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hematopoetic was the impetus for the posting of the Growing Power article, found here for refresher purposes (if needed) http://unusualmusic.livejournal.com/49241.html
Ranting in defense of our inalienable right to eat and live
I've been having a lot of discussions about food lately & there's an element (or several) that irritates me. Raw foodies, food combiners, gluten-free goddesses, fruitarians-- "health" for some is simply a one-size-fits-all replacement for "religion" with all the accompanying zealotry and judgments.
I do believe that health is important. I mean, I am dedicating my life to public health and social justice & I see health as a powerful platform from and around which to promote human rights. But health looks different to different people. I can't abide when self-righteous food nuts treat food as a boot-strap path to health aka their version of holiness: "if you just tried harder or devoted ten more hours per week to acquiring and preparing the right food, you could be healthy like me and would never get heart disease, cancer, or broken bones! If you are unhealthy, it's your own damn fault, and if you don't eat like me, there's no way you could be healthy!" These attitudes ignore the many factors that cause food insecurity and poor health, as well as the many aspects of food that feed people beyond simple nutrition.
I do believe that a holistic approach makes sense and that we can moderate our health to some extent through diet and lifestyle changes. However, those changes are not equally available to all people. Moreover, even the most basic human need--food security--is viewed as a privilege rather than a right in the United States. What is food security? According to the USDA,
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).
Even if food can be dumpster dived (a common counter-argument when I point out that not everyone can afford food at all, let alone free-range, organic, sustainable, etc, food), people need to have access to those dumpsters. When poor people don't even have time, energy, & money to take the bus to go grocery shopping in another part of town, how can they be expected to have the time, energy, & money to take the bus to go root around in a grocery store's dumpster in another part of town? Better (higher-quality) foods are found in "better" (richer, whiter) neighborhoods, and these are not always accessible to poor people and people of color. Also, a growing trend is to lock dumpsters or keep them indoors--apparently, it's better for discarded food to feed a landfill than a family. Some foods can be shoplifted--and this is a creative way for people to survive--but the fact that food can be shoplifted or dumpster dived should not be a justification for food insecurity and unequal access to healthy (or any) food.
Read the rest here:http://hematopoetic.livejournal.com/8095.html
hematopoetic was the impetus for the posting of the Growing Power article, found here for refresher purposes (if needed) http://unusualmusic.livejournal.com/49241.htmlRanting in defense of our inalienable right to eat and live
I've been having a lot of discussions about food lately & there's an element (or several) that irritates me. Raw foodies, food combiners, gluten-free goddesses, fruitarians-- "health" for some is simply a one-size-fits-all replacement for "religion" with all the accompanying zealotry and judgments.
I do believe that health is important. I mean, I am dedicating my life to public health and social justice & I see health as a powerful platform from and around which to promote human rights. But health looks different to different people. I can't abide when self-righteous food nuts treat food as a boot-strap path to health aka their version of holiness: "if you just tried harder or devoted ten more hours per week to acquiring and preparing the right food, you could be healthy like me and would never get heart disease, cancer, or broken bones! If you are unhealthy, it's your own damn fault, and if you don't eat like me, there's no way you could be healthy!" These attitudes ignore the many factors that cause food insecurity and poor health, as well as the many aspects of food that feed people beyond simple nutrition.
I do believe that a holistic approach makes sense and that we can moderate our health to some extent through diet and lifestyle changes. However, those changes are not equally available to all people. Moreover, even the most basic human need--food security--is viewed as a privilege rather than a right in the United States. What is food security? According to the USDA,
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).
Even if food can be dumpster dived (a common counter-argument when I point out that not everyone can afford food at all, let alone free-range, organic, sustainable, etc, food), people need to have access to those dumpsters. When poor people don't even have time, energy, & money to take the bus to go grocery shopping in another part of town, how can they be expected to have the time, energy, & money to take the bus to go root around in a grocery store's dumpster in another part of town? Better (higher-quality) foods are found in "better" (richer, whiter) neighborhoods, and these are not always accessible to poor people and people of color. Also, a growing trend is to lock dumpsters or keep them indoors--apparently, it's better for discarded food to feed a landfill than a family. Some foods can be shoplifted--and this is a creative way for people to survive--but the fact that food can be shoplifted or dumpster dived should not be a justification for food insecurity and unequal access to healthy (or any) food.
Read the rest here:http://hematopoetic.livejournal.com/8095.html
