have been examining the food systems from production through distribution to the table. There are different definitions for the movements generally identified as “food justice” and “food sovereignty.” Each identifies the layers and layers of structures that have built and maintain inequities along the line. They have in common two important tenets:

1. Food is a human right.
2. Food justice can come only through racial, social, and economic justice.

AN ARTIFICIAL CHOICE 

Each part of the food movement focusses on points in the system to address—some aim to provide immediate relief from hunger and others want to provide long term opportunity for input and agency of communities who have been disenfranchised along the way by long standing institutions.  Certainly this is not an either/or choice but a yes/yes.

We need programs like SNAP, food banks, local access, and urban gardens to get food immediately and dependably to the mouths in hungry families.  Nothing positive can happen when individuals are hungry.  But we cannot stop there.  We must continue to feel the tension, and not be placated by the good feeling that comes from good effort.  We cannot separate hunger from poverty and cannot separate poverty from institutionalized racism.   We cannot separate lack of access to healthy food from the economic system which allows choices and prices to be controlled by Big Food corporations and the USDA subsidies and loans. 

WORKING FOR FOOD EQUITY

There are programs that recognize the need to do both at once, that see solutions in a continuum.   An example is the Northwest Harvest program in Seattle, Washington that has changed its operation from a standard foodbank where people stand in line to be given what is available to a Community Co-op shopping experience where families shop for free for what they want and need. Participants are actively sought to give input about what would work best—which languages for signage, which foods are culturally desired, what hours of operation make for easy access. Recognizing that food is only one need within poverty and that time is a limited resource, other social service resources are available at off hours and on the spot.  Because participant input works here and stomachs are full, people are experiencing the power of their voices. 

Familias en Acción in Portland, Oregon developed Abuela, Mama Y Yo as a tool to educate the whole family about health and nutrition across generations and to build advocacy skills for food equity. With each lesson comes encouragement to advocate for themselves and their community. With the pandemic Promotoras de Salud/Community Health Workers quickly pivoted to getting food out to people.  The sense of personal power is a growing ground for activists.

Viva Farms is a nonprofit farm-business incubator in the Skagit Valley that supports aspiring and limited-resource farmers. Through a number of innovative partnerships—with Washington State University and Skagit Valley College for education, PCC Farmland Trust to support farmland acquisition, and others—Viva Farms and programs like it are bringing new farmers to the land in Northwest Washington.

There are many examples of such tactics but we know that no ONE tactic can make a difference unless it addresses a permanent change in the whole system.   We must continually ask ourselves: how can this effort be embedded into long range planning?  How can these positive effects become institutionalized?

EQUITY LENS

The history of inequity in our country from Native land grabs to slavery is not a pretty picture.  We like to think of those as past issues, yet we know that current institutions continue to support the strength of the few on the backs of the many.   Hunger is a symptom of poverty, poverty that is a symptom of lack of power and structural racism.  When changing old policies or making new ones, the question of equity must be front and center if power is to be equalized.  

An “equity lens” is a way of examining the way things are and can guide decisions about making changes.  It can be a tool that includes a series of questions or issues to consider that point out potential equity-related impacts. The first piece of such a tool is to listen to the voices of the people most impacted.  They are most likely to know how change can  be effective.   They are most likely to know the resources and who within their community can best represent them at the table to work for policy change.

To be effective the lens must be used at each step of the process—from initial idea to developing, implementing, and evaluating policies, initiatives, programs, and budgets—always asking: Does this promote social and racial justice? Does this equalize power?  Does this only protect and promote current institutions?

YOUR PLACE IN THE CONTINUUM FOR CHANGE

Continuing along the continuum for change is a desire to dismantle the entire food chain and the corporate control of agriculture and food, to redistribute land, to regulate the market for more equitable pricing, and more.  Those changes could disassemble the need for food and financial safety nets and would allow space for more equitable policies and initiatives. The mega-food-chain is only one such system, powerful though it is. Any system that supports an imbalance of power will continue to allow for poverty and hunger. 

We are in a food crisis—even if our own stomach is not empty, the cruelty of inequity raises bile in our throats.   Crisis and tension can bring change if we use it to build a social movement that puts pressure on the powers at each step:  employers, fellow consumers, lawmakers. Any place we actively step in to make a change can send a shock wave to the system.  

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”
— Dolores Huerta

What’s Needed:

1. Patronize farmers of color through farmers markets 
2. Become educated about the Farmers of Color Network through www.rafiusa.org.
3. Support urban agricultural programs based on food justice 

RESOURCES:

Boad, Garrett.  (2016).  More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change  University of California Press.

Horst, M., McClintock, N., Hoey, L. (2017) “The Intersection of Planning, Urban Agriculture, and Food Justice: A Review of the Literature”, Journal of the American Planning Association, 83:3, pp.277-295  https://urbanfoodfutures.com/2018/02/01/urban-agriculture-and-food-justice/

The Impact of Coronavirus on Food Insecurity.  https://www.feedingamerica.org/research/coronavirus-hunger-research

Food and Farms.  https://www.ucsusa.org/food

Heal Food Alliance.  https://healfoodalliance.org/

If you care about the working poor, about racial justice, and about climate change, you have to stop eating animals. Jonathan Safran Foer

This horrific pandemic has brought food to the forefront for many of us.  We are rethinking the food we eat–for our individual/family health, the health of our country, and the health of our planet.

Our Ancestors Knew

Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel, authors of  “Decolonize Your Diet” advocate a return to the fresh and healthy foods of our ancestors.  For Latinx and indigenous peoples, beans are the food of our ancestors. A decolonized diet is a lifestyle that embraces ancestral food choices for our health and the health of our mother earth.  A decolonized Mexican diet includes corn, beans, cactus, tomatoes, avocado, and chili peppers. 

Many healthy plants and herbs, quelites, that are indigenous to Mexico, are considered weeds in the United States.  Our health and the health of our mother earth is a return to our indigenous roots!

From Yesterday to Today

A Latinx vegan movement is happening across the country! The number of Vegatinos—Latinx choosing vegan or plant-based foods—is on the rise. Across the country, restaurateurs and chefs are reinvigorating familiar dishes of Mexican and Mexican American cooking for a new generation while also nudging the cuisine closer to its pre-Columbian, omnivorous heritage with a plant-heavy diet rooted in corn, beans, squash, wild greens, cactus, nuts and chiles.  

The epicenter of Vegatinos in Southern California is building a strong social media presence.  Latinx entrepreneur Jocelyn Ramirez is a plant-based chef, author of La Vida Verde:  Plant-Based Mexican Cooking with Authentic Flavor and the force behind Todo Verde, an on line resource supporting and educating around the vegan lifestyle.   Her creations show that eating vegan can be delicious and exciting:  Ceviche de palmitas/Heart of Palm Ceviche and Tacos de Yaca al Pastor/Jackfruit Al Pastor Tacos.

Sales of plant-based meat products have surged during the pandemic and are projected to continue to grow into reduced demand for beef.  A recent Yale survey on climate change and the American diet found that even though only 1 percent of Americans are vegan, more than half of Americans surveyed were willing to eat more plant-based meat and less beef.

For Your Healthy Tomorrow

Many Latinx vegans are motivated to prevent the chronic diseases experienced in their families and that affect Latinos at disproportionate rates.  Research shows that a whole food, plant-based diet can reduce our risks for and even prevent chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and autoimmune diseases.  There also is growing evidence that plant-based diets are associated with benefits like lower blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and reduced body weight. The health benefits can be significant!

For the Health of Our Planet

Our madre tierra is being harmed by our production and consumption of beef.  The effects are local and global:

• According to the UN, the livestock sector is responsible for 18% of greenhouse emissions. That is around 40% more than the entire transportation sector-cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships combined.

• Researchers from four universities tell us that beef cattle are the most greenhouse Gas intensive food to produce.   Methane gas, produced by animal waste, is one of the top three greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. 

• One pound of beef requires 1,800 gallons of water to produce!

• Meat production in the U.S. and globally requires a significant amount of land, both to grow animal feed and to house animals.

• Beef production is the top driver of deforestation in the world’s tropical forests.

Eating Beans IS a Revolutionary Act

How does this compare to plant based options?  Growing beans and other legumes make only one-fortieth the amount of gases that raising beef make.   If Americans would eat beans instead of beef, the United States would immediately realize approximately 50 to 75 percent of our Greenhouse Gas reduction targets for the year 2020.

What difference can one person, one family, make? The Environmental Defense Fund calculates that if every meat eater in the U.S. swapped just one meal of chicken per week for a vegetarian meal the carbon savings would be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road.   

A revolution can start small—one meal, one day, one week with a gradual reduction of the animal products you eat (meat, chicken, dairy).  It takes a shift in our thinking from an animal protein centric to vegetable centric diet, from roast beef to roast beets.  A shift from myself today to my future self, from disease to prevention.  A shift from what and how we have been fed to conscious awareness of how and why we want to feed ourselves and take care of our world.

Eating a plant -based diet is the most important contribution every one of us can make for the health of our own family and for our global family.

What’s Needed

1. Patronize farmers of color through farmers markets 
2. Become educated about the Farmers of Color Network through www.rafiusa.org.
3. Ask elected officials to support agricultural policies to expand opportunities in the plant-based foods industry for farmers of color.

*Abuelas en Acción Podcast for Our Common Good: https://abuelasenaccion.buzzsprout.com/831745/4626275-interview-with-dr-laura-anne-minkoff-zern-author-of-the-new-american-farmer-immigration-race-and-the-struggle-for-sustainability

Resources

3 Ways Pandemics Make Us Examine Our Relationship With Food and the Environment:  https://nutritionstudies.org/3-ways-pandemics-make-us-examine-our-relationship-with-food-and-the-environment/

The End of Meat Is Here:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/opinion/coronavirus-meat-vegetarianism.html?referringSource=articleShare

Eating beans instead of beef would sharply reduce greenhouse gasses:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170523081954.htm#:~:text=If%20Americans%20would%20eat%20beans,targets%20for%20the%20year%202020.&text=The%20researchers%20explained%20that%20beef,beans%2C%20peas%2C%20etc.)

How a pot of beans can be a revolutionary act: decolonising your diet:  https://gal-dem.com/decolonising-your-diet/#:~:text=Cooking%20a%20pot%20of%20beans,into%20the%20Mexican%2DAmerican%20community.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST DRIVERS OF TROPICAL DEFORESTATION?

THEY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK

Mexi-Vegan cooking is mainstream in Southern California. And it’s only getting bigger: https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2020-06-26/mexican-vegan-los-angeles-escarcega

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I AM ESSENTIAL

It’s 3 a.m. A father wakes his daughter to prepare for their day of picking cherries. Ready to begin by 4:30 they have packed  lunch and dressed for a long summer day in sturdy shoes, long sleeves and long pants hoping for some protection from cuts and scrapes, pesticide irritations and allergic reactions.  The cherry crop should be good this year as long as workers can stay healthy, but the family will be making much less money— the mother can’t pick because someone needs to stay home to take care of the younger children because the childcare center closed with a Coronavirus outbreak. She prays her husband won’t bring the virus home to their elderly mother.

Surely they will be eligible for the stimulus checks or maybe the supplemented unemployment benefits? But there is no such support for this family.  Even if only one family member is undocumented, the family doesn’t dare draw attention to themselves. Surely there are unions to protect them or paychecks that are a living wage? There are no rules about length of work days and certainly no overtime pay. Surely OSHA regulations keep workers safe from harm? But no one is watching. The meat industry, for instance, is self regulated. Processing plants were mandated by the government to continue working during virus outbreaks. Surely they can take “sick days” off to recover or prevent the spread of the virus?  Caught between needing the income and risking illness, workers must hope that the harvest will not be cut short. The low wage labor force is seen as necessary yet expendable. When the food chain breaks it is on the backs of these workers and the wallets of the corporate owners.. 

WE ARE ESSENTIAL

Along every step from farm to table the essential workers keep America fed.  Essential workers have always been essential and vital to the economy and livelihood of millions of Americans, long before they were deemed “essential” by nearly every state governor once the Coronavirus pandemic was declared an emergency. Of the essential workers that make up the U.S. workforce, data from 2019 shows: 

• Healthcare workers make up the most: 30.2%, or 16,679,875 people
• Food and agriculture workers are next largest:  20.6%, or 11,398,233 people 
• Of those in the food and agriculture sectors, people of color (including those who identify as Latino/Hispanic) make up 50%, or 5,699,116 people (Economic Policy Institute).

ESSENTIAL  LABOR

The relationship that the U.S. has with the people who work in food and agriculture has always been tenuous and demanding. The very policies and laws that have been passed since the 1970’s by politicians and policymakers have ensured that these people – these essential workers – are readily available to do back-breaking and intensely physical labor for meager pay, little to no benefits and a severe lack of safety and health regulations. Agriculture is one of the most hazardous industries in America. As average temperatures rise, due to climate change with heat waves and more frequent wildfires, farmworkers will be at an ever-heightened risk of heat- and smoke-related illnesses. 

This work standard is what supports the capitalist, profit-driven model of food production and its labor market in the US and globally. To remain profitable, and to keep prices low, the system relies on low labor costs–at the expense of the health and wellbeing of exploited workers and regardless of the environmental impact. 

Even before the pandemic this industry has failed to take care of these workers.  California’s San Joaquin Valley, called “the food basket of the world,” ironically has the highest prevalence of food insecurity of any region in the state  (Hill et al.  2011)  Census numbers from 2007  in the American Community Survey showed that residents were among the highest rates of poverty in the US.  The current census will be even more telling.   82% of migrant farm workers in Georgia experience food insecurity.  (Hill et al.  2011, May.  Prevalence and Predictors of Food Insecurity in Migrant Farmworkers in Georgia.  Am J Public Health. 101(5): 831–833)

The people who feed our country cannot afford to purchase the food they pick and process. Federal Nutrition Research Advisory Group  wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition  (July 2020):  “Poor diets lead to a harsh cycle of lower academic achievement in school, lost productivity at work, increased chronic disease risk, increased out-of-pocket health costs, and poverty for the most vulnerable Americans.”  (https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/20/health/us-poor-nutrition-illness-death-wellness/index.html)

 If the inequities do not give us pause on a human level, the ultimate effect on our economy should.  When money spent on healthcare for chronic, nutritionally related diseases rises, so do government budgets; the cost of insurance and healthcare rises for us all, and even the private sector loses its competitive edge.  When the ramifications spread from “them” to “us” maybe corporations and consumers alike will pay attention.  

ESSENTIAL CHANGES

The financial and human impact of this system, locally and globally, is unsustainable. One of the benefits of the pandemic is that inequities have shown themselves at the grocery stores of the privileged. Empty shelves have prompted us to ask why. And there are signs that Millenials and their purchasing power and ethics may lead the way toward responsible change.  They are expecting and willing to seek out food options that are humanely processed and environmentally sustainable. A study, reported in July 2020 in Forbes magazine, by Midan Marketing found that a growing number of consumers are already gravitating towards grass-fed meat and alternatives to mass produced factory meat.  They are looking to support socially conscious firms rather than the very limited number of large, profit-driven corporations that currently control our food options. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/hankcardello/2020/06/18/3-ways-to-fix-the-meat-industrys-empathy-problem/?sh=2f86f72375e4)

CONCLUSION

What keeps our food system going is the people- the workers. From local farms to processing facilities, food systems across the nation are often managed by corporations with leaders who have the privilege to be financially secure while workers in every aspect of the US food system are the ones who are truly essential. It is a matter of time before they will be able to leverage their power in a time where the entire country is looking to them for survival. Our collective action for equity will determine the kind of country that we want for our children and grandchildren.  One that benefits everyone or a country that profits off of the backs of our most vulnerable community members.

WHAT’S NEEDED 

•  Support the work of  Farmworker Justice, www.farmworkerjustice.org, to help farm workers improve wages, working conditions and immigration policy
• Purchase produce from farmers of color and  products that support safe, sustainable working conditions 
• Support living wage and worker protection rights by communicating with elected officials

RESOURCES

1. Essential Workers Data, from the Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/blog/who-are-essential-workers-a-comprehensive-look-at-their-wages-demographics-and-unionization-rates/
2. http://www.farmworkerjustice.org/advocacy_program/immigration-and-labor/
3. Hill et al.  2011, May.  Prevalence and Predictors of Food Insecurity in Migrant Farmworkers in Georgia.  Am J Public Health. 101(5): 831–833
4. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hankcardello/2020/06/18/3-ways-to-fix-the-meat-industrys-empathy-problem/?sh=2f86f72375e4

Andrea is embarrassed. Her husband works full time and she works part time because her two children are young and yet here she stands, again, wearing her mask in line at the food bank. She hopes for some apples because they might stay fresh through the week.

Food desert, food injustice, food insecurity—so many words to say: some people are left feeling hungry. The problem is easy to describe with numbers and statistics that show inequities.  The problem is harder to understand when the numbers have faces, the faces that are growing in numbers as the economy reels from the pandemic. 

Because our country is in crisis we are looking toward emergency responses. We will either temporarily boost our usual systems or we will cobble something together to get us through.  Or we will use this as an opportunity to learn from our history and proactively plan for a new approach that addresses the underlying issues of society, politics, economics and health.

Adequate food and nutrition are a human right. Our systems will be held accountable as we begin to see hunger as a symptom of injustice.

First, some definitions: 

Food insecurity—without reliable access to enough nutritional food.

Food desert—a living area where nutritional, especially fresh, food is not available.

Food injustice—the systemic issues behind hunger.

None of these phrases accurately describe the whole picture, but they are a starting point in working towards understanding the whole picture.

And now, some history. The traditional public and private efforts to address hunger are food banks, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the Food Stamp program), WIC (pregnant women and young children) and school meals for children.  Unfortunately, none of them have kept pace with the changing economy and none were ready for new burdens due to this pandemic.

Food Banking is a system where surplus and donated food is “banked” and then easily distributed to those in need. While food banks have met and continue to meet immediate needs, have they inadvertently slipped into keeping the problem under cover? With emotional appeals for donations, have they misled the “haves” into thinking they have done their part? Are recipients left feeling, and being, powerless as victims of class-ism?

Since 1939 the original Food Stamp Program has morphed many times into what we know now as the current SNAP program. Run through the USDA, (Federal Department of Agriculture) changes depend on federal administration and legislation at that given time and are implemented by each state. The number of people using the program has increased yet benefit levels have not kept pace with the economic data.   

There are efforts due to the pandemic to increase and improve availability of benefits through stimulus packages and response acts.  But we are seeing how difficult it is for the unyielding system to be responsive to changing needs and changing economics. We cannot let these temporary measures stay temporary.

Pre-COVID, despite being employed, more than 20% of all Latinos were food insecure compared to just 10% of all Americans and nearly 25% of all Latino children lived in a food-insecure household. SNAP does not provide the expected relief. Latinos are underserved by SNAP even though many are eligible.  Many are ineligible due to their immigration status even though they pay taxes. They are the working poor. Our country’s essential workers. Working to sustain our food supply.

Giving people food is not a true measure of success. The very act of “giving” underlines a profound power imbalance. Food injustice reflects the social injustice seen in inadequate wages, unemployment, health inequity, political classism, and structural racism.  

Yes, the existing social determinants are complex. Yes, the food production and distribution structures are formidable powers. Food justice cannot happen until people have power over how they get their food and until we widen our views, challenge our systems, and hold ourselves accountable. 

This series will continue to look at the current systems of agriculture, food production, capitalism, structural racism and what it will take to move towards a system built on the foundations of food equity. 

What’s Needed Now

1- Start having meaningful conversations with family and friends about the need for long term solutions to food insecurity which include livable wages and healthcare for all.

2- Spread the word: Double-Up Bucks give extra benefits for buying fresh, healthy foods at Farmers Markets. Does your state offer this? What about states where family and friends live?

3- Contact your U.S. senators and ask them to vote YES on the HEROES Act to strengthen SNAP for families and kids in need.  This bill increases SNAP benefits for kids and struggling families and strengthens child nutrition programs, ensuring children continue to get the food they need during this crisis.

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References

1. https://salud-america.org/?s=insecurity
2. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap#1977
3. https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/research/latino-hunger-research/low-income-hispanic-children.pdf
4. https://www.hamiltonproject.org/blog/the_covid_19_crisis_has_already_left_too_many_children_hungry_in_america?referringSource=articleShare
5. https://whyhunger.org/how-we-work/

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Informative Resources

1. https://whyhunger.org/images/publications/Special-Report.pdf
2. https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2017/06/why-cant-america-solve-the-hunger-problem/530151/
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-food-banks.html
4. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/food-banks-cant-go-like/611206/