Food Production and Systems of Oppression

Prior to the formation of the United States, families found food in a variety of ways, including foraging, hunting, fishing, and growing food. As the country progressed toward a formal organizational structure managed by the Euro-American settlers, Native Americans were restricted to designated reservations, often on land that was not as fertile for farming. Food production via farms became a major economic factor. Industrialization created more efficiencies and more wealth for landowners.

It is important to note that these new ways of sourcing food would not have been possible without three institutional structures:

1. Oppression of the way of life that Native Americans had established here for thousands of years
2. Enslavement of African immigrants brought to this country for the explicit purpose of free labor without attention to their rights and needs
3. Laws that controlled immigrants from other countries by limiting who could immigrate by gender, familial, and employment status and laws that discriminate based on nationality and immigration status related to wage, housing options, and type of employment

These structures affected the functionality of all families in the United States, favoring White families, especially those who owned land. Which of these structures affect families today? If you answered all three, you are correct. Native Americans are still fighting for rights related to their family needs that have been disrupted and restricted; the aftereffects of slavery, including the restrictions of wealth attainment on Black people, affect both the families who were able to accumulate wealth and the ones who were not; and current immigration laws still place the needs of the employers first.

Black Farmers During Reconstruction

Black farmers in America have had a long and arduous struggle to own land and to operate independently. For more than a century after the Civil War, deficient civil rights and various economic and social barriers maintained a system of inequality. Many Black farmers worked as farm operators with a limited and often total lack of opportunity to achieve ownership and independence. Although some formerly enslaved people were deeded land in the “Forty Acres and a Mule” division of lands in 1868, the same land was later deeded back to the original Confederate owners. Instead, the Black families became sharecroppers rather than owners, meaning that they worked the land for the White owner and were paid with a portion of the crop (McCammon, 2015). Other Black farm owners saw their properties diminished throughout the 20th century, as described in the 15-minute video in figure 10.17.

https://youtu.be/ldLiR794DsQ

Black farmers often ended up working for landowners once again. Even as employees, they received less protection than factory and office workers. When social security and unemployment laws meant to protect workers were passed, they excluded people who worked on farms or as domestic help, of which the majority were immigrants and marginalized groups, including African Americans. Diminished civil rights also limited collective action strategies, such as cooperatives and unions.

It is tempting to think that these past laws and practices do not affect us today. Many of the structures survive, however, in both subtle and obvious ways. In addition, because these structures limited access and land ownership in proximity to the vital resources of food and water, White families were able to build wealth more quickly and easily than any other group of families. We discuss the institutional factors related to housing, location, and wealth in Chapter 8.

Farm and Field Workers

Farm workers are and have been an essential part of the U.S. economy and food system. They come in varying immigration statuses: U.S. citizens or residents, people on guest worker visas, or undocumented workers. Here are some of the demographic characteristics of farm workers in the United States in 2018, collected from data on the American Community Survey. The data show the following about farm laborers, graders, and sorters (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019):

• About 55% are born in countries other than the United States
• About half have not completed high school
• 53% are U.S. citizens
• About half are married
• 26% identify as female

Because these data are gathered from a written survey related to the U.S. census, it is important to note that there is likely some underreporting from groups that are the hardest to reach, including people of color, children under five, renters, immigrants, people with limited English proficiency, multiple-family homes, Indigenous tribal and urban communities, disabled people, people who distrust the government, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. The challenges of representation and the significance of the Census are discussed at length in Chapter 6.

The survey also tells us that the average age for farmworkers is on the rise, and they are more likely to be female. Younger immigrants are less likely to go into farm work than into other professions, so the population is aging. It is hypothesized that as men move toward agricultural employment (rather than working with crops) and there is increased machine usage, women are moving into these jobs.

Immigrants, especially those who are not yet documented or who live in mixed-status families, are more likely to experience poor treatment and be less likely to complain about bad work conditions.

Food Factory Workers as Essential Workers

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought necessary attention to the important function of meat production and the preservation of fruits and vegetables in factories. The federal government has determined employees at food factories to be essential workers. Many of these workers are immigrants and people of color.

The authors of this text plan to elaborate on this group of families in future editions of the text. For now, the article How One City Mayor Forced A Pork Giant To Close Its Virus-Stricken Plant illustrates the dilemmas that essential workers faced at the Smithfield pork plant in South Dakota.

In Focus: The “Gangsta Gardener”

How can individuals and families impact the trends toward large commercial farms and the likelihood that foods are transported thousands of miles away rather than being available fresh, locally? One example of someone who is making a difference is Ron Finley, a proponent of urban farming. Formerly best known as a fashion designer for high-end stores and celebrities, he now calls himself the “Gangsta Gardener” after digging up a strip of earth between his house and the street to plant fruits and vegetables. It turned out that this was illegal in the city of Los Angeles, so Finley worked to change the law (figure 10.18).

Since that time, he has helped hundreds of families start their own gardens and given a TED Talk watched by 4.2 million people as of 2022. An article in The Guardian described Finley this way:

He has traveled widely talking about his work, including a TED Talk watched by 3.5 million people (that’s where his nickname comes from, when he says: “Let’s all become gangsta gardeners.…If you ain’t a gardener, you ain’t gangsta”). He likens his work to graffiti, describing Mother Nature as the greatest artist out there. “We did it in L.A. and we can do it all over the world.…A garden can change people’s lives, it can change the destruction of a community,” he says in Can You Dig This?, a 2015 documentary about community gardens in South Central, which has music star John Legend among its executive producers (Weston, 2020).

Finley emphasizes the importance of opportunity as opposed to hope. “It’s the opportunity to make shit happen….A lot of the governments and municipalities need to put money into this, which they haven’t,” he says (Weston, 2020).

Sustainable Agriculture Movement

A growing movement has emerged during the past two decades to address agricultural practices that contribute to these problems. Advocates argue that sustainable agriculture can address many environmental and social concerns and can benefit growers, laborers, and consumers.

The food system is more than just the farm. It involves the interaction of individuals and institutions with contrasting and often competing goals. The system includes farmers, researchers, input suppliers, farmworkers, unions, farm advisors, processors, retailers, consumers, and policymakers. Relationships among these groups shift over time as new technologies create economic, social, and political changes.

New federal, state, and local government policies are needed to simultaneously promote environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity.

For example, currently, government subsidies support large corporations growing corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice. This makes it difficult for farmers to diversify. Policy changes could encourage a diverse and decentralized system of family farms rather than large corporations that plant single crops. Government and land-grant universities could create research policies that encouraged research into sustainable alternatives. Rules that require fruits and vegetables to look perfect could be amended to encourage reduced pesticide use. Subsidies could also increase consumer power, especially for low-income families. If fresh, green foods were of lower cost and more available, all families would have greater access to healthy diets.

The conversion of agricultural land for urban use is another important issue. Rapid growth and rising land values threaten farming on prime soils. At the same time, people in newly developed residential communities often want environmentally safe farming practices. Sustainable agriculture research and education can help farmers reduce chemical use and conserve scarce resources. These practices can help build public support for agricultural land preservation. Educating land use planners and decision-makers about sustainable agriculture is an urgent priority (University of California at Davis, 2022). This video in figure 10.19 provides an example of a dairy farm that is both sustainable and profitable.

https://youtu.be/bbci7wMuQWM

Rural communities are often among the poorest locations in the nation. The reasons for the decline are complex, but changes in farm structure have played a significant role. Sustainable agriculture presents an opportunity to rethink the importance of family farms and rural communities. Economic development policies are needed that encourage more diversified agricultural production on family farms as a foundation for healthy economies in rural communities. In combination with other strategies, sustainable agriculture practices and policies can help foster community institutions that meet employment, educational, health, cultural, and spiritual needs.

Food cost and nutritional quality have always influenced consumer choices. The challenge now is to find strategies that broaden consumer perspectives so that environmental quality, resource use, and social equity issues are also considered in shopping decisions.

Comprehension Self Check

Licenses and Attributions for Addressing Equity in Food Production

Open Content, Original

“Addressing Equity in Food Production” by Elizabeth B. Pearce. License: CC BY 4.0.

“In Focus: The Real Cost of Food” by Carla Medel. License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

“In Focus: The ‘Gangsta Gardener’” by Elizabeth B. Pearce. License: CC BY 4.0.

Open Content, Shared Previously

Figure 10.18. The Gangsta Gardener, Ron Finley, August 17-20, 2018 by U.S. Embassy, New Zealand in the public domain.

“Sustainable Agriculture Movement” is adapted from “Environmental Impact of Agriculture” by R. Adam Dastrup in Introduction to Human Geography. License: CC BY 4.0. Adaptations: edited for brevity and focus on family life in the United States; references added.

All Rights Reserved Content

Figure 10.17. “How Black Americans Were Robbed of Their Land” © The Atlantic. License: Standard YouTube License.

Figure 10.19. ‘Sustainable Farming” © TechKnow. License: Standard YouTube License.

References

McCammon, S. (2015, January 12). The story behind “40 Acres And A Mule.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/01/12/376781165/the-story-behind-40-acres-and-a-mule

U.S. Census Bureau, 2019. USDA, Economic Research Service analysis of data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, American Community Survey, Demographic Characteristics of Farm Workers in the United States in 2018.

Welcome | Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program, University of California, Davis, CA (2022).