Course-correcting
Before the Cutting Board: July 31, 2024
Hey there,
Welcome back to Before the Cutting Board, your roundup of food + supply chain hot topics to help keep you up to speed on what’s going down with your food.
Let’s dig in.
-This Month-
Recognizing a legacy
For me, history is one of the most interesting aspects of deep-diving into food and supply chains. The stories of how various parts of our food supply chains came to be lays bare the social, economic, and political systems that contribute to how we experience food today. It also, ideally, offers us the opportunity to trace and learn from the past as we attempt to understand how to do things differently.
This is why I enjoyed reading this Baltimore Banner piece by Rona Kobell covering the long overdue state recognition of the Black women Maryland crab pickers who defied threats of racial and mob violence to successfully strike for higher wage and union recognition. When thinking of the origins of our food, what often comes to mind is either the farm or the grocery store. We frequently forget about all of the processing that enables us to buy something cut, picked, washed, or packaged at the grocery store. In forgetting those processes, we also forget the workers that those processes rely on - who are some of the poorest in the US. The stories of the Black women - upon whom Maryland’s crab fame relied upon for so long - are an important reminder of the livelihoods involved at every point of our food supply chains.
For more on the history of the strike and the conditions that led to it, check out this post from the Washington Spark. And for clarification on what crab picking entails, you can watch this Chesapeake Bay Magazine video of crab pickers at the “oldest crab processing plant in the world.” Finally, for non-US (or non-East Coat) readers, this is why Maryland is known for crab.
Selective international cooperation
The Summer Olympics have returned, and with it a rise in curiosity about what it takes to host 15,000 of the world’s best athletes. From this piece in Eater about which foods each country requests to this piece about the egg shortage hullabaloo, it’s fun to see that curiosity extend to what food is available to Olympians. And, amid the 13 million meals (!!) being served over the next few weeks, it’s nice to see the Paris Olympics aligning with France’s ambitious climate and food goals. Locally sourced meat, dairy and eggs, one-third of the meals served at the event being plant-based, and sticking to reusables at that volume is no joke.
However, as we witness the resources being mobilized to pull this off, I can’t help but still think of the hunger catastrophe teetering on the edge of famine in Gaza as Israel continues to deny aid trucks permission to enter Gaza. To be clear, I’m not saying Olympians don’t deserve to be fed or that we shouldn’t be curious about what it takes to make that happen. Instead, I’m saying that no one deserves to be starved or denied food because the world and its vast resources (distribution of those resources aside) has decided it’s too hard or dangerous to ensure equal access to food.
New light on an important topic
The New York Times launched an opinion series this week called “What to Eat on a Burning Planet”, with an opening essay this weekend from David Wallace-Wells. The premise of the series is that there should be more dialogue in the US around how the food supply chain disruptions and intensifying barriers to access that we’ve been observing over the last 4 years are the beginning of some serious cyclical consequences between climate change and our food system. It’s an important premise with deep nuance, and I’m curious to see what writers will chime in and how they will tackle those nuances. In the opening essay, I found one statement to be particular interesting:
“The pressure on the present food system is not a sign that it will necessarily fail, only that it must change.”
Are we not at the point where we’re ready to admit that the food system is already failing? That perhaps, as it stands currently, it was designed to fail for many? Holding space for the political, social, and economic conditions that have led to how we experience ecology and our food, as well as why the choices we make as eaters and voters are growing in importance to change those conditions isn’t an easy task. I’m hopeful to see the diversity in voices and experience across the supply chain necessary to pull it off in this series.
What else I’m reading:
My friend Sam who covers North Africa for AP wrote about how climate change is threatening Morocco’s wheat crop - typically a big driver for the country’s agricultural economy - plus the implications of a resulting rise in wheat imports.
Some personal news:
I’m grateful to have been selected for the Aspen Institute’s Food Leaders Fellowship. Mentorship and collaboration have been a huge part of my career journey, and essential to keep a positive, optimistic perspective working in this space, I feel so excited to learn from and be in community with an incredible cohort of changemakers over the next 18 months and beyond.
That’s it for this month. If you enjoyed reading this, please forward to a friend. Even if you didn’t enjoy reading it, still tell your friends - misery loves company :)