Food Justice: The "Right-ification" Of What Black Folks Should Be Doing Anyway In Response To A Need

This picture was taken out of the most recent edition of Time Magazine.

Here is a re-posting of the text below the picture for readability sake:

Food Justice in Inner-City Chicago

LaDonna Redmond considers opening an organic-food market on Chicago's South Side the act of a freedom fighter. After 10 years of having to drive across town to find produce free of pesticides, the veteran community activist recently opened Graffiti and Grub, a for profit market staffed by inner-city youth who also work on urban farms in an employment program run through the store. "There aren't enough of these choices in the South Side," she says, adding, "Everyone deserves healthy food."

I will be honest with you. Upon typing these words and thus getting a better vision of what this woman is trying to do I am going to break my response up into a "pat on the back" and a bit of criticism. I prematurely focused on how see focused on one's "right to" healthy foods and not on the totality of her program and the jobs that she has created. I cannot generically criticize what I ultimately want to see happen.

Way To Go Sista Redmond - You "Did For Self and For Your Community"

My applause to LaDonna Redmond comes from the fact that she is conscious about:

• Healthy Foods
• The Need for Retail Outlets in her community
• The Need for Jobs In Her Community

Instead of complaining yet hopping in her car, exiting her community, she opened her own damned store and offered to the buying public what she saw was missing in her community. There is no response that I have on these points by high praise for her. I hope that her efforts will motivate the young people who work with her to apply their intellectual gifts and will to craft a better life for their community into similar productive efforts. There is no one else to do this but those who are in this community.

My only hope is that the community will step up and return the favor.
I recall about 4 years ago seeing an independently owned book store and coffeehouse open up in a predominately Black area. It was a counter-cultural movement for that specific place. I befriended the owner and vowed that I would do everything in my power to help her keep her doors opened. At that time I saw the need to disaggreegate my purchases. Instead of going to the supermarket to purchase my newspaper, soft drinks and magazines - I vowed to go to this location for those items. I would go to the new independently owned butcher shop for my meats instead of giving all of my money to Kroger, Publix or Ingles.

Unfortunately both places closed down. Too many people in the community drove past and said "Oh that's nice that she did that" but they failed to support her in keeping her doors open. Today that building that was one a wide open space, capable of holding community meetings was carved upon into 4 separate store fronts - An insurance office, a tax office a barbershop and an empty location. I learned that it takes community will to keep a store open because it outlasts an owner's checking account to do so. The owner's checking account typically fades quicker than his or her will.

Our "Organic Productivity Obligations" Must Trump Our "Consumer Rights"

My initial rise in blood pressure after reading this article stemmed from the last line in the article and the only quote presented from Ms. Redmond "Everyone deserves healthy food". Couple this with the tale of her having to exit her community to go get "healthy food" and I had strong suspicious that there was a bit of resentment that her community was "healthy food resource redlined" .

It comes as no surprise that many Black folks express a strong sense of "Negative Motivation" - which is what the "Struggle" milieu is all about.

Thus it is my opinion that the concept of "Everyone Deserves Health Food", on its own does not speak to the modality of how someone in Darfur, Guatemala or, most importantly the South Side Of Chicago will actually receive "healthy food".

One's rights are not going to sustain their access to such resources. It will be the supply chain which provides the specificity of how the seeds are put into the ground, nurtured, harvested, transported, put up for sale, transacted for something of value and then presented to the consuming mouth - that matters the most.