3.6 Let’s Talk about Food Justice | Cornell Garden-Based Learning

Skill Level

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Learner Outcomes

Develop a collective understanding of commonly used food justice terms.
Reflect upon how the food system affects people.

Life Skills

Decision-making, critical thinking, communications, cooperation, social skills, sharing, contribution to group, teamwork

Time

15-20 minutes

Materials

Food Justice Definition Cards

Space

Can be done in any space that allows group to move around and interact with each other

Introduction

This activity will get the group up and moving as they define important terms related to food justice. Language matters. Word choice can articulate tough issues and inspire solutions. The struggle for all people to have access to healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food is complex. Earlier in this curriculum, we introduce the food system and its interactive parts. This activity takes a deeper look at how the food system affects people. People make the system function.

It can be helpful to review the parts of the food system and concepts related to the food system (See activities 3.3 Journeying Through Our Food System and 3.4 Food System Influences) before diving into this activity. Having youth ponder where they see themselves in the food system and how the food system affect people can be great way to start the discussion.

Most of us are familiar with the term food desert, an area in which it is difficult to buy affordable, fresh, and nutritious food. In many food deserts, it is easier to buy “junk” or convenience food. Our diet affects our health; the food system and public health are connected. These conditions of poor food access leads to food insecurity, chronic diet-related illnesses, and obesity. The USDA uses income level and supermarket presence to measure access to healthy food in specific geographic areas.

There are many other factors that can impact food access such as food prices, education, and employment. Food deserts are typically found in urban or rural areas and disproportionately affect black, brown, and indigenous people, people of color, and poor white people. Within the last few years, other terms have come in to relabel food desert areas such as “food swamps” and “food mirages.” None of these terms seem to get at the root causes of the issue and food justice leaders are teaching us to move away from them altogether.

It is interesting to reflect on how these terms are not used by people living in these communities. These terms have been inflicted on these communities by people who do not live in them, that is, it is a way of describing people from others who are “looking in.” According to farmer and food justice activist Karen Washington, food desert is an “outsider term.” Using the term does a disservice to the communities it aims to describe and the natural environment. Hearing the word “desert” makes us think of a vacant and barren place, desolate of food. Yet, these communities have food and “so much life and vibrancy and potential. Using that word [desert] runs the risk of preventing us from seeing all of those things,” Washington explains.

Malik Yakini, Executive Director of Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, shares additional reasons the term “food desert” is problematic. Deserts themselves are vibrant natural ecosystems providing nourishment for their inhabitants when functioning properly. Using these natural terms imply that food deserts are naturally occurring. These terms are misleading and do not take into consideration these areas have been created by historically racist and classist public policies and economic practices.

Food justice leaders encourage using the term “food apartheid” instead to describe these areas to include why these conditions exist. On Washington’s website, she shares that she “coined the term ‘food apartheid’ to ask us to look at the root causes of inequity in our food system on the basis of race, class, and geography.”

Discussing food injustices and inequities can be uncomfortable. Just as important as it is to set the stage, it is important to share successes and the incredible work people are doing to champion equitable access to healthy food.

The formation of food policy councils (FPCs) has been a successful tool used to create change in communities around the country. FPCs bring together a group of stakeholders representing different parts of the local food system, which can include community members, non-profit organizations, government, food workers, farmers, and businesses. These groups work together to evaluate and implement change to improve their local food system. This can look like policy change, community education programs, coordinating resources, and much more!

FPCs are changing their local food systems by focusing on many areas including food security, access, production, recovery, economic development, and environmental protection. According to the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future’s Food Policy Network (FPN) project, there are over 300 active FPCs in North America. Check out this FPN directory to see if you have one in your area.

The FPN project has created “Wheel of Achievements” to share some FPC successes. In 2018, the Faribault, Martin, & Watonwan Counties Community Food Partnerships in Minnesota coordinated meetings between community members and a transportation company, resulting in creating new routes to grocery stores. In 2019, the White Earth Food Sovereignty Initiative in the White Earth Nation created tribal policy to protect traditional food processing methods and cultural foods. In 2019, the Salt Lake City Food Policy Task Force in Utah started a community curbside composting program.

There are many incredible organizations working for justice throughout our food system. Self-described Afro-Indigenous centered community farm based in Petersburg, NY, Soul Fire Farm, is “uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system” through extensive food and farm education centering communities of color.

BK Rot, a “community-supported, bike-powered, fossil fuel free food waste hauling and composting service” based in New York City, is employing young people of color to move and convert organic waste into compost.

Grassroots Gardens of Western New York stewards an urban land trust and uses a network of community and school gardens for community empowerment.

The Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP), urban farm and community nonprofit organization based in Buffalo, NY, empowers young people with employment opportunities as well as farm, nutrition, food policy, and civic engagement education. MAP runs a mobile market offering local and affordable produce throughout the Buffalo area.

Providing farmland, farm and business education, market access, youth employment, and technical resources for refugees and underserved populations, Providence Farm Collective, champions “farmer-led and community-rooted agriculture and food systems” in Western New York.

A farm-based seed company based in Philadelphia, Truelove Seeds, uplifts small-scale farmers through collaboration to share their “seeds and stories to bring extra financial support for their food sovereignty and agroecological projects.”

National multi-sector, multi-racial coalition of 55 organizations, HEAL Food Alliance, established a thorough and inclusive policy platform for food system change.

These are a handful of incredible organizations fighting for food justice. We encourage facilitators to look into their own communities to connect with groups doing this work.

Vocabulary

Carbon Footprint: A representation of the effect human activities have on the climate in terms of the total amount of greenhouse gases produced.

Certified Organic: USDA labeling term that indicates that a food has been produced through approved methods. Typically, a food with this label is grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, synthetic growth regulators, or synthetic livestock feed additives.

Community Garden: A plot of land that is gardened by a group of people to produce fruits, vegetables, flowers, and sometimes chickens for egg production. Community gardens exist in both urban and rural communities in a variety of setting — vacant lots, schools or community centers, or donated land. Food may be grown communally, or individuals or families may have individual garden plots or beds.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): A mutually supportive relationship between the farmer and community member. The community member pays for a crop “share” in advance, guaranteeing the farmer a market for their goods. In return, farmers supply fresh produce to shareholders on a regular basis throughout the growing season. This relationship ensures the farmer has an income even in the event of crop failure.

Fair Trade: An organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers get better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards.

Farmers’ Market: A common facility or area where several farmers or growers gather on a regular, recurring basis to sell a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and other locally-grown farm products directly to consumers.

Food Apartheid: The unequal access to healthy and culturally appropriate food caused by historical and present day discriminatory social, political, and economic systems. This leads to geographic areas in which it is easier to buy “junk” or convenience food and more difficult to buy affordable, fresh, and nutritious food (term coined by farmer and food justice activist Karen Washington).

Food Justice: A person’s right to affordable, nutritious, fresh, and culturally appropriate food regardless of race, class, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, ability, religion, or community.

Food Policy Council: A group of stakeholders representing all parts of the local food system, including community members, non-profits, government, food workers, farmers, and businesses, working together to improve their local food system. This can look like policy change, community education programs, coordinating resources, and much more!

Food Security: The state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of safe, affordable, and nutritious food.

Food Sovereignty: The right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems (term coined by International Peasants’ movement La Via Campesina and defined in the 2007 Declaration of Nyéléni).

Food Waste: Food that is discarded, lost, or uneaten. Causes are numerous and occur in all parts of the food system. In the United States, 30-40% of the food supply is wasted.

Free Range: Free-range, free-roaming, and pastured imply that a product comes from an animal that was raised unconfined and free to roam. “Free-range” claims on beef and eggs are unregulated, but USDA requires that poultry have access to the outdoors for an undetermined period each day.

GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms): Plants and animals that have been genetically engineered to exhibit traits that they would not normally have, like longer shelf-life, resistance to herbicides, pests and/or diseases, or tolerance to adverse conditions such as drought or salinity. Genetic engineering is a technique that copies a genetic trait from the genome of one organism and inserts into the genome of another.

Local Food: Food and other agricultural products that are produced, processed, and sold within a certain region, whether defined by distance, state border, or regional boundaries. The term is unregulated at the national level, meaning that each individual markets can define and regulate the term based on their mission and circumstances.

Before the Activity

Cut out terms and terms and definition cards. Read over the terms provided and assess which are appropriate for your group. Add in other terms that you want to include.

Activity

Opening Questions

What does the phrase food justice bring to mind?
Where do you see yourself in the food system? Please offer an example.
How does the food system affect people?

Experience

Every person in the group gets a sheet of paper which either has a term or definition on it.
Instruct group to find their partner by matching the food justice term to its definition.
Once each person has found their partner, each pair shares their term/definition with the rest of the group. After each pair shares, pause and see if the group has questions.

Reflection Questions (choose a few that work best for your group)

Draw a picture of what food justice looks like to you.
Are any of these terms new to you?
Where have you heard these terms before?
Which terms are you most curious about?

Variations

In addition to pairs, this activity can be done in small groups. Each small group receives a few terms and definitions to match together. Then, groups come to back together to share their terms with the larger group.
In a virtual setting, this activity can be done in breakout groups. Each group can be assigned a few terms and definitions to match together. Then, groups come to back together to share their terms with the larger group. Google Jamboard has been used successfully by creators of this curriculum as a platform to mix and match definitions virtually.