"You can’t fix agriculture without addressing immigration and labor or without rethinking energy policies; you can’t improve diets without reducing income inequality, which in turn requires unqualified equal rights for women and minorities; you can’t encourage people to cook more at home without questioning gender roles or the double or triple shifts that poor parents often must accept to make ends meet; you can’t fully change the role of women without tackling the future of work, childcare, and education; you can’t address climate change without challenging the power of corporations and their control over the state—and, not so incidentally, without challenging Big Food. The fight for healthy diets is part and parcel of these other struggles, and it will be won or lost alongside them."
-An excerpt from the recent galvanizing entreaty to the food movement from its superstars, Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Olivier de Schutter, and Ricardo Salvador
As the authors argue, the food movement can no longer dabble casually in the work of greater social justice. Broadening food access goes far beyond "Eat More Kale" bumper stickers. It goes far beyond EBT programs. Our food system is inextricably tangled up in our larger economic and legal systems; it is "part and parcel." To make any meaningful progress, we must address the whole.
Greenhorns! This all being said, our seeds our sown and our energies are required in the field. And, as Comestible Journal recently pointed out, the Revolution Must Be Fed. How can we make our farms centers for and examples of social justice? Are there farms are there that are hosting letter writing parties for immigration reform? Farmers donating food to rallies? Farms with progressive hiring practices? Farmers fostering close ties and offering support to undocumented crew members? We want to hear about it! Send us photos, stories, and ideas to [email protected]!