I have been thinking a lot about sustainability lately. Specifically how accessible a diet of sustainable food is how much of a role class and privilege play. Speaking with my cousin, Mia, a few weeks ago got me thinking about the image associated with buying and eating local foods. Even Stuff White People Like jokes that farmer's markets are a place for white people to placate "their undying need to support local economies, and the idea of buying direct from the farmer helps them assuage the fears instilled in them from reading Fast Food Nation (and yes, every white person has read this book)." Mia talked about an upper class, pretentious image that is often associated with this lifestyle and the inaccessibility many feel because of this. I agree. Image is definitely one concern, others include actual cost, accessibility, and time.
What is causing healthy food access problems? (via)
Poverty, or the lack of resources with which to acquire food, is the primary source of food insecurity in the United States. However, extensive documentation shows that the lack of access to food in low-income urban neighborhoods -- the simple inability to buy it there -- is an important additional factor. Compared to people living in higher-income areas, residents of low-income urban neighborhoods have very limited access to high quality food, enjoy fewer options in the variety of goods that are available to them, and pay higher prices for their groceries when they are available.
There have been efforts made to increase accessibility of healthy foods to low-income families including farms that accept food stamps. This is a great start but the vouchers go a lot further at the grocery store than at the local farmer's market. In May, Thomas wrote,"All modern famines are failures of entitlement, not of food production. There's enough food, but some people due to poverty or other barriers cannot get it." This certainly makes food a feminist issue.
It also brings up healthy "choices." I write "choices" in quotes because when the decision is between spending a few dollars more on average per meal or filling up self and kids on a tight budget, it is no longer a true choice. When paying bills or bus fare for work is at stake, making a "choice" to eat less than healthy meals is not just easy, but necessary. Time also plays a huge role. Even if someone can find discount vegetables to purchase, and a pound salmon that was on sale that week (maybe slice it up into pasta to make it go further to feed more people?), preparing this meal takes time that not every family has. Especially single parent families. Again, when the decision is between preparing this healthy meal and being late for your second job or grabbing McD's for the same price, it's no longer a real "choice." However, the price we should consider is not just a monetary one. We pay the price in terms of health, and what years of fast and over-processed foods mean for your body. These "choices" are difficult ones and although it's often easy for us to discuss the negative effects of certain choices people make from the comfort of our overprivileged cubicles, there is a lot more at stake for those we are scrutinizing.
Obviously class and privilege play a huge role. Not just in the "choices" we are able to make about our diets but also in access to fresh and reasonably priced foods. This also has a lot to do with location. For example, i was making Sirniki for a special Sunday morning breakfast last weekend and noticed we were out of eggs. I said to D, "can we go to the farm real quick for some eggs?" Then i thought about what i just said. How many people can just "go to the farm for some eggs." We are lucky enough to live 3 miles away from a farm. One with reasonably priced produce. Mostly because they save on transportation costs (when businesses don't need to pay for goods to come in from other states they save on transport and the goods are cheaper for consumers. This also saves on fuel and energy and lowers the overall carbon footprint... but that's a different post i suppose...) Anyway, i make the choice to pay $3.00 for local eggs versus $2.00 for a carton at the grocery store or $1.50 at WalMart (again, an entirely separate post...). I realize the ability to make this choice is due to privilege and not everyone is able to even consider spending $1.50 more on eggs. It's just not an option for some.
I have a difficult time rationalizing to someone the non-monetary cost of the $1.50 eggs purchased at WalMart. If i did try i would discuss the caged chickens with cut-off beaks who are force-fed medicated pellets of growth hormone, the fuel guzzling Semis used to transport the eggs from a CAFO (factory farms) in Idaho to your local store, the underpaid farmers who gave up family farms because they had no other choice, the uninsured and overworked employees that are not allowed to unionize, the environmental effects, the socioeconomic effects, etc... It is difficult to justify eating cage free eggs when they cost at least $1.50 more to someone struggling to feed his/her family, regardless the other costs involved in the decision. Although I am able to consider the other costs, to try to rationalize them to someone in a different position than me forces me to consider my own classism and privilege.
How can someone eat "healthy" on a time and money budget? Wisebread has an interesting article with resources that include: Eating Healthy - It Will Cost You, Why is it so Expensive to be Healthy? (with a wag of the finger at the objectifying photo of a cropped, overweight, body - poor form, Wisebread, poor poor form...) and Eating Locally on a Budget (for example, i bought lettuce, 4 ears of corn, a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, 4 cucumbers, and an eggplant last week at the farmer's market for $9 total).
There is a lot of value in eating sustainable foods. Value that is often easier to consider from a privileged perspective. There needs to be more done to make these choices accessible to low income families and to provide information, resources, and support as to what these choices really mean in terms of our country's cultural, economic, agricultural, and ethical sustainability.
(cross-posted at Oh, You're a Feminist?!)
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"There needs to be more done to make these choices accessible to low income families and to provide information, resources, and support..."
Yup. One such resource in South Los Angeles got bulldozed a couple of years ago, but not before someone reportedly disabled a bulldozer by shoving a zucchini up its tailpipe. :-)
"I have a difficult time rationalizing to someone the non-monetary cost of the $1.50 eggs purchased at WalMart. If i did try i would discuss the caged chickens with cut-off beaks who are force-fed medicated pellets of growth hormone, the fuel guzzling Semis used to transport the eggs from a CAFO (factory farms) in Idaho to your local store, the underpaid farmers who gave up family farms because they had no other choice, the uninsured and overworked employees that are not allowed to unionize, the environmental effects, the socioeconomic effects, etc..."
Please don't assume that those of us who do not have the option of paying more money for guilt-free items are ignorant of these facts. Just because i can't afford the fancy sustainable foods at my local farmer's market doesn't mean i am not fully aware that they are better for my health and the environment and my fellow working citizens. It just means i have to live with my guilt and with the knowledge that some will view my actions as uneducated.
I am so glad you posted about this. So true! I personally think that schools should revamp their home economics classes and cover topics like this. I never learned how to plan a meal period, let alone a healthy meal on a budget with a couple of full time jobs and kids. I have had to learn how to do that (and, at least in Portland, it is possible). All we did in my girls-only home economics class was bake cakes! What a waste! Women and men need to be taught how to have healthy relationships with food when they are young.
as a woman of color living in the "ghetto" i do encounter great difficulty every time i shop for food i often stop and debate whether i want to drive or take public transportation to the nearest farmers market or trader joes. and more often than not i end up at the local grocery only to be disappointed by the lack of fresh products available. and so i end up buying "organic" produce at extreme prices and kick my self in the ass for not going elsewhere. let me tell you it sucks, and i am only buying food for myself i cant begin to imagine the decisions that parents single or not have to endure while trying to figure out what to buy for dinner. QUALITY FOOD IS DEFENATELY A FEMINIST ISSUE and with the current status of the economy it seems that we should pay more attention.
PS support the south central farm, the struggle continues! www.southcentralfarmers.com
In my city, Asheville, NC, residents of the Pisgah View Apartment Complex, a public housing development, started the Pisgah View Community Peace Garden, where the residents grow organic food for themselves and to sell. The garden was created and has been sustained through donations from businesses and individuals in the community.
For example, the vegetarian/vegan resturant I work at (which uses as much local and organic food as possible), does at least one benefit a year for the garden, where the employees donate their time and the proceeds go to the garden.
http://pvapeacegarden.org/
This is from their website: "We are working to create a sustainable local food system in an urban atmosphere, empowering residents to achieve self sufficiency through growing food, teaching youth entrepreneurship through harvesting and marketing produce, and fostering community involvement and collaboration."
I think that this is a great community project and resource which increases the access to local, organic, sustainable produce for low income residents in Asheville, NC.
Do any other cities have similar community supported gardens?
Thanks for all the great links everyone!
kitty stockings, sorry if that paragraph came off as though i thought people who don't shop locally/sustainably/etc are ignorant, that wasn't the intention at all. All i meant to do was acknowledge my own privilege and own up to the fact that i find it difficult to talk about this stuff with those i realize don't have as many options as i do to make these "choices." Because when i do talk about it i also take into account what making or not making these decisions means. But i do realize that some people fully understand the non-monetary cost of shopping at places like walmart and i can't imagine the guilt associated with that if they have no other options :( That illustrates the point even further that it is crucial to make local foods and fair trade goods accessible to lower income families and get education and resources out there into the communities.
I've been thinking a lot about the social issues surrounding food, particularly during my last year of college where I was trying to go on about $100 a month for groceries for myself and also shopping a lot with a friend of mine who used food stamps (she had the car, I didn't!). We'd end up going to the places like Wal-Mart or other cheap/discount food stores a lot. It's simply impossible to justify going to even the mainstream grocery chains (many of which have a lot of issues for food stamps users), let alone those super expensive health food stores or co-ops. The co-op in town had a monthly fee which was (I believe) up to half my grocery budget and they still wanted some volunteer time - it was the most absurd thing. They really do not expect people without highly disposable incomes or with multiple jobs/responsibilities to participate in what they do, apparently.
And yeah, I second kitty - I think a lot of people are completely aware of the issues with shopping at Walmart vs. buying locally and still just aren't able to justify spending the extra money. It's not necessary to see yourself as an educator of the masses so much as just another participant in an already ongoing discourse.
what a thought-provoking post! thanks for the class analysis, feministgal. :)
this might sound naive, but i guess after reading this, i've come to the conclusion that somehow it will be up to community organizers - like the ones who have already started great community gardens - and us regular folk to find ways to grow food locally. i don't think anyone can continue to wait until a city council or some such entity decides it's a good idea to approve and sanction such ideas. (and besides, city governments are more likely to see community gardens and the like as a way to bring in well-heeled new residents who have caught on to the green trend. maybe i'm a little pessimistic when it comes to these things, but hey.) obviously, i think it would be a great, great thing if the powers-that-be would perhaps buy vacant, otherwise decent, land and sell it to community councils and/or residents at a dirt-cheap (pardon the pun) cost in order to turn it into green space.
i'm definitely not suggesting that low-income people are to blame for not getting involved. but i do think that as we head closer and closer to $5-6/gallon for gas and food prices continue to rise and americans continue to be malnourished in a country of plenty, it will be a matter of survival. working class people will have to demand this space and use it collectively in order to eat... i can't see the future going in another direction unless there's a huge miracle i don't know about. ultimately, i think working class americans will have to organize around these issues for survival. i mean, in addition to the issues of under/malnourishment among the poor and working poor, and even the middle class now, there are the political consequences of prepackaged, starchy food. kraft mac&cheese and coke keep us sedated and unorganized!!!
i understand the illusion of choice very well; growing up, my family ate beans and rice and spaghetti just about every night for years. i spent much of my childhood wondering if we'd be able to eat a couple of days down the line. starchy, filling, cheap food is the only "choice" you have. unfortunately, americans seem to view food, like health care, as a luxury instead of a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT.
okay, i'll get off the soapbox now. thanks, feministgal, and everyone else, for discussing this and making me think. i need to read pollan's book already...
I love how people like to pretend we've solved all the food production issues and all we have to do is send more bags of rice to Africa. If that's the case, I guess I can retire. The fact of the matter is that we're constantly dealing with various types of pests and diseases. Hell, a grad student only just discovered the bacteria responsible for psyllid yellows. And it's not just abundance, it's variety, which is why we're trying to breed crops with better nutritional value and that will grow in a variety of climates.
I also love how people like to pretend they're going to save the world because they buy free range organic food. The truth of the matter is that these are simply niche products produced to cater to a specialized market. Food is a feminist issue and there are a lot of really good discussions we could be having and things to improve. But the only conversations that ever seem to happen are about organic food and veganism. It's really tiresome.
I love how people like to pretend we've solved all the food production issues and all we have to do is send more bags of rice to Africa. If that's the case, I guess I can retire. The fact of the matter is that we're constantly dealing with various types of pests and diseases. Hell, a grad student only just discovered the bacteria responsible for psyllid yellows. And it's not just abundance, it's variety, which is why we're trying to breed crops with better nutritional value and that will grow in a variety of climates.
I also love how people like to pretend they're going to save the world because they buy free range organic food. The truth of the matter is that these are simply niche products produced to cater to a specialized market. Food is a feminist issue and there are a lot of really good discussions we could be having and things to improve. But the only conversations that ever seem to happen are about organic food and veganism. It's really tiresome.
I really believe people are so passionate about sustainable food that these barriers are already being broken. Yes, some people see eating organic and local food as pretentious and a waste of money. But everyone I know like that is white! I work at a health food store and I am always amazed by how diverse the customers are compared to the normal grocery store I worked in before. I see people of every nationality, every race and every class, every day. The store I work at does take food stamps. We also have different discount programs, coupons and keep our produce at the same price as our local competitors non-organic produce. I do still see access to organic food and local produce as an issue because there are two health food stores in my community, both in white, wealthier areas. Our urban center does have a awesome farmers market and is really only a bus ride away from the store I work at, but sustainable food is not as accessible as the food at the corner store. Another way that the barrier is being broken when it comes to the extreme poor is that the store I work at, as well as others in the area, donate expired, bruised, damaged organic food to a local charity. In some states families on WIC can get vouchers to use at local farmers market.