Food Justice and Municipal Governments

         There are many issues with our current food system that range from environmental to economic issues. I definetly agree that historical injustices as well as current ones need to be examined in order to improve the future of our food system. We must look at what groups of people are the one’s who usually struggle to gain access to sufficient food. Are the lower class? What race are they? What are some factors that differ between people who have access to fresh produce compared to people who don’t? Looking into this aspect of food justice may seem “unnessecary” to some, but if patterns are repeated, they may have similar causes and lead to similar solutions. 

Having a higher profit being more important than the public’s needs shows just how corrupted the system is. This concept of neoliberalism and the support of it by governments somewhat blocks the food justice movement. It instead continues to intensify many of the issues within our food system. Something that really stuck with me from this reading was that the BFPI uses community gardens and access to healthy foods as a tactic to draw in more people and “improve the city's image”. In my eyes, this is very manipulative. Carrying this narrative that they care about their residents, when at the root they just want more money.

This specific situation reminds me of greenwashing, which happens when companies want to appeal to consumers that try to live more sustainably. They trick consumers into believing that their product is sustainable, meanwhile it has no actual benefit to the environment. Sometimes these products will be labeled as “natural” or “organic”, when it’s not authentically either of those things. It’s another way to “improve the image” of these companies. It’s very disappointing to learn about topics like this because it just continues to show how companies and governments (at least in the U.S.) continue to value money over their own people.