Contributing authors: Danielle Nierenberg and Jason Flatt
Poet and farmer Wendell Berry once famously said that eating is an agricultural act. But eating is also a political act. Historical inequality and racial discrimination have led to food apartheid in many communities and questions around access and affordability are of greater importance than ever before with 12.6 million Americans out of work.
“I do think food is kind of the social issue of our time,” Bob Martin Director of Food Systems Policy, at the Johns Hopkins Center For a Livable Future told Food Tank in a recent episode of “Food Talk Live.”
Martin speaks to the importance of being a citizen eater, a person who not only votes with their fork, but with their vote at the ballot box for the kind of food system they want to see in the world. And this type of engagement is not only important during the upcoming United States national election, but at the village, town, school board, municipal, and state levels.
At the same time, COVID-19 is exposing the severe fragility of our current industrial models of agriculture, highlighting the need for real change. Food is connected to nearly every aspect of our global economy and health and the decisions we make as eaters and workers matter.
“Everybody has to vote this year… and every individual should be working on trying to get people to vote,” Dr. Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor, of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, told Food Tank in an episode of “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg.”
Next week, on November 4, Food Tank along with chef and food expert Katherine Miller is convening a roundtable with Devita Davison, Director of Marketing and Communications, FoodLab Detroit; Navina Khanna, Director, HEAL Food Alliance; Patricia Griffin, Partner, NVG, LLC; Bob Martin, Program Director, Food System Policy, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future; and Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems to discuss post-election predictions for the food system. Please join us!
Photo courtesy of Harold Mendoza, Unsplash
