raj patel: the intersection between food, policy, and equity, and what we can do about it

Dr. Raj Patel, KALW 2016

One of my all-time favorite podcast episodes comes from the University of Iowa College of Public Health's "From the Front Row: Student Voices in Public Health" with Raj Patel, an esteemed writer, activist, and academic who has been dubbed the "rock star of social justice writing." Per his eponymous website, Patel, a research professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin, is an advocate for change in the food system, and has presented research to the US House Financial Services Committee on the current global food crisis, served as a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, and co-hosts a podcast on the politics of food entitled "The Secret Ingredient." He has completed and published extensive research in the public health realm, and is working on a documentary entitled Generation Food.

Patel's insistence that community plays a major role in achieving a more just food system is the reason this podcast resonated so strongly with me, and the reason I'm sharing my reflections here. I invite you to listen (or in the event that you cannot listen to the entire podcast, read along with the highlights!), ponder, and join me in a discussion about his ideas and how we can carry them out in our own lives.

Although this wasn't the first topic of the interview, a overarching theme of the conversation is strategies for engaging with a variety of people and finding common ground despite conflicting perspectives. His recommendations are far from groundbreaking; on the contrary, they're as simple as listening, caring, and sharing a simple meal. However, in a society fixated on productivity and output, taking the time to slow down and fully engage with the world around us is an idea beyond radical.

How costly this way of living is! I think this New York Times article paints it best with the title "Stressed, Tired, Rushed: A Portrait of the Modern Family." Even within the family unit, parents are working longer hours and are crushed by the weight of cultivating the perfect work-life-family balance, ultimately at the cost of Patel's ingredients for a more caring and understanding world; there is less family meals, less time to listen, learn, and grow together. How can we be expected to extend that level of care and empathy (and couple it with action!) into the rest of the world when there are barriers to doing so in our own homes? It is here where Patel's economic recommendations intersect with visions for a more just and equitable food system, along with a paradigm shift in our measurements of success and achievement.

To narrow in on how our food choices impact not only our fellow humans but also the planet, there is a level of disconnect, explains Patel, that does not lay solely with the individual. It is not exclusively a matter of choice, but rather the accumulation of underlying social, cultural, racial, and economic factors that present a barrier to supporting healthy, ethically produced food, especially when super stores like Walmart offer a similar product for a fraction of the cost. And, in communities in which fresh produce isn't accessible, convenience stores and fast-food chains fill the gap, luring customers in with cheap, calorically-dense, disease causing, processed food. The choice shouldn't be between having nutritious food or ethically produced food, or being denied both; long-lasting health is something everyone deserves access to.

To address this, and give people the freedom to support small scale farmers for using good practices, Patel proposes a universal income. As he describes, this will shift the narrative from me (the individual) to we (our fellow humans); we will be able to devote energy toward caring for the land and repairing past damages, spend more time with our families and children, and be able to devote more into our communities. Though this podcast was published over a year ago, hearing Patel's ideas in the midst of a global pandemic gives me hope for the future of our world. As we begin to shape the "new normal," there are aspects of quarantine life worth holding onto -- the sense of togetherness, a collective responsibility for the health of loved ones and strangers alike, shifting away from reliance on a failing food system (and recognizing those who suffered, and continue to do so in the name of upholding said system) by growing our own food and sharing with our communities, and ultimately, realizing how connected we really are.

We have a shared responsibility in healing our world. Maintaining a sense of indifference, believing we exist in a bubble and ignoring the impact our actions have is the true contagion, but one we have the power to eradicate. Does this mean completely obliterating the current system, shaming others who lack the means to terminate their participation? In all honesty, I'm not sure. Through all this death and destruction, I'm prone to believe that building up the good will have a greater impact than exclusively tearing down the bad.

If you walk down the street, the world has seemingly come to a stand-still. Restaurants are shut down, playgrounds are blocked off, and schools are closed for the foreseeable future. The hustle and bustle, the constant stream of busyness has been stripped away, and all we're left with is each other. Now more than ever is the time to set aside our egos and make space for the voiceless. We have much to learn, yet the solution is simple: offer a seat at your table to a stranger, approach with compassion and care in your heart, and listen with the intention to understand.