Local and Global Reform in The American Food System

Final Post

Revised Program Description:

“Local and Global Reform in The American Food System” is an SOS designed to explore local and global food systems and the inequities that exist inherently within them. For this contract, the student will work with Seattle based non for profit Community Alliance For Global Justice to explore questions of commodification and the impacts of corporate involvement in a capitalist food system.
By assisting in research work, event planning, community involvement and using Kyla Wazana tompkins’ Racial Indigestion as a primary text, the student will come to an informed stance on the subject, participate in weekly seminars and create bi-weekly writing pieces as evidence of her learning.

Self Evaluation:

Though this quarter was not my first experience working independently at Evergreen, it was my first time in an SOS. After spending the second half of spring quarter and the entirety of fall quarter working away from the Evergreen campus I was excited to spend my Tuesdays in Olympia and rekindle my connection with the Evergreen community while maintaining a sense of independence in my studies. What was explored in this class is summed up succinctly in Kyla Wazana Tompkins’ conclusion from Racial Indigestion where she asks “When and why did eating become a way of asserting racial, not to mention class, identity? How does an act which is so policed and so overdetermined- eating- also come to be affiliated with transgressive pleasure, with sex, sexuality, and an eroticism that is all its own?” (p.184). This quarter, class discussions and reading texts like Tompkins’ have reinforced my obsession with food and inspired me to continue to pursue what I am passionate about.

Seminar has always been one of my favorite aspects of the Evergreen learning community. This quarter reading Kyla Wazana Tompkins’ words on white supremacy, sexual desire, and oppressive food practices through the lens of “critical eating studies” in Racial Indigestion has been my most inspiring and interesting seminar text to date. Despite her dense passages and difficult concepts, I was never tempted to rush through chapters and found myself able to fully digest her text (often after several readings). Her ability to articulate concepts I am deeply interested is motivating and inspiring. I hope one day to be able to explore food, culture, and politics as deeply as she has. I felt invested in all seminar conversations this quarter and walked away each Tuesday feeling inspired by the insights my classmates and faculty so often provided. Reflecting upon my seminar writings this quarter I feel most proud of my week 6 essay “Wholesome Girls and Orientalism” in which I explored Tompkins’ text in relation to an article entitled High/Low Cuisine and Orientalism and came to the conclusion that “In Antebellum (and many current day American racial discourses) orientalist discourses, the western observer/ traveler/ historian maintains their place of superiority by continuing to confine the non-westerner as an observable anomaly, while failing to acknowledge their whole personhood. The constant consumption and colonization of the “other” ensure the subordination necessary to rationalize exploitation and lack of humanity, it is in this mindset that black and brown bodies turn less into people and more into “things”.” I enjoyed the assignment format and its interdisciplinary nature and the synthesis it prompted.
Bringing the body into academia this quarter through our tasting labs felt appropriate and necessary while reading Tompkins and Newman. Through Annie’s labs which related mostly to Racial Indigestion and Kotomi’s educational tea tasting labs we were forced to think of ourselves and our eating as more than just consuming, an act that in itself challenges the nature of current capitalist commodity culture. During Annie’s corn tasting lab we sat eating various preparations of corn (corn flakes, polenta, corn bread, bourbon, and high fructose corn syrup) while watching Michael Twitty’s “Black Corn” in which he explores corn’s designation as slave food during Antebellum America and the importance and varieties of corn that have been so essential to indigenous peoples across the Americas for millennia. In the past hundred years corn has been turned into a staple commodity in the agricultural industry, but in turn varieties so essential to native diets and culture have dwindled.
My in-program internship with Seattle-based organization Community Alliance For Global Justice has given me an inside look at the world of anti-oppressive grassroots organizing and what goes into event planning and community collaboration. Through outreach, social media, e-mailing and research, I was able to educate myself on ways to approach these subjects in a professional context. Most of the quarter was spent preparing for our March 11th Wild Salmon Cookout in collaboration with the Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Alliance and in solidarity with northwest tribes. In preparation for the event and solidarity campaign, I conducted extensive research on the issue of Genetically Engineered salmon and the threat corporate ownership of an animal that coast Salish people have organized their lives around for millennia holds. I walk away from this quarter with a sense of pride in the work I have participated in and was delighted to see the impact our event had on people that attended. I am also honored to say that my article “Genetically Engineered Salmon Cause Threat to Wild Salmon Populations and Local Tribes” was published on the Community Alliance For Global Justice website.
Though at first, I felt a sense of frustration in the fact that so much of my internship work was not suitable to share on my website, I found ways around it and was able to turn my research on genetically engineered salmon and food sovereignty into informative posts. Despite initial confusion in regards to what was expected on the website for tasting labs, I was able to share my learning through brief yet thoughtful post tasting lab reflections. Seminar papers were the easiest to incorporate into my website and I enjoyed coming up with creative titles and eye catching images to share. At this point, I feel as though I have mastered wordpress and feel comfortable creating simple but visually appealing websites.
This quarter has by no means been an easy one, between balancing schoolwork, an internship, a new job, and chronic illness I spent many moments feeling as though I didn’t have time to gather myself enough to comprehend what my body and mind were telling me. Regardless, I walk away from this quarter with a sense of pride. Looking back on the quarter, I am finally able to breathe and acknowledge the hard work I have completed over the past 10 weeks. Spring quarter I will be taking a leave of absence in order to prepare myself for a thesis I plan to write Fall 2017. Though I won’t be on the Evergreen campus next quarter, I plan on continuing in my work with CAGJ indefinitely and look forward to Summer quarter when I will participate in Sarah Williams and Martha Rosemeyer’s Farm-to-Table: Slow Food in Denver and on Campus. I am glad to have had the opportunity to participate in this SOS and have no doubt that many of the connections and insights I have gained in the classroom will last long beyond the quarter and my time at Evergreen.

Final Presentation Slideshow:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19SfQo8TceodBM6PUvJjFCPyyZsfdYOFbwOEyzzSlTJU/edit#slide=id.p

Wild Salmon Cookout

The day that this whole quarter seems to have been leading up to has now come and gone.Weeks of outreach, social media, planning, and preparation finally came to fruition yesterday, and went better than we could have planned. We initially estimated a turnout of 50 to 100 but over 250 people came out to protest genetically engineered salmon and participate in our Cookout!

Being able to connect with local community members, tribal groups, and fisherpeople made every minute of the seemingly endless e-mails worth it. Having genetically engineered salmon at the forefront of the conversation brought an awareness to the event and the amazing speakers and performances were effective in spiking interest and passion among attendees, not to mention the delicious nettle salmon soup, kale salad, and wild coho salmon smoked outside, regardless of the drizzle!

Here is a rundown of the event:

The cookout began at 10:45 with an honor and welcome song by Justice Bill and Muckleshoot tribal members
which was followed by a welcome from Community Alliance For Global Justice‘s Heather Day
After Heather spoke the room listened attentively to the powerful storytelling of Roger Fernandes of the lower Elwha Klallam tribe
After listening to stories of the salmon people and dancing a salmon dance lead by Roger, we heard from Valerie Segrest of the Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty project, who spoke on the importance of access to culturally appropriate foods, education, and community engagement in regards to food systems.
Pete Knutson, of Loki Fish Co, then addressed the importance of sustainable fisheries
After Pete, Steve Mashuda of Earthjustice spoke on the FDA approval of the first genetically engineered animal meant for consumption and the potential risks of Aquabounty’s patent of a sacred animal
After hearing from our speakers, it was time to eat! I spent the bulk of my afternoon ladling out our salmon nettle soup, as tray after tray of the wild salmon was brought out to hungry eaters.
The event ended with a call to action by Community Alliance For Global Justice’s Simone Alder which was followed by a closing ceremony by PNW canoe families.

I’m honored to have been part of such a successful and inspiring event and I look forward to working with CAGJ in the future to make more important and educational events happen!

CAGJ Press Release

KNKX coverage

King5 coverage

Food Insecurity In America

In the United States today 48.1 million Americans (13.5%, 52.6% of that number being Hispanic or Black ) live in food insecure households. “Food insecurity” is defined by the U.S Department of Agriculture as resource constraints leading to serious problems, such as families experiencing hunger, being unable to purchase a balanced diet, enough food for their children, or parents skipping meals so their children can eat. Food insecurity rates among Native Americans are twice the already high rate for the general U.S. population, and three times higher than food insecurity rates for white Americans.

The implications of hunger go beyond obesity and diabetes. Childhood food insecurity has been closely linked to higher incidences of infection, weakened immune systems, developmental issues, learning disabilities, difficulty in social interaction, anxiety, and inability to function in a classroom setting, creating increased boundaries for children of color from birth. Hunger affects all members of communities, often placing increased strains on mothers, children, the disabled and the elderly.

A legacy of colonialism and a stripping of native people and other people of color of their rights and access to culturally appropriate foods and practices has resulted in poverty, health problems, and systemic lack of access nationwide. Current discourses around food and distribution systems in the United states often fail to address the structural racism, history of exploitation, and power dynamics that exist inherently within these systems of the United States.

Food is more than a health issue, it is a community development, cultural and equity issue. Access to healthy affordable and culturally appropriate foods are key components of any functional and sustainable food system and any healthy functioning community overall. Access is essential in being able to maintain cultural practices, nourishing diets, and health. Recognizing this countries exploitative nature is necessary for moving towards reform and creating effective systems that provide for all. All people deserve the right to have access to the tools necessary to succeed and live healthy, fulfilling lives.

Though examining this countries history of racial and socioeconomic disparity can result in awkwardness if the fact that native people suffer 510% higher rates of alcoholism, 600% higher rates of tuberculosis, 189% higher rates of diabetes, and 62% higher rates of suicide isn’t a call to action for full system reform, I don’t know what is.

Week 9 Green Tea Tasting Lab

3/7/17

Type Of Tea:	Aroma:	Appearance:	Flavor:
Genmaicha	Very grassy, hay, farm, comforting summer smell	Grassy leaves, puffed rice, varying textures	Grassy, roasted, pleasantly burnt, earthy, nutty, creamy
Kabusecha	Rolling down a grassy hill, alfalfa	Lime/yellowish-green, transparent	Mingling with aroma of incense, woody flavor, grassy

Teaism, a concept introduced to me yesterday by Kotomi during a green tea tasting lab, is a mentality I would like to work to incorporate into my life. In this world, it is easy to become wrapped up in work, school, speed and efficiency. Because of our need for speed, we often forget to stop and find pleasure and beauty in the moon, the light on a tree, and the other seemingly mundane moments in life that in reality can bring us such joy. I vow to connect more to my environment, feel close to what is around me, and bring a sense of consciousness to my actions.

Too Many Paula Deens

March 6th 2017

Triggering Passages:

“What emerges is a sense that that consuming, writ large, and eating, in particular, speaks to racial embodiment in such a way as to allow consumers to blur the borders of their racial selves, both consuming the other and becoming the other, if only temporarily.” (Tompkins: 2012, 167)

“If for generations the black body was literally, in the minds of many Americans, a commodity to be sold, then it is no surprise that after slavery the black body seems made to sell other things.” (Tompkins 2012:)

“Could one of the next great global contracts be the humble cassava? Also called manioc, mandioca, and yuca, this starchy drought resistant root vegetable is a major source of dietary energy for more than 500 million people, particularly in developing countries.” (Newman: 2013, 154)

News Media Context:

“I think that food really connects people. Food is about bringing something into the body. And to eat the same food suggests that we are both willing to bring the same thing into our bodies. People just feel closer to people who are eating the same food as they do. And then trust, cooperation, these are just consequences of feeling close to someone.”

“Pairs of volunteers were sometimes given candy to eat together or sometimes given salty snacks. And sometimes, one of the volunteers was given one kind of food and the other was given the other kind of food. When the volunteers ate the same kinds of food, they reached agreement much more quickly than when one person ate the candy and the other person ate the salty food.”

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/02/512998465/why-eating-the-same-food-increases-peoples-trust-and-cooperation

Response:

Reading Newman this quarter has been an interesting process. Though her chapters and word choice are light and airy when read alongside Tompkins, I find myself tempted to rush through the passages and often feel a sense of frustration finishing my readings, knowing that though the book has helped inform me on commodities, her writing fails to include anything but the predominant white narrative.

At this point in history, commodification is an integral part of the United States. But beyond the commodification of crops Newman is such an expert on, the commodification and consumption of the “Other” body has been an integral part in the strengthening of white supremacy since this country’s foundation. As Tompkins states on page 167, “If for generations the black body was literally, in the minds of many Americans, a commodity to be sold, then it is no surprise that after slavery the black body seems made to sell other things.”

Throughout the book, commodities are addressed constantly, as well as the business suit-clad men trading them, but rarely are the farmers and peasants that worked to grow these profit makers mentioned. This trend is one that is all too familiar in the United States, the history of southern food being one of many. Southern food, as we think of it now, would not exist without the enslaved people that spent so many hours in fields, and kitchens of Antebellum America, but their stories are generally ignored in discourse about southern cooking because of the awkwardness in acknowledging the white south’s racist past. Despite black contributions to southern foodways, the face of southern food is a white one, just google “Best southern chef” to have this point proven, 17 images will appear in front of you, and just one black chef.

Internship Technicalities

This quarter has been a very different one for me. Though I’ve enjoyed my internship thoroughly and plan to continue on with my work in CAGJ, I have felt a sense of frustration in the fact that I have not been able to share so much of what I have been working so tirelessly on, on my WordPress because of privacy and the nature of the work. So, though I can’t share spreadsheets and individual contact information for obvious reasons, I will do my best to provide a summary of the work I have been working on with CAGJ this quarter!

I have:

Conducted research and created briefs on the issues of net pen aquaculture and genetically engineered salmon
Researched local tribes and their relationship to salmon extensively
Compiled resource lists
Compiled articles, videos, and media relating to the subject
Assisted in the planning of our March 11th Wild Salmon Cook-out
Sent and drafted numerous e-mails
Contacted and created relationships with community partners to sponsor our event
Kept an up to date RSVP list for the event
Created bi-weekly updates of the event facebook page and the general CAGJ facebook page
Created and posted tweets for the CAGJ twitter
Created memes to spread information on GE salmon and our event

I look forward to providing more updates, images and a rundown of our March 11th Wild salmon cookout.

Tea Workshop Week 8

Type of Tea: Oolong	Appearance	Flavor Notes	Aroma
Four Seasons Of Spring	Butter Yellow	Centralized tongue feel, vegetal, marine	Honeysuckle, sweet, floral
High Mountain	Pale yellow	Not bitter, subtle, savory, bright	Creamy, roasted, candied nuts, bark

Since beginning this quarters tea tasting labs, I have begun to take pleasure in bringing a sense of consciousness to the act of eating in and out of class. From taking time in the morning to sit with my tea and close my eyes before the rush of the day begins, to taking time to eat dinner and chew all the way through each bite that enters my mouth before swallowing.

Too-Muchness

Triggering Passages:

“In the era of conspicuous consumption, the “too-muchness” of the black and Asian bodies as represented in these trade cards is of key importance. The affective excess and semiotic overload of these images encode the use of disgust to facilitate and accompany the white bourgeois consumer’s disavowal and enjoyment of commodity pleasure.” (Tompkins 2012: 150)

“Against the liberal tendency to look away from racism we must look at these images- classic examples of racial kitsch- not only to render their historical weight visible and material but also to recognize both sides of their terrible ambivalence… It is, after all, only by looking and listening, by paying close attention to these cards through and in the strangeness of our historical distance from them, that we can begin to hear their ambiguities.” (Tompkins 2012: 151)

“They claim the body of the colored Other instrumentally, as unexplored terrain, a symbolic frontier that will be fertile ground for their reconstruction of the masculine norm, for asserting themselves as transgressive desiring subjects. They call upon the Other to be both witness and participant in this transformation.” (Bell Hooks, 1992: 368)

“People do not eradicate the politics of racial domination as they are made manifest in personal interaction. Mutual recognition of racism, its impact both on those who are dominated and those who dominate, is the only standpoint that makes possible an encounter between races that is not based on denial and fantasy. For the ever present reality of racist domination, of white supremacy, that renders problematic the desire of white people to have contact with the Other.” (Bell Hooks, 1992: 371)

News Media Context:

“When we call a food ethnic, we are signifying a difference but also a certain kind of inferiority. French cuisine has never been defined as ethnic. Japanese cuisine is not considered ethnic today. Those are examples of cuisines that are both foreign and prestigious. There is no inferiority associated with them.”

How Americans Pretend to Love Ethnic Food

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/22/the-great-ethnic-food-lie/?utm_term=.d1d796b21775

Response:

While reading Eating The Other this week, the inspiration Tompkins has drawn from the works of Bell Hooks became abundantly clear. Bell hooks writing articulates many of Tompkins key ideas in a manner that is, to some degree, easier to process. In Eating The Other, we see the way the Other is used to represent spice, and potential danger, in the otherwise bland world of whiteness. Characteristics that, in moderation create thrill, and a welcomed sense of wildness into the lives of the white, but in excess veer into the “too-muchness” Tompkins addresses in Chapter 5.

As Bell hooks explores on page 370, encounters with Otherness are coded as more exciting, more intense, and more threatening. The lure then becomes the potential passion and the ability to be “more alive” that the Other supposedly possesses. In this context, the white body is given the chance to be changed by the Other in some way, through sex, food, consumption and advertising.

The commodification of the Other body, allows white people to consume the Other and experience a sense of imagined intimacy while believing they are rebelling against and rejecting white supremacist culture. The primitive fantasies and exotification of the Other body, enforce, as opposed to question white supremacist ideals, in turn, keeping the Other in a position of subordinance and upholding white domination.

Tompkins and Bell Hooks’ acknowledgment of the liberal tendency to look away from racism and the denial that exists in doing so, while we should be examining and recognizing it struck me in its veracity. In a day and age where so many claim to “not see race” and microaggressions and discriminatory jokes so often go unchecked it is essential to- despite initial discomfort- confront racism and understand the ways in which it is so intrinsically tied to upholding of white domination and it’s functioning.

What Is Food Sovereignty?

Nutritious food is essential for any community to function. The capitalist commodity food system that functions practically worldwide creates uneven access, hunger, health problems, and poverty. Food Sovereignty, a term coined by La Via Campesina at the World Food Summit in 1996 is a movement rooted in peasant, landless, small and medium scale farmers and indigenous resistance of capitalist corporate control of the food system. Food Sovereignty functions in defense of small-scale sustainable agriculture and the right of people to have access to healthy, culturally appropriate foods. Since La Via Campesina’s foundation in 1993, it has become one of the largest social movements in the world, bringing together more than 200 million small and medium scale farmers, women farmers, indigenous peoples and migrant agricultural workers from 70 countries.

The Seven Principles of Food Sovereignty are:

1. Food: A basic human right,
Everyone must have access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food in sufficient quantity and quality to sustain a healthy life with full human dignity. Each nation should declare that access to food is a constitutional right and guarantee the development of the primary sector to ensure the concrete realization of this fundamental right.
2. Agrarian reform
A genuine agrarian reform is necessary which gives landless and farming people — especially women — ownership and control of the land they work and returns territories to indigenous peoples. The right to land must be free of discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, race, social class or ideology; the land belongs to those who work it.
3. Protecting Natural Resources
Food Sovereignty entails the sustainable care and use of natural resources, especially land, water, and seeds and livestock breeds. The people who work the land must have the right to practice sustainable management of natural resources and to conserve biodiversity free of restrictive intellectual property rights. This can only be done from a sound economic basis with security of tenure, healthy soils and reduced use of agro-chemicals.
4. Reorganizing Food Trade
Food is first and foremost a source of nutrition and only secondarily an item of trade. National agricultural policies must prioritize production for domestic consumption and food self-sufficiency. Food imports must not displace local production nor depress prices.
5. Ending the Globalization Of Hunger
Food Sovereignty is undermined by multilateral institutions and by speculative capital. The growing control of multinational corporations over agricultural policies has been facilitated by the economic policies of multilateral organizations such as the WTO, World Bank and the IMF. Regulation and taxation of speculative capital and a strictly enforced Code of Conduct for TNCs [Trans-National Corporations] is therefore needed.
6. Social Peace
Everyone has the right to be free from violence. Food must not be used as a weapon. Increasing levels of poverty and marginalization in the countryside, along with the growing oppression of ethnic minorities and indigenous populations, aggravate situations of injustice and hopelessness. The ongoing displacement, forced urbanization, repression and increasing incidence of racism of smallholder farmers cannot be tolerated.
7. Democratic Control
Smallholder farmers must have direct input into formulating agricultural policies at all levels. The United Nations and related organizations will have to undergo a process of democratization to enable this to become a reality. Everyone has the right to honest, accurate information and open and democratic decision-making. These rights form the basis of good governance, accountability and equal participation in economic, political and social life, free from all forms of discrimination. Rural women, in particular, must be granted direct and active decision making on food and rural issues.

Though the need to connect with the land is by no means a new sentiment in this hyper-industrialized age, groups of indigenous people’s worldwide have taken action to revitalize their own rich cultural traditions and farming practices. For Native people across the America’s, conquest caused the loss of homelands, culture, language, and ancient wisdom among other terrible losses. Through conquest, many tribes lost touch with their traditional eating ways and fatty, salty government rationed foods took over, causing terrible outcomes for tribal health.

Good food is essential. When we talk about food systems we often talk about food security- having enough food- but beyond having enough it is essential to acknowledge and value indigenous food-related knowledge and wisdom to promote community mobilization and sustenance. At this point in time, reconnecting to land, rediscovering growing practices and revitalizing cultural traditions and attempting to reverse the unhealthy eating that has resulted from the loss of land and rights is essential in the physical and mental health of tribal nations.

Here is a short list of Tribal groups across the country working towards Food Sovereignty and increased understanding and appreciation of their own native food practices:

Got Milk? Tasting Lab week 7

Bread has always held a special place in my heart. Being that my mother immigrated from France, the loaf has maintained its place in our kitchen since I can remember. Milk, on the other hand, has always caused me distress. As much as I would love to indulge in creamy bries and aged goudas, my stomach has never allowed it.

When I was young I remember my lack of milk consumption causing great worry to some, how would I get the calcium I desperately needed to grow?? Luckily, despite my digestive failures I have formed full healthy bones and stand at around 5’10. The “got milk” ads never did much in convincing me of what I was missing.