One Border, Two Sides

As you might be able to tell by now, I have a very love-hate relationship with some foods and food practices. Some things sit very heavy on my conscience, and some days I feel helpless in my pursuit of environmental and social food justice (and slowly learning I'm not superwoman). But the important thing I suppose is to keep going, to keep talking, and keep fighting. Like any right we enjoy today, our brothers and sisters before us fought long and difficult battles to secure those privileges we can sometimes now take for granted. But today, we think of these things as rather commonplace and do not always appreciate the struggle it took to secure these rights. 

Where am I going with this? 

Found on weknowmemes.com, 13 January 2012

Perhaps what I mean to say is best summarized by an illustration of what I observed recently as I drove through what some folks refer to as the Salad Bowl of the World - the Salinas Valley of Central California. This is a drive I have done countless times commuting from my home town south of San Luis Obispo to my college town in Santa Cruz, but on this particular day I was more moved, and disturbed, than ever before by what I saw. Perhaps it was the gloomy storming weather that day; perhaps it was all that National Public Radio I was listening to. Perhaps it was the white unmarked bus that looked like it was chauffeuring a load of prisoners to do some highway clean-up as I sometimes see in California... Upon approaching it though, I realized the bus was not filled with prisoners, but with hooded and masked fieldworkers on their way to a day of work in the artichoke fields.
  
It was scary. I had an unsettled feeling when I looked at this bus of laborers on their way to work.  It is no secret by any means that the bulk of America’s agriculture is supported by masses of migrant laborers coming in from Mexico every year. This sets up a stage for numerous problems.
Obviously, there is a lot of controversy around illegal immigration and pathways to citizenship in America. How does a nation already faced with enormous debt and unemployment deal with a growing population of immigrants presumably living in the grey area of our laws? How do we reconcile the fact that politically and socially we still tend to exclude certain ethnic or racial groups, yet economically our nation's food supply largely depends on (sometimes illegal) migrant labor? Because many of these laborers are not  American citizens they do not enjoy the same labor rights we do. These include wages, breaks, overtime, all those other kinds of rules and regulations meant to protect laborers from exploitative bosses looking to cut corners. Additionally, because they lack citizenship, they risk persecution and deportation if they stand up for or challenge their rights. The meager pay they do earn is not nearly enough income to entice most American citizens, who are guaranteed a federal minimum wage and basic labor rights. Therefore, although the observation of “they come in and take our jobs,” is basically true on a superficial level, it is just not enough to explain what is going on else here, and finger pointing is getting us no where.

Why do we accept the slave-like conditions the majority of farm and field laborers must endure? Decent pay, basic rights, and reasonable working conditions for this type of labor are not often topics of dinner discussion, but perhaps they should be. These are the contested rights that I am concerned with when I talk about the long hard fight for equality in America. The way I see it, if there is a profession that deserves respect, decent wages, and expanded labor rights, it is the one which produces the food supply we all depend on. Instead, we not only forget these people do back breaking work for very little pay, we demonize them for taking jobs that honestly very few people are actually willing do. Last fall I watched a news piece about a blueberry farmer who wanted to create more jobs for the unemployed Americans in his area, and posted ads for job openings on his farm with the state board of labor and other local entities. This farmer wanted to give seasonal jobs to the local unemployed instead of drawing from the migrant masses from Mexico, as so many other in his position do. Much to his surprise, and despite the growing number of unemployed adults, almost no one responded to him other than a handful of black (or African-, if you prefer) Americans. Almost no one was willing to work so hard for so little.  

While it is easy to scapegoat these masses for taking potential positions of employment from Americans, we must first remember that these are jobs no one seems to want in the first place, as some research by United Farm Workers has shown (The Economist, 12/16/2010). The wages earned by farmers and laborers are grossly disproportionate to the labor required, and are far below minimum wage in most circumstances. Secondly, let us remember that because these migrant laborers do not have the rights of citizens, they are one of the most vulnerable populations to extreme exploitation. I do not mean to say that every farmer that employs migrant laborers from Mexico is evil, or wants exploit their workers. Farm work is expensive, our government mismanages the way subsidies are dispersed, and farmers often are left with few choices on how they will employ enough cheap labor necessary to maintain their farm. But this does not change the fact that effectively, “slave” labor still occurs in America today, and unfortunately it is largely accepted and rarely discussed.  

Let us remember, only 150 years ago, it was another vulnerable population, without the protections of rights of American citizens, who were forced to do back breaking work in the fields all day for no pay. Have we really come so far? This labor was also crucial to the economy, and was a hotly contested issue when some brave Americans began to support their freedom and rights. Even today many Americans think these people do not deserve the equal rights of citizens, and reject the idea of granting migrant labor increased protection. But has such fierce immigration policy really changed anything? 

If we begin thinking of the bodies in our fields as people- as persons, mothers and fathers, young people without the opportunity of education- instead of as “illegals” or “aliens” we will be off to a good start. Thinking of real people as subhuman in this way is not productive for innovative thought, the struggle for equality, or any dream of a better tomorrow. In fact, thinking in this way effectively, and dangerously, puts us back in the 1860s all over again. It is true that the times have indeed changed, and no struggle is completely identical to another, but there are multiple parallels when you begin thinking about the scenario in a different way. The struggle to abolish slavery only gained momentum once a few privileged Americans began to think of those laborers as fellow humans, and spoke out against those injustices. 

How do we, today, remind the American public that migrant laborers are in fact human beings, and should be seen as and treated as so? Demanding, advocating for, and supporting the expansion of their rights, as well as a bit of reflection on what the causes of our current situation are, will be crucial in this endeavor. There are many Americans who feel that these people have no right to be living and working in our country undocumented, but even they might agree with me that the system needs to be reformed. Borders are effectively imaginary lines in the sand, but people are mobile, and we have to deal with this. Seeing as throwing away taxpayer money on increasing boarder "security" is not actually keeping anyone out,  turning the other cheek on this issue clearly is no longer an option and we must look for new solutions. 

I envision a future food system that does not depend on exploitable migrant labor to sustain itself. I envision a system that can feed itself and be maintained by fairly compensated labor. Some may think I am being far too idealistic and optimistic at this point, but I think these are important dreams to have. The struggle for fair labor practices and rights for migrant workers will be a long and very hard fight, but it starts somewhere, and it starts as a dream.


-H. BOMB 


TO LEARN MORE:


Brie Mazurek, "A Fair Deal for California's Farm Workers," Civil Eats, 4/10/2012. 
http://civileats.com/2012/04/10/a-fair-deal-for-californias-farm-workers/

"Feilds of Tears," The Economist, 12/16/2010. http://www.economist.com/node/17722932

John Robbins, "Why Are Twinkies Cheaper Than Carrots?" Huff Post, 6/1/2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-robbins/farm-bill_b_1553955.html

Linda Levine, Congressional Research Service, 11/9/2009. http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RL30395.pdf

United Farm Workers. http://ufw.org/

Vending Machines

Greetings food handlers, its been a while. I have been busy with my head in books at school, and interning at the local United Way. And of course, as it turns out, what I have been working on for both of these has been food related ;D What I want to talk about here though, is what I have been working on for the United Way, and what I've learned so far.

My task has been to research healthy vending machine policies in preparation for a presentation to high school students next week. These students are organizing to propose and adopt a city policy for healthy vending machines, and it is my task to help them get started by looking into what has worked for other communities. I have been sifting through state, county, city, and school district policies which now require vending machines in some places (like school campuses and libraries) to offer healthy alternatives to junk foods and soda. This can include dried fruits, yogurt , carrot or celery sticks, nut or trail mixes, and fruit or vegetable juices. These students, along with many other communities across America, are concerned with the pervasiveness of soda and junk food, while staples like fruits and vegetables are either expensive or absent altogether.

John Trever, The Alburquerque Journal 

When people talk about the health problems our nation suffers like cancer, heart disease, types I and II diabetes, and increasingly childhood obesity, I look to things like junk food vending machines and see at least one of the sources of this. I like chips and cookies too on occasion; but I feel that everyone, and especially children, deserve the right to healthy nutritious food at an equal or lesser cost than processed, high calorie/low nutrient, GMO foods. This is no quick and easy task, but as I've learned, it has been done in small pilot projects and successfully implemented in many places (I provide some helpful links below). While some of the policy outlines I've read through talk about the challenges they faced, they also give lots of tips, and I will say I am quite optimistic in this case for these students.

I think its awesome that this group of kids in high school are trying to direct the future of nutrition, and even extra revenue, on their campus. Considering that vending machines often provide supplementary revenue for schools when the state or district budget falls short, it seems questionable to stock these machines with snacks known to lack any sort of nutrition, thereby undermining the health of the students the school is meant to serve. I don't mean to demonize schools who have vending machines because it is not the physical machines themselves that are the issue. I do, however, think it is beyond hypocritical to preach values of nutrition, requiring kids to take health classes while simultaneously profiting from selling them empty calorie junk food and soda. This just makes no sense. Wouldn't the message mean a little more if it were actually supported in practice? Why on earth would kids listen to adults when there is no clear connection between what they are taught in the classroom and the reality outside?

I say good for these students for standing up to adults and demanding healthy alternatives; good for them for reaching out and working with organizations like United Way to brainstorm and gather resources. I'll admit, I'm a little intimidated to talk to them next week. But I figure, I've got a lot of common ground with a group of kids who are also health nuts on their way to becoming food activists, and hopefully the community organizers of tomorrow. I just wish I had the impressive head start they are all getting!

-H. BOMB

Here are some links to what I've been reading up on, if you are also interested in an alternative. The BANPAC site is an especially helpful starting point:

http://www.banpac.org/healthy_vending_machine_toolkit.htm

http://www.sfusdfood.org/index.html

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/vending-machines-in-schools-2005.aspx

http://www.schoolnutrition.org/Content.aspx?id=2168

http://www.manchesternh.gov/website/Departments/PublicSchools/Administration/Departments/FoodServices/NutritionPolicy/tabid/2745/Default.aspx

http://naturalselectionsvending.com/our_machines

Why is Corn Important?

Corn is important because, in this country, corn is everything. Corn is one of our main cash crops in America; we feed it to the cows we eat; we refine it to make a substitute for sugar; corn byproducts are found in toothpaste, paint, and a slew of other items that seem in no way related to corn.

Credit to: Osmani, Cagle Cartoons, 4/15/2008

So why is corn really important? Agriculture began to be subsidized during the New Deal in the 1930s in order to protect farmers who, in addition to the Great Depression, were also facing the devastation of the Dust Bowl and decades of hard times. Corn became heavily subsidized when the United States economy was on a downward spiral, and because these Depression era subsidies remain intact, current Agricultural policy no longer makes sense in a contemporary context. However, this may be hard to change: equal representation from each state in the senate, in addition to the sizable interests of agriculture in Southern and Midwestern states causes corn to have immense lobbying power in Washington. Taken this way, the problem becomes not the farmer or the crop necessarily- but the system and the American model of democracy.

Outdated agriculture subsidies reward the crop, and not necessarily the farmer. Their purpose was to facilitate the farmer in cheaply producing large quantities of corn, which is exactly what is accomplished. We have a handful of commodity crops that are heavily subsidized in this way, but corn may be the most important. Corn provides cheaper feed for the cattle and dairy industries than it would cost the farmer to produce his own feed. It can also be refined and processed to make an astonishing array of chemicals that pervade our grocery stores. It is therefore becoming the backbone of much of American industry, but this relationship is not a healthy one.

None of this is to say I am anti-corn in any way. I love corn. Corn chowder, corn bread, popcorn. I love it, corn is delicious and incredibly versatile. But has that blessing actually turned into a curse? Is the danger of corn its awesome utility, that has now turned it into a- farmers , forgive me- monster taking over the plains of America? How is America to restore balance?

When I talk about corn as a vacuum for federal subsidies, crop insurance, etc., I am referring to large corporate farms - think Monsanto, Cargill, who effectively monopolize the industry -not the small family farms we all might tend to envision when we think “agriculture.” This romantic image is at odds with reality, where corporate farms take the lion’s share of federally allocated aid. The top ten percent of agribusiness collected just under 75% of the total amount of government subsidies in 2010. These numbers indicate a trend similar to what we observe when we look at wealth distribution across our entire nation. The giants of the industry enjoy the well over the majority of agriculture subsidies, while small scale and family farms are left to struggle to make ends meet.

The incredible surpluses created by this subsidized agriculture  industry in America affect not only our own farmers and consumers- it goes beyond our borders to affect world trade and the global food supply. To put this in perspective, think about soda, something we are all familiar with. Americans drink soda which would taste better, be cheaper, and most importantly be healthier, if it had been produced with sugar cane, not the heavily processed and refined sweetener we know as high fructose corn syrup. Because we import little sugar, impoverished Haitian or Jamaican farmers are forced to burn their surplus crop when they find they have little to no market for American consumers. Subsidizing the corporate farms while the working poor of any nation- American or otherwise- go hungry and are forced into debt is unacceptable, and future agricultural policy in America would do well to recognize this.

Credit to: Huffaker, Cagle Cartoons, 4/25/2008

-H. BOMB

To learn more:

Farm Subsidy Database, "The United States Summary Information," Environmental Working Group, last updated June 2011, http://farm.ewg.org/region.php?fips=00000&regname=UnitedStatesFarmSubsidySummary .

Jedediah Purdy & James S. Salzman, "Corn Futures: Consumer politics, health, and climate change," Duke Law School Faculty Scholarship Series, Paper 145, 2008, http://lsr.nellco.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1146&context=duke_fs .

Kari Hamerschlag, "Farm Subsidies in California: Skewed Priorities and Gross Inequalities," Environmental Working Group, accessed October 25 2011, http://farm.ewg.org/pdf/california-farm.pdf .

"Top Ten Things You Didn't Know Were Made From Corn," Agriculture Corner, March 15 2011, http://www.agricorner.com/op-ten-things-you-didn%E2%80%99t-know-are-made-from-corn/