Noll and Murdock

 This weeks reading describes the differences of food security and food sovereignty in ways of hunger, environmental harm, cultural justice and our food systems.  Food sovereignty focuses more on the communities and the rights people have for agricultural practices and food culture, while food security focuses on if people have enough to eat. The article says that food sovereignty is more of a holistic paradigm which includes social concerns. 

A big point in this article talked about the Columbia river salmon. Tribes used to fish in this river and trade. Today they still fish this river for ceremonial, food, and other reasons. They started to notice the fish had deformities which lead to testing in the river revealing high mercury levels. Mercury can lead to very high chances of cancer. It lead to creating a band aid of canned fish as a replacement. It does not really fix the problem of the high mercury though. They fish that river for multiple reasons and they will continue to, but since there is a safer option they can choose, it is seen as “okay”. 

There seem to be many loopholes. There is also so much discrimination, an example the study by the United Church of Christ found that race was an important factor of where toxic waste sites are located. There are just so many parts to think of to create something equal for everyone. The article talked about if everyone have the same amount of corn, which would flood the corn market, it would lead to lost jobs. It’s feels like an impossible task to find something that benefits everyone.