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.