Hey there,
Congrats on making it to another almost-Friday! I’ll spare you my waxing and waning today since the Food Fights section is a little lengthy. If I wrote well enough, then the theme of today’s roundup should speak for itself.
Welcome back to Before the Cutting Board, your weekly roundup of food + supply chain hot topics to help keep you up to speed on what’s going down with your food.
If you’re new to Before The Cutting Board, here’s how it works: The “This Week” section focuses on news and current events, while the “Food Fights” section usually explores some of the interesting debates flying around the food news world.
A huge thank you to everyone who has shown love and shared this newsletter! Please continue to share and spread the word!
Without further ado, let’s dig in.
-This Week-
Strike Authorization Vote Passes in California
In last week’s roundup, I noted that grocery workers across Central and Southern California represented by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union were voting on whether or not to authorize strike action against major grocery chains in the region. On Sunday, it was announced that nearly 50,000 grocery workers voted in favor of strike authorization against Ralphs (Kroger), Albertsons, Vons (Albertsons), and Pavilions (Albertsons) if negotiations continue to hit a dead end. Union contracts with the chains expired earlier this month, even though negotiations have been taking place since January. Writing for Forbes, supply chain expert Errol Schweizer pointed out the discrepancy in the grocery chains claiming that the cost of doing business in California is too expensive to meet union wage and benefit demands, and the fact that Kroger’s CEO made nearly $20M in compensation last year. Kroger's operating profit has also doubled to over $4B over the first two years of the pandemic. Grocery workers remain among the most food insecure demographics in the country - something that hits particularly hard in California where the cost of living is high.
Honoring Cesar Chavez’ Legacy
Speaking of addressing the way we treat people who ensure our grocery shelves are stocked, today is Cesar Chavez Day in the US (designated as a national holiday by President Obama in 2014). We’ve got an in-depth overview of Cesar Chavez’ life and work up on the Point of Origin blog. The UFW - which Chavez co-founded originally as the National Farm Workers’ Association - is organizing across California today to rally around calls for California Governor Newsom to sign the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act. The proposed legislation is a newer version of an older bill that offers more voting choices and flexibility for farm workers when voting in their union elections. Last year’s bill was vetoed by Governor Newsom. Meanwhile, state and municipal governments across the Western US, including California, have closed their offices in commemoration of the holiday.
Honorable Mention: The New Generation of Black Cattle Ranchers for Life&Thyme (shameless self-plug, but also relevant), and The Fight For LA’s Street Food Vendors from Civil Eats
-Food Fights-
Bodega lentils are not enough
New York Mayor Eric Adams prides himself on adhering to a (mostly) vegan diet - with the exception of an occasional fish dish. He credits his plant-based lifestyle as the reason he’s been able to better manage his type 2 diabetes diagnosis. His belief in the power of diet changes has also become the premise through which he has made food policy a top priority for his agenda as mayor. Since taking office, he’s announced that NYC public schools would institute Vegan Fridays and new “plant-based lifestyle medicine programs”. The school program has met mixed reviews in terms of execution, but is nonetheless a part of an admirable nationwide effort in exploring what introducing vegan diets into food policy looks like in a country with powerful meat and dairy lobbies.
However, as respectable as Mayor Adams’ efforts are, they haven’t come without some controversial statements. Adams has said that the idea of healthy food being expensive and out of reach for most is “a myth” and that New Yorkers should simply buy healthier options from their bodegas. This comment struck a nerve with those who are familiar with food research that shows healthy food access in New York is geographically and racially segregated - a key characteristic of food deserts.
Mayor Adams was also quoted saying that “Food is doing more of an injustice than mass incarceration…They are both bad, but the number of lives we are losing from bad food are X times the number lost to mass incarceration.” I won’t lie - the cynic in me has a hard time swallowing that quote from a former police officer. But, food-contributing poor health outcomes are more prominent in Black communities than among white demographics.
However, what’s important to remember, and the point that Mayor Adams apparently keeps missing, is that these outcomes are not a simple matter of ‘choice’ in Black communities. This is something I debate often even with my own family members. In the same interview where he made the mass incarceration comment, he explained that Black food choices are largely rooted in what enslaved people in the US were forced or relegated to consume during slavery. Sure, I would buy that for why some folks still want chittlins at Thanksgiving dinner, but not as the sole reasoning for disparities in healthy food access. I’m not by any means saying that the effects of slavery do not still linger today, they very much do. But, there are numerous factors over a long time scale that have gone into intentionally designing food policy in a way where communities of color are unable to access or afford healthy food. From redlining - which devastated opportunity in Black communities - to pay gaps, it’s important that as we increase the attention paid to food policy we remember how much it intersects with the many constraints of an inherently racist system (this is also not contained to the US).
I think incorporating more vegan and plant-based lifestyle education into our public institutions is exciting and important. I wish I had that exposure earlier in my education than before I moved to Northern California at 17. But, the language that we deploy while doing so matters. The way we characterize our systems, and those who these systems marginalize, is highly important. Otherwise, the change is empty.
That’s it for this week. 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 :)