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Intersectionality and the Right to Food
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The Nourishing Change newsletter is a forum for sharing information and resources to enrich our conversations and efforts to organize for the most basic of human rights - the right to food.
The content of these newsletters will seek to illuminate the particular conditions that, when all are realized, define the right to food: food that is accessible both physically and economically; food that is adequate for optimal health and nutrition; food that is available through means that promote self-determination and dignity; and food that is sustainable produced and consumed and promotes the health and well-being of the environment.
Why the framing of this newsletter around the "right to food?" Charitable programs combined with government food assistance and entitlement programs cannot accomplish the goals of ending hunger and food insecurity. WhyHunger believes that it is time to reframe the narrative on what it will take to end hunger in the United States and to deepen our understanding and support efforts that address the root causes of hunger, such as racism, falling real wages, rising inequality in income and assets. The conversations and shared learning that will shift strategic actions must incorporate the people at the front lines of hunger and food insecurity in their design and implementation. The Nourishing Change newsletter is but one seed in this emerging landscape of a just and robust people-centered future.
In this issue of the Nourishing Change newsletter, we are discussing intersectionality and the struggle for the right to food.
Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, the term intersectionality has become the key analytic framework through which feminist scholars in various fields talk about the structural identities of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Simply put by Crenshaw herself, "
Intersectionality
is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power
."
By using an intersectional lens to understand food insecurity,
food
access organizations can address hunger not just by making food available to those in immediate need, but also by working to address the root causes that perpetuate the need for chronic food assistance.
By
understanding the economic, political, and social aspects at play, food access organizations can embrace a deeper understanding of the multiple and interwoven strands of injustice and seek to partner with organizations and movements we can both learn from and build with. In a statement made by the
National Lawyers Guild
in reference to the
Food Justice Guidelines
prepared by human rights attorneys:
"Intersectionality does not equate oppressions or struggles, but simply states that violence is violence, oppression is oppression, and discussing whether one is worse than the other is simply a race to the bottom and not a position of solidarity between struggles for justice."
Not only will aligning the work for food access with the movement for food justice and food sovereignty paint a more comprehensive picture of what we're up against, but it will also lead us to
learn from the organizing and strategic actions happening around
labor rights, racial justice, climate justice, indigenous sovereignty, and gender equity. A broad
intersectional analysis will lead us to address food insecurity from many different angles and fronts, increasing our chances for long-term, systemic and sustainable change.
Intersectionality also brings to light the invisibility of different groups -- how race, ability/disability, gender and sexual orientation, immigration status, age - all conspire to predispose you to the injustices inherent in our current social and political system.
Carolyn Sachs,
Emeritus Prof
essor of Rural Sociology and Women's Studies at Penn State University
writes
:
"As we attempt to address issues of food security and food sovereignty, understanding how interlocking systems of class, race, gender, and ethnicity intersect in cross-border dynamics is essential."
The ways racism, sexism, class oppression, ableism and more intersect give us the language and mandate to build more inclusion in the anti-hunger space. It provides us with the impetus for supporting opportunities for those most impacted to organize and advocate for themselves.
It also compels us to recognize the role power and privilege play in perpetuating injustice in the food system which is often replicated in our own organizations and efforts to end hunger. Making the space we work in just and equitable is an important part of the process to dismantle the inequities of our current political and social systems.
There are many layers to confront in the struggle for justice -- personally, organizationally, and in our communities. The social change waters are murky, at best, and an intersectional lens will help us see more clearly the path forward.
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Partner Talk: Let's talk about Intersectionality
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We
spoke to two of our partners to discuss the work they are doing and how they work at many different intersections.
A Conversation with Diana Robinson at Food Chain Workers Alliance
The Food Chain Workers Alliance believes in a truly sustainable food system, one that can provide healthy and locally made food, and that has the potential to lift up communities, workers, and our shared environment. A food system that is democratically controlled by communities would produce food that everyone needs to lead productive lives. To encourage a vibrant and sustainable local economy, food enterprises should be cooperatively owned. Taken together, this would lead to jobs that have dignity, livable wages, and meaning for workers, and would create a food system that works for all.
Our food system should:
1. Be democratically controlled
2. Be managed by more cooperative ownership, less private ownership
3. Provide local, healthy, sustainably produced food that is beneficial to both people and the environment.
4. Allow all to work with dignity, livable wages and meaning.
Poor People's Campaign Mass Meeting in Albuquerque, NM in August
A Conversation with Amy Miller & Nicholas Laccetti at the Poor People's Campaign
There is plenty of food in this world and if we made healthy, sustainable food a priority -- the way we make war and profits a priority -- we could easily end hunger. The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival sees food as a human right and a moral issue. It is immoral for a few people to have so much wealth -- and to waste food because to give it away would not be profitable -- while their brothers & sisters are hungry. Having enough decent food is one of the primary issues faced by people living in poverty -- along with healthcare, housing, living wages, and education
Read more of their thoughts
here.
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Organizations to learn from & connect with
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Report: The World Food Crisis: The Way Out
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO), launched its tenth anniversary edition of the
Right to Food and Nutrition Watch
that looks back at the last decade, when the world food crisis brought the number of hungry to a peak. Today, despite some progress, many of the problems that led to the crisis in the first place persist and continue to affect millions.
This is confirmed by this year's report 'The State of Food Security and Nutrition' (SOFI) announcing that, after steadily declining for over a decade, global hunger is on the rise again, affecting 815 million people in 2016 - 11% of the global population. Although these figures do not represent the full picture of food insecurity, they give a hint of the path the world is heading towards.
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Backgrounder: The Capitalism in our Food
Food First's Backgrounder by Marion Nestle is excerpted from the forthcoming book by Eric Holt-Giménez, "A Foodie's Guide to Capitalism: Understanding the Political Economy of What We Eat," which takes on the social, environmental, and economic crises of the capitalist mode of food production.
"
We are endlessly told that the American food system gives us an abundant and varied food supply that is the envy of the world. Perhaps, but these purported benefits come at a high cost: food insecurity for 45 million Americans (half of them children), obesity in nearly two-thirds of adults, incalculable damage to the quality of our soil, air, and water, and foods excessively high in calories, sugars, and salt. Capitalism may not be the only explanation for these problems, but it is a great place to begin to understand why they exist. We need food to live. But the purpose of food companies is not to promote our life, health, or happiness; it is to make money for executives and shareholders. The United Nations may declare that humans have a right to food, "realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement," but that is not how unfettered capitalism works. Capitalism turns food-a life essential-into a commodity to be sold like any other commodity."
Read the backgrounder
here
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This report from the
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
'Climate Change in the Latino Mind' focuses on a critical demographic in the United States - Latinos. Currently 17% of the U.S. population (more than 58 million people) and the second-largest racial/ethnic group in the nation, Latinos are a fast-growing demographic and this program conducted a nationally representative survey of English and Spanish-speaking Latinos to investigate their current climate change knowledge, risk perceptions, policy support, behaviors, motivations, and barriers to political action.
Overall, they found a very consistent pattern: Latinos are much more engaged with the issue of global warming than are non-Latinos. Latinos are more convinced global warming is happening and human-caused, more worried about it, perceive greater risks, are more supportive of climate change policies, and are more willing to get involved politically.
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To share your ideas, submit articles, provide feedback, contact: Betty Fermin,
[email protected]
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Please verify that your organization's profile is accurate in the
database
. To update your record, email
[email protected].
If your organization is not in the database, please join us
here.
The WhyHunger Hotline number is 1-800-5-HUNGRY. Please update your records and find outreach materials
here.
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Nourishing Change is a
space to share critical thoughts around the systemic change that needs to happen to end hunger and transform the emergency food system.
We want to hear from you!
Email us at:
[email protected]
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Nourish Network for the Right to Food
WhyHunger
505 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2100
New York, New York 10018
212-629-8850
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Contributor: Betty Fermin
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