{"id":77033,"date":"2016-08-01T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=77033"},"modified":"2016-07-29T15:54:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T14:54:31","slug":"growing-justice-transcending-the-oppressive-history-of-our-food-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/08\/growing-justice-transcending-the-oppressive-history-of-our-food-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Justice: Transcending the Oppressive History of Our Food System"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michelle<\/a>27 Jul 2016 – Marvin Brown\u2019s <\/em>Civic Economy of Provisions<\/a> asks us to delve deep into the depths of our economic system\u2019s history. Only then, he posits, will we be able to transform a structure based wholly in the violent exploitation and dehumanization\u00a0of African people from the times of\u00a0the trans-Atlantic slave trade to our current moment in history.\u00a0We zoomed in on the food system, an industry that illustrates both the dark ironies of the global economy\u2019s roots in slavery and exploitation, but also opportunities for a true departure from the current\u00a0paradigm that\u2014by design\u2014oppresses the livelihoods of the individuals that make up the Black community.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe dominant belief that maximizing profits is the primary purpose of business has caused food retailers to leave communities in which they don\u2019t think profits can be maximized. The result is that over 23 million Americans don\u2019t have access to the choices and services offered by grocery stores.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0— <\/em><\/strong>Brahm Ahmadi, Co-founder and CEO of the\u00a0People\u2019s Community Market, a West Oakland-based holistic community grocery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across the United States, people are waking up to new understandings of our collective history, creating a discourse around liberation from systemic oppression and connecting the dots between state-sanctioned violence and oppression of the Black community. This is the case of Marvin Brown, whose new work \u201cA Civic Economy of Provisions<\/a>\u201d is part of the Next System Project\u2019s series \u201cNew Systems: Possibilities and Proposals<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 In his piece, Brown starts by reminding us of the origins of our capitalist system: the initiation of the trans-Atlantic trade of the 15th through 18th centuries. He highlights the changes that took place in the pervasive theories of property and property relations during this time, as the proponents of the new economic practices needed to justify their distinctly inhumane labor practices (namely, the enslavement of millions of Africans) in order to feed the addictions generated by their new global system\u2014an international economy fueled by mass cultivation and consumption of cash crops such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and alcohol.<\/p>\n

\"cana<\/a><\/p>\n

With the advent of a new global economy, then-novel theories emerged to perpetuate the perception of property and ownership of the colonial era. Adam Smith and his cohorts\u2019 postures, for instance, helped rationalize the enslavement of millions of African people<\/a>\u2014the true \u201cinvisible hands\u201d of capitalism. Invisible, so to speak, insofar as they guided the economy toward prosperity and growth\u2014at least for those who owned the property, both human and non-human.<\/p>\n

The outcomes of this pervasive system continue to be felt today, despite the abolition of slavery and the victories of 1960\u2019s civil rights movement, not to mention the countless efforts by activists and community members who laid the groundwork for the struggle for equality and liberation of Black Americans. Despite this tireless work, Black Americans are repetitively faced with the illegal death of their peers at the hands of structural police violence and the disproportional incarceration rates\u2014issues becoming increasingly visible to the national and international mainstream thanks to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. But the reality is that growing inequality and injustice against people of color is rooted in all systems in place today, catalyzing the erasure of the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The state and federal policies rooted in the mass exploitative cultivation of tobacco, sugar, alcohol, and cotton cause a \u201cmajor disconnect between Black folks and good food, and similarly, our history.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Laura Penniman, farmer and educator at Soul Fire Farm in Albany, NY.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Movement for Black Lives is one among many uprisings to address systemic oppression. Another system in particular has gained growing concern over the years:\u00a0the food system. Slavery and exploitation formed the impetus for thriving food and agriculture systems in the United States; now, morphed to adapt to a post-industrial era, these systems\u00a0continue to perpetuate inequality and oppression. The state and federal policies rooted in the mass exploitative cultivation of tobacco, sugar, alcohol, and cotton cause a \u201cmajor disconnect between Black folks and good food, and similarly, our history,\u201d as explained by Leah Penniman, farmer and educator\u00a0Soul Fire Farm<\/a> in Albany, New York. The result? These policies ensure that the descendants of the labor force responsible for producing cash crops for European traders\u2014Black and indigenous Americans\u2014are disproportionately affected by diet-related diseases. In fact, by design of the system, diet-related illnesses are the top five killers for people of color in the United States<\/a>. As Penniman put it on a recent Laura Flanders segment<\/a>\u00a0on racism in the food system, \u201cWe\u2019re living in the South end of Albany, which the USDA terms a \u2018food desert\u2019 neighborhood. But we prefer to talk about \u2018food apartheid,\u2019 because deserts are natural phenomenon, and racism in the food system is very unnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"supermarket-732278_1920\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Those who built the foundations of the modern food and agriculture systems by cultivating crops for mass consumption are now deliberately excluded from the empire they helped construct. Can this dark irony embedded in the food system\u00a0be replaced by a system that grows justice along with our food? Marvin Brown believes so. In \u201cA Civic Economy of Provisions<\/a>,\u201d he asks us to dive down to the depths of our history\u2019s roots in order to cultivate a new transformative paradigm of social, political, and economic organization. In the same way that the global consciousness came to adopt the conception that people could own other people as property, Brown notes that we can transform our collective consciousness to one based on shared wealth and common ideals. We can work for the common good and we can establish institutions built on restoring rights to all humans.\u00a0But first, postures Brown, it will require us to change our conversations and interactions with one another in a \u201csystem of provision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"wheelbarrow<\/a><\/p>\n

How would a \u201csystem of provision\u201d incorporate a consciousness about past circumstances that led to today\u2019s high levels of inequality and exploitation, while simultaneously retaining an orientation toward a new economic paradigm for the future? Brown emphasizes that the entire system must be rooted in reciprocity and civic conversations as tools to create new institutions and systems, in order to dismantle the inequalities brought on by this consumptive system of commodity and trade. These \u201ccivic conversations\u201d must encompass the realities of our history: not just the ones dictated by the owners of wealth and property, but instead by the oppressed producers themselves. \u201cFacing this history,\u201d he says, \u201cand thus reconnecting with the real providers of wealth, is the only way out of the property-based economics of capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within the food system, one of Brown\u2019s examples of a distinct sector intertwined with others to form a whole, we can identify how civic conversations manifest in the formation of new institutions to shift the focus from profit to provision, by providing holistically for the community and for the common good.<\/p>\n

Transforming our system into one rooted in provision means more than just creating new organizations that aim to do well for the community; it will require that we\u00a0rewrite the beliefs, exchanges, and rules of our own interactions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Penniman of Soul Fire Farm highlights Black farmers across the U.S.<\/a> that are, in the spirit of Brown\u2019s society based on\u00a0civic provisions,\u00a0transforming their work to advance justice by harnessing and spreading the histories of their revered elders: \u201cAfter more than a century of decline, the number of Black farmers is on the rise. These farmers are not just growing food, either. The ones you\u2019ll meet here rely on survival strategies inherited from their ancestors, such as collectivism and commitment to social change. They infuse popular education, activism, and collective ownership into their work.\u201d Similarly, Brown asserts that in a society based on \u201ccivic conversations,\u201d we must attempt to alter the assumption that the economy is comprised of individual actors who act in their own selfish interest. We can do so by moving away from the mentality of ignorance against the \u201creal producers of wealth,\u201d and impeding the endurance of the dominant economic discourse that remains in \u201csilence about the role of slaves in creating the wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"farmland<\/a>

Soul Fire Farm is committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system by cultivating life-giving food and acting in solidarity with people marginalized by food apartheid.<\/p><\/div>\n

Thus, transforming our system into one rooted in provision means more than just creating new organizations that aim to do well for the community; it will require that we rewrite the beliefs, exchanges, and rules of our own interactions<\/em>, taking into account who benefits from historical outcomes and who suffers from them.<\/p>\n

The People\u2019s Community Market<\/a> (PCM), an endeavor rooted in the Bay Area\u2019s West Oakland neighborhood, has adopted a mission that also echoes the calls outlined in Brown\u2019s piece. PCM\u2019s mission is to provide a \u201cfull-service neighborhood food store, health resource center, and community hub that engages and supports West Oakland families to attain healthier and more socially connected lives.\u201d They explicitly denounce the\u00a0unchecked and unquestioned pursuit of profit as a cause of inequality and a result of an extractive capitalistic system that inherently feeds off the laboring class\u2014those same \u201cinvisible hands\u201d of slavery, now under the guise of unlivable wages and so-called \u201ccivil rights.\u201d The PCM provides a direct challenge to the historical legacy of slavery and exploitative status quo that continues to disadvantage the Black community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to ensure that all communities have grocery stores, we must move away from seeing profit-making as their sole purpose and only using financial metrics to evaluate their performance and success.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Brahm Ahmadi\u2019s manifesto on the vision of the People\u2019s Community Market<\/strong><\/p>\n

In \u201cA Civic Economy of Provisions,\u201d Brown states: \u201cIf we are to base the economy on civic relations instead of property relations, then we need to use reciprocity as the moral foundation for making exchanges. In specific exchanges, people should receive in proportion to what they have given.\u201d If we developed institutions truly bound to this principle, people would receive provisions based on how much they work, not where they were born or what opportunities (or lack thereof) they\u2019ve been presented. That means providing more than\u00a0just affordable food and groceries to the 25,000 people living in the West Oakland neighborhood, an area that suffers from the legacy of oppression in the form of \u201cfood apartheid,\u201d to use Penneman\u2019s term. In West Oakland, diet 48 percent of people suffer from obesity or weight issues, and the community\u2019s diabetes hospitalization rate is three times higher than the county average. The grocery store will help keep jobs and spending local, and in keeping with Brown\u2019s call for \u201ccivic conversations\u201d to heal the erasure of history, it will provide a space for community building, education, and health engagement programming. These aims were developed and incubated from within the community as part of the curriculum of PCM\u2019s sister non-profit, People\u2019s Grocery.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2i_2USfWdlg<\/p>\n

To become financially viable in our current system while simultaneously paving the way for systemic transformation, PCM is utilizing a Direct Public Offering investment process in order to raise the capital they need to get off the ground. In just one year, they were able to raise $1.2 million and form a \u201cvery aligned and enthusiastic investor base,\u201d noted PCM co-founder and CEO Brahm Ahmadi in an interview in Forbes Magazine<\/a>. Having originated in conversations on values, and not solely in the desire for return on investment, perhaps the startup capital will be the catalyst for PCM\u2019s exit from the current system, bringing it one step closer to achieving their vision of a holistic community food market tailored specifically to the needs of the West Oakland neighborhood, addressing the inequality embedded in the system of food and agriculture. What\u2019s more, PCM is moving beyond their own community to educate and engage this investor base, facilitating conversations to continue to transform the system.<\/p>\n

\"Renaissance<\/a>

Renaissance Community Co-op, a full service cooperatively-owned grocery store similar to People\u2019s Community Market, breaks ground in Greensboro, NC.<\/p><\/div>\n

The PCM isn\u2019t the only initiative of its kind looking holistically at systemic inequality, health, and community empowerment through the lens of food access. The Renaissance Community Co-op<\/a> in Greensboro, North Carolina has been working for years to establish a democratically owned and controlled grocery store that provides healthy, affordable food as well as educational services to community members. And the previously mentioned Soul Fire Farm is working to end racism and injustice in the food system by cultivating a \u201cdeep reverence for the land and wisdom of our ancestors and working to reclaim our collective right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system.\u201d By spanning multiple sectors and rooting their efforts in civic conversations, these endeavors embody Brown\u2019s vision for a new system\u2014a \u201cCivic Economy of Provisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/a><\/p>\n

Michelle Stearn writes for<\/em> The Next System Project as part of the Democracy Collaborative team. Based in Washington, DC, Michelle’s work focuses on\u00a0generating equitable and community-based food and energy systems. She is a co-founder of SPACE Lab<\/a>, a collective of innovators bridging the gap\u00a0between\u00a0art\u00a0and\u00a0science by transforming\u00a0spaces for creative learning and expression. To that end, she is working to establish a community\u00a0biofuel\u00a0laboratory in Southeast DC centered on youth\u00a0empowerment and energy democracy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thenextsystem.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transforming our system into one rooted in provision means more than just creating new organizations that aim to do well for the community; it will require that we rewrite the beliefs, exchanges, and rules of our own interactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paradigm-changes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}