The Little Emma

naturalmagics: mountainsandsaltwater: thepeoplesrecord: Uproot...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:42:55 -0400

mountainsandsaltwater:

thepeoplesrecord:

Uprooting racism in the food system: Communities organize for justice
March 11, 2013

A shovel overturned can flip so much more than soil, worms, and weeds. Structural racism - the ways in which social systems and institutions promote and perpetuate the oppression of people of color – manifests at all points in the food system. It emerges as barriers to land ownership and credit access for farmers of color, as wage discrimination and poor working conditions for food and farmworkers of color, and as lack of healthy food in neighborhoods of color. It shows up as discrimination in housing, employment, redlining, and other elements which impact food access and food justice.

Many people involved in creating food - from Haitian tomato pickers organizing in Florida, to Native Americans saving seeds in Arizona, to Black Detroit residents growing gardens in fractured neighborhoods – are simultaneously chipping away at structural racism. In the Harvesting Justice series we touch on many of these issues, starting with a look at African-American farmers and what they doing to win justice in the food system.

In 1920, one in every seven farmers in the U.S. was African-American. Together, they owned nearly 15 million acres. Racism, violence, and massive migration from the rural South to the industrialized North have caused a steady decline in the number of Black farmers. So, too, has, institutional racism in the agricultural policies of the USDA. By 2007, African-American farmers numbered about one in 70, together owning only 4.2 million acres.

Over the years, studies by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (CRC), as well as by the USDA itself, have shown that the USDA actively discriminated against Black farmers, earning it the nickname ‘the last plantation.’ A 1964 CRC study showed that the agency unjustly denied African-American farmers loans, disaster aid, and representation on agricultural committees. But organizations like the National Black Farmers Association, the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, the Land Loss Prevention Project, and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives have been challenging racism in agricultural policy through legal action. In 1997-98, African-American farmers filed class-action lawsuits against the USDA for unjustly denying them loans. The lawsuits were consolidated into one case, Pigford v. Glickman, which was settled in 1999. But due to delays in filing claims, nearly 60,000 farmers and their heirs were left out of this settlement. In November 2010, the U.S. Congress passed the Claims Settlement Act (known as Pigford II) to compensate Black farmers who were left out of the first settlement. President Obama signed the bill a month later, making $1.25 billion available for claimants in the form of cash payments and loan forgiveness, though the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association has filed an appeal because Pigford II provides smaller payments and places limits on claimants’ future legal options.

bell hooks wrote, “Collective black self-recovery takes place when we begin to renew our relationship to the earth, when we remember the way of our ancestors… Living in modern society, without a sense of history, it has been easy for folks to forget that black people were first and foremost a people of the land, farmers.”[1]

Some who are still farmers are carrying on the fight for economic and civil rights for land-based African-American people, a fight which dates back to the days of slavery. Probably the most impressive contemporary example of such organizing has been the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. An outgrowth of the civil rights movement, it formed in 1967 when 22 cooperatives met at Atlanta University. The federation has used collective action ever since to support Black and other small farmers and rural communities. Today, their members include over 100 coops in 16 states across the South.

A fast-growing movement is African-Americans reclaiming their connection to their urban land and their food, as part of food justice and food sovereignty movements. People’s Grocery and Mo’ Better Food in Oakland, Growing Power, Rooted in Community, Detroit Black community Food Security Network, and many others are organizing with farmers and connecting African-American growers and consumers. Many of these, such as the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, are working forcommunities of color to have democratic control over their own food systems. Their work includes youth programs and urban gardening in areas where access to healthy, affordable food is limited, as is the case in many low-income and people of color neighborhoods.

These groups are also raising awareness of the ways that African-American communities, and communities of color in general, have been sidelined within the food movement itself. Inclusion and participation of people of color has come slowly and late. Often, African-American neighborhoods are targeted as ‘intervention’ areas by outside organizations that - though well-meaning - are neither led by nor accountable to the community and its most urgent needs and goals. The prevailing white culture of the food movement as a whole creates barriers: the typical image of farmers presented often reflects a white archetype and the types of food solutions presented are not always culturally relevant or practical.

A critical element of many African-American groups’ work thus involves nation-wide education and organizing on structural racism as it impacts health, farming, food, and land. Among other elements, these organizations are committed to knocking down barriers to food production and food access. Some have joined the world-wide movement for food sovereignty, in their own communities and through the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance, so that citizen control over food and agriculture can exist across global economic systems.

Ultimately, we all eat, and we are all implicated. Achieving racial justice in the food system is not the sole burden of African-Americans organizing but will take multiracial alliances of people raising awareness of systemic disparities, and working together to end them.

Source
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I want to add many Latino & low-income communities have started community farms as well. It’s a huge step toward autonomy, mutual aid & collectivism in these areas where healthy food isn’t readily available or it’s very expensive.

I recently began working with a women’s collective & migrant farm workers to develop a community farm in south El Paso near the Texas/Mexico border. I would really encourage people with the time & resources to start organizing a community farm because food justice is a human right’s issue!

fuck yeah, fuck yeah, FUCK YEAH!!

foodopia: hershey’s mint brownies: recipe here

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:51:50 -0400

foodopia:

hershey’s mint brownies: recipe here

grayskymorning: Rachel Mckenna

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:49:44 -0400

grayskymorning:

Rachel Mckenna

geekmehard: Wonder Woman of 1945 by onlymilo

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:49:02 -0400

geekmehard:

Wonder Woman of 1945 by onlymilo

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:43:39 -0400

one animatic to go and then that’s the semester. So close now.

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:57:58 -0400

one animatic to go and then that’s the semester. So close now.

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:53:35 -0400

"You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:38:20 -0400

“You mean the generation that paid three times as much for college to enter a job market with triple the unemployment isn’t interested in purchasing the assets of the generation who just blew an enormous housing bubble and kept it from popping through quantitative easing and out-and-out federal support? Curious.”

- When comments are better than the article, Atlantic edition (“The Cheapest Generation: Why Millennials arent’ buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy”)

Every time someone says we’re a lazy and entitled generation I’m going to show them this

They should be happy most of us haven’t moved to the moon yet

That actually sounds like a good idea at this point

(via setfabulazerstomaximumcaptain)

"Why Society Still Needs Feminism Because to men, a key is a device to open something. For women,..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:16:18 -0400

“

Why Society Still Needs Feminism

Because to men, a key is a device to open something. For women, it’s a weapon we hold between our fingers when we’re walking alone at night.

Because the biggest insult for a guy is to be called a “pussy,” a “little bitch” or a “girl.” From here on out, being called a “pussy” is an effing badge of honor.

Because last month, my politics professor asked the class if women should have equal representation in the Supreme Court, and only three out of 42 people raised their hands.

Because rape jokes are still a thing.

Because despite being equally broke college kids, guys are still expected to pay for dates, drinks and flowers.

Because as a legit student group, Campus Fellowship does not allow women to lead anything involving men. Look, I know Eve was dumb about the whole apple and snake thing, but I think we can agree having a vagina does not directly impact your ability to lead a
college organization.

Because it’s assumed that if you are nice to a girl, she owes you sex — therefore, if she turns you down, she’s a bitch who’s put you in the “friend zone.” Sorry, bro, women are not machines you put kindness coins into until sex falls out.

Because only 29 percent of American women identify as feminist, and in the words of author Caitlin Moran, “What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? Did all that good shit get on your nerves? Or were you just drunk at the time
of the survey?”

Because when people hear the term feminist, they honestly think of women burning bras. Dude, have you ever bought a bra? No one would burn them because they’re freaking
expensive.

Because Rush Limbaugh.

Because we now have a record number of women in the Senate … which is a measly 20 out of 100. Congrats, USA, we’ve gone up to 78th place for women’s political representation, still below China, Rwanda and Iraq.

Because recently I had a discussion with a couple of well-meaning Drake University guys, and they literally could not fathom how catcalling a woman walking down University Avenue is creepy and sexist.
Could. Not. Fathom.

Because on average, the tenured male professors at Drake make more than the tenured female professors.

Because more people on campus complain about chalked statistics regarding sexual assault than complain about the existence of sexual assault. Priorities? Have them.

Because 138 House Republicans voted against the Violence Against Women Act. All 138 felt it shouldn’t provide support for Native women, LGBT people or immigrant women. I’m kind of confused by this, because I thought LGBT people and women of color were also human beings.
Weird, right?

Because a girl was roofied last semester at a local campus bar, and I heard someone say they think she should have been more careful. Being drugged is her fault, not the fault of the person who put drugs in her drink?

Because Chris Brown beat Rihanna so badly she was hospitalized, yet he still has fans and bestselling songs and a tattoo of an abused woman on his neck.

Because out of 7 billion people on the planet, more than 1 billion women will be raped or beaten in their lifetimes. Women and girls have their clitorises cut out, acid thrown on them and broken bottles shoved up them as an act of war. Every second of every day. Every corner of the Earth.

Because the other day, another friend of mine told me she was raped, and I can no longer count on both my hands the number of friends who have told me they’ve been sexually assaulted. Words can’t express how scared I am that I’m getting used to this.

Because a brief survey of reality will tell you that we do not live in a world that values all people equally and that sucks in real, very scary ways. Because you know we live in a sexist world when an awesome thing with the name “feminism” has a weird connotation. Because if I have kids someday, I want my son to be able to have emotions and play dress up, and I want my daughter to climb trees and care more about what’s in her head than what’s on it. Because I don’t want her to carry keys between her fingers at night to
protect herself.

Because feminism is for everybody, and this is your official invitation.

”

- Caitlin O’Donnell, Drake University. (via funeral-march)

loving-lucy: Twenty year old Lucille Ball in 1931. I cured...

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:11:16 -0400

loving-lucy:

Twenty year old Lucille Ball in 1931.

I cured myself of shyness when it finally occurred to me that people didn’t think about me half as much as I gave them credit for. The truth was, nobody gave a damn. Like most teenagers, I was far too self-centered. When I stopped being prisoner to what I worried was others’ opinions of me, I became more confident and free.

"Nobody can save you but yourself - and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won, but if..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:10:05 -0400

“Nobody can save you but yourself - and you’re worth saving. It’s a war not easily won, but if anything is worth winning - this is it.”

- Charles Bukowski (via perfect)

thedoctor-wearsconverse: hiddlesbatchlove: lokis-taking-gallifr...

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:52:27 -0400

thedoctor-wearsconverse:

hiddlesbatchlove:

lokis-taking-gallifrey:

cantgeddynuffofdatass:

wouldulikeajellybaby:

THIS MADE ME START HYPERVENTILATING which is really ironic

that was fucking terrifying

your tension has been exterminated

EXTERMINATED

THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER

a-cumberbatch-of-cookies: typette: I remember posting...

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:26:55 -0400

a-cumberbatch-of-cookies:

typette:

I remember posting somewhere once in a thread about why girls aren’t exploited in animation anymore where some guy said, “all the disney girls are drawn to be generally attractive, but I don’t think there are any eye-candy men… or are there? Are there any Disney men that lots of girls like?” and I mentioned Roger. Tons of girls replied agreeing with me and the original guy was like “wait, Roger? from 101 Dalmatians? What’s attractive about him, he’s tall and lanky and has a big nose, he isn’t muscley at all! Wouldn’t you all prefer Gaston or something? Or do you girls think his big nose is indicative of something else?” and I was like “no, you idiot, he’s a silly, goofy guy who likes animals and can play a bunch of instruments, that’s why he’s attractive. What’s the matter with you? Gaston, seriously?”

This is why we need more girls in animation. And more guys like Roger apparently.

I’m sorry, but did that guy even WATCH Beauty and the Beast? Who would fucking pick Gaston?!

pbs-food: Blueberry Bread Recipe | Fresh Tastes Blog | PBS...

Wed, 15 May 2013 03:11:44 -0400

pbs-food:

Blueberry Bread Recipe | Fresh Tastes Blog | PBS Food

10 Hotel Secrets from Behind the Front Desk

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:11:00 -0400

mentalflossr:

Jacob Tomsky has worked on the front lines of hotels for more than a decade, and he has some hospitality secrets to spill.

For Ben

Lifestyle of the Unemployed: How to Fuck Up

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:58:02 -0400

Lifestyle of the Unemployed: How to Fuck Up:

lifestyleoftheunemployed:

Face it, we all fuck up. But what you do afterward defines your character. As a guy whose had his fair share of fuck ups, here are a few tips:

Own it. Even if its not really your fault, a gentleman takes responsibility and the brunt of the fallout. This is especially true if you manage a…

justbesplendid: Sliders with Beer-Glazed Caramelized Onions and...

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:27:24 -0400

justbesplendid:

Sliders with Beer-Glazed Caramelized Onions and Brie by Confections of a Foodie Bride

foodopia: southern coconut cake: recipe here

Tue, 14 May 2013 22:52:44 -0400

foodopia:

southern coconut cake: recipe here

"With success comes critics. Don’t pay attention. Whatever you’ve been doing to this point has..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:07:58 -0400

“With success comes critics. Don’t pay attention. Whatever you’ve been doing to this point has obviously been working.”

- Gentlemen’s Wisdom (via lifestyleoftheunemployed)

cardiac-art: “Volume Project…” by Kincső Tóth

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:56:55 -0400

cardiac-art:

“Volume Project…” by Kincső Tóth