I look to my left. I look to my right. I see my classmates dreaming with me in class. We’re millennials, struck with the idea that our parents have done nothing but fuck up the world & now we’re here to fix them. We bring new, revolutionary ideas that will change cultures. How could the system have gotten this bad? In the case of food justice and social implications concerning food deserts, I am quick to judge that we need immediate help and total reconstruction.
Our utopian inspirations about what the world could become, come crashing down when we realize our “missionary” efforts are not wanted. So many young adults are well meaning and quick to back organizations like Dr. Bronner’s soap, eat organic, and go on weeklong service trips quoting Wendell Berry or Michael Pollan. We admonish them for their efforts and their hearts start feeling warm. The real root of the problem is that we can do these things because of our social and economic status. To put it short, we’re privileged. These one-time efforts we are doing aren’t causing much change that we think they are. How can we take the millennial’s heart for humanity and privilege and make it have a lasting impact upon the world? We’ve got great ideas its just how to implement them.
In the world of food issues, there have been movements to bring the farm to the city. These are places considered food deserts where people often do not even know where their food is coming from. Wendell Berry says in his essay Energy in Agriculture “the industrial economy grows and thrives by lengthening and complicating the essential connection between the producer and consumer.” In order to restore the people’s connection to the land, undergraduates have been participating in an array of different projects but all battling with this same sort of project- privilege. In Julie Guthman’s article “Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice” she discusses her students romanticized ideals and show how they slowly change as they learn from their hands on experiences.
I think inside of each and every one of us, there is this idea that if we could just show people these great foods that they would understand and make different life choices, but we must quell these ideals. My privilege often leads me to thinking that I always know the right way. Instead of thinking in that view, we must realize that “one group of people is determining the correct way of life for another” (Guthman 441) and nothing will ever get accomplished that way. Instead we must uptake this idea of transcommunity, which John Brown Childs has referred to as “the constructive and developmental interaction among diverse communities which through shared political action flows increased communication, mutual respect, and understanding” (Guthman 433). Taking this idea of transcommunity, I think that I myself can learn to shift my focus from a “missionary” perspective to instilling change right where I am in a community setting. I know this gives no concrete solutions on how to address local food issues and food deserts but I believe it’s a start. I believe it’s a start to shift our focus to the community around us and address what we can there by being supportive and not casting our views upon people.
Works Cited
Berry, Wendell. Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2009. Print.
Guthman, J. “Bringing Good Food to Others: Investigating the Subjects of Alternative Food Practice.” Cultural Geographies 15.4 (2008): 431-47. Web.
I completely agree with you, coming from a privileged background I am lucky to be educated so that I can make healthy decisions for myself. Growing up eating primarily organic foods, I was teased as a child for eating too healthy (if there is such a thing). Healthy food had a negative connotation. Some of my classmates were from neighborhoods located within food deserts where Lunchables were cheap and all the rage. No wonder I stood out. Children are influenced by their environment and when their environment is filled with McDonalds and 7-11s, what choice do we give them or their guardians?
The change must begin at home and spread within the community. Changes must be made to our policies but also our mindsets on a local and global level. A healthy diet should not only be available for those who are privileged. If only there was a faster solution.
Privilege is indeed something that makes us fail to understand other people’s food crisis and tends to make us think that we have solutions that are in fact disconnected from the community we are focused on helping. However, I think that privilege gives us opportunity to support the things that are working to better the world. Such as buying organic food that costs more, we can do it and so we do because we know it is less harmful to the planet. I don’t think we should look at all the things we do as privileged citizens as “leading by example” but instead doing what we can because we are able to have the opportunity to support them unlike others. By supporting our communities we are definitely strengthening our food security overall, but the real question is how to expand this into the places that truly need a transformation without coming across like a parent?
I think you have a great idea going here, if you want to start change you have to start somewhere. You also cannot force change onto a community/family if they are not willing to accept it. I know of a couple of grassroots movements that address the food deserts problem, you might be interested in checking them out; one of them is the Food Empowerment Project, where they specifically went to Santa Clara County, California to investigate the food desert scene there. Another movement is the Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative, where they train people to educate in their own environment, seeing change from the inside out; instead of sending privileged millennials to persuade them. I would be interested to hear more about how you would like to ‘instill change in your community setting’. The first (and quick) idea I have is to make it more obvious that you can use an EBT card at the local farmers market, from signage at the market- to the DHS (Department of Human Services) office. Is that the sort of thing you are referring to? Everyone wants a chance to make our piece of the world a better place, or as millennials we can hope so!