A Complex and Messy Exploration of Food Systems

Guys, I can’t stop thinking about food systems. It’s haunting me and I can’t seem to give it up. I keep running over and over all the different variables and factors in my mind trying to make sense of this incredibly complex industrial system desperately looking for solutions.

I’ve said it before about anti-oppression practices and I come to the same conclusion here: equitable ecologically grown local food is only accessible if you remove it from the capitalist framework.

Stay with me here…

Localized and ecological farming practices are a critical piece of the puzzle when addressing climate collapse. The scientific and agricultural community seem to be coming to more and more of a consensus on this: soil health and biodiversity are so important. We simply can’t continue large scale monocrop farming that relies on toxic inputs. It’s killing our soil, our animal kin, and, in turn, the planet.

Many people know this, but don’t buy food from ecological farmers because it’s inaccessible, either by physical distance or price. I’m not even talking about organic certification because I think that’s become a green washing tactic and organic can still be done at an industrial level. I’m talking about regenerative farming happening at the local level. I really enjoyed this video exploring regenerative farming this week - definitely a catalyst for this rant. Alas, it still doesn’t address the major limiting factor that most people experience in supporting local ecological regenerative farms: price.

The question arises then, how do we make local ecologically grown food more accessible to everyone?

Lots of folks point to scale: by scaling up and selling an increased volume, farmers have a better chance of making a fair wage. The limitation of physical accessibility is addressed because more people can get access to the food through wholesalers, grocery stores, or food co-ops. This doesn’t, however, address the issue of price accessibility.

I am really super duper familiar with this barrier because I’ve been fighting to overcome it for the last 5 years. I’ve been exploring different options for purchasing local food for my family with minimal success. I’ve tried farmer’s markets, CSA programs, food co-ops, bulk buying, but the only real success I’ve seen is simply by growing it myself. Or, you know, just getting a higher paying job working for someone else. Plug me back into the broken economic system.

The farmers that I’ve heard from who are obviously in a position to provide the best insight believe that if more people buy from them, it fixes the problem. But we find ourselves in a catch 22 because people can’t afford to buy from them, they need to raise their prices to cover their overhead, and we end up in an endless loop with no solution in sight.

The only answer that I can come up with is that we need to break out of the capitalist paradigm when it comes to food. We need to stop thinking about good quality local food as a commodity to be sold on the market, and start thinking about it as a birth right that we all contribute to and benefit from. When we take food production and consumption outside of the capitalist framework and ground it in mutual aid (I prefer the term mutual support), it is only then that small scale ecological farming practices become a reality on a larger scope.

What this approach requires is more people growing more food. If we aren’t relying on dedicated farmers that have to earn a living wage, we need to switch the narrative to include a lot more people growing food as part of their daily lives, just like they would do laundry, maintain their home, fix meals, raise their kids, or go to work. You may say that folks don’t have time for this, but I’d argue the amount of time folks put into yard work maintaining their grass would be comparable to growing some basic vegetables.

Some folks will point to the inefficiency of this approach, but I would argue that efficiency isn’t the goal. If you want efficiency, you end up plugging right back into the industrialized model. The goal needs to be good local ecologically grown food; small scale agriculture; neighbours feeding neighbours. The entire process needs to be removed from the capitalist framework to centre the simple act of growing food as the reward, rather than the possibility for financial gain. Right now we pay other people to grow our food so we have more time to relax, but what if the process of growing food was itself relaxing. Joyful. Rewarding.

And yes yes, I know. We still live within the confines of capitalism, but what if…

There’s a local group of folks that convened this year close to where I live that are all buying food from each other. One person goes to a local food auction (not ecologically grown, but exceptionally affordable) and others are welcome to bring their harvest excess and sell it to others. The goal next year is for everyone to plant a bit more and lessen the dependence on the food auction.

Is this process universally applicable? Obviously not, but if food becomes something we all contribute to rather than something that is bought and sold, what other solutions might start to emerge? Urban rooftop community gardens? Backyard livestock? Municipally dedicated urban space to ecological farming? I can dream up a handful of other options that don’t require a huge stretch of the imagination.

Again I’ll come back to this: the capitalist economic system is not an inherent part of humanity. Food used to be grown communally and we used to provide mutual support to our neighbours. Colonial conquest played a huge part in decimating this way of life. But I don’t think it would take too much to get back there other than the dedication of some people who really care.

I know there’s holes in these ideas. They’re not cookie cutter and they’re not perfect; they are part of the swirling chaos of ideas and solutions that we’re all mixed in with together. They would obviously have to be adjusted based on a number of localized factors, but I think that’s what makes ideas beautiful outside of the capitalist framework. There are no simple solutions that will save us. That’s probably why we’re still struggling to implement them.

They are complex and messy and hard to handle and emotional, just like us.