Birmingham-Jefferson Food Policy Council Formed
The preceding article appeared today, two days after my blog post on the BJFPC. I am assuming that it is at least in part a response to this post. The article basically states that the committee that chose the council took into account race and made a push for diversity, and that the agenda for the council is to address food deserts. I will address both topics beginning with the agenda for the council.
The council has not had a formal meeting (a retreat, but no official meeting, the first one is in March, tentatively) and therefore has had no opportunity to form an agenda. If the agenda is formed by the Health Action Partnership, this diminishes the council's independence and autonomy. With all the new faces at the table, the council must be given time to form its own agenda, seeking input from throughout Jefferson County. If not, it will just be the policy arm of the HAP and not representative of the larger community. If the council choses to address food deserts, it should do so independently, drawing from multiple perspectives and multiple social locations.
What I would really like to address is race. Let's be plain. While the HAP may have worked to be inclusive of different races and class positions, it did not succeed in creating a racially and economically diverse body of people. The group is overwhelmingly white and professional. This in and of itself need not impede action, but the members of the council are going to have to think long and hard about their social position in a place as segregated and unequal as Jefferson County. To the point, the council should not devise interventions without the partnership of the communities in which these interventions will take place. Showing up at these communities with grand plans to solve big problems is likely to meet with skepticism and mistrust, as there is a long history of white dominated organizations promising the moon and delivering little. Furthermore, the interventions designed by the white dominated BJFPC will likely be inappropriate without the input of the communities that are targeted. The BJFPC, if it is to be successful, must refrain from developing agendas and programs without first doing the arduous work of listening to the communities targeted by these programs. In other words, programs must be developed in partnership.
Finally, white people going into food desert neighborhoods, which are mostly black, to save them from a broken food system fairly wreaks of a missionary mentality. Whites must understand that they are in a privileged social position vis-a-vis blacks and must wrestle with what this means and how this affects their interpretation of reality. This is why listening is really hard work. Whites not only have to listen to the words that blacks have to say, but also must understand their perspective, where they are coming from, requiring one to really step outside oneself to see how society distributes benefits and disadvantages solely based on race.
I want to reiterate that I am engaging in this dialogue because I want the Food Policy Council to work and work well. I hold no ill will towards whites or members of the Health Action Partnership. I would like for this discussion to continue in hopes that we can adequately address food system issues.
Showing posts with label food policy council. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food policy council. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
The Birmingham-Jefferson Food Policy Council: New Opportunities
I apologize for ignoring this blog for so long. Since October, I've starting writing my dissertation, and most of my writing energy is taken up there.
I do, however, want to weigh in on the creation of a new food policy council, a process which I have observed rigorously and hopefully played a minor role. The food policy council is a great idea and I sincerely hope for its success. FPCs tend to run the gambit from completely independent of any government entity to completely run by departments of health. The BJFPC is a public-private partnership, which bodes well for both independent thinking and actually influencing policy, provided it doesn't devolve into gridlock.
As the agenda is not set, I wanted to provide some directions for the food policy council to take in hopes to that it will contribute to a more robust, diverse discussion of the food system in Jefferson County.
1. While the food policy council pulls from a diverse cross section of the food system, it lacks racial and class diversity. Only 5 of the 21 members are people of color and all of the members are professionals - it lacks representation from the working class. Because of this, the council will be significantly limited in perspective. To rectify this, the council must develop a strong relationship with the neighborhood associations in Birmingham and with black church leaders throughout the region. It also must adopt anti-racism as a stated goal.
2. The largest problem facing urban farms and community gardens in the region is lack of funding. Few national foundations fund urban agriculture programs, and local funding is a very small with many feeding at the trough. The council must devise programs that can be passed by local municipalities that will help fund these struggling farms. Most of these farms and gardens are trying to provide green jobs in areas that have little employment opportunity, which can be an important selling point to local politicians.
3. One way to fund such a program would be the creation of a soda tax. A rough estimate of revenues from a one cent soda tax in Jefferson County is 25 million dollars. This would be more than enough to fund urban agriculture and recycling, both dire needs in the region. Developing robust ties to low-income and communities of color would be even more imperative, given that pushing a soda tax would be initially unpopular.
And here are the things that it should not do:
1. The focus on health falls on deaf ears for many in the region. I have critiqued the discussion of obesity in a previous blog and I believe this to be a highly depoliticized and extremely problematic approach to the food movement. Everyday people in Jefferson County's communities are focused on getting grocery stores and creating employment, not on issues that demean their body-type and lifestyle. The obesity discussion is unfortunately highly evangelical.
2. The BJFPC should also avoid solely focusing on creating profitable markets for rural farmers, though this is important. Jefferson County is largely an urban county and the BJFPC should reflect the needs of an urban county. While delivering fresh, healthy food is important, job creation is more important. The fastest way to get someone to eat better is to give them a job or a better job.
3. And please, please abandon any discussion of food labeling. It costs money, has virtually no effect, and shows a very rudimentary view on how to change behaviors.
I sincerely hope that my suggestions don't fall on deaf ears, and I wish the BJFPC the best of success in the future.
I do, however, want to weigh in on the creation of a new food policy council, a process which I have observed rigorously and hopefully played a minor role. The food policy council is a great idea and I sincerely hope for its success. FPCs tend to run the gambit from completely independent of any government entity to completely run by departments of health. The BJFPC is a public-private partnership, which bodes well for both independent thinking and actually influencing policy, provided it doesn't devolve into gridlock.
As the agenda is not set, I wanted to provide some directions for the food policy council to take in hopes to that it will contribute to a more robust, diverse discussion of the food system in Jefferson County.
1. While the food policy council pulls from a diverse cross section of the food system, it lacks racial and class diversity. Only 5 of the 21 members are people of color and all of the members are professionals - it lacks representation from the working class. Because of this, the council will be significantly limited in perspective. To rectify this, the council must develop a strong relationship with the neighborhood associations in Birmingham and with black church leaders throughout the region. It also must adopt anti-racism as a stated goal.
2. The largest problem facing urban farms and community gardens in the region is lack of funding. Few national foundations fund urban agriculture programs, and local funding is a very small with many feeding at the trough. The council must devise programs that can be passed by local municipalities that will help fund these struggling farms. Most of these farms and gardens are trying to provide green jobs in areas that have little employment opportunity, which can be an important selling point to local politicians.
3. One way to fund such a program would be the creation of a soda tax. A rough estimate of revenues from a one cent soda tax in Jefferson County is 25 million dollars. This would be more than enough to fund urban agriculture and recycling, both dire needs in the region. Developing robust ties to low-income and communities of color would be even more imperative, given that pushing a soda tax would be initially unpopular.
And here are the things that it should not do:
1. The focus on health falls on deaf ears for many in the region. I have critiqued the discussion of obesity in a previous blog and I believe this to be a highly depoliticized and extremely problematic approach to the food movement. Everyday people in Jefferson County's communities are focused on getting grocery stores and creating employment, not on issues that demean their body-type and lifestyle. The obesity discussion is unfortunately highly evangelical.
2. The BJFPC should also avoid solely focusing on creating profitable markets for rural farmers, though this is important. Jefferson County is largely an urban county and the BJFPC should reflect the needs of an urban county. While delivering fresh, healthy food is important, job creation is more important. The fastest way to get someone to eat better is to give them a job or a better job.
3. And please, please abandon any discussion of food labeling. It costs money, has virtually no effect, and shows a very rudimentary view on how to change behaviors.
I sincerely hope that my suggestions don't fall on deaf ears, and I wish the BJFPC the best of success in the future.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Reclaiming our Right to the City
Influential French philosopher Henri Lefebvre argued that justice in late capitalism is about the "right to the city." In this he meant that not only outcomes are important, but more so control over the processes that produce those outcomes.
As this blog makes abundantly clear, I am concerned about control over the processes of food production, particularly by those made hungry by the food system. There are many ways to do this: experiments with food policy councils produced mixed results, some effective but undemocratic, some democratic and ineffective, and so on. Still, the notion that city dwellers - the racially, economically and socially oppressed especially - should control the process of food production can be expanded to an understanding of related and parallel processes and should provide opportunities for alliance building.
Take, for example, housing. Substandard housing exists in areas that have been abandoned by whites and capital. Because poverty almost always corresponds with these areas, real estate investors are dis-incentivized to put money into housing in those neighborhoods. Why invest in an inner city when the suburbs are much more profitable?
Now, consider the phenomena of food deserts - geographic areas that lack traditional grocery stores or outlets for healthy food in general. These areas are served primarily by convenience stores and fast food restaurants. The process behind the production of food deserts and the production of substandard housing are exactly the same. Like real estate investors, grocers see no need to invest in inner city neighborhoods when suburbs offer a larger market.
What is clear is that substandard housing, food deserts, and poverty are located spatially in the same geographic area and that the processes producing these conditions are far outside the control of the residents of inner city neighborhoods.
A closer examination of injustice in transit, health, jobs, environmental degradation and other spheres reveals that injustice is almost always located in the same geographic area, and this spatial injustice underpins the potential for the building of transformational alliances. Housing advocates, food justice activists and others are natural allies in the struggle against the non- or anti-democratic processes of the global economy.
These allies must struggle to regain control of the city, to reclaim the processes making their neighborhood, and yes, to assert what Lefebvre called their right to the city.
As this blog makes abundantly clear, I am concerned about control over the processes of food production, particularly by those made hungry by the food system. There are many ways to do this: experiments with food policy councils produced mixed results, some effective but undemocratic, some democratic and ineffective, and so on. Still, the notion that city dwellers - the racially, economically and socially oppressed especially - should control the process of food production can be expanded to an understanding of related and parallel processes and should provide opportunities for alliance building.
Take, for example, housing. Substandard housing exists in areas that have been abandoned by whites and capital. Because poverty almost always corresponds with these areas, real estate investors are dis-incentivized to put money into housing in those neighborhoods. Why invest in an inner city when the suburbs are much more profitable?
Now, consider the phenomena of food deserts - geographic areas that lack traditional grocery stores or outlets for healthy food in general. These areas are served primarily by convenience stores and fast food restaurants. The process behind the production of food deserts and the production of substandard housing are exactly the same. Like real estate investors, grocers see no need to invest in inner city neighborhoods when suburbs offer a larger market.
What is clear is that substandard housing, food deserts, and poverty are located spatially in the same geographic area and that the processes producing these conditions are far outside the control of the residents of inner city neighborhoods.
A closer examination of injustice in transit, health, jobs, environmental degradation and other spheres reveals that injustice is almost always located in the same geographic area, and this spatial injustice underpins the potential for the building of transformational alliances. Housing advocates, food justice activists and others are natural allies in the struggle against the non- or anti-democratic processes of the global economy.
These allies must struggle to regain control of the city, to reclaim the processes making their neighborhood, and yes, to assert what Lefebvre called their right to the city.
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