Deepening Food Democracy - IATP
I N S T I T U T E F O R A G R I C U LT U R E A N D T R A D E P O L I C YDeepening FoodDemocracyThe tools to create a sustainable, foodsecure and food sovereign future arealready here—deep democratic approachescan show us howBy Jill Carlson and M. Jahi Chappell, Ph.DInstitute for Agriculture and Trade PolicyJanuary 2015
Deepening Food DemocracyBy Jill Carlson and M. Jahi Chappell, Ph.DPublished January 2015The authors would like to thank Anna Claussen, Christy Shi Day, Antonio Roman-Alcala, and Kyle Bozentko for their time,assistance, and feedback on earlier versions of this report. All errors are ours.”The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globallyat the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.More at iatp.org
INTRODUC TIONImagine a group of 15 citizens from your community. Thesecitizens are a cross-section from your community, representative in gender, age, education, party affiliation andethnicity. They gather to discuss their concerns about theimpacts of climate change on their lives and potential stepsto overcome those challenges. After days of discussing theircollective community vision of what a sustainable and resilient community is, they draft a citizen’s report. This reportis used as a launching pad for conversations and actions withtheir local government and their community to create asustainable future.Now imagine thousands of your neighbors attending acommunity event to vote to allocate public funds—over 1.5 million—for local projects: community gardens, playground reconstruction, community center renovations,and improving technology access for neighborhood schools.Community members proposed these projects—in fact, onecomes from someone on your block. Another comes from oneof your friends across town. Together, community membersvote on projects. More than half of the ballots are cast in alanguage other than English. The representatives of yourdistrict know that these projects have the support of thecommunity. And the community has a deeper understandingof and trust in their government and is ready to hold themaccountable to these ideas developed by the community itself.“We talk about liberal-this conservative-that,republicans-this democrats-that, at the end of the daywe are our government. We are the ones responsiblefor making these decisions[.]I’m thrilled and honoredto be a part of a process that reminds me why thisgrand [democratic] experiment continues. And it’s notbeen perfect, and it will not be perfect, but we canalways make it better, and things like this are a start.Thank you for the opportunity.”-Citizen Jury Member from Morris, Minnesota RuralClimate DialoguesThese two stories are true stories from Morris, Minnesotaand New York City, respectively, which exemplify a style ofgovernance that many are unfamiliar with, but is practicedacross the United States and across the globe. This style ofgovernance—called "deep democracy"1—has immense implications for the way we interact with each other as citizens:with our neighbors, with our co-workers, with our governments, and with other institutions. Deep democracy blursthe lines between the government and citizen in order tomake both more effective at solving tough problems. Deepdemocracy takes “We the People” seriously, understandingthat democracy is something that can always be improved,not somewhere we’ve already arrived. This is particularlyDEEPENING FOOD DEMOCRACYtrue in the case of food and agriculture, where we increasingly have a system that “as individuals none of us wouldchoose”2—a system with insufficient access to affordable food,huge amounts of food waste and obesity all at the same time.Deep democracy offers the potential to turn things around bycreating new spaces and ways for us to solve our problems, bytalking directly to each other, and coming up with commonsense solutions together.Indeed, many organizations and local governments have usedforms of deep democracy, in some cases, more or less continuously for hundreds of years.3 It is a powerful force for changethrough its ability to bring people together to exchangeideas—and form new ones. Using deep democracy, citizensmanage budgets, discuss potential solutions for contentioushealth issues and manage scarce resources. Further, thetrue measure of the success of a deep democratic process ishow well it is able to draw directly upon the voices the mostmarginalized and least powerful, and to truly integrate theminto decision-making processes and policies. Deep democracycan change the tone of the news you hear on a daily basis:instead of hearing about gridlock in Congress and increasedpolarization of the American people, you can hear stories ofprocesses that enabled cooperation and compromise acrossdividing lines.4Deep democracy contrasts sharply with, for instance, thecurrent U.S. political system, which is largely controlled bythe voices of the few. Representatives’ ability to work towardthe well-being of their constituents is hindered by corporateinfluence, uncompetitive politics, and the fact that doingnothing and blaming it on the “other side” is often a betterstrategy for politicians of either party than negotiating onanything.5 Therefore, deep democracy is an alternative thatallows us to decide and act on the most complex issues of theday, calling upon citizen power.“When people delegate their power and responsibilityfor governance, they do not lend them but give themaway.” –Thomas Prugh, Robert Constanza, and HermanDaly, The Local Politics of Global Sustainability“If we are to be a great democracy, we must all take anactive role in our democracy. We must do democracy.That goes far beyond simply casting your vote. Wemust all actively champion the causes that ensure thecommon good.” –Martin Luther King, IIIJust as our current political system is controlled by the few,6our food system has drastically changed in the past 100 years.Power and control of food and agriculture have become deeplyconcentrated and consolidated, at the costs of many livelihoods, justice, and sustainability. In response, people across3
the country—in community organizations, at universities,within local, state, tribal, and national agencies, and inbusinesses are asking what a sustainable food system lookslike and how we can get there. How can we simultaneouslycounter trends in hunger, obesity, widening socioeconomicdisparity, an aging farm population being squeezed out ofsustainable livelihoods and environmental damage? Theefforts underway to make food systems more resilient andsustainable can be supported and facilitated through deepdemocratic processes.There are already many precedents and frameworks forlinking food sustainability with social justice and a reassertion of political power—from prison inmates growing foodfor themselves and others, to hundreds of food policy councils and citizens’ food councils across the United States, tothe work of groups like the Restaurant Opportunities CenterUnited, National Family Farm Coalition, and U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance. These frameworks, actions, and movementsform a foundation for how deep food democracy can evolve inthe United States.Taking it furtherWhere might the processes started in Morris and New York Citygo? These and similar approaches hold a lot of promise towardsthe kinds of changes we need—and can develop ourselves—thatcross normal lines of party, class, race, and gender. Imaginecontinuing and expanding the dialogue in Morris after the15-person discussion, and the citizens’ report. Imagine repeatingit in another community; then another. Community members’ideas, reports, and experiences are exchanged; commonalities are noted, as are differences. Together, citizens from thecommunities (perhaps you!) and others across the state aremeeting with the state government to present not just citizens’reports, but also the local actions that followed. Communitymembers directly tell their elected officials what has worked,and what hasn’t; what is in common across all the communities,and what is different. The usual partisan gridlock is unable tostand in the face of this, because communities and communitypartners have already had the really tough discussions acrossthe usual dividing lines. Neither party is able to ignore themomentum from their own constituents. The communities areable to tell the state what it needs to do to support a sustainableand resilient future, based on the local actions and solutions thathave already been developed: by the people themselves, for thecommunities themselves, from across the state.We haven’t gotten to this point in deep democratic practices, where communities’ solutions, and their willpower,are sustained, coordinated, and amplified together Yet. Butthe project in Morris—called the Rural Climate Dialogues—iscontinuing, and will be coming to more communities in thecoming months. The participatory budgeting process tried out inNew York is one of but many examples of this process, which isnow used in thousands of examples around the world. Anotherworld of deep democracy is already here, happening around us,and it’s building momentum! Look to the resources at the endof this report to learn more and explore how you can bring it toyour community.4S TRENGTHENING LOC ALECONOMIES , SUPP ORTINGFA MILY FARMS , AND G IVINGP OWER IN THE FOOD SYS TEMBACK TO CITIZENSThe fundamental American values behind deep democracyare much needed, and arguably on the rise today—especiallywithin the food movement. While the food movement in theUnited States is still growing, solidifying, and starting towork through its own internal inconsistencies, the importance of dignified access to food for everyone is increasinglyacknowledged by NGOs, citizens and even corporationsthroughout the U.S. The benefits of local food and local economies are increasingly recognized, including the importantpart they play in supporting and even rebuilding the kindsof community connections we will need in order to facethe intense challenges before us. Fighting food deserts—orwhat food activist Karen Washington has called food apartheid—has gained a place on national and regional agendas.Supporting small, local growers is a priority that resonateswith low-income neighborhoods in the Bronx through theWhite House Rural Council.7 This burgeoning food movementis as much about putting power back into the hands of communities, food workers, farmers and farm workers as it is aboutproducing and distributing healthy, sustainably-grown food.And what’s more, even as we are having these conversationsin the United States, there are active social movements anda whole international conversation working very much inparallel. Whether we realize it or not, many around the worldare fighting the same battles as U.S. citizens and consumers,though many of them go by different names.Food sovereigntyAlthough it is often misunderstood as a call for each countryto produce all of the food that it consumes, food sovereigntyis in reality about altering the power dynamics of foodsystems. While locating food production more locally andregionally will likely play a part, food sovereignty is fundamentally concerned with placing control of food systems intothe hands of those most often disregarded and oppressed bycorporate-driven food systems. It is about redirecting thevalues, resources, and joys of food, to focus on the health andlivelihoods of each country’s farmers and citizens themselves,rather than the needs and profits of a global, financiallydriven and speculative marketplace that serves investors andlarge multi-national companies.In fact, food sovereignty emerged as a counterpoint toan increasingly globalized, export-driven food system inthe 1990s that continued to fail both the hungry and theneeds of most farmers. In response, La Vía Campesina8—anINSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE AND TRADE POLICY
international movement of peasants—emerged and has cometo advance food sovereignty as one of their fundamentalvalues. La Vía Campesina is a global effort by and for smallholder farmers to challenge the neoliberal “globalization”trade agenda that continues to undermine their ability togrow food for themselves and for their communities. La VíaCampesina helped foster a larger conversation. After yearsof conversations among many different groups, assembledgrassroots organizations and nonprofits at The Forum forFood Sovereignty in 2007 in Nyeleni, Mali issued a declaration. According to the declaration, food sovereignty is definedby focusing on food for people (not just private profit); valuingfood providers (who must make a living and who, in cruelirony, make up a bulk of the world’s hungry); localizing foodsystems; returning local control and rights over land, water,and genetic resources; building knowledge and skills; andworking with nature.9“The decision-making process of La Vía Campesina[the international small farmers’ movement] is officiallyby consultation and consensus. It is comparativelyrespectful of the autonomy of member organizations,though there is a good deal of lobbying fellowmembers to adopt particular positions. These positionsare in principle created by articulating the concerns ofthe base within each national organization, bringingthem to table in La Vía Campesina, and having adialogue to reach common positions This is aslow process, especially as peasant organizations, incontrast to NGOs, do not respond quickly, yet timehas shown that this method builds the strong basisof trust that is so important for collective action. [LaVía Campesina has had to deal with] the multitudeof different languages spoken by their members andrepresentatives and the even greater level of culturaldiversity The issue of unity in diversity at the culturallevel is also crucial. It is remarkable in today’s worldthat a movement can be coordinated by a Muslim,and incorporate Christians, Hindus, Buddhists andmembers of many other religions, together withradical Marxist and social democratic atheists, allscarcely without raising an eyebrow internally ”10La Vía Campesina. CC image courtesy of wdm via flickr.rural farmers were therefore excluded from political participation.11 However, an organization made up of thousands ofrural families without legal title to land—the Landless RuralWorkers’ Movement (MST)—has worked toward a new vision ofparticipation in decision-making, something scholar HannahWittman has called "agrarian citizenship." Whereas citizenship is normally seen as a state of being, these grassrootsFigure 1. Brazil Land ownershipAgrarian citizenshipMany members of La Vía Campesina have experienced marginalization historically, often at the hands of governments, andhave responded by developing their own practices and valuesof democracy. Brazil is one such example where politics andland rights have been linked through the historical oppression of Brazil’s rural populations since colonial times. Landownership equaled political power and control; as 3.5 percentof landowners control over half of Brazil’s arable land, landlessDEEPENING FOOD DEMOCRACYPercentage of land that is owned by3% of the populationApproximately 3% of the land area5
organizers in Brazil have approached citizenship as a continualact of improving quality of life, working toward social progressfor the working class, protecting the earth and safeguardingits resources for the next generation. Agrarian citizenship isthus a practice of providing food for your community, region,and nation while challenging conventional notions of what itmeans to be modern or peasant, urban or rural, a subject or acitizen. For these rural communities, the way they make surethat their basic human rights are secured is through continuousrural action and collaboration—very much in the spirit of deepening democracy. As a result of their approaches and actions,the MST and parallel Brazilian groups have brought about landreform and redistribution benefiting hundreds of thousands offarming families—well over a million people. Research to dateindicates that many or most families see increases in quality oflife and income, along with healthier diets, increased politicalawareness or involvement, and an increased sense of controlling their own destiny. These newly settled farm families havealso, in many cases, helped safeguard natural areas in andaround their farming settlements.12 Further, as a core memberof La Vía Campesina, MST has been part of re-shaping theinternational food conversation to focus on food sovereigntyand the rights of small farmers around the world.Food democracyThese movements and ideas which originated abroad may notseem to directly apply to the food system crises we witness inthe United States. It can be difficult sometimes to see how thedysfunctions of the U.S. food system directly relate to theseinternational grassroots movements. But the deeply rootedFarmers markets can help support food democracys as consumers areable to directly interact with the food producer. CC image courtesy ofjohn s. quarterman via flickr.6power of the corporate-controlled food system affects U.S.food and agriculture, just as it affects the farmers, citizens,consumers and workers behind these international movements.We can see this, for example, in the organic sector of U.S.alternative food movements. Although the history of organicagriculture includes concerns for farmer autonomy and independence, public health, soil health and sustainability, andeven perceived moral risks from industrialized food systems,today an organic food industry competes with "conventional"industrial food suppliers.13 The broad, complex and holisticaspirations of organic agriculture have been significantlychanneled into forms that neither challenge the currentpower dynamics within our industrial food system, norpropose a systematic or liberating alternative. Corporateorganic supply chains mirror those of their conventionalcounterparts: they are often large farms, where immenseamounts of bio-derived inputs are used, with products thentransported thousands of miles away to distant grocers.Certainly, the face of organics is diverse and varied—rangingfrom the aforementioned large operations to small, diversefamily farm operations. But there is currently no guaranteethat the way farmworkers on organic farms are treated is anybetter;14 organic farms are also often monocultures—nearlybiological deserts. Consumers’ choices to buy organic fooddoes nothing to challenge extreme concentration in food andagriculture, and does nothing to improve the access of U.S.citizens with limited incomes to foods for a diverse, healthy,and sustainable diet. In other words, corporate organic doesnot ultimately answer the question of how our food systemcan be ecologically sound and socially just.15 So although theexact words (“food sovereignty” or “agrarian citizenship”)may not currently “speak” to us in the U.S., the ideals behindthem and concerns motivating them surely ought to.For this reason, some in the U.S. food movement speak insteadof food democracy, building on the foundational importance ofdemocracy in the American identity. Food democracy’s ideals—and deep democracy’s—contrast sharply with the highlycentralized, industrial, corporate food system we currentlyhave. Food democracy seeks to organize the food system sothat communities can participate in the decision-making, cansee the ecological risks and benefits to food system choices,and can respond collectively and accordingly.16 It maintainsthat “voting with your dollar” is not the only, or even best wayto change the system. Rather, we should “vote with our vote,”17and through getting directly involved in our local, regional,and even national food debates. These ideas and frameworksmay appear lofty and out-of-touch with what is possible. But,quite to the contrary, these concepts are being implementedon the ground today. Food democracy in action can includefarmers’ markets and
already here—deep democratic approaches can show us how By Jill Carlson and M. Jahi Chappell, Ph.D Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy January 2015. Deepening Food Democracy By Jill Carlson and M. Jahi Chappell, Ph.D Published January 2015 The authors would like to thank Anna Claussen, Christy Shi Day, Antonio Roman-Alcala, and Kyle Bozentko for their time, assistance, and feedback on .
The third challenge of deepening of democracy is faced by every democracy in one form or another. This involves strengthening of the institutions and practices of democracy. This should happen in such a way that people can realise their expectations of democracy. But ordinary people have different expectation
in European democracy’.1 And so today reflection on democracy is called for more than ever. The future of our united Europe looks uncertain. The nature of its democracy has become contested. So this series of interventions is the beginning of a new dialogue on the state, and future, of European democracy. Its publication is part
Port of New Orleans Deepening Feasibility Study Appendix A: Engineering 1 General This draft Engineering Appendix presents and documents the feasibility level engineering and design for the Port of New Orleans Access Channel Deepening Feasibility Study (PONO), Tentatively Selected Plan (TSP). The non-Federal sponsor (NFS) is the Port of
increase financial deepening have been nurtured with the aim of improving economic growth both in developed and developing countries. This study sought to investigate the effects of financial deepening on economic growth in the Kenyan banking sector. The study achieves this objective using quarterly time series data from 2000 to 2013.
Deepening democracy so it can deliver tangible improvements to people’s lives is an overarching NDI objective. Citizen Participation – Making democracy work requires informed and active citizens who voice their interests, act collectively and hold public officials accountable. NDI helps citizens engage vigorously in the political process and
Types of food environments Community food environment Geographic food access, which refers to the location and accessibility of food outlets Consumer food environment Food availability, food affordability, food quality, and other aspects influencing food choices in retail outlets Organizational food environment Access to food in settings
Food Fraud and "Economically Motivated Adulteration" of Food and Food Ingredients Congressional Research Service 1 Background Food fraud, or the act of defrauding buyers of food and food ingredients for economic gain— whether they be consumers or food manufacturers, retailers, and importers—has vexed the food industry throughout history.
be looking at him through this square, lighted window of glazed paper. As if to protect himself from her. As if to protect her. In his outstretched, protecting hand there’s the stub end of a cigarette. She retrieves the brown envelope when she’s alone, and slides the photo out from among the newspaper clippings. She lies it flat on the table and stares down into it, as if she’s peering .
