Skip to main content

Initial thoughts on food insecurity and food policy

After doing quite a bit of scholarly reading to start off the first week of my independent study on food policy, I’m now starting to sense the complexity involved in tackling the problem of food insecurity. The problem is widespread and has a variety of health-related outcomes that pose an increasing threat to our health system. One particular statistic noted that for those who meet federal poverty guidelines, 35% identify as food insecure. With a variety of definitions of “food insecurity” floating around in the academic literature and policy venues, it is a bit difficult to know exactly what this means. A number of articles made reference to social capital and community connectedness as significant factors influencing food insecurity, and while I remember talking about this construct in my public health class and in prior blog postings, I also remember recognizing that operationalizing social capital can be extremely difficult. In similar light, I was pleased with the Larson & Story (2011) literature review that I read that noted that studies are increasingly examining the potential influence of local availability of retail food stores and farmers’ markets, access to public transportation, social capital, and family structure as interconnected determinants of food insecurity. Bernell, Weber, and Edwards (2006) also highlight this notion in their piece, which was my favorite read. They suggest that there are 3 primary levels of determinants of food insecurity: household level (personal choices about marriage or child bearing that increase vulnerability), state level (wages, unemployment, costs of living), and federal level (federally funded programs, like food stamps). However, less considered in the research and an area to which I’d like to devote my own attention, is that of community level factors, like county-level economic opportunity, social programs, and conditions that lead to food insecurity. I agree with these authors that food insecurity is much more than a problem arising from individual choices. The local community food security infrastructure, which includes elements like housing and social support, significantly affects the likelihood of families experiencing food insecurity. Pulling all of these levels apart to understand how they interplay is a daunting task, though.

More broadly, I have a number of thoughts as I begin my work for this summer’s independent, particularly in consideration of the work that I’m doing on another CCA-related grant project related to African Americans and heart health. After being exposed to the tribulations and rewards of working with community stakeholders in an under-privileged setting, as part of a project much farther along on the community sustainability continuum than where we left off with the “voices of hunger” project, I’ve grown extremely anxious to see what could come of our coalition-building efforts with the food insecure in this area. I see similarities in how the problem of heart health in the African American population from Lake and Marion county and food insecurity here in Tippecanoe county are discursively framed and positioned by those experiencing the marginalization and those working with the marginalized. Just like the community organizers in the heart health project, Food Finders employees must actively manage their roles as liaisons among multiple stakeholders that often have conflicting wants and needs when it comes to project initiation and development. Similarly, however, I also feel a sense of true passion and commitment from these individuals to improving the lives of those around them. Both the food insecure and the marginalized African Americans share stories of access barriers, under-managed policies, and disenfranchisement in the spaces where their voices have a right to be heard. In this, I’m growing increasingly fond of the quote by Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”

Popular posts from this blog

Zionist hate mongering, the race/terror trope, and the Free Speech Union: Part 1

March 15, 2019. It was a day of terror. Unleashed by a white supremacist far-right terrorist. Driven by hate for brown people. Driven by Islamophobic hate. Earlier in the day, I had come across a hate-based hit piece targeting me, alongside other academics, the University of Auckland academic Professor Nicholas Rowe , Professor Richard Jackson at Otago University, Professor Kevin P Clements at Otago University, Dr. Rose Martin from University of Auckland and Dr. Nigel Parsons at Massey University.  Titled, "More extremists in New Zealand Universities," the article threw in the labels "terror sympathisers" and "extremist views." Written by one David Cumin and hosted on the website of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, the article sought to create outrage that academics critical of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid are actually employed by universities in New Zealand. Figure 1: The web post written by David Cumin on the site of Israel Institute

Whiteness, NCA, and Distinguished Scholars

In a post made in response to the changes to how my discipline operates made by the Executive Committee of the largest organization of the discipline, the National Communication Association (NCA), one of the editors of a disciplinary journal Rhetoric and Public Affairs (RPA), Professor Martin J. Medhurst, a Distinguished Scholar of the discipline, calls out what he sees as the threat of identity (see below for his full piece published in the journal that he has edited for 20+ years, with 2019 SJR score of 0.27). In what he notes is a threat to the "scholarly merit" of the discipline, Professor Medhurst sets up a caricature of what he calls "identity." In his rhetorical construction of the struggles the NCA has faced over the years to find Distinguished Scholars of colour, he shares with us the facts. So let's look at the facts presented by this rhetor. It turns out, as a member of the Distinguished Scholar community of the NCA, Mr. Medhurst has problems wit

Tova O’Brien and pedagogy of whiteness

So Tova O’Brien was looking for a click-bait opportunity to draw in listeners to her podcast and she found the migrant activist and Green Party politician Dr. Sapna Samant to pick on. In a gotcha moment, Tova shared with the Green Party co-leader James Shaw a series of posts made by Dr. Samant on whiteness, Hindutva, and multiculturalism, asking him if the tweets were OK. We don’t understand from listening to O’Brien’s podcast if her research team actively researched Dr. Sapna Samant’s social media posts, or whether these selective screen captures of Dr. Samant’s tweets were sent to her by someone wanting to target Samant. The thoroughly unresearched piece is poor journalism, reflective of the mediocrity that is perpetuated by whiteness , the hegemonic values of the dominant white culture in settler colonies. If indeed her research team had discovered the tweets, it’s worth interrogating why the social media posts of a migrant woman activist on whiteness are of interest to O’Brien’s po