I lifted the graphic below from the Slow Food USA blog because it seemed like a good way to call attention to the real issues on International Food Day. So often we in the US focus on hunger relief and nutrition, ignoring the deeper ties to a whole range of cultural and justice issues. Lasting food system change must have as a goal food sovereignty.
Chapter 9 in Cultivating Food Justice, "Environmental and Food Justice" says it better: "Food security...treats food as a nutritional commodity." And "food sovereignty posits food as a fundamental human right." Authors of the article Teresa M. Mares and Devon G. Pena continue, "The central rallying point of food justice should be to identify power dynamics in the food system with the goal of restoring self-determination, control, and autonomy to eaters and growers alike."
Since I've been away from this blog for a while, I'm committing to nine days of writing, from today, International Food Day, to U.S. Food Day, October 24. Think of it as a novena for the food system. Novenas sometimes mark periods of mourning. At other times, they stress prayers for renewal. These nine days here may be both: mourning the greed, carelessness, and callousness that have marked the industrial food system, and looking forward to renewed commitments to just, respectful and culturally rich values.
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