I accidently wrote my post last week about Brown and Getz's Farmworker Food Insecurity, but I reread it and have more specific thoughts.
I love sarcasm, but this contradiction isn't funny: food-workers are the most likely to be food insecure.
The US Department of Agriculture defines food security as having access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all of the household members. I appreciate that healthy food is specified here, as well as at all times. The 1974 UN World Food Conference agreed the right to freedom from hunger is inalienable, but the US has never adopted this legally.
I did appreciate the pun of using the phrase "produce hunger" to describe systems causing food insecurity because produce as a noun is what counteracts hunger!
Low annual earnings is due to seasonal employment. Obviously there isn't work year round for a strawberry harvester, even if varieties ripen across many months. Traveling for different produce seasons may be an option, but I'm sure there are points in California's seasonal climate that is too cold for much to grow.
I noted that food stamps and similar programs are not always helpful because undocumented immigrants do not qualify and other people aren't signed up either.
I thought the comment by one participant, "If you don't eat you die" was really sad. While this is true, we shouldn't have to focus so much of our lives on mere survival anymore.
I like the statement that the food insecurity issue isn't with the farmworkers but instead is systematic. I'm not sure what we can do to change the system.
1 comment:
I didn't pay it much mind at the time, but the idea of producing hunger is absurd to think about. This shouldn't even be something that people consider writing about. There shouldn't be this issue anywhere but that isn't the case. Hopefully some of the things we learn in this class, we can apply to try and do better than those before us.
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