Urban Agriculture in the Bay Area - Documentary

For my PE I will be working with urban farmers in the Dakar region of Senegal. My curiosity, interest, and passion for food and the system it lies within has been ever-growing as a student in Berkeley, and as a resident in the Bay Area - rightly accredited as one of the epicenters of the food movement in the United States. Being able to see urban agriculture in the works and how even a small farm can make a difference in an entire community gives me a lot of real hope for changes in our food system so that a more just system can, and will happen.

This documentary, though reminiscent of other food documentaries in the beginning, developed into a very good representation of all the different kinds of efforts around the Bay Area, while also showing how all of them were aiming towards a common goal - to get food, healthy and yummy food, to people, especially to those that don't have access to it because of various political, economic, and social factors. It is a well-edited film about the urban food movement, where it is, and where it intends to go.

It's inspiring to see how many different people - in regards to their age, their race and ethnicities, their class, their gender, their backgrounds, their experience in farming - can fight for a common cause. From   food and environment all-star scholars such as Miguel Altieri and Nathan Gimenez-Holt, to young kids and teenagers from poor communities that have to go to special schools for not being able to handle/"behave" well in a typical school, people have united to fight for a better food system, to fight for access, and to take change into their own hands when change doesn't happen. This movement is active participation.

Even though there are similarities between the Bay and Dakar, such as guerilla urban farming (farming on land that one doesn't own because they don't have the power or resources to buy the land, or the land is open and would be otherwise neglected) and urban farming to lower food insecurity, it has been perspective-opening to me to learn about urban farming in another region of the world. Here in the Bay it is very much a social movement of access to the community and equality, whereas in Dakar, much of urban agriculture is aimed towards economic support of farmers. Unlike in the Bay where many people in the community are learning how to farm from a few experience gardeners to do urban farming, in Dakar, people who are farmers by trade, or subsistence farmers by necessity, are working to keep a living.

And as a trailing off final though... I've been pondering the pattern to return to traditional farming features as a solution to modern day problems of the food system. It really makes me question "development" that has occurred in regards the the food system, who was driving this "development," the intentions behind it, and how much it was thought through.

Michael B. Katz in relation to LIFEhabits

Yesterday in class we discussed the six problems of poverty that Michael B. Katz addressed in his essay “What kind of Problem is Poverty? The six different problems are: persons, places, resources, political economy, power, and markets. After a short discussion of how each different problem is important in its own way, the professor had us get into our groups to discuss how our group projects related to one or many of the six problems of poverty. My group’s project: Learning Important Fun Eating habits (LIFEhabits), will be focusing on looking at obesity rates in a school district and more specifically focusing on 8^th grade middle school students. Our goal is to educate students about the importance of eating healthy.

As we were discussing where our project’s goals would fit under, we came to a consensus that our project problem solution fell under resources. In Katz essay, his explanation of poverty based on resources focus a lot on money, and how poverty is the absence of money. In our case, our group felt that resources for us meant something more than money; it meant having the knowledge to understand what is happening, or why things are happening. The levels of obesity in middle schools might be the result of lack of education on nutrition. There is no real solution to this problem is all we do is give people money to try and change things without really analyzing the problem, and why it keeps happening. Like one of my classmates mentioned in class. It’s like giving homeless people money to go to the doctor, you re giving them the resource (money) but they will not go because they will either spend the money elsewhere or not be informed on where to go. The solution would be to taking them ourselves. Same thing will happen with middle school children and their schools. We can give them the money they need to change the lunch menu, but unless the students are aware of why it is best to eat healthy foods instead of Burgers and pizza every day, they will not eat during lunch, instead they will continue their eating habits outside school. Is all about knowledge. At least that is what many of us though as we started thinking about our projects.  But is it really? Professor Talwalker left us thinking about a question she wrote “is knowledge most likely conceived as a resource, or not?” on the board.

We also said that our project fell under people. The only solution will not only be informing students about the benefits of healthy eating habits, but also outreaching to them and trying to change their way of thinking. Many students do not like fruits and vegetables, and that is understandable because most of us went through that phase. But the only way to have these children change their way of thinking when it comes to choosing between healthy foods and junk food, is by motivating them and once again informing them about nutrition. At the end of the day this could be our biggest problem, having children understand.

Finally the third category in which our project falls under is places. For this category we are still debating whether it actually does fall under places or not. In class our group we had agreed that it did because where someone lives also affects their way of thinking, but after discussing as a class, our group said that maybe it did not because we were not focusing on a certain race, we wanted to apply our project to multiple school districts, wealthy or not, and finally we were not going to solve this problem by moving everyone out of their neighborhood. But when we presented our project to the class, a classmate and professor Talkwaker both mentioned that place might actually be a problem. Yet we are debating whether place is a solution to our problem.

Overall Katz essay was in my opinion a well-written essay that helped us start thinking about specific problems and solutions for our group projects that we are going to encounter along the way.

SNAP cuts

            September 19^th, 2013 under pressure from the Tea Party, a mostly Republican voted pushed a bill through the house to eliminate loopholes, ensure work requirements, and put “us on a fiscally responsible path.” The program cost almost $80 billion last year, and is projected with the $40 billion cut to cost $700 billion in the next decade. Following the precedent set by PROWRA, adult beneficiaries would still be required to work or be in a job-training program, but also now there will exist a 3-month maximum and a requirement to pass drug tests for benefits. The bill also designates recipients of other social welfare assistance ineligible.

            In April 2013, 15.2% of Americans received SNAP (30% of which were working and 72% to households with children). Two weeks prior to the vote the Agriculture Department reported that in fact 17.6% households did not have enough to eat in 2012 due to lack of resources to provide food. Two days prior to the vote the Census Bureau reported that 46.5 million people live in Poverty in America (15%). These numbers beg further questioning to the claim that the program had “grown out of control.”

            Furthermore, none of these numbers take into account the many new trends, such as boomerang-kids and doubling-up on housing to share costs. Almost 4 million recipients will be cut from the rolls in two months, disproportionately youth. Although the economy may be improving, a strikingly high percentage of Americans live well under the poverty line. It is difficult to measure how much of an impact in-kind benefits as SNAP make on the quality of lives. Nonetheless, I feel that the social welfare network is called a safety net for the reason to catch individuals in moments as these- not only during a recession, but for the years following. While overall things may be looking up, things have not improved at all for most hard-working, yet underemployed American families.

            At The Suitcase Clinic, we don’t get many requests for assistance from families with youth, unless already placed in a shelter. Many parents are afraid of asking for help when suffering extreme poverty due to the fear CPS will take their children. I really wonder how we will be able to evaluate the tremendous impact of this drastic cut as it plays out this coming year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/us/politics/house-passes-bill-cutting-40-billion-from-food-stamps.html 

http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb13-165.html

http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err155/report-summary.aspx#.UnM_zRaDd8s

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/opinion/another-insult-to-the-poor.html?hp&_r=0

Participation Expectations

I have been involved in service related to food accessibility for years, primarily interested in volunteering at soup kitchens and “feeding-the-homeless” events at churches. I always found colorful and very social characters at these events, and one of my favorite things to do was just hear about their day. One of the most common pieces I heard about were the treks around the city for the scheduled free dinners and soup kitchen openings. They would tell me about how day after day, they would follow the calendar and live off of whatever was being served. It was these kinds of stories that lead me to my practice experience organization.

I would wonder about other options that could take them out of this weekly cycle of waiting in line for the meal of the day on wheels or the next donation box of food that no one else wanted. How great would it be they could be given the opportunity to help themselves? To make their own decisions about what they eat and to be able to provide for their own? When I discovered City Slicker Farms and its mission, I was excited.  The community farms allowed people to receive the fresh produce that were so out of reach for the lower-income families and to really be a part of improving their own wellness. People would be more able to participate in the improvement of their lives and not depend so much on planned menus and the charity of others. It brought communities together, educated them on the importance of nutrition and the environment, and allowed people to take more control of their lives and health.

This past week, “participation” was the main topic, and when I tried to fit City Slickers into one of the degrees of participation listed by Duraiappah, it was difficult to fit the community farms program into just one category because there were so many components to the program itself. Community members can schedule a meeting with the organization to express concerns or comments about the activities, layout, and production of the farms. Community members who have worked the farms enough are given the opportunities to run them as if it were their own, but the organization still manages the harvest, weighing, and main food stand sales. Planning and evaluation boards comprised completely of community members are allowed a lot of power in the workings of the farms, and individuals can request to have a small farm installed in their own backyards to run on their own. As far as I could see, the organization offers a lot of opportunities for community participation and development, a chance to really take the community places.

What, however, is the true impact of a community participation model that seems effective given the issues  if the community is not participating? As a kind of volunteer orientation, I was sent to the various community farm sites in Oakland to see how the farms functioned, see the farming participants, and meet the coordinators. At each of the sites, there were many volunteers and each of the coordinators were either former volunteers or homeowners who decided to tear down their backyard fences and open their home to the community. One thing I realized though was that almost all of the volunteers I met were not from the target community of low-income, homeless, or struggling. Instead, I found a lot of student volunteers, middle class gardeners, and families on field trips. I was reminded of one of the challenges for effective participation that Duraiappah includes at the end of his piece: Lack of public interest in becoming involved. How much can an organization aid in community development with only a small percent of the community involved? The community is definitely empowered with the ability to make choices through the organization, but what if no one is interested in making those choices or acting on these opportunities?

It may have just been the time of day I went or the site I visited, but the concern about the community’s interest and participation in its development has definitely been planted.

Class Infographic | Fall 2013