Municipal Government and Food Justice

I appreciate when complex topics are broken down to help me understand, so I liked reading about "the 5 major aspects of food justice": trauma/inequity, land, labor, exchange, and democratic process. Table 1 shows this breakdown and includes specific actions to combat each. 

I'm realizing how interconnected many of my passions are. I help with a Salvation Army program for foster/adopted kids, all with trauma and from hard places. I also work on a small farm. These seem unrelated on the surface. However, farm work is impacting the lives of many of the kids I interact with. I participate in farmers markets and a CSA, which may be negatively reinforcing social injustice. I also help harvest food that gets donated to food pantries, some of which may be helping feed families who otherwise couldn't afford to feed their kids. Most of the kids in the foster care system come from low-income, minority, urban communities- the same ones being the most affected by systemic racism and injustice.

I've only had positive experiences with CSAs, farmers markets, and gardens, so I am sad when I think about the social injustice and neoliberal problems these can exacerbate. 

I had some thoughts on "telling farmers what to do". I do think some regulations, subsidies, government intervention, etc help guide the direction we want society to go. However, I've had some negative experiences with government intervention. The farm I work at has had inspectors come to the farm. Most times it's someone with a clipboard and papers who has never actually worked on the farm. Many of the regulations are made by people who have no agricultural experience and don't actually know the factors in farming. An example is the organic certification, it's very rigorous and expensive and I think federally inspected/enforced. Alternatively, my farm is Certified Naturally Grown- similar to certified organic but is inspected by a local farmer (and our farmer goes and inspects some other local farm). I think that helps create a supportive network and results in practical rules for farming that come from real experience.

I liked the mention of farm-to-table initiatives that help get fresh produce to the elderly or children. I know fresh food can be expensive though and food pantries try to spend money efficiently. My farm sometimes gives donations of our excess produce away. At the end of the year, as long as the proper papers and signatures are collected, we get $1 per lb donated. This can really add up for stuff like cucumbers and zucchini (if you've ever grown zucchini you know what it is like to have more summer squash than you know what to do with!). Food pantries are getting fresh food and a local farm gets a little extra cash and don't have to waste the produce.