the eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it's people

the eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it

White neighborhoods contain an average of 4x as many supermarkets as predominantly Black ones. 21.2% of Black households are food insecure. 27% are Black, 26% are Native American, 25.6% are Latinx, and 11.7% are Asian-American.įood insecurity (lacking physical and/or economic access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food) is directly tied to race and poverty. In addition to the many other barriers built into daily life in America for people of color, racial inequality in wages in the US means that of the 47 million people living below the poverty line, less than 10% are white. Racial disparities in ownership and leadership roles exist throughout the food system’s chain of production: white workers hold 75% of managerial positions in the food system. Land is the basis of freedom, justice and equality.

Malcolm X said: Land is the basis of all independence. 52% of farmland in the US has Black ownership. Today, there are just 450,000 Black farmers and 1 million acres of Black-owned farmland. In 1920, there were nearly a million Black farmers and 16 million acres of black-owned farmland. The USDA has been referred to as ‘The Last Plantation’, alluding to its historically racist culture and refusal of loans and subsidies to Black farmers. Their descendants have been continually barred from land ownership, the means of production, and the fruits of their labor. Systemic racism in our food system begins with agriculture, which is the product of the labor and knowledge of enslaved Black people and displaced indigenous people. It’s working as designed: a capitalist regime intent on oppressing the Black and brown bodies on which it was built.

The eternal frontier: an ecological history of north america and it's people