Is Education a Resource Problem?

     In the last month or so, the class had spent a good amount of time on the article “What Kind of a Problem is Poverty?” by Michael B. Katz. The article goes into depth about 6 types of problems —persons, places, resources, political economy, power, and market. From our discussion, an interesting question arose as to whether education was a resource problem.  I was one of those that ardently believed that education was a resource problem.  However, I did understand the debate surrounding the topic, because it may not fall within the Katz definition of what a resource problem is.  Katz largely emphasized that a resource problem was a lack in money.  Further, Katz stated that a resource problem is the absence of also “key resources,” which he brings up as food and basic needs. 

     Although Katz doesn’t bring education up under “key resources,” I think in today’s society education is valuable key resource that largely influences the amount of money that you can possibly make (salary) and other opportunities.  In the article that I found with the New York Times titled “Class Matters. Why won’t we admit it?”, the author describes the undeniable relationship between education and class. The article even describes how certain schools and education policies like “No Child Left Behind” are currently addressing how important it has become to provide a good education, especially for the lower income classes. An interesting fact provided by the article was that students of lower income and social status had lower test scores. The author even believes that it’s the fact that it’s the large inequality and high poverty rate in America that contributes to America’s education system being ranked very low in comparison to other countries.  Given this, it seems that education is an essential resource for those who seek to get out of the lower classes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/opinion/the-unaddressed-link-between-poverty-and-education.html?pagewanted=all&action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DSectionFront%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3Deducation%26t%3Dqry904%23%2Fpoor+and+education

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.