Food Sovereignty PSA

A surprising number of people like to ask people of my age what we want to do with our lives. Now I will admit I'm a bit more sensitive to this question than other questions, being only a few years removed from my undergraduate experience and no finances to propel me further along the higher education ladder. But I find it to be a surprisingly personal question that people just throw about to make small talk. Personal because you almost always make a snap judgement on someone based on their answer. If I were to tell you that my life long dream was to flip hamburgers at McDonald's for the rest of my life, that would probably give you quite a bit of pause.

As it is, my passion (surprise!) does lie in food. But when I tell people this, they normally think that I want to work in food services. Believe me, I loved my time at the bakery in high school, less so last year when I was in a more desperate situation needing cash and food, but I don't necessarily think I have student debt up to my eyeballs so I can go work in a bakery. Unless it's a French bakery, in France, in Paris, and Johnny Depp comes to woo me. (Oh wait...)

Truth is, I don't really know what I want to do with food. I like to say that I'm really interested in food justice, because then I can explain to people what I think food justice is, and by that time they don't really ask follow up as to why I don't have a job in that industry, or if there are even jobs to be had in that industry, for that matter (parents and J's mom, I'm lookin' at you).

One of my many bosses e-mailed me this article today and I'd like to quote it here because it's short, sweet and to the point. Well, maybe not that short. Emphasis added by yours truly, read the bold text to get the spark notes version.

"All people have the right to decide what they eat and to ensure that food in their community is healthy and accessible for everyone. This is the basic principle behind food sovereignty. If you want to support domestic food security through the production of healthy food at a fair price, and you believe that family farmers and fishers should have the first right to local and regional markets, then food sovereignty is for you.

Food sovereignty is essential because our current food and farm system is broken. Small farmers in the US and globally cannot earn a fair price for what they raise, despite their high productivity. Meanwhile, more than 1.2 billion people around the world go hungry every day. As corporate-controlled agriculture spreads across the globe, the social and environmental costs weigh heavily on our communities. Driven by big corporations, the agricultural system no longer values healthy, delicious food, productive and sustainable rural communities or people’s right to make decisions about their communities and their farms.

Fortunately, an alternative exists: Food sovereignty for all."

Here's an online PDF for more information. Maybe I'll just print off a bunch and hand them out when "And What Do You Want To Do With Your Life?" comes up again...

Tricks and Treats

M: so how are you going to eat birthday cake during lent

me: omg, nina asked me the same thing

i usually make an exception for my birthday

if it's just one time

M: ah

that's what jesus did, too, i think

because his birthday fell in the middle of the 40 days

me: ...

M: so he got drunk and ate

Yes, it's true. I used to be one of those sad children who had to bring bagels in to class for a birthday treat because my birthday ALWAYS falls within Lent. This year I'm giving up sweets, even though my roommate laughed at me, saying I could give up something else if I wanted, but seriously guys, my sweet tooth is the size of Texas. I need to cut back. So we begin.

Last night I went out with a friend to celebrate the end of her last job. We went to Margie's and it was magical. In fact, M and I had already visited the location nearer to us on Monday, in anticipation of this Lent thing. Margie's has MASSIVE amounts of ice cream and home made hot fudge, and candy, and basically it's like Willa Wonka's sweet shop plopped down in the middle of Chicago. And last night I discovered you can get "swiss fudge" which means they swirl marshmallow fluff into your fudge before they serve it to you and pretty much what all this means is that it was a terrible place to spend Ash Wednesday.

But I'll be back, Margie. With a vengeance! 39 days to go.

On the tricks side of this post we have a few contenders.

1) M sent me this video today and it is not only disturbing but made me down right hate America...

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/the-heart-attack-grill-24471051

2) Chartwells, provider of food for my Alma Mater and current employer, has often incurred the wrath of not only me but many colleagues. Students recently organized and won a "living wage campaign" because Chartwells workers were not being paid living wages and had no health insurance, despite working full time at the University, some of them for several years. The students rallied with the workers and helped them unionize, and things are fine now, health insurance and the whole nine yards.

Sadly, Chartwells' shenanigans run much deeper. As I found out first hand, ordering from them can be ... an experience. With a capital "E", no less! They have questionable descriptions for their food menus, for example:

The Bronzeville: Ribs, Fried Chicken, and Watermelon (seriously?!)
The Pilsen: Fajitas, Rice and Beans
The Wentworth Avenue: Dim Sum and Chinese food

Why don't they just call it "soul food", "taco bar", or "asian cuisine"? In trying to be "cute", they're just being offensive. My supervisor sent off this email tonight (yes, after 5 pm sh*t does hit the fan over here):

"This is absurd and demeaning!! It sounds like the Jim Crow menu. This is wrong on sooo many levels (e.g. so they don’t eat tacos, chicken, and ribs in Lincoln Park??). Should we (Steans & Egan) continue to order from Chartwells and sit by while they spend our money and spit in our face at the same time? Do we refuse to purchase from them until they change names for their menu options? Do we bring this to the larger university administration’s attention and demand that they make Chartwells change this non-sense?

What is the proper course of action here? Do we even care? What say the rest of the village on this one?"

Well village, let's talk about this :)

Amazing discoveries every day

So maybe it's the fact that I've been in meetings for longer than I care to divulge. Maybe babysitting early in the mornings is starting to take a toll on me. Maybe it's because it's Friday, and it's hot in this darn office and I have a headache brewing and a million things to do before I leave yet I'm updating this blog instead...

But ya'll are about to get ranted at.

CHECK THIS OUT: http://www.familydollar.com/pages/pop-tarts-trifle.aspx

First of all, ew. Trifles are supposed to be wonderfully delicate, the stuff that southern belles dream of as they while away an afternoon with some nice mint juleps or maybe an afternoon tea. They are elegant. They are placed in pretty glass containers. They are made by Martha Stewart and not with PopTarts!

Here is a nice example:Yum!

Yer doin' it right.

But seriously. Poptarts? High Fructose Corn Syrup? No! This is why we're fat, America. Don't stoop to this nastiness! Stand up for yourself and your heart! Make quality desserts for the people you love, if you really love them. You do not have to compromise your waistband, your wallet, or your values to do this! Sure, I've extolled the loveliness of Zebra Cakes in this blog before but this is something different. This is more serious. This is about access to good quality food for people who don't have a lot of money (I struggled to buy food when I was unemployed and I continue to struggle to buy food on my current budget).

When I go to grad school and try to figure out my place in this crazy, wonderful, messed-up world, one of the things I hope to ease is the inequality that our food systems present us with. There is no reason that in this country, in this day and age, that people should go hungry, or that the under-served populations in our cities and elsewhere are also the ones that have the highest rates of obesity and heart disease. It's not a coincidence, folks. It's all part of a bigger, grander design. And I am not going to stand here and watch 10-year-olds get diabetes and not try and stop the madness.

Okay, I feel better now.

Check back soon for updates from cookie potluck :) (Yes, I am aware of the irony).

No escape!

Reposted from Gizmodo:


Just something to think about...

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this as my food justice class wraps up next week.