Okay, the next things to explain
about not teaching dirt.
Early in the semester, we had a
visitor from the Mayor’s office of resiliency. He talked to my students about
some of the food-goals, initiatives and related groups in Atlanta. (Resource
list to follow)
We came in that day having read
Wendell Berry’s “The Pleasures of Eating,” where we find the (now proverbial)
phrase “eating is an agricultural act.” We also read a chapter of Eileen
Schell’s in Rural Literacy, where we
started to build our rhetorical toolkit for rhetorics of agriliteracy. We
started there.
Our visitor explained what he
sometimes describes as “the spiral,” It’s for understanding the moving parts in
food sheds (urban or otherwise): Consumption, Reclamation, Manufacturing/
Distribution/ Aggregation, and Production.
These things are more complex than a
circular flow chart. They must be thought of as a spiral. This is his metric,
reach out to know more.
He talked through the stats on food
deserts in Atlanta. It’s defined by a USDA metric that doesn’t include food
sources/markets that are often strongly related to a community’s ethnic
identity.
My critique is from a place of
rhetoric and frustration. It is with the “rhetoric of lack[1].” The rhetoric of lack is
a rhetoric applied to a rural area where things are thought to be
lacking—education, sophistication, safety, money. Think Deliverance. That’s the stereotype fostered by a rhetoric of lack.
The phrase “food deserts” does the
same thing. Implies a lack. Lack of water becomes lack of food. Lack of lush
vegetation becomes lack of informed/monied, consumers. It’s not empowering to
be told you live in a “food desert.” It’s not a new idea, it just isn’t very
loud yet.
In my opinion, the words don’t fit
the situations, and the politics of place. That’s my argument to have with the
USDA (not our visitor, or the Mayor’s office). I think it’s wrong to be using
metaphors that evoke naturalization
in communities that don’t have high levels of food access. There’s nothing natural about not having access to food.
Moreover, desert, swamp or oasis all
imply natural biosystems. And honey,
there is nothing natural about a food desert/swamp/oasis. These are all the
result of urban planning (or lack thereof), and capitalism. Period. We cannot naturalize poverty the way that was en
vogue in the 1980’s. We know better. We need policy language that does better.
Same thing goes for “food swamp,” an
area simply swamped with unhealthy choices. All the fast food you can dream of!
Also not very empowering to be told you live in a “food swamp.” But “food
oasis”? With a sparkly whole foods on every corner? That sounds very nice.
The focus of the visit wasn’t about “food
desert literacy,” that’s just a tiny part of food literacy that matters to me. Our
visitor’s mission isn’t to change the language, it’s to change the physical
distance between consumers and food access—to make that space smaller. ]
Our visitor is coming back again this
week to see some ideas we have for strengthening food access in Atlanta. More to
come on that!
(if you are following along, or has
something to add to our conversation jump in on twitter with #ATLFoodLit. Random
tidbits, things that remind you of Atlanta food, food literacy, poetics of
food, or any combination of things or questions)
So for a basic primer on what’s going
on with food ideas, within the Atlanta system, I invite exploration of the
following links!
“Welcome to AgLanta, your digital
food hub for all things urban agriculture from the Mayor's Office of Resilience
in the City of Atlanta. A city with a strong local food economy is a resilient
city” https://www.aglanta.org/aglanta-allotments_what1/
Mayor's Office of Resilience in the
City of Atlanta: https://www.atlantaga.gov/government/mayor-s-office/executive-offices/office-of-resilience
“The Common Market is a nonprofit
regional food distributor with a mission to connect communities with good food
from sustainable family farms. We strive to improve food security, farm
viability, and community and ecological health. Currently operating in the
Mid-Atlantic and Georgia, The Common Market is expanding to other U.S. regions
to build a nation of vibrant regional food systems. Choose a location to become
a customer, producer or to learn more about our local initiatives.” https://www.thecommonmarket.org/locations/the-common-market-georgia
USDA Map for Low Income and Low
Access (national). NOTE: “This USDA website will not be updated during a lapse
in federal funding. Content on this website will not be current or maintained
until funding issues have been resolved.” Great.
“What if Georgians Ate Georgia
Produce: $10 a week per household = $1.9 billion for state”
“Wholesome Wave Georgia believes that
all Georgians should have access to fresh, wholesome and locally-grown food. By
increasing the affordability of healthy, locally-grown foods, WWG makes
healthy, nourishing choices accessible for Georgia’s food insecure families.” https://www.wholesomewavegeorgia.org/
“Global Growers is the only
organization in Georgia that connects the agricultural talent of the local
refugee community to opportunities in sustainable agriculture. Global Growers
specializes in providing comprehensive agricultural support including: farmland
acquisition and management, aggregation and distribution services which
facilitates market access and sales for partner farmers, as well as education
and technical assistance in organic fruit and vegetable production. Global
Growers is an independent 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Atlanta, GA.” https://www.globalgrowers.org/farmshare/
“Home for Dinner: Abiodun Henderson,
founder of Gangstas to Growers” http://www.atlantamagazine.com/tag/gangstas-to-growers/
Last but not least, THIS IS MY
FAVORITE!, It’s like blueapron but Local GA food! I’m probably going to look
much further into this…
