My Thought's on Alison Alkon's TED Talk

 Alison Alkon's perspective on food justice gave insight to many issues neither I, nor many other people across the country are aware of. systematic racism in the United States is a very common and easily observable issue that can easily be spotted if one knows what to look for. I personally have lived in a low income, poor neighborhood and saw the lack of access to healthy food options that people have. I also now currently live in what would be considered a middle class neighborhood and can directly compare the difference between the two. While I agree that this is mostly caused by policies that are ingrained into the american legal and marketing systems, i also am aware that there are a few potential avenues that can be approached before resorting to raising wages which I believe is only a shortsighted fix that would not sustain any poorer communities in the long term. Fresh produce is wasted on a massive scale due to the criteria of it needing to be "perfect" with no blemishes to become marketable to the general consumer. Simply utilizing that wasted produce would allow not only fresh produce to be potentially more accessible to poorer regions, it would also drive fresh produce prices down and change the question from: Do I choose healthy food or food that will feed my family? to: Why would I choose unhealthy food when healthy options are just as affordable? I also appreciate how she mentioned the corporatization of agriculture. I specifically know of companies like Bayer and Monsanto who have patented their genetically modified corn seed and will sue for unlawful use of their product. by that I mean it is growing on someone's land without the company's permission. On top if this they also have patented pesticide that they have created to be specifically used on their corn. Once a farm has decided to agree to contracting one of these companies it is unfortunately very unlikely to get out of that partnership.