With full disclosure, I admit it. It is 17 days in to Food Solutions New England’s Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge. I didn’t take on a new reading each day as I had envisioned, nor did I write, tweet, or blog nearly enough. But this opportunity to read, reflect, and engage with others who may share my opinions or who may have differing opinions, has made me think that there are far more similarities between the struggles to achieve food system sustainability and the work to secure racial equity and food justice than are apparent at first glance.
Appearances deceive
With the rise in farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSA), and school gardens, there is an appearance of a vibrant agricultural system. Likewise, with the widespread Civil Rights engagement and legislation of the 60’s, many assume our work on racial injustice was largely completed.
But going below the surface, we see that many engaged in farming today are barely making a living, despite the long hours of labor and apparent renewed interest in local foods. Farm infrastructure is far less robust than in the 1950’s. Federal policy often translates to more financial assistance for large farms than small. Likewise, wages and opportunities in America are not only determined by occupation, but by the color of one’s skin; if you belong to a minority, there is well-documented wage and job advancement disparity. Disparities on the farm and in the workplace inform what foods we are able to buy, access to health care, wealth accumulation, and the ability to fully participate in our social, political, and economic systems.
Isolated Events or Structural Forces
It may be easy to point the finger at a failing farm, and decide that the farm family made poor financial decisions; or to look at a family in poverty and determine they should just work a little longer or harder. And that may be true in some cases, but indeed the patterns of small and mid-size farms’ demise, and the escalating, disproportionate rates of poverty among minorities, speak to long term structural barriers that impact our farmers, fishermen, and many service workers in America.
A Common, Mutually Beneficial Agenda
The food system is a mini version of our social system, but because we all need to eat, there is enormous potential and need to affect positive change on many fronts. This is not about competition between urgent issues, but about seeing the common, moral good and compelling advantage of working together for a more just and racially equitable food system. How do we advocate for policies and practices that support small and mid-size farms in our region? How do we support calls for livable wages and similar wages for males and females, for Blacks and Whites and others? The basic human need for food unites as all, but the absolute right to food is not experienced in our current food system. Our commitment to farms and food justice can simultaneously address these disparities, while building long term structural commitments to a food system that works for all.
Moving forward
Even if there are only a few days left of the 21-Day Challenge, the work continues well beyond this awareness-raising launch. The resources pulled together for this event will remain for future referral. We invite you to participate, to think, reflect, and commit to working purposefully together for transformative change that benefits all.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Joanne Burke is the UNH Thomas Haas Professor in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of New Hampshire and a member of the Racial Equity and Food Justice Working Group of the Food Solutions New England network.
