Unjust Food Justice

In the reading “The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism”, the author, Karen J. Warren, explains her argument on the inevitable connection between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature. She further suggests that ecofeminism provides a framework to re envision feminism and create an environmental ethic which takes into account the connection between sexism and naturism.

All food should be available to all people. The concept of this is dwelled on in the article, “Food justice and Food retail in Los Angeles” by Mark Valliantos. Throughout the article, Valliantos maintains the notion that healthy food should be within everyone’s reach, yet inner cities are still suffering from shortages of fresh produce. To see this issue in action, Valliantos documented this reoccurring phenomenon in Los Angeles. The author gives a description of two areas within the city of Los Angeles, and how they are economically divided based on the amount of healthy produce one has at its disposal. He makes note of programs that already exist to help low income families receive healthy foods that they could not afford. He also

Challenges of maintaining proper nutrition for the economically disadvantaged in the US. Studies show there is a clear difference in economic classes in regards to nutrition and food consumption. Low income groups find it very difficult to eat a healthy diet, and are experiencing food poverty or food insecurity. There are many reason for food poverty the main problems to eating a healthy diet are cost, accessibility, and education. The combination of these three problems creates areas in cities, counties and rural areas called food deserts.

In response to the growing trends in the current food system and the change of the notion of food, Allison Blay-Palmer, draws, through her tactful book, Food Fears, the alternative and mainstream of North American food systems. Throughout a deep understanding about the food system and its evolution, she describes various ways, by relying on grass roots and meaningful individual activism as alternatives to change the food agriculture while building up a new food system that embodies social and ecological values as the foundation for future growth.

The second part of Megan Carney (2015) focused on the various different food assistance programs and solutions for food insecurity. Across the country there are countless of organizations and programs that aim at assisting and improving food insecurity among marginalized communities. The truth of the matter is, that there are structural issues in the government that prevent individuals from making enough to support themselves and their families. It is hard to comprehend how the United States disagrees in recognizing food and its access to food as an inalienable human rights (Carney 2015). No one should be denied access to nutritious food.

Many go hungry because of the lack of access to food. Fruits and vegetables are not available because those farms are not subsidized, much of government funding goes towards bigger farms that produce wheat and other grains. The end result is making carb-based foods cheaper and easier to buy. The purpose of this is to explain the hunger crisis here in America, why the cost of certain foods is higher than others, and how to help the crisis.

both argue that food issues should be addressed by public policy. To combat hunger, malnutrition, and growth deficiencies in children, Frank argues that public policy relating to food has to be changed. Poor families should be supplemented with federal grants such as WIC vouchers to care for their young ones. Robertson et al. take a slightly different approach in their article “Food is a Political Issue” by not only holding the government accountable for reducing issues associated with food, but also the food producers and suppliers. Who should decrease the health disparities and care for the disadvantaged members of society? Robertson et al. advocate that although health disparities caused by food have to be primarily tackled through government policies, the health disparities are everyone’s problem and have to be addressed by everyone— from government officials, to religious groups, to the farmers and food suppliers

In the Journal “Decolonizing Food Justice: Naming, Resisting and Researching Colonizing Forces in the Movement” the author Katharine Bradley and Hank Herrera talks about how there's this disconnect of diversity in food justice and how food is being distributed. Activists on this topic speak about how based on your race and class is how you are accessing to these healthier options of food in the United States. There is this group called Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), that is, a group to work on the gap of how certain demographics are receiving food. Moreover, it is a network of activist that work with low-income communities, and ultimately are standing for food justice. The food movement is really connected and is in a lot of ways

Food is not only a necessity but it is also what defines a person. Different people from distinct ethnicity and social classes have their own particular dishes. Although food is seen a human right, there are some countries that are unfortunately denied this right. Certain countries do not have the resources to attain healthy, fresh foods which influences people to rely on unhealthy foods. In order to impede the growth of this issue, it is important to understand what it means to have food justice, what are the goals to the movement and finally understand how feminism seen as a core factor to be blame for this global issue.

Food Justice, in my opinion, is when individuals of all incomes and circumstances have access to nutrition and affordable food that is grown sustainably and responsibly. Food justice is about giving people the autonomy to decide what foods they eat and making sure that they have access to the foods necessary to have a healthy diet. The more time I spend in this class, the more I also think about the importance of culture when it comes to diets. A smaller, often unmentioned part of food justice is recognizing that no culture’s food or diet is inherently superior. That is to say, food justice and those involved in bringing about change in our diets must remember to be culturally sensitive.

Ecofeminism is a multicultural perspective on the interconnectedness of social systems of domination and the domination of non-human nature. It recognizes the cultural and political links between ecology and

The food service organization I chose for my paper was Gleaners. Gleaners’ mission is “to lead the fight against hunger.” This organization was founded in 1980. They work to fight hunger by collecting, storing, and distributing food to those who need it most. Gleaners distributes their food to over 230 agencies. Food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters all receive items from Gleaners. Gleaners is also affiliated with Feeding America, a nationwide network that has 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs.

Rather, change must come from the ground up, built from recent pushes towards recognition of “privilege,” and using that self-awareness to help those less fortunate than us. The United Nations Environment Programme says, “the numbers are not promising … (but) we can do a lot to change the situation,” mostly by “thinking, eating, and saving” more mindfully in how we treat ourselves, different people around us, and our environment through food consumption. Anne-Marie Hamelin, Jean-Pierre Habicht, and Micheline Beaudry hammer this home, in their article dealing with “Food Insecurity: Consequences for the Household and Broader Social Implications,” directly linking “food insecurity” with “important social implications” towards the “manifestations” it entails. Conclusively, this issue is all too relevant in its being “key (to) aspects of human

Within the United States, 12.7% of households had been food insecure at some point within 2015, meaning that not enough money was had to spend on food. ("United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service", par. 3) With this in mind, one of the largest problems when it comes to nutrition in the developed countries of the world is the availability of nutritious food to the lower classes because lower quality processed food is easier to obtain than nutritious food. This only seems to be a trend within developed countries so this argument will only focus on the developed countries such as the United States and France. Underdeveloped countries are left outside of these studies as they do not have widespread statistical values for any of their nutrition at any of the levels of

Ecofeminism is also referred to as a theory which makes the links between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature in patriarchal culture; an ethical position informed by ecofeminist thought and activism is one which resists these oppressions (Constance et al, 1996). Early ecofeminist analyses of the causes and solutions for environmental ethics were based on the idea of a feminine principle of care that was thought as a foundation for a sustainable livelihood (David, 2003). The approach of feminine principle later became the object of internal critique, the critique included the development of feminist principles that criticized the meanings of feminine, masculine, nature and culture (David, 2003). According to this latter, critical approach, ecofeminism could no longer be defined as a community of women rather the community of people who participate in critical ecofeminist analyses of the global environmental situation (David, 2003). Many different interpretations of ecofeminism exist, each rooted in a particular intersection of race, class, geography and conceptual orientation (Constance et al, 1996). This diversity also reflects the multiple points from which ecofeminists have entered the movement (Constance et al, 1996).These include both academic and activist involvement in animal liberation, environmentalism, international development, peace activism, biotechnology, and genetic engineering (Constance et al, 1996). A strong influence in ecofeminism has been deep ecology, primarily academic movement which posits anthropocentrism as the root cause of the environmental crisis (Constance et al, 1996). The pervasive belief that nature is solely a resource for