WHY THE NOURISHING PLATE IS A PRIVILEGE- ACCESSIBILITY AND AFFORDABILITY
In the last article, we finished building the Nourishing plate: eat mostly fresh plants and fungi, in season, organic and locally grown, with good soil practices, maybe similar types of foods to your ancestors, and the quantities and types of foods your body is telling you to. It sounds so simple when it’s laid out like that, right? But why is the diet industry a multibillion-dollar industry if the solution to feeling nutritionally nourished is so simple? Aha! Therein lies the rub.
Eating a Nourishing plate in this society is a PRIVILEGE. It absolutely should not be, it is a basic fundamental human right. See Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Why is it a privilege? Well to eat the Nourishing plate requires:
1. Access to fresh food
2. The ability to purchase or acquire the food
3. The knowledge of what food is most nourishing for you
4. The proper signals of when and what to eat
This is a big topic so we will cover the first 2 points in this article, and the next 2 in the following article.
access to fresh food
I live in walking distance of one local-owned grocery store/market, and a Whole Foods market (owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos). I have many grocery stores and a couple of market stands within a 10-mile radius of my home. These places all sell fresh produce, some of it is organic, and some of it is locally grown. Many of these places can also deliver to my home. In Australia, I used to live bordering a semi-rural area where I was around the corner from a superb fresh produce market stall which had only local and excellent produce (drool). This accessibility should be the norm for everyone, but it isn’t.
Have you heard of food deserts? Food deserts are areas where people have no access to fresh, healthy food. They are often in lower socioeconomic areas, more often semi-rural or rural communities, and disproportionately affect black, brown and indigenous/first nations communities. This is no coincidence. The food options are usually fast food, and processed/packaged foods. If you have ever been into a Walmart and seen the “fresh” sections – it’s usually a few brown bananas and withered lettuces. Now how are folks meant to eat “healthy” if they cannot even access them? Not everyone has a car, and public transport is frequently scarce or absent in these areas. And as for organic, local, or seasonal?! That’s unlikely! The impact of these deserts has intensified with the coronavirus pandemic.
Now the grocery stores etc in these areas will likely argue something akin to: it’s supply and demand. These folks aren’t buying the fresh food. But they don’t even have a choice, and these folks may not have the education about what nourishes them. Some of this is also about financial means, discussed more below. Will you buy the cauliflower that costs $4 that your family might not eat, or the big packet of pasta for $2 that they will?
What is the solution? Well like every change in a community, it needs to come from WITHIN THE COMMUNITY. For and by the folks in it. It has been a systematic problem in all colonised/stolen lands to have white folks in power making the decisions for other communities – usually without even consulting the community members. We all need to be demanding better options and empowering the communities with support. Support could look like sharing expertise when asked for or accepted, sharing resources, and donating money. This community-driven change is happening. See the Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative working to support other first nations communities in food sovereignty with growing their own food. Learn more here.
And the work of renegade gardener Ron Finley who is teaching his community in South Central Los Angeles, and anyone who attends his masterclass on masterclass.com how to grow their own food with whatever resources they have. Find out more about Ron’s work here.
the ability to purchase the food
People have to have means to buy food. Either money, food stamps/EBT, or other things to trade or barter. Even to get seedlings, soil, seeds, soil amendments etc to grow your own also needs resources. In the 2018 US Census, the median household income in 2018 was $63,179. The poverty threshold varies depending on age and number of persons in the household and dependent children but was as low as $12,043. That’s living on $33 a day! In 2018 there were
38.1 million people living in poverty- 11.8% of people living in the US.
In the richest country in the world!
By no means does this impact communities equally. The poverty rate for first nations folks was 25.4%, for black folks was 20.8% and for “hispanic” folks 17.6%. Compared to white folks 10.1% and Asian folks 10.1%. See more on the Census here.
For almost 12% of people in the US, being able to afford to buy organic tomatoes from Whole Foods is almost a cruel joke. Now, it costs money to grow food, especially on smaller scale levels. Farmers work hard, and small scale farming is not often very financially profitable. Market and environmental conditions are very volatile. The price of the produce at a market stand is usually fair, but not necessarily affordable. (I won’t go into the messed up economics of farmers selling produce to grocery stores.)
What is frequently more affordable is the manufactured, processed, and refined foods at the local grocery store. And these foods are manipulated to taste good. I mean, so is that tomato, organic or not (due to human selection and also genetically for GMO foods), but not to the same level of chemical genius that goes into a Twinkie.
There is no simple solution to the problems of poverty and racism, so interwoven. It is by no means an American-only problem. The US is experiencing a kind of reckoning at the moment, but it is unclear whether there will be adequate momentum for meaningful change. Massive, systemic overhaul is required.
On a local and actionable level, if you have plenty, share it. Donate food, pay for a CSA box for a community member in need. Support local markets. Find out how you can support renegade gardeners in your area. Grow your own food. Share seeds and sourdough starters. Vote!
In the next article, we will continue the discussion of privilege as knowledge and balanced body signals.
