Food for Thought

So I post rather infrequently, and I suppose I justify my transiency with the well-accepted phrase that "those who often talk the most have the least to say". I have plenty to say, I assure you, but I want to make sure I reserve your precious reading time (or precious clicks to other pages like facebook or NYT) for the most important or interesting experiences I have had thus far and into the future.

Today, however, an extraordinary speaker graced the Lily Gallery with his presence.

This man, Raj Patel, has a very impressive resume, and has a lot to say about big issues.

I went to listen to Mr Patel speak today at 7, along with several of the other Eco-Reps on campus. Raj Patel has not only worked for the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and United Nations, but has also protested against each one of his former employers on different occasions. This is a man who is in touch with his passion and how to do good work by energizing others. He was featured on the Colbert Report a couple of years ago for a book he wrote, entitled The Value of Nothing, but that's not what he spoke about tonight.

Raj spoke about his newest book, Stuffed and Starved, and began on the strange fact in the world that 1.5 billion people are overweight or obese, while 1 billion other people are starving. In the United States, 1 in 5 children are hungry. There is no food security in the United States, and the United States is one of the better countries when it comes to food acquisition. Mr Patel gave examples of many different countries that are now ravaged by certain factors to the point at which food is not something to enjoy, but something rare to survive on. Patel attributes this to the global marketization of food. While global markets may be good--countries specializing in certain goods or services can make the most superior commodities of that type, allowing new innovation and greater productivity to allow more widespread, increased prosperity--some things are not meant to be on the trade routes of the world. One of these goods is food. The first globalized food good was wheat, and was exported by India to Britain (and other countries) essentially at the points of the Brit's rifles. Sure, the competitive advantages (all economists know that competitive advantage is the reason that trade between nations is good) pointed that trading wheat would, in fact, increase the prosperity of both nations. It's ironic, though, that during the largest harvest of wheat in Indian history, starvation swept the country such that the ones who were loading up the trains and boats with wheat were dying of hunger on the job. Any human being can see the issue here, but the world didn't stop there with food trade on a global scale. Now, food is shipped all over the world from different exotic places to local businesses to faraway consumers with any number of mediators in between steps. A big issue that Raj has with our global food market is the amount of violence not only at its inception, but being fueled by its continuance. 60% of the hungry are women, and most hungry households are households in which a single woman is the primary parent.

Mr Patel argues that the issue of food is really an issue of corporate vs. farmer. Essentially, the buyer has two options:  purchase local food or purchase corporate food. In any given global market, 5 or 6 corporations control over half of the trade--the same for food. Supermarkets, Raj said, are the most powerful corporate food providers. They are "zones of deep manipulation", wherein we don't even notice we are being manipulated; the bread smells, the location of milk, the height of different goods on the shelves, and the type of music playing while you shop are all things that have been tailored to increase your desire to purchase. Food should be shaped by community, as local food producers and consumers try to achieve. The global food market never had the chance to develop democratically, and we as a human race never had the chance to democratically discuss food and food issues.

Food sovereignty is about the equality of everyone being at the global dinner tabel. Raj stated it "is about the end to all forms of violence against all women", and the disintegration of the structural and social violence that continues to persist under our deeply flawed global food system. If we want to change the world, we have to expand and experience it together. Mr Patel said that everyone has ideas, but we need to get those ideas out on the table (excuse the pun), and democratically discuss them together. Food should be the primary tenant of global democracy--everyone has the right to eat.


Enjoy your night.