Environmental & Food Justice: Martin Luther King, Jr. on Food Justice

Monday, January 18, 2010

Martin Luther King, Jr. on Food Justice

I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., From remarks upon acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize

Shoreline, WA. Today is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the blogosphere and mainstream media are filled with solemn quotes from pundits, reflective lamentations by activists, and even invocations and email solicitations from liberal politicians asking for continued dedication to the equality struggle.

I grew up listening to MLK, Jr. on the family's old black and White TV or crackling vacuum tube radio. My grandfather was a follower and once said: "That man would die for his people. How many of us are willing to do that?" Little did we know he would be so punished for his principled dissent.

I eventually became suspicious of perceived limits apparent in his call for equality. This was due to the influence of lessons from my Uncles' experiences, drawn from a vicarious immersion in the rise of the early Chicano movement of the mid- to late 1960s. The principal lesson, then, was that the more important struggle was for self-determination, rather than for "integration" into "things as they are." For my Uncles, this was the dignified path to freedom for oppressed communities like ours.

In retrospect, I believe my Uncles misread Dr. King and underestimated his dedication to non-reformist reforms as Andre Gorz once characterized proposals for radical change through peaceful non-violent direct action and civil disobedience.

I have more recently started to appreciate the deep sense Dr. King had for the idea that justice was as much as anything about "freedom from violence." In the opening quote, King is clearly targeting hunger as an act of structural violence. His acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize demonstrates a commitment to a non-violent transformation of the structures that breed poverty and hunger.

That his struggle was for systemic transformation is evident from another quote: "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a...beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

1 comments:

Emma JJan 28, 2010 02:40 PM
I've been reading your blog for a long time and always take away something that makes me think.

This post was especially powerful.
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NACCS 2010 Viral Quote #1:

Priscilla S. Martinez (1955-2009)

We mourn the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Priscilla Salazar Martinez on Thursday afternoon, 16 April, at her home in San Luis, Colorado at 4pm Mountain Time. She passed in the presence of loving family.

A pioneering social justice activist, La Comadre helped launch KRZA, the San Luis Valley's progressive public radio voice.

More recently, Priscilla was the inspiration and force behind the work of Las Comadres de San Luis de la Culebra, a women-led organizing network dedicated to food justice through support for the resurgence of the community of acequia family farms in Colorado's San Luis Valley.

Her spirit lives on in the study and work of our area's youth, who are dedicated to her visionary understanding of acequia lifeways through participation in the Sembrando Semillas or "Planting Seeds" Project. The project mentors local youth in the science, ecology, and economics of acequia farming and pairs them with local acequia farmers.

In Lak Ech, Nuestra Hermana.

Fanesca - Ecuador's Lenten Chowder

This soup is served only during holy week in April. The primary ingredients, each one imbued with sacred symbolism, include figleaf gourd (sambo), pumpkin (zapallo), fava beans and twelve different kinds of grains (chochos, abas, lentils, peas, corn and others). The twelve grains are said to represent the disciples of Jesus. Most quitenos prefer to add salt cod, cooked in milk, due to the Christian religious prohibition against red meat during Lent. It can be garnished with hard boiled eggs, fried green plantains (verdes), and empanadas (queso en maize). It is usually garnished with herbs such as parsley.

Slow Food on Food Stamps?

Very few activists, pundits, and scholars have taken up the issue of social justice in connection with the growing slow food movement. One example among activists is the recent posting at bettertimesinfo.org:

In a recent commentary, the activists note that:

"In November Sharon Gordon posted a "food stamp challenge" in the Community Food Security listserv (comfood-L): eat for a week on a food stamp budget. We decided to do this using as much food as we could from local farmers so we expanded the challenge to show how the combination of (1) frugal supermarket shopping, (2) preparing meals from basic ingredients, (3) buying local foods, (4) gardening, (5) food storage, and (6) home preservation of food could add up to a healthy, affordable, practical, and environmentally sustainable meal plan, even though the local meats, eggs, and dairy products are typically more expensive than typical supermarket fare. And the food had to be satisfying and taste good too, otherwise, what's the point?

Slow, Local, and Deep

The sodbuster and the native: Who is the joke on?

Commentary on the sodbuster joke is widespread especially among contemporary restoration ecologists. The American Prairie Partners recount how the narratives is memorialized as a farmers' joke that tells of an old Indian who, having seen a plowed field for the first time, said to the farmer, "Wrong side up." According to the Partners commentary, “The story was taken to [illustrate] the Indian's ignorance, but in fact when the native grasses are turned under and the soil aerated, the organic matter decomposes faster. This creates a flush of nutrients available to cultivated crops, but when the crops are harvested the nutrients are removed with the harvest, and the soil continues to be depleted year after year. Today's dependence on chemical fertilizers is evidence that perhaps there was more wisdom in that old Indian's statement than was recognized at the time. Certainly in terms of recovering the lost prairie, his statement was true.”

The Soil Conservation Service, now the Natural Resources Conservation Service

The Soil Conservation Service was first known as the Soil Erosion Service under the Secretary of Interior by an allotment made August 25, 1933. The Service was established under the Department of Agriculture by the authority of the Soil Conservation Act of 1935 (49 U.S. Stat 163). The Soil Conservation Service was abolished October 13, 1994 (108 U.S. Stat 3225) and its functions assumed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The SCS had a notable decade in northern New Mexico during the 1930s when sociologists like Hugh Caulkin, with socialist orientations, collaborated with federal programs designed to “stabilize” the forest-dependent Hispana/o communities. See Forrest (1987).

Fast-Food Corporate Branding Corrupts Youth Eating Practices

A study reported by HealthDay News reveals that the majority of 3 to 5 year-old American children who taste-tested a variety of foods said they preferred the ones in the McDonald's wrapper, even though the foods were exactly the same.

The study suggests that, like adults, young children are highly influenced by branding. David Katz, director of the study for the Yale University School of Medicine, explains the principal research finding: "...advertising literally brainwashes young children into a baseless preference for certain food products."

However, studies like these that focus on individual behavioral responses to advertising fail to consider the effects of structural violence in the form of grocery-devoid "food deserts" that isolate youth and families from access to supplies of fresh, culturally-appropriate food sources and often limit families to the ubiquitous fast-food outlets.

There are eight major horticultural subspecies of Zea mays (maize, maiz):

Flour corn — Zea mays var. amylacea
Popcorn — Zea mays var. everta
Dent corn — Zea mays var. indentata
Flint corn — Zea mays var. indurata
Sweet corn — Zea mays var. saccharata and Zea mays var. rugosa
Waxy corn — Zea mays var. ceratina
Pod corn — Zea mays var. tunicata Larrañaga ex A. St. Hil.
Striped maize - Zea mays var. japonica

There are however literally thousands of locally-adapted land race varieties. Oaxaca, Mexico is one major biogeographic epicenter of maiz varieties and wild relatives like Zea diploperennis or "madre de maiz."

FOOD FACTS #3

In the category, "Que Triste": The original ingredients for the native Mexican tortilla included three elements: corn flour from whole-grain dried corn; water; slaked lime. Today, some commercial tortilla packets list ten to fifteen ingredients and sometimes more including preservatives and flavor additives.

Flour tortillas are not a native Mexican staple and were first produced after the Spanish conquistadores introduced wheat and wheat flour to Mexico. Other more recent inventions include the corn chip which was first produced in the United States.

Other American inventions that have little to do with the native tortilla include the taco shells made (in)famous by Taco Bell.

The first Taco Bell in Mexico opened for business in Mexico City in 1992 and was frequented by elite diners who view American fast food, even the pseudo-Mexican varieties, as gourmet cuisine.

American Indian Development Association Calls for Boycott of Racist Video Game

According to a post on Gamespot.com, a blog site for video game players:

Activision's "Gun" (released in November 2007) paints "a gritty picture of vengeance and gunplay in the Old West." However, that grittiness is now drawing accusations of racism.

The Association for American Indian Development is boycotting the game, explaining that it contains "derogatory, harmful, and inaccurate depictions of American Indians." On the boycott's website, the group is hosting a petition and demanding that Activision modify racist aspects of the game before re-releasing it to retailers. Activists are also calling for a worldwide recall of the game.

"One of [the] earliest tasks that the game player must complete before advancing to the next level is to slaughter, not once, but on an ongoing basis, Apache Indians," the site notes. The game encourages players to "slaughter" (this terminology is used in the game) and to "scalp" (terminology also used in the game) Indians using a 'scalping knife'..."

BOOK REVIEWS

Visit in the coming weeks for our first in a series of occasional book reviews focused mostly on contributions to the study of sustainable agriculture, environmental justice, and the slow/local food democracy movements. We will also review books in related fields like ethics, epistemology, political economy, political ecology, environmental history, and agricultural studies. Forthcoming books to be reviewed include:

1. Carole M. Counihan, ed. (2002) Food in the USA: A reader. New York: Routledge Press.

2. Richard Wilk, ed. (2006) Fast food/slow food: The cultural economy of the global food system. Lanham: Altamira Press.

3. Carlo Petrini (2005) Slow food nation: Why our food should be good, clean, and fair. New York: Rizzoli Ex Libris.

4. Gary Paul Nabhan (2002) Coming home to eat: The pleasures and politics of local food. New York: W. W. Norton.

5. Sandor E. Katz (2006) The revolution will not be microwaved: Inside America's underground food movements. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.

6. Michael Pollen (2008) In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. New York:Penguin.

RICE AS BIOFACTORY FOR HUMAN PROTEIN SUPPLEMENTS

The USDA has approved a 3200 acre "contained biofactory" on farm land in Kansas. The rice involves a genetically-engineered variety recombined with human DNA sequences associated with the production of certain proteins. By design, the rice is a "biofactory" for human protein supplements with alleged nutritional or medical properties. However, California has banned the biotech start-up from doing this in California, but the corporation tested the rice-derived human protein supplements on native youth in Peru.

QUOTES FROM 1974 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER, FRIEDRICH AUGUST VAN HAYEK

A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers.

Even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality - an authoritarian determination of the status of each individual in the new hierarchical order.

It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only those individuals know.

We must face the fact that the preservation of individual freedom is incompatible with a full satisfaction of our views of distributive justice.