Hey there,
I hope your Thursday has been filled with at least a little sunshine, wherever you are. Today’s roundup is coming to you from Hollywood, a definite change of pace from my little home office in Long Beach. Paris and I are location scouting today in preparation for two upcoming shoots that are part of the project we’re doing with the LA Food Policy Council. We spent the morning at Asian Pacific Islander-Forward Movement’s (API-FM) office where the team was packing eggs and produce for one of their food distribution programs (check out the photo below). This afternoon we’ll spend time at the East Hollywood Farmers Market and get a better look at the relationships API-FM built in order to source culturally relevant produce for nearby corner stores.
I promise the title is a joke and this week’s roundup isn’t pushing the meat agenda on anyone, although I did coincidentally focus on some issues surrounding alternative proteins and a vegetarian brand. This week’s theme is more so concerned with how we maintain accountability and critical impact assessment in a world that is (hopefully) progressing and trying to change for the better.
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-
Dodging silver bullets: The Politics of Protein
Earlier this month, the International Panel of Sustainable Experts on Food Systems released a report titled “The Politics of Protein,” which takes a thorough look at the claims swirling around animal-based food products, alternative proteins, and environmental sustainability. The report acknowledges that the growing urgency surrounding meat, dairy, fish production is understandable given the unsettling environmental and economic landscape of protein-rich foods; industrialized livestock production accounts for nearly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, lack of competition is becoming pervasive across all animal source food sectors as a select few processing companies dominate global meat and dairy production, and labor conditions are becoming increasingly unsafe for people working in livestock and seafood industries. This round-up from last month highlighted reports on the dearth of legitimate transparency among meat and dairy magnates.
However, the report makes a clear and important distinction between acknowledging a need for sustainable reform in our global approach to animal based food production and the rush to prioritize plant-based and lab-grown proteins as the solution. In the report, the IPES strongly warns against oversimplifying the challenges around animal agriculture. The authors critically evaluate 8 generic claims about meat, fish, and the environment - four supposed problems and four supposed solutions - breaking down why we must avoid relying on a silver bullet solution like alternative proteins that fails to take into account the complexities of our food system, and the role that livestock and fish production can play in a less-industrialized context.
New Read: Slaves for Peanuts
This week, writer Jori Lewis is releasing Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History, which explores the historical linkages between peanuts, colonial expansion, and the slave trade in West Africa. The book situates readers in 19th century Senegal where it dives deep into how demand for peanut oil in Europe drove the expansion of peanut farming in West Africa, and simultaneously created a pathway for slavery to persist in the region. As Lewis indicated recently in a Civil Eats Q&A, even though Slaves for Peanuts focuses closely on the West African roots of the peanut industry, the book’s historical observations bear messages for modern day reflections on the power structures that exist in our supply chains and the impacts felt by the communities they depend upon. Slaves for Peanuts challenges readers to think beyond peanut butter and roasted peanuts, and consider what it took to grow a the supply chain into a $1.28 billion industry. Check out an excerpt here.
Honorable Mentions: As Dollar Stores Proliferate, Some Communities Push Back from Civil Eats, It’s planting season in Ukraine and what that means for global food supply from NPR, People of color are more likely to be harmed by pesticides from The Guardian
-Food Fights-
A Lesson from the Amy’s Kitchen coverage
Among the food companies and brands being called to reckon with labor conditions for workers is Amy’s Kitchen, a popular meatless frozen foods and soups brand. Eater and NBC have been covering Amy’s Kitchen factory worker allegations of unsafe working conditions that have led to injuries, a lack of bathroom or water break allowances, and intimidation. In recent weeks, independent grocery stores across Canada and the US have dropped Amy's Kitchen from their shelves as activists call for a boycott of the brand. The brand itself has denied the allegations and is focusing efforts on mitigating a now-growing union push among workers.
While reading through the coverage, I found it interesting that many news outlets have anchored the turmoil at Amy’s Kitchen’s factories on the brand’s distinction as an organic, vegan/vegetarian, non-GMO brand. The Washington Post characterized Amy’s Kitchen by “the crunchy, mom-and-pop-next door vibe” and multiple articles have noted how the brand prides itself on good ingredients and respect for the planet.
It’s undoubtedly important to draw a link between the hypocrisy of the company’s declared social mission and the way factory workers have been treated. But, I find it frustrating that today, in 2022, we’re still presuming that an adherence to a certain environmental standard automatically implies an inherent accountability for all the factors that intersect with sustainability - like how we treat people, for example.
As we continue to forge paths forward for a planet that is both more sustainable and more equitable, it’s important we recognize that a social mission and an environmental consciousness should be the baseline for ‘the way we do business’. And with that established, we need to keep in mind that operating at that baseline doesn’t make you special or absolve you of responsibility - it requires an equal level of accountability, transparency, and monitoring to ensure that any form of growth is not selective, but inclusive. I’ve written a bit about being wary of who we center in food systems change discourse and how greenwashing can enable us to forget about the human lives at the center of any change strategy. I hope the pearl-clutching and shock surrounding Amy’s Kitchen can be an important lesson for leveling some of the pedestals we’ve created and establishing what should be considered foundation.
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 :)