Like the other tenets, there are specific goals which underlie the effort towards Fair Food. These goals include that the autonomy and humanity of workers all along the food chain are respected and that the food system, generally, be founded on a base of good, fair paying jobs. These goals can be further broken down into things like safe working conditions, consistent communication with and listening to and among workers, and security from threat through wages or a party like I.C.E.
Fair Food is unique among the Good Food tenets in that there have been multiple fair food movements over the years, nearly all of which connected to larger labor movements. Through connections to things like labor unions, fair food movements can be sure that their work is informed by worker experience and that gains can be made for the people actually affected. Some local organizations in this vein include the Migrant Legal Aid Fair Food Project and Farmworker Legal Services.
Another important aspect of Fair Food is recognizing and dismantling the scaffolding of white supremacy within our current conventional food system. As mentioned in our last post, the history commodity crop system in the U.S. is founded on labor exploitation of largely BIPOC people. This, in addition to discriminatory lending practices by the USDA, has created a food system which systematically excludes BIPOC people from food chain sovereignty. Access believes that an effort towards Fair Food must account for this.
There are many other aspects of the fair food movement that we were not able to touch on in this post. More information on the aspects we did touch on, along with some more resources to explore those we didn’t, can be found on our blog via the link in our bio. Next week, we will be exploring the final Good Food tenet. In the meantime, we invite you to join in this local effort yourself by participating in our upcoming Walk for Good Food in May!
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US Food Sovereignty Alliance video: “Labor Justice in the Food Movement: Confronting Legacies of Slavery in the Food Systemâ€: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I4GEkMswjo Â
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US Food Sovereignty Alliance video: “Food Sovereignty and Justice for Farm Workers in Washington Stateâ€: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sV-23Mf9HY Â
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The “Hunger for Justice†podcast series by A Growing Culture: https://www.agrowingculture.org/hfj/ Â
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West Michigan Growers Group organization:Â https://www.wmgrowersgroup.org/Â