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Social Justice: Food to Heal the World
Source: A Well Fed World
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
—Anne Frank
Social Justice Impact on Other Humans
- causes massive human starvation, hunger, and malnutrition from exacerbated weather conditions (climate change) and from grains grown for livestock;
- results in the highest family violence and job turnover rates among slaughterhouse workers;
- destruction of the future for our children and grandchildren;
- promotes labor violations worldwide;
- discourages fair trade;
- perpetuates neo-colonialist land expropriation worldwide with the resultant strengthening of imperialism and forced emigration as formerly self-reliant people are driven off their native lands;
- promotes a disproportionate environmental and pollution impact on the "developing" world for our benefit;
- destroys local economies in the "developing" world as foreign corporate interests take over;
- perpetuates dominance belief systems; and
- the list goes on ...
Resources & References
General Social Justice ResourcesSome Feminist Aspects of Food
Some Racist Aspects of Food
General Social Justice Resources
"Beyond the Scarcity Scare: Reframing the Discourse of Hunger with an Eco-mind" (Article), Frances Moore Lappé, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Nov. 19, 2012, 40:1, 219-238.Solutions to world hunger continue to be impeded by a frame – a set of assumptions – that keeps much of humanity focusing narrowly on quantitative growth. The result is greater food production and greater hunger. Yet, across the world another way of seeing, one grounded in the relational insights of ecology, is transforming food systems in ways that both enhance flora and fauna and strengthen human relationships, enabling farmers to gain a greater voice in food production and fairer access to the food produced.
Can the World Feed 9 Billion People? The "Experts" Speak Again (Article), by Tiffany Tsang, Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy, Mar. 15, 2013.
"US agricultural policies have for decades undermined the agricultural economies of transitional countries through food aid and “dumping” of subsidized grain on foreign markets, thanks to global trade liberalization. The current food crisis—and the food rebellions of 2008, 2010 and 2011—are in large part the result of this legacy." For example, in northern Ethiopia, grain cultivated by small farmers "eking out a living" are pushed out of local markets by free excess grain dumped by the US.
Different Measures of Food Access Inform Different Solutions (Article), by Paula Dutko, Michele Ver Ploeg, USDA Economic Research Service. Mar. 4, 2013.
Shows research findings based on updated national measures of food access in rural and urban areas. Includes data on vehicle ownership, distance from the nearest supermarket, employment status, income level, age, and education.
Food for Thought and Action (Website)
"Grassroots International works around the world to help small farmers and other small producers, indigenous peoples and women win resource rights: the human rights to land, water and food. We are a funder that supports community-led initiatives and movements worldwide, with special focus in Brazil, Haiti, Mesoamerica and the Middle East. We also partner with global networks like the Via Campesina, which includes more than 250 million small farmers and farm workers organizing in 71 nations."
Food for Thought and Action: A Food Sovereignty Curriculum, by Grassroots International.
The free, online curriculum is divided into four modules: one each for consumers, faith and anti-hunger groups, environmentalists and farmers. This collection of education-for-action exercises and factsheets has been developed by Grassroots International and the National Family Farm Coalition to help build the food sovereignty movement in the United States.
Michael Pollan says that the curriculum "is a remarkably useful popular education tool. It offers a practical way to strengthen a growing food sovereignty movement that includes consumers, farmers, environmentalists and faith communities. Building from the experiences of literally millions of grassroots activists world-wide, Food for Thought and Action challenges us to fix our broken food system."
"The Global Food Crisis: The End of Plenty" (Article), by Joel Bourne, National Geographic Magazine, June 2009.
"Immigrant Workers in the U.S. Food System" (Article), by Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy.
The U.S. food system relies on under-paid and under-protected immigrant labor.
Institute for Food and Development Policy (Website).
Many great articles and resources and analysis on the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation and develops solutions in partnership with movements working for social change.
A Place at the Table: One Nation, Underfed (Movie website), by Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, the makers of Food Inc. Mar. 2013.
View the trailer and get other info. Fifty million people in the U.S.—one in four children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from. This documentary examines the issue of hunger in America through the lens of three people struggling with food insecurity.
Ultimately, A Place at the Table shows us how hunger poses serious economic, social and cultural implications for our nation, and that it could be solved once and for all, if the American public decides — as they have in the past — that making healthy food available and affordable is in the best interest of us all.
"Quinoa: To Buy or Not to Buy... Is This the Right Question?" (Article), by Tanya Kerssen, Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy, Feb. 16, 2013.
While US consumers prize it as a delicious ‘super-food,' there is growing anxiety about the impact of the quinoa boom in the Andes, and particularly Bolivia, the world's top producing country. The media has focused primarily on the fact that global demand is driving up the price of quinoa, placing it beyond the reach of poor Bolivians-even of quinoa farmers themselves-leaving them to consume nutritionally vacuous, but cheap, refined wheat products such as bread and pasta.
Although there is no easy solution to the quinoa quandary-much less a solution driven by northern consumers-the issue has generated an important debate about our global food system. At its core, it's a debate about which strategies are most effective for creating a just and sustainable food system. And consumption-driven strategies, while part of the toolbox for effecting change, are not the only tools. Also important are agrarian land reform to redress the highly unequal distribution of land, and rebuilding local food markets that have been decimated by decades of snefarious US aid and trade policies.
Reverse the Livestock Revolution (Webpage), A Well Fed World.
Despite the growing popularity of meat-alternatives and acceptance of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles in the United States and other high-income countries, meat consumption is increasing at an unprecedented rate globally....The US is by far the largest per capita meat consumer (40% more than Europe). However, as the low- and mid-income countries gain financially, they consume more animal products. With a much larger starting population, relatively high birth rates, and increasing per capita meat consumption, the result is a dangerous trend that requires immediate action to reverse.
Unfortunately, most solutions focus exclusively on increasing yield and reducing environmental problems through technological fixes or reducing population. The most obvious common sense solution--which is to reduce global and per capita meat consumption--is dismissed.
Smallholder Farmers Dramatically Improve Crop Yields Without Expensive Seeds and Fertilizers (Article), by Hellin Brink, Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy, Mar. 20th, 2013.
Solving World Hunger Means Solving World Poverty (Article), by Anup Shah, Oct. 24, 2012.
Discussion of the related issues of poverty and hunger and recommendations to address them. Emphasis on food as a human right, colonialism, and corporate agriculture.
The World Hunger-Food Choice Connection: A Summary (Blog article), by Richard Oppenlander, April 22, 2012.
"Although climate change and extremes of water conditions from floods to droughts do obviously exist, much of the soil fertility issues that are faced by developing countries in Africa and elsewhere who have high rates of hunger and malnutrition are derived from how they have managed (or mismanaged) their own agricultural systems over the past 100 years. It would be difficult to blame any other reason than their use of livestock—their complete cultural dependence on cattle. In many areas of Africa, poorly managed cattle herds have caused severe overgrazing, deforestation, and then subsequent erosion and eventual desertification."
Some Feminist Aspects of Food
A Woman’s View of Dairy (Video, 4 mins.), by Mercy for Animals, Jan. 9, 2013.Shows a woman holding up signs instead of speaking. Caution: a brief graphic image is near the end. Compelling, heart-breaking, eye-opening perspective.
Animals and Women: Connections between their Exploitation (Article), by Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center.
Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations (Book), an anthology edited by Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995.
By Any Greens Necessary: A Revolutionary Guide for Black Women Who Want to Eat Great, Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Look Phat (Book), by Tracye Lynn McQuirter, MPH. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010. 214 pp.
See her website. McQuirter is a dietitian and one of my favorite writers on this topic! She's an engaging, compelling writer. Her book is a great read for everyone, regardless of color, sex, gender, or other identity. She occasionally offers cooking classes, including Vegan Soul Food!
"Carnism: Why Eating Animals Is a Social Justice Issue," by Psychologist Melanie Joy, One Green Planet, Nov. 3, 2011.
Key Points. The invisibility of carnism makes eating animals appear to be simply a matter of personal ethics, rather than what it actually is: the inevitable end result of a deeply entrenched, oppressive system. Carnism is structured like other “isms,” such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism, which are organized around the oppression of certain groups of “others.” And while the experience of each set of victims will always be somewhat unique, the ideologies themselves are structurally similar, as the mentality which enables such oppression is the same. If we fail to pick out the common threads that are woven through all oppressive systems, then, we will simply trade one form of oppression for another. Thus, to create a more humane and just society, we must include carnism in our analysis.
All who are born into a dominant, meat-eating culture know the animals we eat are individuals, yet we’d rather not know it. We’d feel guilty eating certain animals, yet we take pleasure consuming others. We cringe when faced with images of animals suffering, yet we dine on their bodies multiple times a day. We love dogs and eat pigs and yet we don’t know why.
Widespread ambivalent, illogical attitudes toward a group of others are almost always a hallmark of an oppressive ideology. Oppressive ideologies require rational, humane people to participate in irrational, inhumane practices and to remain unaware of such contradictions. And they frame the choices of those who refuse to participate in the ideology as “personal preferences” rather than conscientious objections.
The mentality of meat-eating is not inherent in our species—it is the product of an oppressive ideology so entrenched that it is invisible, its tenets appearing to be universal truths rather than ideologically driven assumptions. This ideology shapes and is shaped by the same mentality that enables other oppressions, and must be addressed if we hope to create a more just social order. Eating animals is a social justice issue.
Carol J. Adams at Stanford University (Video, 3 mins.)
Short part of the introduction of Carol Adams' lecture and slide show at Stanford University, Oct. 20, 2010: "20 Years of The Sexual Politics of Meat."
The Evolution of Man (Video, 10 mins.), interview of Carol J. Adams by Joshua Katcher, June 13, 2012.
In this interview, we talk about male identity and it's connection to meat-eating, including the sexism inherent in the “Paleo” diet and the fallacy of man as hunter. Ancient women’s gathering tools were made of plant fibers and wood and so cannot be detected by modern anthropological technology the way stone or metal male hunting weapons can be.
The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics: A Reader (Book), Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan, eds. Columbia University Press.
The Pornography of Meat (Book), by Carol J. Adams, New York: Continuum International, 2003.
Reproductive Autonomy: Crossing the Species Border, by Helen Matthews, Satya magazine, January 2005.
The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (Book), by Carol J. Adams.
The sexual politics of meat is defined as “the dangerous intersection between misogyny and speciesism”; meat-eating has its roots in patriarchal culture. Explores a relationship between patriarchal values and meat eating by interweaving the insights of feminism, vegetarianism, animaldefense, and literary theory.
The Sexual Politics of Meat Slide Show, by Carol J. Adams.
The Sexual Politics of Meat: Video review of the 20th Anniversary Edition (Video, 9 mins.)
Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society [Book], by A. Breeze Harper, Editor. NY: Lantern Books, 2010. 214 pp. See her blog.
Their Bodies, Our Selves: Moving Beyond Sexism and Speciesism, by Pattrice Jones, Satya magazine, January 2005.
Some Racist Aspects of Food
Animal Subordination and Racism (Article), by Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center.By Any Greens Necessary: A Revolutionary Guide for Black Women Who Want to Eat Great, Get Healthy, Lose Weight, and Look Phat (Book), by Tracye Lynn McQuirter, MPH. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010. 214 pp.
See her website. McQuirter is a dietitian and one of my favorite writers on this topic! She's an engaging, compelling writer. Her book is a great read for everyone, regardless of color, sex, gender, or other identity. She occasionally offers cooking classes, including Vegan Soul Food!
"Carnism: Why Eating Animals Is a Social Justice Issue," by Psychologist Melanie Joy, One Green Planet, Nov. 3, 2011.
Key Points. The invisibility of carnism makes eating animals appear to be simply a matter of personal ethics, rather than what it actually is: the inevitable end result of a deeply entrenched, oppressive system. Carnism is structured like other “isms,” such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism, which are organized around the oppression of certain groups of “others.” And while the experience of each set of victims will always be somewhat unique, the ideologies themselves are structurally similar, as the mentality which enables such oppression is the same. If we fail to pick out the common threads that are woven through all oppressive systems, then, we will simply trade one form of oppression for another. Thus, to create a more humane and just society, we must include carnism in our analysis.
All who are born into a dominant, meat-eating culture know the animals we eat are individuals, yet we’d rather not know it. We’d feel guilty eating certain animals, yet we take pleasure consuming others. We cringe when faced with images of animals suffering, yet we dine on their bodies multiple times a day. We love dogs and eat pigs and yet we don’t know why.
Widespread ambivalent, illogical attitudes toward a group of others are almost always a hallmark of an oppressive ideology. Oppressive ideologies require rational, humane people to participate in irrational, inhumane practices and to remain unaware of such contradictions. And they frame the choices of those who refuse to participate in the ideology as “personal preferences” rather than conscientious objections.
The mentality of meat-eating is not inherent in our species—it is the product of an oppressive ideology so entrenched that it is invisible, its tenets appearing to be universal truths rather than ideologically driven assumptions. This ideology shapes and is shaped by the same mentality that enables other oppressions, and must be addressed if we hope to create a more just social order. Eating animals is a social justice issue.
Django's Soul Food or Slave Food Diet is a Killer (Video, 9 mins.), by Milton Mills, M.D., Mar. 9, 2004, Healing Ourselves conference, sponsored by the Hung Tao Choy Mei Leadership Institute.
"Unfortunately, when we were released from slavery, we ... embraced a legacy that was not ours. We owned this enforced, refus-centered diet and called it soul food. But this is not Soul Food, it's plantation food. And it's killing us.... The solution is not to move from the slave quarters to the Big House [but] to re-embrace a [plant-based] diet more consistent with our true heritage. The only white things at your table should be the tablecloth and the people that you invited over for dinner."
Healthy Soul Food, by Aaron Kagan, Tea and Food, May 13, 2009.
"The quickest way to wipe out a people is to put them on a soul food diet."--Dick Gregory.
Racial Bias in Federal Nutrition Policy, Part I: The Public Health Implications of Variations in Lactase Persistence, by Patricia Bertron, RD, Neal D. Barnard, MD, and Milton Mills, MD, Journal of the National Medication Assocation, 1999, Vol 91, No. 3, pp. 151-157.
USDA dietary guidelines recommend 2 to 3 daily servings of dairy products. However, research has shown that lactase non-persistence occurs in a majority of African-, Asian-, Hispanic-, and Native American individuals. There is little evidence that dairy has a positive effect among racial minorities. Evidence suggests that modifying federal nutrition policies to make dairy product use optional, in light of other calcium sources, may be a helpful public health measure.
Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society [Book], by A. Breeze Harper, Editor. NY: Lantern Books, 2010. 214 pp. See her blog.
Soul Food is Killing Black America: A New Documentary by Byron Hurt Exposes the Harms of Southern Cuisine, by Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News, Dec. 26, 2011.
"At the center of it is the grief ... over the death of his father, who was a good man but too in love with bad food to change his habits.... Minorities contract diabetes and suffer from heart diseases in disproportionate numbers. There is no joke about the frightening degrees of black illness from consuming too much ethnic food dripping in grease and containing too much fat, sugar and butter."