Hey there,
About a week ago, I was looking forward to returning to Before the Cutting Board. At one point feeling refreshed from my travels, I was thinking about different formats to explore, a survey to send to get your feedback, excited to improve my own understanding of how to deliver food systems and supply chain updates in a way that’s compelling for you to digest.
However, in complete transparency, my head has been filled with other things since then. Plainly, it was difficult to get this done today. There’s something unnerving about waking up to news that a power plant should experience less regulation and accountability than a uterus. It’s hard for that to not mess with your head.
I did get my writing done though, and as cliché as it will undoubtedly sound, it was helpful. I have to believe that with each of these charter points in history, we get (at least a little) more creative with how we respond and we become more attuned to what the previous charter points can teach us about doing better for the future. And as we remain open to learning and getting back up again, we’re allowed to breathe, mourn and grieve, and take space.
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.
Without further ado, let’s dig in.
-This Week-
“Meat, monopolies, and mega farms”
From The Guardian: an important breakdown of the ways in which an intensely monopolized and industrialized food system is both perpetuating climate change and enjoying political protection in the US at the expense of reform.
Summer Reads
I wrote a brief review of Milked, featured among many other great books, for Civil Eats Summer Food and Farming Book Picks.
Labor Negotiations at the West Coast ports
People are closely watching the labor negotiations taking place for workers employed at ports across the US West Coast as current contracts near expiration. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) represents over 22,000 workers across 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle. Of these 29 ports, the adjoining Ports of LA and Long Beach are among the world’s biggest and workers at these ports handle nearly half of all US container trade shipped from East Asia.
-Food Fights-
Why rhetoric matters: rethinking shortages
In the last few months, there have been increasing calls for politicians, writers, and other stakeholders to re-examine the way in which the current global food crisis is being framed. Writer Thin Lei Win did a data deep dive and found that the world’s wheat supplies are actually…fine. The data contradicts several headlines that warn of looming wheat supply issues and shortages that will worsen a hunger crisis. A recent FAO report also confirms this and that the supply of next year's wheat should remain fairly steady as well. Thin Lei Win argues that these facts show that the crisis we are in the midst of is not an issue of availability, but instead an issue of access and affordability - and the way that we characterize this matters if we actually intend to support change.
This is not to say that there aren’t any food shortages happening. There are undeniably food shortages; but much of that is happening in consumer goods with processed foods. For example, the recently announced sriracha and mustard shortages. These shortages can mostly be traced back to specialty crops that have been devastated by climate change. And then there’s the baby formula shortage - a consequence of yet another monopolized industry that maxed out on poor government oversight. These shortages exist, but they weren’t caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What they do perhaps have in common with the food issues surrounding the conflict, is that their triggers can be traced along exhaustingly intertwined fault lines of climate change, politics, and the push toward more globalized trade systems.
Indeed, as Thin points out, the way that Putin’s war is rattling our food system has little to do with a fear of immediately running out of the commodities that both Russia and Ukraine typically lead in exports. Instead, it’s a wake-up call to the postcolonial geopolitics that facilitated import dependencies in the first place. It’s also (hopefully) a chance to pay closer attention to the economic maneuvers offered from international organizations responsible for responding to these crises, like the International Monetary Fund. These are patterns that we’ve seen throughout history, as Open Democracy points out, and are now being exacerbated by a military conflict.
It makes me wonder: why are people so attuned to it now? Is it because this conflict in Ukraine captured the attention of the Western world in ways that others haven’t? Or maybe it’s because the ripple effects on gas and food prices are hitting closer to home and not only affecting countries whose food access is now at-risk. Whatever the reason, it makes clear that those who are calling upon us to be precise in how we discuss what’s happening are right. With more people paying attention and caring about how our global food systems are connected to the political economy, we have an opportunity to create a greater awareness about how our food systems are set up on a global scale. And that, if anything, is hope and a pathway to change.
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 :)