Well, I stand strong on those that come before me; I have to call on my
ancestors and
let them know that I have not forgotten them.
I stand strong because I stand on the shoulders of your ancestors as well.
I want them to know that I have not forgotten them.
I am an activist.
I've always been an activist and I always will be an activist.
And I became a food activist
because my son, Wade,
developed food allergies at a very early age.
He's allergic to all dairy products, shellfish, eggs and peanuts
and I wanted to get the healthiest food that I could for him.
I wanted food that was free from genetically modified organisms; I wanted
food that was free from pesticides; I wanted food basically that was grown
healthy,
organically.
I really wasn't any different than any other mother
and in my community I wanted the best for my son.
I want the best for both of my children;
but that food - the best food -
was not available in my neighborhood on the west side of Chicago.
So to change that situation
I got involved with what I really didn't know at the time was food justice.
We started converting vacant lots
to urban farm sites;
lots that had not been used in decades.
To grow food on them, we started to hire people from the community
and
we started to build what we thought would be a local food system that
responded to urban
concerns.
And so for me to food system looks something like this
It's very simple
not too complicated but that was what I understood the food system to be.
And then I was introduced to this larger food
movement,
the one that says, you know, you have to eat well but don't eat too much.
Eat mostly plants.
i'm like, yes, i got that. I'm with that a hundred percent.
But where's my food?
And I live in a community where I can get a semi-automatic weapon quicker than I
can get a tomato.
Now a lot of people have tried to make this statement cute; they said that you can
get ketchup quicker than you can get a tomato. I want us to really appreciate
the public health message that I'm trying to get across here.
And it's that
the public health issue of violence is connected
to the public health issue of chronic diet-related diseases.
It's not about cute phrases or cute terms.
It is about life and death, and my community is about living
or dying.
You can die by the gun or die from a lack of the proper food.
But still the food system is not changed. We've done all this work; we know
all these things but the food system, still, my idea of the food system, still
remained
like that.
And then I started to think, you know, I really have to step this up a notch.
What is food justice 2.0?
Well, for me, food justice 2.0
is really about the narratives of people of color
and beginning to understand that the story
that we tell ourselves in the food movement
is as important as the stories that we've left out.
So, for me, the food justice movement
tells the story
of colonialism
and the impact
in historical trauma on communities of color.
Food justice talks about manifest destiny.
It talks about
settling the land in the west; the nineteenth century philosophy is that we're
gonna go west.
We're going to settle the land
but in food justice we know that the Native American people were there.
We know that they were pushed off of that land
and many of them killed
so that others
might be able to live.
Now we know that that's not the fault
of the arriving European immigrants,
but we must understand
that the land
that we stand on we stand on it because someone else's blood
is also on it.
We understand that food
has been used as a weapon.
Food used as a weapon
during that period of time was used to push people off of the land.
We understand
that the movement of people for the purposes
of exploitation
is a part of our food justice movement.
We understand that the importation
of African slaves into the United States;
the enslavement of the Africans provided the labor
for what we now call
our industrial food system.
At the very beginning
folk were forced to work the land
and they had no choice
in the conversation. They were not paid.
At the core
of what I believe to be
the problems in our community, particularly when we start to talk about
the accumulation of wealth
or the lack of health
is really the conversation around slavery that has not been had in the
United States.
We have not
reconciled
the event of slavery or its impact.
We have to understand that those Africans
that were in the South
after slavery
were pretty much still enslaved after the signing of the emancipation
proclamation.
We also want to recognize in the food justice movement
that the homestead act and the emancipation proclamation were signed at
the same time, but the Africans could not
take advantage
of the homestead act so they were forced to stay in the south and stay in a
version of slavery - share cropping -
through the black codes
and then be forced out of the south
through the jim crow laws and up into the North
to a different version
of racism in slavery.
The food justice movement understands
that in the nineteen sixties
there were lots of things going on
but in the nineteen sixties for us that's where civil rights meets
food justice,
right at the Woolworth lunch counter,
in nineteen sixty three,
when those students sat down
and demanded the right
to be treated
as a human being.
So, for us,
food justice
is not just about
the nutrition -
that's important -
It's not just about growing the food. It's about dignity.
It's about being visible.
The nineteen sixties also represent
a time where
the Black Panther Party
started
the free breakfast program in Oakland.
We called these things into being because sometimes on the merits of the
larger food movement it gets lost. In the nineteen sixties we talk about the
hippie generation and the back to the
land movement and the beginnings of organic food and all of that is true and
wonderful
and we like those stories too.
"Both" "and"
have to exist
and so we have to begin to tell a narrative
or tell a story and develop a narrative that's much more robust
then the narrative we tell ourselves today.
We must also include in this narrative
modern-day slavery.
We cannot forget that our food system today is still based on the exploitation of
the labor of immigrants
in this country.
While we're talking about access to free range chickens and grass fed beef,
we need to also be talking about immigration reform,
fair wages for those farm workers,
and, in the entire food chain, workers
also. The people who serve us;
the people who fix our food also should be paid fairly.
We have to say no to food deserts.
I don't live in a food desert; I never have.
Food desert, as a phrase, is another one of those cute terms masking the harm of the
food system in my community.
It really is the trojan horse of increased corporate control of the
food system.
I was not digging in the dirt on the west side of Chicago
thinking - I sure will be glad when that walmart comes and builds that store
there.
That was not my thought,
and yet there's still people who are hungry.
And many of us would say, you know, let's build a 501(c)3 let's get
one of those 501(c)3's; let's get some more grants; let's get the
foundation thing here; let's fix the problem.
That's fine.
But the food justice movement is calling for jobs -
economic justice.
Let's pay people -
not just raise the minimum wage. Let's pay people
a living wage so that they are not hungry.
Let's address really the core issue appalled
poverty.
and, so, we try to say, you know - well, maybe there's some period of time where
we could go back
and we could find the fair
just and healthy food system
that we're looking for. If we could just go back to the time
where the food system is lit
by the sun and driven by the energy of the sun; we will just be great if we
could just go back and turn back time.
And the food justice movement will tell you that that time does not exist.
There has never been a fair, just or healthy food system
in the United States of America.
And, so,
what we have
is a global food industrial complex.
This is what we have to dismantle.
This is what we have to address.
And there's a way to address it.
We can be successful if we are able to really recognize
that we have never ever
had a food system, and we must join together,
create a narrative where all of us can sit around a table and
create the food system
that we need.
We have to return
to the kitchens of our ancestors, the tables of our ancestors.
Reclaim your kitchens; claim your stove, your table,
your grill - reclaim it. Cook your food. Make your food. Know where your food comes from.
But we must organize.
We have to come together across this country
and turn our non-profit will into political will to change the food
system
because we absolutely have to go beyond the farm bill.
We can't keep talking about the farm bill and thinking that the farm bill is
the vehicle that can change our food system. Clearly, it is not.
So, what's the vision?
My vision
is that
we have
President Obama
sign an executive order
mandating food justice
for the United States of America,
much like the environmental justice executive order.
It's my hope and my dream
that you will join me
in the journey
to change our food system.