From Industrial Gardens to Food Deserts

In Chapter 5 of industrial Garden to Food Desert by Nathan McClintock, he argues that food deserts are not accidental and are caused by systemic racism, demarcated devaluation, and redlining. McClintock states “Most have concluded that in the United States, food deserts disproportionately impact people of color.” this is true because it highlights the injustices people of color face in their communities. Demarcated devaluation is the action of isolating people in less desirable areas usually with people of color living there. This makes their houses and land less valuable and often poorly built. Grocery stores were too expensive for the people living in the food deserts, so they moved to the hills of Oakland and fast food restaurants and convenient stores with old poor quality produce and processed food was available. McClintock cites “There are four times as many fast food restaurants and convenience stores as grocery stores and produce vendors in the East Bay (Spiker, Sorrel green, and Williams 2007).” While white people and people living in the hills of Oakland blamed the obesity and health problem in the flatlands on the people living there not what they have access to and that the system had screwed them on purpose. A quote from this article where people are being interviewed about how they feel about the food in the valley, an individual says “ I wish we could have more fresh foods rather than junk food, candy, and soda that we’re all used to eating because that is the only thing around” (Ibid.). further proving that the crisis does not come from the flatlands it comes from the people devaluing their land and homes and isolating them as a form of racism and gatekeeping nutritious food and good living situations.   

From Industrial Gardens to Food Desert

  I found it really surprising that an area that started off as promising, has turned into a food desert and has remained that way decades later. Having more grocery stores in the 1930s than the 1980s was baffling to hear, as I would typically expect the opposite. Especially considering the overall population increase since then, I believed that there would be more grocery stores in these areas since they have more residents. I also found it strange that liquor stores and convenience stores are more accessible than fresh produce. It enables addictions and unhealthy habits. Why is accessibility to beer being valued more than to healthy foods? Thinking more about this fact makes me think of this statistic I heard once that over 60% of tobacco stores are located close to elementary or middle schools. By exposing children to things like this, it teases their curiosity to try it, potentially leading to addiction. I can’t imagine this effect is much different in these food deserts. 

In my opinion, I think that educating people on nutrition and how to grow their own food is a good way to start making a change in food deserts. Rather than just donating nonparishable foods and such, teaching people what they can do personally to improve their situation is much more effective. However, as McClintock mentioned we have to “rethink and rebuild the entirety of the metropolitan and regional food system”. Doing this requires more than just educating people about nutrition, how to cook, or grow food. It will require a lot of larger corporations to change their policies, and how they function, which will take a while to get there. Despite this, smaller efforts do count and they do positively impact others within food deserts. 

Food Deserts in the United States

     As Nathan McClintock stated in his writing: From Industrial Garden to Food Desert, Food deserts are proportionately popular in low economic areas, specifically urban communities of color. This hypothesis has been brought up in our class discussions and is unanimously accepted as many people have had personal accounts to validate this claim. While the article focuses on areas of California, this same problem can be seen across low income urban areas of the United States as a whole and is a significant problem and also indicator of the disproportionate distribution of nutritious food which also highlights the overall economic issues the country faces.

    McClintock also highlights how these low income areas have congregated people of color using the military industrial complex boom of World War One to gather these citizens, with their hopes being that there would be stable jobs that pay decently. While this may or may not have been the case and intention  of the US government at one time. this has now inadvertently created and sustained the food deserts we see today which has now essentially forced these communities to take whatever jobs a shipyard offers regardless of pay or the person's skill due to that corporation dominating the job market in the area and also forcing these communities to live in subsidized housing with no perceivable way out of the arrangement. Personal accounts in class discussions have also supported this argument. 

    The current situation these communities face show signs of past and present racism and prevent these communities from escaping their food desert and economic standing.

Industrial Gardens to Food Deserts

While I have been aware of historical ideologies having a negative lingering effect on societies today, I was not aware of the exact history of the process and why specifically some areas receive repeated cycles of poverty. I've known about zoning and other policies restricting grocery access to areas of low income, but it is an eye opener for me to learn now about how and why these things stay the way they are, more so than just "racism". It is quite clear that racism is a huge proponent to how this ball started rolling. Looking at the historical Oakland zoning maps was crazy to me, seeing how they were labeling other people as "lower graded elements" of a system as an excuse to restrict where new investment flows into is just hard to comment on. But I don't think thinking about the past and how it all started in the first place is going to solve any of the problems the past has left behind for this specific issue. 

Today, as we just read, these areas still exist. Today, people are still struggling to have fair access to fresh food. McClintock is right to say that food deserts exist once existing capital is no longer performing as much as is wanted. But how do you even fix that? How do you convince businesses to move back into areas where they know they will lose money? It certainty won't be out of the goodness of their CEOs hearts, at least not a significant or meaningful amount. McClintock talked about that even restarting the cycle that once brought capital in just continues to yield the same result of poverty for those in previously labeled red or yellow areas. This can be due to things mentioned like majority of businesses and housing not being locally owned, people spending money in adjacent towns due to higher quality selections, and repeated loan disapproval and caution against investment in previously labeled red and yellow areas. Racism likely does still play a role as a barrier to changing this system, as even today, grocers are not running to re-open their doors in the areas they previously closed them in, but I think today the hesitation is more because of an economic fear than a racial matter. For areas like Oakland to change, they will need numerous things, but most importantly, more stable, paying jobs, majority local ownership of businesses, and locally owned housing options. I think this because if you provide capital influx in some way to a system like Oakland, and it is all being spent in adjacent towns, or on rents to landlords over seas or in different states, the city is ultimately losing money even when subsidized, and to restore incentive for a grocer to reopen its doors, you need to prove to them you have enough purchasing power to keep their grocery store running. 

Food Deserts - Where Do We Go From Here?

Food deserts across the country are the results of racist and classist economic and political practices and laws. Through decades of segregation, redlining, racist zoning laws, and economic booms and busts, much of the United State's abandoned post-industrial urban areas are lacking adequate access to healthy foods. McClintock summarizes in the discussion some food justice organizations working toward supplying the people of Oakland, CA with fresh foods, however then goes on to say that in addition to this, policies and zoning laws need to be updated for real change to be made. I understand this viewpoint, however, I think much of the solution to these problems comes in the form of community work and collaboration. We discussed last week the balance of individual community action and large scale policy changes, however I don't think the government in it's current form will be likely to produce any substantial changes to help communities in a timely manner. The system that brought about food deserts will not be the system to bring about their demise. It is up to us as individuals and community members to work in an alternative setting outside the bounds of capitalism that creates a new system of food production and supply.

This article also got me thinking about where I live in Pottstown. While a majority of the population is white, there is a large black population percentage, and almost 20% of the population lives below poverty (above the national average of 12.4% ; https://datausa.io/profile/geo/pottstown-pa/). In town on the main street, there is a Redner's Mini Mart and a small health food store for groceries. The mini Redner's is comparable to a large-sized gas station in terms of selection, most of the store is taken up by processed food, and there is one small refrigerator section with a small selection of produce. The health food store offers some produce (at prices that I would consider rather steep), but still primarily sells processed "healthy" foods. To access the chain grocery stores one would likely need a car or access to the bus. The bus system in Pottstown is rather robust for a small urban area, I think. There are several lines that stop at several grocery stores just outside of town, and most run every hour throughout the day, with the exception of Sundays. Another constraint to the access of these stores, as highlighted by McClintock, is the segregation produced by highways. The majority of the grocery stores surrounding Pottstown are on the other side of Route 100, making walking there challenging and unsafe. I am fortunate that I am physically able to walk to one of these stores (about 25-30 minute walk) to get my groceries, but I know that is not the case for many members in my community. In all, Pottstown certainly is not the worse place to be able to access food, however improvements should be made to increase accessibility in the downtown.

Food Deserts and Power Struggles

In light of discovering what redlining means and seeing how the housing markets used it to isolate people, along with viewing the societal impacts of industry and war, this article made me reflect on my own upbringing. Having watched Janelle's video clip from Jiang Xueqin in a previous comment from last week's posts and hearing Xueqin mention consumerism being the new form of slavery; I couldn't help but think on where I come from. Pittsburgh, more specifically Jeannette, PA a city that thrived on industrial factories such as Westinghouse and Jeannette Glass. Both companies took a turn for the worse after WWII. Which led me to consider a more famous critical war theory based on the military-industrial complex. C. Wright Mills that is detailed in his book "The Power Elite." McClintock had mentioned that with the rise and fall of industry not only did the economy suffer, but mainly the people who lived in the city where the industry once was. Mills's theory in essence describes a revolving door of war and those who have power stay in power even once they retire to continue operating even behind closed doors. This theory accredits that the decisions made by the government are not actually in the business of bettering the lives of their citizens but only for themselves. I can't help but question if Wright's theory was at play here with the housing market redlining areas and providing cookie cutter homes. 

Food desert

Nathan McClintock’s chapter argues that food deserts in Oakland did not just happen naturally or because of crime, but were created through long histories of economic decisions, racism in housing, and the movement of industry and supermarkets to the suburbs. His idea of “demarcated devaluation” shows that certain neighborhoods—especially the flatlands where many low-income residents and people of color live—were intentionally left without investment. Because of this, access to fresh and affordable food became limited, while liquor stores and convenience stores became more common. This shifts the conversation away from blaming individuals and toward examining the systems that shaped these neighborhoods over time. What stood out to me most is the contrast between Oakland’s past as an “industrial garden” and its present reality. The area once combined industry, housing, and the ability for residents to grow some of their own food, which created a kind of everyday security. Over time, that balance disappeared as land was paved over, factories closed, and capital moved elsewhere. Residents were left dealing with pollution, unemployment, and fewer food options. This makes the food desert feel less like an empty space and more like evidence of historical choices that prioritized profit and suburban growth over community well-being. I also found the discussion of community gardens interesting because it shows both hope and limitation. On one hand, gardens and local food programs can help people reconnect with land, culture, and healthier food. They can feel like acts of resistance and rebuilding. On the other hand, expecting small volunteer projects to solve problems created by decades of policy and disinvestment seems unrealistic. From my perspective, gardens are meaningful socially and culturally, but real change would also require larger policy shifts, economic investment, and fair access to housing and jobs. Overall, the chapter suggests that food deserts are not just about food—they reflect deeper inequalities in how cities develop and whom they serve. Understanding that history helps reveal that these neighborhoods are not empty or broken, but shaped by decisions that could, in theory, be changed.

Food Desert Thoughts

    Unfortunately, a lot of the time, when people hear the term "food desert", it is associated with areas where the crime rates are so high that grocery stores have moved out of that area. However, this idea receives some pushback from McClintock as he uses the term Darcated Devaluation. This means that food deserts do not occur naturally, but are the result of paving over fertile land, disinvestment, and redlining. It suggests that hunger is designed by capital and policy. This term assigns responsibility for this desert to concepts, rather than a specific race or group of people.

    Previously, Oakland was what's known as an "industrial garden". This means that the area was a patchwork of truck yards, factories, and residential gardens. This area was one of the most fertile areas in the country. Now, residents struggle to find any kind of fresh food. This transition illustrates disregard for the value of the land. The soil was healthy, and the people were self-sufficient, but this was traded in for short-term gain. The people are left with the pollution and the bill for all of this industry. The working class used to have a "safety net" within their backyards. Now, they must rely on big corporations. 

    In this debate, there are two common sides. The radical opinion states that planting a garden in a space where the soil is contaminated, and the capital has left, is an act of reclaiming power. The critical opinion says that if we only focus on the gardens, then we run the risk of letting the big corporations off of the hook. A bunch of volunteers running a garden should now be responsible for solving a systemic crisis created by decades of redlining. I think that a garden is a great idea socially, but not something that should be used as an economic tool without massive policy shifts to accompany it.

    This paper reminds us that the corner liquor stores and empty lots have a genealogy, a history to them. We have to stop looking at these food deserts as blank spaces and instead look at them as scars on history. The food desert is what we have been prioritizing, while the "industrial garden" shows us what is possible. 

Food Deserts

Food deserts affect millions of Americans. Giving people limited access to quality nutrient based, healthy food stuffs. Lack of outlets, distribution, and transportation are key issues to food desserts. Communities having food deserts effects significant lower-income populations.

Steps to reducing food deserts can provide positive gains towards improved economic opportunities, increase values of that community, most importantly better health equity to the people. Food deserts are prevalent in large cities, small towns, and rural farmer locations. 

Economic growth followed by decline contributes to creating large food desert pockets. These areas grow due to product innovations or war production demands. This loss leaves areas with high unemployment and polluted land and buildings, leaving little investment appeal.

Addressing options to lessen food deserts include government involvement along with corporate support, Government's crucial role requires providing incenting programs, that supplement investment s to these areas. Providing tax breaks, loans, and/or grants increasing economic investment.  It's extremely important that viable strategies be established that have hard set requirements.  Without open visibility on how the money is spend and it's ROI will lessen throwing "feel good" money that neglects a concrete solution.

Can the proper security be provided to guarantee real success to establish profitable supermarkets, pharmacies, and C-stores. Being realist on effect on the local people's rights will be one of the significant challenges, including low profit margins, high operating costs that plague these dead zones.

I support government programs such as. SNAP, WIC, The National Lunch School, Food Banks, and National Education & Public Health Institutes. In addition, I support companies that actively donate and encourage these programs, by not only with dollars and products, but requiring full and open visibility and financial responsibility. We should demand public disclosure for how our spend is benefiting everyone. 

Food deserts & minimum wage

 I had noticed that our article to read was published in 2011. In it, it mentioned the importance of a livable wage for food security. Back in 2011, the CA minimum wage was $8/hr compared to the current $16.90/hr in 2026. I found two sources of how with the raise in minimum wage there is an increase a higher caloric purchase in CA (raising minimum wage improves nutrition among food insecure households). Now, while the data is able to show that more food has been bought, there hasn’t been as significant data on if the food is healthier. The second article touches more on the US as a whole, with the percentage of households facing food insecurity, the use of SNAP, and the federal proposal to increase minimum wage. Currently the two states with the worst food insecurity are Arkansas (20%) and Mississippi (22%), or about 1 in 5 households. The second article goes more into the effects of minimum wage on food security and how a rise in wage would have a positive effect.

https://tcf.org/content/report/the-impact-of-a-15-minimum-wage-on-hunger-in-america

https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/post/raising-minimum-wage-improves-nutrition-among-food-insecure-households

Farmers and Pesticides

One of the statements that really stood out to me in our reading was how farmworkers are particularly vulnerable to pesticide poisoning and, ironically, often lack steady access to healthy food. Having worked on a peach farm before, I was aware of the chemical use there however none of the farmers used any PPE, in field or not. Even having been on a farm, I was detached from health hazards. Farmers feed our nation, facing health hazards daily, and yet there is a gap in protection for them. One of the most pervasive risks isn’t from heavy machinery or heat alone: it comes from pesticides, the chemicals are sprayed to protect crops but not only do they harm pests, they can also harm the people. I wish to emphasize how easy it is for this occupation to harm someone. Below are two articles I found regarding farmers and health risks.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11056488/#abstract1

https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/agricultural-health-and-safety

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 1 million people are affected annually by pesticide poisoning worldwide, and acute and chronic exposure can cause a range of health issues in agricultural workers. Research shows that pesticides can enter the body in multiple ways: through the skin; inhalation; even through ingestion when workers eat or drink without washing off residues. In the short term, exposure can lead to symptoms like headaches, dizziness, nausea, skin irritation, respiratory difficulties, and visual disturbances. Longer-term and repeated exposure is even more concerning. Pesticides have been linked to carcinogenesis (increased cancer risk), neurotoxicity (nervous system damage), reproductive problems, and weakened immune function; effects that may not appear until many years after exposure. Some neurological effects and cancers can take a decade or more to surface, making prevention and long-term monitoring vital.

Farmworkers who mix, load, or apply pesticides often without adequate protective gear face the highest risks. Even workers re-entering recently sprayed fields can absorb residues through their skin or breathe in pesticide drift from adjacent fields. Children and family members living with farmworkers may also be exposed indirectly through contaminated clothing or household dust. Across rural agricultural settings, workers are exposed not just to one but often multiple chemicals, sometimes without proper training or safety equipment. Widespread pesticide use (including chemicals like glyphosate, which research has connected with cellular toxicity and potential long-term disease risks) underscores just how hazardous these exposures can be.

Pesticides are just part of a larger pattern of health risks in farm work. Agricultural workers also face hazards from dust, fuel and fertilizers, extreme heat, and physically demanding labor which can interact with chemical exposures to worsen health outcomes.

Addressing pesticide risks requires better enforcement of safety standards like the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard, broader access to effective personal protective equipment (PPE), and much stronger training and education for workers about chemical risks. Researchers and rural health advocates also call for improved occupational health services and more community health resources in agricultural regions. Farmworkers deserve the same protections we expect in any workplace, especially when it comes to chemicals that can affect their health today and decades into the future.

Food Justice and the challenge to neoliberalism

 Alkon’s Article discusses the injustices that aren’t always seen regarding food. Sustainable agriculture is hard to put into play because as of right now, to minorities it feels like something for privileged or wealthy individuals. The stigma we talked about for a good portion of last discussion is also mentioned in this article stating that farming is glorified into being something for white people and white wealthy people go to farmers markets. The price of healthy organic food being so high speaks this into existence, that organic and healthy produce is for only those who can afford it. Americas health problem also heavily relies on the fact that healthy food is unavailable in populated low income areas. Alkon makes the point that Organic agriculture is incomplete without food justice. Organic food may be better for people and the environment but if it is only available to those who can afford it, it isn’t benefiting society as it should. By subsidizing healthy organic food, everyone would ahve access to vegetables and organic food, and by providing fair wages more people would feel compelled to farm and iyt would broaden the scope of cultures, races, and backgrounds of people in farming not just white men. By banning and regulating pesticides and harmful chemicals not only are we protecting the consumer and the environment but the farmers and people who work with these harsh chemicals everyday without proper PPE who produce the crops we need. This would also broaden the scope of who wants to farm because I know with all of the chemicals out there I would not want to be a conventional farmer. 

Food Justice + Neoliberalism

    From this reading, I took away the idea that Alkon wants us to see both the differences and the similarities between food justice progression and neoliberalism, and how the two can and are being used to forward food justice and related movements. It is highlighted that other researchers/scholars tend to argue that food justice movements are using neoliberalism ideas to advance or are neoliberal. A core idea of neoliberalism is minimal government intervention in a capitalist free-market. An increasingly common core step for many food justice groups is to market their cause in some way. This can be done by starting an organic farm, joining a group to provide fresh food for all, telling others to not buy from the businesses they oppose, or telling others to buy from like minded groups only, and many more. The point I believe she is making is that even though many food justice advocates/groups may oppose some neoliberal agendas like only using the free-market as their tool, they utilize neoliberal strategies to push their own, then attempt to dismantle something that one could also define as neoliberal.

    Personally, I think this has lots of truth to it, but I am not sure if neoliberalism is the absolute correct path of capitalism. According to Alkon, workers co-ops and food workers movements have shown to pave paths of success through neoliberalist strategies, which is great for those groups and can serve as proof of neoliberal strategies being linked to food justice progression, but I don't think it is neoliberal in itself. The strongest example in my opinion is groups mentioned like the CIW that can force a food justice advocates agenda onto a big corporation (or 11 of them), this is real systematic change happening at the business level with minimal governmental interaction needed. It is a real example of Alkon's point that even if CIW used neoliberal-labeled-tactics to gain the ground their on now, they are also using their power to rework places affected by neoliberal ideas, like how they were able to make wages better for countless farmers. 

    The last thing I want to say is that I don't exactly understand why, for example, an advocacy group using the capitalist market we live in to progress their cause gets labeled as neoliberal. I get that neoliberalism involves free-market tools, but that does not mean free-market tools = neoliberal. To me it reads the same as saying a worm is a harbinger of death for apples because it ate an apple, but killing apples was never the worms ultimate goal. How exactly is any group neoliberal for simply existing and operating inside a neoliberal market. "Scholars" who are quick to labeling these groups as neoliberal are defining their means as their ends.

Food Justice and Neoliberalism

 When I think about the word “activist,” I think about open-minded, passionate people. I forget to think about the possible biases and tunnel vision that could come with such personal intensity towards a specific issue. This article on the Food Justice and Neoliberalism critiques on the food system and its advocates helped me have a broader understanding of the community. It also has led me to think about my own activism journey, and to remember to look at something from all angles, despite how I want to say that [insert a solution here] is the way to fix it. It is easy to see the negative when looking at things. It’s hard not to be like, “I got this” and take things into your own hands. I didn’t realize how advocating for change within individuals, instead of for change in the government could potentially release responsibilities from higher up and the system and prevent wide-scale change. Specifically, the line about power being achieved by the individual participating within capitalism was influential to me. I hadn’t thought about the detriment of pushing change onto just people within the economy, because I thought small scale change would then lead to greater change. Alkon points out that this can set a precedent of people being the ones to take responsibility. I knew that change needed to happen within the government, but I didn’t realize that advocacy could potentially hinder its own efforts to promote change. 

Overall, I feel like this article was a very valuable read, for me, but for people in general. I learned more about the relationship between people and the economy, the barriers that POC face within the food system (and its corresponding movement), and the solutions that can propel society to a more sustainable and equal food system.

Human & Labor Rights Vs. Neoliberalism

  If I had to make an analogy, which I love doing, I can only seem to relate neoliberalism with the 70s and the Vietnam War. Why you might ask? A separation of government from the people of the state. The people want help, but they don't want the government's help, people want peace, but they don't want to fight for peace. It's an interesting dichotomy and it seems to me at least from a surface value I can understand why sociologist would be concerned with neoliberal worldviews.

Addressing two "solutions" if you will that I found quite intriguing were the CIW and ROC. First and foremost, I believe that it's critical to make the distinction that when nothing but NGO's pop-up the problems can't be solved in communities because you need the proper funding. Having worked for an NGO previously gives me a unique perspective. While I agree that there needs to be a healthy push back from the citizens of said state I think that completely separating yourself from the government, although they appear to cause nothing but conflict, needs to be viewed under a different light. When enemies come knocking at the door feuding brothers unite.

The CIW is a doing some fantastic work, for being able create the Fair Food Program has enabled countless migrants to be heard and have better pay. I'm curious to see other coalitions like theirs that have pushed big corporations to raise their standards. I've know several farmers that hire migrant workers that are very grateful for their work, because without them, we wouldn't have as high quality of food that we do.

The ROC sounds like a long lost friend that is there to be a voice for all of the silenced voices behind the kitchen doors. Health insurance and sick time in restaurants is almost unheard of. Between farm workers and line cooks they are amongst the most underpaid and undersupported in the industry. I really wish there were more worker owned cooperative restaurants, when you give people the resources to make positive changes in their life doing something they love, it's almost unmatched what they will do for their company.

Making the connection between workers labor rights and taking a stand against neoliberalism was a huge eye opener for me. If we don't have the proper policies enacted we can't really enforce change on a large scale in today's society.

The Benefits of Neoliberalism in Food Justice

In Alison Alkon's text: Food Justice and the Challenge to Neoliberalism, Many subjects were touched upon regarding inequality in the food industry from production and harvesting of raw materials to taking those products and making a finished product. What peaked my interest the most was the focus on GM crops and the impact they have on the market. On one hand I agree that GM crops cause a shift in the market which segregates communities based on their economy and background, on the other hand I do believe humanity has reached a point that using GM crops is necessary to sustain the population we have on this planet. With the way trends are going currently, removing crops that grow faster and produce more would only expand food deserts and create an even larger gap to close to remove those food deserts entirely. While I disagree with removing food deserts I also disagree with the monetization of GM crops and believe that they should be accessible to everyone rather than being selectively built around specific pesticides and monopolized. This and continuing to move towards working with communities that live in these food deserts and helping them become sustainable would increase our liklihood of removing food deserts in their entirety. Alison also touches on “bad actors” and notes that while they may be activist groups working towards a sustainable food system for all, they specifically focus on restricting agribusiness products such as pesticides and GM crops. I agree with fighting against pesticides and how they are currently weaponize to restrict choices in crops to produce and from who you can purchase these seeds from, I still believe GM are a necessity, I think we should focus effort on fighting the weaponization of GM crops rather than GM crops in their entirety. 

Neoliberalism and the Transition to Sustainable Agriculture

Neoliberalism and capitalism have created a plethora of issues in our food systems. These issues range from accessibility/affordability of healthy foods to minorities, to the use of dangerous pesticides, among many others. 

As we discussed in more detail last week, many racial and economic minority groups have very limited access to healthy, whole foods and have been forced into food deserts. I did my GIS project on this topic last semester, titled, "Minority and Low-Income Access to Sustainable Agriculture in Pennsylvania". Below is a pie chart I made of some of my findings - 85% of sustainable farms in Pennsylvania are located in counties that I considered to have Very Low (1.69%-11.97%) to Low (11.98%-22.25%) racial minority populations (sorry if the quality is bad). A limitation to this is that the website I used to gather sustainable farm data is user-submitted and not inclusive of all sustainable farms in Pennsylvania, and there is not a standard for what is considered "sustainable". However, I think it is still jarring the disparity in this small sample I collected and I would be very interested in delving more into this. I did not incorporate a financial aspect to this, it is simply based on location of farms and minority representation, however it is evident that sustainable, organic agriculture tends to be more expensive that it's counterparts, furthering hindering minority populations from accessing it.

 

Pesticide (and other -icide) use comes with a great cost to our health, which many scientists warned about to policy makers in California regarding the use of methyl iodide. Policy makers and large agribusiness companies ignored these warnings and approved the use of methyl iodide anyways, despite the knowledge of the negative health and environmental impacts that go along with it. It wasn't until a lawsuit that would have hindered future use of other pesticides that the company pulled use of methyl iodide. Which was a big win, but had the judge in the lawsuit voted against the company, as he intended to, they would have been faced with hurdles using pesticides in the future. It was not out of care for the community or workers that they stopped using this pesticide, it was so that they could continue their detrimental practices, just in a different font. 

Changes to our food systems will not be able to be substantial whilst still following neoliberal rules. "Voting with your dollar" is great in theory, however it is still perpetuating the system that got us here in the first place. Additionally, many people can't vote with their dollar. The neoliberal capital system is designed to prevent change from being made, as the people and corporations at the top will lose their wealth. As we saw in the article, many groups are working towards developing alternative, mixed economical systems that do not solely rely on business-as-usual capitalism, which I think is great. However, I don't think it is the end all solution. In my opinion, a new economic system is required where money is not the basis. I am not sure what that would look like, but you cannot heal in the environment where you got sick, and the environment we are getting sick in is neoliberal capitalism.

 

Food Justice and the Challenge to Neoliberalism

Reading Alkon’s work made me realize how many problems in the food system I had never really thought about before. I usually think about food in simple ways, like price, taste, or whether it is healthy. After this reading, I started to understand that food is also connected to unfair wages, race, and power. It made me notice that the people who grow and prepare food often struggle the most, even though everyone depends on them every day. One idea that stood out to me was that food justice is about more than access to healthy food. Alkon explains that it also involves challenging exploitation and unfair treatment within the food system. This made me rethink common solutions like organic stores or farmers markets. While those options may help some people, they do not fix deeper problems like poverty or discrimination. Real change has to happen on a larger level. I was also interested in how society focuses on individual choice instead of responsibility from larger systems. Many food movements encourage people to create change by buying certain foods, but this mainly works for people who can afford those choices. This made me think about how easy it is to blame individuals for unhealthy eating without considering limits like money, time, or transportation. Overall, Alkon helped me see that food justice is really about fairness and human rights. It is not only about eating healthy, but also about treating workers with respect and creating a system that supports everyone. This reading changed the way I think about where food comes from and who is affected by it.

Food Justice and the Challenge to Neoliberalism

     This article brought light to topics I never knew about, many that surprised me. Farmers not having accessibility to healthy foods is jarring, since they are the one’s growing the organic foods. Receiving minimal wages for back breaking labor and pesticide poisoning while not receiving proper health benefits. They should be recognized more by larger corporations that sell their organic produce. 

    I also never thought about how conflicting it is for farmers to raise their prices, because while they deserve more money, it also means that people who are lower middle class cannot afford it, making it more difficult for them to have access to organic foods. The idea of community gardens seems to be the best option for this specific issue. However, as we talked about during our last class, many don’t want to do the work in order to get their food. Which I completely understand, they don’t want to wait long for their food to grow, and even when it does grow how can we guarantee that it’ll be enough to sustain a family. 

    I have never heard of a worker cooperative before, and they have begun to be more present within the past decade. I decided to look more into the Mandela Grocery Cooperative to see how it functions. People who shop there can apply for an EBT card which allows them to purchase California grown produce for half off. This allows people who have lower incomes to get produce at a reasonable price, while also supporting local farms. The fruits and vegtables they sell at Mandela change based on what’s in season.

FJ and the Challenge to Neoliberism

 Alkon's food justice dissertation is used to combat neoliberals.  She used food justice as a counter to use market-based solutions, privatization, and individual responsibilities. She states neoliberalism policies deepen food insecurity by limiting social safety nets while promoting agriculture dominance. 

Alkon's approach is to develop collective responsibilities, community control, creating equity in our food systems, promoting farmers markets in addition to organic foods and cultivating food justice activism against mainstream movements which lean towards neoliberalism. Although I see a need for food justice improvement, I am not prepared to abandon all neoliberalism's advantages. Certainty the Laissez-faire pure capitalism economic system that contributed to the great depression of the 1930's was not a good model, letting business run unrestricted. A good example to this is Upton Sinclair's book the "Jungle", reporting on how unhealthy the Chicago meat business at the turn of the century.  Paving the cries to establish the USDA to ensure better purity and healthy conditions in our food processing industry. His book was pure activism to create change for better food justice.

There will always be advantages to certain market freedoms that allow individuals to build better with fewer restrictions. Acclaimed inventors like Eli Whitney with his cotton gin, Henry Ford's automobiles, and Bill Gates Microsoft are strong examples of positive results of neoliberalism. These inventions contributed more helping the masses directly and less to causing inequality and injustice.

I love my clean air and clean water which would not have happened without government intervention and regulation. The unfortunate fact federal and state governments are woefully inefficient. Their help comes with agencies wrought with waste and fraud. This impedes growth and contributes to food injustice and food insecurity.

A system with a more balanced approach of understanding how we regulated our food systems with goals of less discrimination. We need to demand better accuracy to address the food injustice inherently present through our food service chain. I do not want to see a system running totally unregulated. Allowing federal or state to impose their rules without moderation or question, is as equally bad as pure neoliberalism.

Alkon's critique of "Alternative Food Movements" is a good start for positive system changes.  As long as we are cognizant of controlling the food supply to attain equity goals verses any negative effects. Each country will have its unique set of challenges to establish proper goals to build and inclusive system that will not hinder progress.

Challenge to Neoliberalism - Thoughts

 “Food Justice and the Challenge of Neoliberalism” by Alison Alkon is a tough read, as it exposes a lifestyle that a majority of people fall into. This goes back to that idea of a farmers' market that we went over during our discussion in class. We like the idea of “buying local” as we are using our wallets to support local farmers. Alkon looks at farmers' markets as a luxury brand, rather than justice for our farmers.

We have been pushed to become consumers rather than citizens. Neoliberalism has made us feel as though the world’s problems can be solved when we check out with our purchases. “Voting with your fork” is a common idea that doesn’t fully work. You can only do so if you have the means to buy the food that is healthy for you. This completely eliminates those who are living in poverty from being able to participate in the movement. These communities that are unable to “vote with their forks” are arguably the ones who would benefit the most from food reform.

Focusing on whether or not people in your communities are buying local food allows us to ignore the systemic racism and corporate monopolies that are at play. These are the things that dictate what food is available in the first place. Alkon argues for a shift toward collective power, which I agree with. We need to support the people who are harvesting our food, whether or not that food is organic. Those people still deserve to earn a living, even if the food is not inherently healthy for you.

We also need policy reform demanding that healthy food is treated as a human right, rather than a luxury or commodity as it is now. We need to work on backing land trusts and co-ops that will keep money in the hands of the workers rather than going to a CEO. We need to stop worrying about trying to “fix” the market and instead build systems that work completely outside of it. 

Food, Access, and Inequality

 In her TED Talk, Alison Alkon talks about food justice and how food access is shaped by social and economic systems. She explains that eating healthy is not always a choice for everyone. Many people want to eat better, but their income, time, and location limit what food is available to them. Alkon makes it clear that food justice is about more than personal choices. One important point Alkon makes is that unhealthy food is often the cheapest and easiest option. Fast food and processed meals cost less and are easier to find than fresh food. Because of this, people should not be blamed for choosing these options. When people are trying to survive and save money, they choose what works best for them. Alkon challenges the idea that people should feel guilty about what they eat when the system does not give them fair choices. Alkon also talks about how food culture can judge people based on what they eat. Certain foods are seen as “good” or “bad,” and this often connects to class and race. Foods that are common in lower-income or minority communities are often criticized, while foods linked to wealth are praised. This creates shame and unfair judgment instead of understanding. Another topic Alkon discusses is the labor behind the food system. Many farmworkers and food service workers are immigrants or people of color. These jobs are physically demanding and usually pay very little. Even though these workers play a major role in feeding the country, they are often ignored or underpaid. Alkon shows how unfair it is that the food system depends on their hard work while giving them little support. She also explains that farmers who are women or people of color do not receive the same recognition or resources as white male farmers. Many of these farmers face problems getting land, loans, or government help. This shows how inequality exists not only in food access, but also in who is allowed to succeed in agriculture. Overall, Alkon’s TED Talk shows that food justice is a shared responsibility. Instead of blaming individuals, she encourages people to look at the systems that shape food access and labor. Her talk helps viewers understand that real change requires fairness, empathy, and support for the people who grow and serve our food.

Alkon Food Justice

 I had never considered food to be used as racism and this TED Talk really opened my eyes. I was shocked to hear about the way systemic racism plays into food and how processed unhealthy foods are cheaper when healthy food costs the same or less to produce. Fresh produce is so expensive when the farmers working to grow it are not being paid enough to live. White people are taught and brought up on the idea that white people farm and created farming and cultivating is for them only when the slaves were farming, and black people and people of other races are farming all over the world and in America and America is supposed to be for immigrants so the mistreating of them is truly insane. America is so heavily established on farmers and being producers to export when no other countries want as much corn and soy as we produce, and there is no need for farmers to be underpaid to overproduce. I think at a fundamental level this issue could be fixed starting with our kids. If we teach that differences and history matter, they are more likely to respect and understand it and fight for what is right. Alkon discus's the idea that kids are bullied for being different in schools because of the traditional meals they bring, and I think even that could be changed in the way children are raised. More importantly we need to fight for lower prices on fresh produce and healthy foods, especially when they are being raised for no reason. The farmers are still unable to survive and produce as much as they do on subsidies. I love the message Alkon is sending, and I agree and feel like I learned a lot.