Food Justice and Municipal Government

    This article looks into the various ways that different municipal food systems work to bring food justice to low-income communities.  More importantly, it also focuses on the shortcomings of these food systems and analyzes the gaps that still need to be filled in.  These food systems, the PSRFPC and the City of Seattle, are structurally unique and both focus on individual, specific aspects of food justice.  However, by focusing their resources on only certain areas of food justice such as increasing access to urban farm plots, they are leaving other areas unmonitored such as labor wages for producers and making alternative food exchange methods practical for everyone.  The article also mentions that these two food systems are limited in their range of what they can achieve.  For example, they may simply not have the funding necessary to protect enough farmland for use by local urban farmers.  If not protected, these plots could end up the hands of agri-business corporations who may ship the produce elsewhere.  

    I really like how the article breaks down the topics of food justice into five "Points of Intervention."  This makes it a lot easier to understand the more specific details of each broader issue and how they relate to one another.  The point that stood out to me the most for both food systems was the "exchange" section.  Recently, we discussed an article that talked about the inequalities that current farmer's markets create and how this method of food exchange needs to be improved.  The concept of the farmer's market is also mentioned in the "exchange" sections for both the PSRFPC and the City of Seattle.  Like I mentioned before, these food systems are only focused on certain aspects of food justice, and I think farmer's markets are a very strong example of this.  Farmer's markets may be effective at decreasing the reliance on obtaining food from large corporations and providing nutritious, culturally appropriate food to certain communities, however, they tend to fail in their efforts to be fully inclusive and don't account for the people who actually grew the food.  

    The biggest question I have after reading this article is are these food systems doing all they possibly can?  Yes, the article states how limited their resources are, but how much time and effort is really being put into researching the challenges being faced by these communities?  Are their resources being allocated in the most effective way possible?  If they are and it still doesn't work, doesn't the federal government need to get more involved and provide more resources?  This article raises many thought-provoking questions than can hopefully be resolved through further research.