Food for all: Personal Choices, Public Policy

by Margaret McCasland
Ithaca Meeting

Most of this issue of Spark focuses on what we personally eat, but we wanted to also note some of the broader aspects of food systems that provide a context for our personal and corporate witness in the world. Food is fully integrated into our social, cultural, economic and political systems and is thus associated with multiple overlapping concerns. Our testimonies of justice, equality and simplicity (plus Quaker traditions that value ecosystems that are healthy for people and other living things) are interwoven with all aspects of food.

Food is a basic human right. Every person has the right to healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food.

“Food deserts” (neighborhoods with limited access to healthy, affordable food) are far too common in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods across the United States. According to a study of the NYC and Hudson Valley Foodshed by Scenic Hudson, “New York City has an estimated $866 million or more of unmet demand annually for regionally produced food, with substantial demand coming from underserved communities.“ (See: scenichudson.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Foodshed_Conservation_Plan.pdf)

Food injustice takes many forms and must be addressed in many ways. The human rights of the people who grow, harvest, process, prepare and serve our food are fundamental to our right relationship with food.

The lockdown of all but “essential workers” during the initial response to Covid-19 taught us how dependent we are on people who work in every stage of getting food to our table, but this increased awareness has not resulted in better working conditions or pay for most of them. Likewise, farmworkers received very few accommodations during the 2021 Western North America heat wave, sometimes with fatal consequences.

An especially egregious form of food injustice is the creation of sacrifice zones by governments and corporations on the few remaining lands of indigenous people. In New York State, both the Onondaga Nation and the Mohawk Nation have had ongoing contamination of their food sources from industrial pollution.

Food is personal. Food is very personal. There are many reasons we chose a given food or beverage. Some are based on our own nutritional or emotional needs. Some are moral and relate to fairness for the people who produce our food. Some relate to the ethical treatment of animals. Some decisions are based on ecology.

But we shouldn’t have to research everything that we consider ingesting. Organizations like the Environmental Working Group and Seafood Watch produce guides which are helpful, but having to consult the guides still involves time and complex decision-making. (Can I afford the more expensive product? Do I have time to make this recipe from scratch?) Deciding what to eat should be a joy based in gratitude, not a burden based on fear.

What matters most is what we eat most of the time. Cutting ourselves some slack for special occasions and unusual circumstances will give us more emotional and mental energy to make sure that the majority of our food is in alignment with our values.

There are three main areas we can influence food systems: as consumers, as advocates for better public policies, and through our witness work.

As consumers, the more food we buy directly from farmers and the less we eat highly processed foods based on commodity crops, the faster farmers can transition to more regenerative practices.

As citizens, we can call on local state and federal governments to support farmers, farm workers, and the people who process and prepare our foods. The economics of farming and the quality of life of farm workers are highly influenced by state and federal laws, regulations and policies, which often subsidize unecological and unethical practices. Social policies such as a universal basic income and expanded SNAP benefits can make it easier for everyone to afford healthy food.

Through our witness work, we can support projects locally and around the world that bring food security to communities while growing food in ways that nurture local ecosystems.