Food Systems
Racism, in its intersections with economic inequality, has removed Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) from local food sovereignty; preventing the growth, consumption, and access of nutritious food.[1] In a more just food system, all communities, regardless of race or income, can have both increased access to nutritious, affordable food and the power to influence a food system that prioritizes environmental and human needs.
Lacking access to nutritious foods can cause disease and poor health outcomes that shorten life expectancy such as obesity, diabetes, and diet-related diseases.[2] Many food workers do not have access to health insurance and quality healthcare.[3] Low-income, minority, and immigrant communities also suffer from high exposure to occupational and community health threats associated with food production and processing methods.[4]
Communities experience food insecurity, or disruption of food intake because of lack of money, resources, and food apartheid. Food apartheid results from political and economic decisions rooted in structural racism, which have inequitably led to long-term disinvestment in primarily low-income communities and communities of color.[5] Food justice improves the quality of life in which people can make real choices about what they eat.
Basebuilding community organizers are working towards food justice by advocating for increased access to healthy school meals, creating food sovereignty through local farming and youth education, supporting small-scale farm operations, directing food aid to low-income residents, and advocating for culturally-appropriate food access and land stewardship.
DISPARITIES AND STATISTICS
Race and Ethnicity:
Discriminatory housing policies have pushed BIPOC to neighborhoods with weak retail climates and a surplus of low-wage labor, both of which can lead to the proliferation of fast food and food insecurity.[6] The national average of households with food insecurity is 11.1%. Black households experience food insecurity at a rate of 21.2% and Hispanic households experience food insecurity at a rate of 16.2%.
Socioeconomic Status:
Households with incomes near or below the federal poverty line also have higher food insecurity rates than the national average. Unhealthy food outlets are more present in lower poverty ZIP codes.[7] Lower-income school districts also face budget limitations that limit their ability to provide fresh, local foods.[8] As a result, low income individuals have lower dietary quality compared to those with higher incomes.[9]
Geography:
Accessing grocery stores is more difficult for rural families who live 10 miles or more from a grocery store—a concern highest among Native American populations in the West.[10]
COMMUNITIES OF PRAXIS POLICIES
Community organizers across the nation are advocating for policy, system, environment, and practice changes that address the root causes of health inequities across the social determinants of health. Every year Praxis invites our Communities of Praxis members to share some of their top organizing or advocacy campaigns in their own communities through out annual survey.
Let’s expand the algorithm of scientific progress in food security, food systems, and nutrition and health to include the health outcomes of all our communities and let’s use this data to guide new research and resource investments.
Our organizing partners have continued to effectively advance community priorities throughout COVID-19 and its inequitable impacts on people of color; it's necessary for public health and our federal administration to follow the priorities of these leaders to truly effect change…
Public health is still in need of a publicist. We are already aware that, pre-COVID 19, the general public perception around agencies like the CDC, Department of Health & Human Services, and state/local health departments was negative. Thus, I am calling for public health to be redefined and expanded; we must “change the face.”
Albino Garcia gives a rich history of how La Plazita came into existence. He discusses La Plazita's philosophies of "La Cultura Cura" and how they are healing formally incarcerated youth and families through connecting them to the land. Albino also takes time to dive deep into what it means to build organic community power.
Dr. Ashley Gripper tells an in-depth story of her life—sharing all the interconnected moments, memories and experiences that brought her to the land work that she does daily. Through joy, grief, sorrow, and healing, all things return back to the earth and so should we.
Lupe Gonzalo of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) shares the profound power that lies within farmworker voices to build agency among farmworkers in impact change in Immokalee, FL and inspired advocates nation-wide.
Bevelyn Afor Ukah believes that youth power holds the key to our survival and collective freedom. Her work at the Food Youth Initiative (FYI) at the Center for Environmental Farming System is more than just about food access, their organizing efforts span across interconnected issue areas leading us towards liberation.
Donne Gonzalez and Emily Arasim are deeply committed in serving as acequia caretakers, and passing on knowledge about intergenerational farming and the larger systems impacting people living in New Mexico.
amaha sellassie is a public-sociologist working to transform communities through a love ethic. In this episode, amaha shares the story of how Gem City Market, a worker owned cooperative, came into existence.
As a second generation Pan-Asian American, Angela Patel (she/her) uses her cultural history to shape and influence her work at Danny Woo Community Garden as the Sustainable Community and Educational Coordinator.
Kyle Tsukahira is the Co-Director of API Forward Movement based in Los Angeles, CA. In this episode, Kyle shares his journey into food justice work and his work to increase access to affordable and culturally relevant foods across ethnic backgrounds for the diverse Asian Pacific Islander community.
Carlton Turner, co-founder, co-director, and lead artist of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, tells his food story—a deeply compelling tale that tells the socio-political and economic history of Utica, Mississippi as it connects to the current day.
Space Curator, Facilitator and conjuror of spaces for freedom, Emanuel H. Brown (he/him), Executive Director and Steward of Acorn Center for Restoration and Freedom, life's work centers around the question of How can people get free? How can people feel free?
Janna Cordeiro from San Francisco's Wholesale Produce Market discusses her public health work on sugar sweetened beverages in San Francisco and the struggles of taking on the well-resourced soda industry.
Christina Goette, co-founder of Shape Up San Francisco Coalition, emphasizes the importance of centering the voices of communities who are disproportionately burdened by beverage industry's predatory marketing as well as ensuring tax revenues are reinvested directly back into these communities.
Holly Scheider, representative on Berkeley's Sweetened Beverage Product Panel of Experts, connects the fight against the beverage industry to the historic public health efforts that took on the tobacco industry.
Sara Soka, fellow at the Beeck Center and the campaign manager for Measure D, discusses the process of passing Measure D and the importance of community in moving SSB work forward.
Jeff Ritterman, cardiologist and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, breaks down some of the literature on the mechanisms by which excess sugar in sweetened beverages lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Michael Jacobson, senior scientist at and co-founder of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), discusses the rise of soda consumption and array of strategies advocates have used reduce its harmful effects.
Winnie Huston, Policy Strategist at DC Greens, speaks to the power of connecting personally with community members in food spaces.
Rod Lew, Executive Director of Asian Pacific Partners for Empowerment, Advocacy and Leadership (APPEAL), makes the case for systems change and calls for equity based policy processes in SSB taxes.
Xavier Morales, Executive Director of the Praxis Project, makes the case for a transformative systems approach to health inequities caused by sugar sweetened beverages.
This podcast episode in Communities Building Power for Health (CBPH) Series features Joseph Martinez II, MCI's Health & Wellness Coordinator, who shares with The Praxis Project how MCI operates as well as his experiences organizing the Fresh Food Co-Op program.
This podcast episode in Communities Building Power for Health (CBPH) Series features, we speak with Guy Reiter (Anahqwet) on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin about his organization Menikanaehkem and their work in rebuilding their community by fostering language and cultural revitalization.
This podcast episode in Communities Building Power for Health (CBPH) Series interviews Genoveva Islas, the director of Cultiva La Salud, an organization working for health and social justice in Fresno, CA. Fresno is a food desert and obesity and diabetes are a major issue disproportionately affecting the health of the community.
This podcast episode in Communities Building Power for Health (CBPH) Series chats with Kelly Carlisle of Acta Non Verba about how the Youth Urban Farm Project (ANV) elevates life in the inner-city by challenging oppressive dynamics and environments through urban farming.
Denisa Livingston from Dine Community Advocacy Alliance and the Slow Food International Council discusses how the fight to reduce sugary drink and other unhealthy food consumption is a matter of reclaiming indigenous lifeways and foodways.