Justice delayed
Before the Cutting Board: August 4, 2022
Hey there,
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. Occasionally, I’ll include a “Food Fights” section that explores some of the interesting debates flying around the food news world.
Let’s dig in.
-This Week-
How the infant formula shortage is being felt by food and farm workers
This piece from Civil Eats delves into why facing the current infant formula shortage in the US is not a simple matter of “why can’t they just breastfeed?” - particularly for food and farm workers who are pressured to return to work quickly and don’t enjoy parental benefits like paid parental leave or codified pumping time.
Justice delayed
Also from Civil Eats, the legacy of the Elaine Massacre in Arkansas illustrates the intergenerational harms of the systemic racism and displacement still felt in historically Black agricultural communities today. In Phillips County, where the Elaine Massacre took place, Black farmers are still fighting to claim and protect their acreage from further land grabbing. The piece references a recent study from the University of Massachusetts-Boston which found that Black farmers lost more than $326 billion worth of land during the 20th century as a result of discriminatory USDA lending and forced heirs property sales.
Today, the Guardian released an article covering the efforts of farmers in Navajo Nation who are suing the EPA for losses that were suffered after the agency accidentally released 3 million gallons of mine water into waterways that were used for irrigation. Despite admitting responsibility for the disaster, the EPA is refusing to compensate farmers for any of the losses they experienced over the course of several years; the agency argues that it was only fiscally liable to the state and tribal governments.
US Justice Department vs Big Poultry: Round 2
From the New York Times: The Justice Department is suing three major poultry processing companies over a wage suppression and anti-competition scheme alleged to have been ongoing for at least 20 years. The processors and co-conspirators employ over 90% of poultry processing workers in the US.
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 :)
Thanks Lindsey! I do enjoy reading it!! Interesting topics. Great job.