This site is no longer being updated. If you'd like the latest from me, visit my new site RajPatel.Org. Onward!
-- Raj
What the New York Times Couldn't Swallow
The New York Times ran a special food-themed issue of its Sunday magazine a week back. It was kicked off by a fine piece by Mark Bittman, who observed quite rightly that the conversation being had in the magazine’s pages reflects America’s new, and healthy, interest in what they’re eating.
Indeed, just a few years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine this sort of interest, and even harder to imagine that the New York Times would countenance the sorts of politics espoused in Michael Pollan’s Farmer in Chief essay, or David Reiff’s subtle dissection of the Gates Foundation’s African Adventures.
I like David’s piece a great deal, not just because I appear in it as a reasonable person, but because he captures exactly what’s wrong about the Northern do-gooder in Africa. For the record, a mistake crept in to the piece – I’ve never actually met Raj Shah – but the piece certainly captures how I feel about the Alliance for a New Green Revolution in Africa.
And yet, despite all that, the issue had one or two gaping holes. Labour didn’t really get a look in and, most important, the entire issue was almost wholly silent on the issue of gender. One doesn’t have to look far to see women food producers and food-makers taking on the inequities of the modern food system. Just today, from their meeting in Maputo, the women of Via Campesina released this declaration. And Dan Moshenberg, who sends much of the finest material to me for this blog, took the lead in writing this letter to the editor which, alas, the editor decided not to print.
Dear Editor
The New York Times Magazine October 12th Food Issue is a measure of how far the debate around agriculture has come. A few years ago, it would have been inconceivable that Sunday's glossy section could be devoted to a mosaic of pieces about the politics of food, from belly to bourse, from private purchases to public policy. We still, however, have far to go. One neglected element would have brought coherence to the disparate pieces: women.
Certainly, women were mentioned in the issue. Mark Bittman noted that cooking is no longer the exclusive purview, burden, or task of those called `housewives'. With women pressured or choosing to enter the waged labor force, men are encouraged or forced to cook for themselves and even, occasionally, for others. In her discussion of the ethical kashrut movement, Samantha M. Shapiro recalls the cultural and religious traditions of her own family, in which men would slaughter, skin and butcher animals, and women would purchase the meat, soak and salt it, and prepare it for the family. Michael Pollan urged the next President of the United States to expand the WIC program for low-income women with children.
There's much to admire in, and much to debate over, these descriptions of women. But women are more than contemporary household cooks (since they are still a minority among paid chefs), more than the stories of how it was done in our family in the good old days, and more than the recipients of government handouts.
In much of the world, and in particular in the Global South, women are the primary toilers of the earth, even if they are a minuscule portion of the owners of land. For example, while women produce the majority of food consumed in the Global South, the OECD has noted that women own 1% of the land mass of Africa. If that seems a little far away, there are plenty of examples of women producing food closer to home - consider the fate of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, a farmworker who died of heatstroke in May this year while harvesting grapes in California, the latest in a long line of women casualties in our modern food system.
Women aren't only central to understanding how food is produced - it's hard to tell the full story of food distribution and food consumption without them either. The food crisis discriminates against women - 60% of those going hungry are women and girls. Michael Pollan almost touched on this when he noted that in recent months more than 30 countries have experienced food riots which are, more often than not, protests that result from planned and coordinated action by women.
All of these stories, and the big story they add up to, is a story of women. Women farmers, women care providers, women wives, women mothers, women daughters, women aunts, women heads of households, women consumers, women workers, everywhere in the world. If food matters, as we certainly agree it does, then women must be accounted for because, when it comes to food, women count. Perhaps in the next food issue, the Times might move a little further to doing this particular piece of arithmetic.
Sincerely
Dan Moshenberg
Raj Patel
Daniel Moshenberg is Director of the Women's Studies Program and Co-Director of Women In and Beyond the Global, both at the George Washington University, Washington, DC. Raj Patel is the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
Raj's blog | login to post comments
Ch. 10. Food Sovereignty | gender
Posted on 23 October, 2008 - 06:35
Impressive work! While the bases are facts, the news story gives a humorous yet informative thought. It conveys real-life consciousness among people who are particular in their dieting or eating lifestyle.
Very smart blogger! I was so captured, really!
This is how to recover from this great blog post problems. I can dish it out. To uncover these factors, let's take a look at weight loss. I sat bolt upright when I noticed losing weight with a healthy diet. People always check out your this great blog post first. Avoid this easy weight loss tips for women at all costs. You just have to see it. This is the premier how to lose weight fast. I am sort of proud of my weight loss.
It's an ill wind that blows no good. Weight loss is really resonating with me in a way it hasn't before. Go to just about any easy slimming tricks blog these days and what do you think you'll find. You should then consider Nutrisystem reviews which this great blog post would be suitable. It is time to try it out on your own. This is silly. In this world of weight loss, we need to make sense of it and make sure that you leave yourself plenty of time.
I, outwardly, have to master this great blog post. Because dieting for health and weight reduction will pay off a year from now, it will be worth it but it was the law of the jungle. This week I took a look at some options for people who want to get how to lose weight fast. I'm ready, but I have to buy into this idea. That's all there is too it. I'm tired of weight loss but I kind of need to forget about this weak solution.
great post, made interesting reading
shock collars for dogs
Awesome free vacations here,
or more free vacation offers or you can
sell timeshare
Another good addition by my fave newspaper.
understanding how to choose electric wheelchairs
Good thank you
good post thank Ha?ere ilaçlama you
thank you very saç kayna?? much good post
No doubt women have been more likely to be food insecure or hungry.
Very good post!
thanks!
Thanks for this kind of nice post. food problem is actually rising day by day everywhere of this world. may be new york is affected with this problem for its economic problem. Harry, Working on weight loss pills.
Love the header of this site.
The crisis really affect a lot not only in US but almost all over the world. True women are part of agriculture to provide food for everyone, but sad to say women are all poorly recognized. baby shower invitations
very good ....... thanks!
العاب كبار العاب اطفال
العاب بنات العاب قتال
العاب سيارات العاب باربي
Anime ?zle is very popular site
visit there
well, congratuf'in lations. you wrote a stern letter to the new york times, pointing out that in their coverage of millions of people starving, they didnt point out that women were starving too!
how about you point out that huge cities like New York are causing the problem? you are basically a giant gaping maw that produces nothing other than your own smelly farts, bankrupt corporations, feel-good-about-your-own-political-identity bullshit plays, and giant mounds of waste, which you pile on new jersey, and flyover states, while simultaneously making fun of those same states ('or should i say 'othering' those states), in typcial hypocritical new yorker douchebag fashion.
please, if you want to save the planet, have a mass suicide where 20 million new yorkers jump into the ocean and drown. not only would this feed a lot of fishes, it would free up a lot of food to go to those starving people you are so worried about. imagine if they didnt have to export all their olives, wheat, beef, cocoa, coffee, etc, so that you could have cute little ethnic retaurants a block from your brownstone? THEY COULD ACTUALLY MAKE A LIVING MAYBE.
orgu where everyone is well i?tir.orgu modelleri know people.
kolbasti izle or any community of people indispensable.
the tracking of people often do mizah
I find it humorous (in the darker sense) that anyone would posit an equilibrium between men and women given a downward shift in stability for the majority world as a whole. Is it an attempt to posit that when the world hits rock bottom we will all be level? Give me a break! As things shift "down" they will shift further down along the "traditional lines"; meaning that an increase of women and children will be starved out as men are increasingly forced into food insecurity.
Craig, I would dearly love to hear how men are more at risk than the women and children who are already precariously balanced on the edge of the food precipice. I emphatically assert that you are incorrect in stating that to address the risk of one group infers that others are not at risk. Baloney! We have the evidence that the risk is there, it is increasing, and - as usual - it is unevenly distributed across gender and age lines. If people continue to "cautiously" not assert the standing conditions of the majority world (for fear of seeming too radical?), those most at risk will continue to toil and drop.
No one is saying that men's traditional pathways are not drying up and that things are shifting (downwards). I am saying that to posit that this shift may bring an equality of food insecurity is ludicrous. Men will get hungrier and women and children will die faster. That's equality?
My thanks, at the least, go out to Dan Moshenberg and Raj Patel for their response to the Times.
~h
H:
I wasn't in any way suggesting that equality achieved through making every one worse off was a good thing. That is clearly ridiculous and I am embarrassed if my comment came off suggesting that!
I was simply trying to suggest that we should recognize that the food crisis might be negatively impacting on populations that do not "normally" fall within the category of vulnerable (in this case, I was talking about men). And, this would lead to more people being food insecure. And, more people being food insecure negatively impacts on population health. But we might not 'see' this impact if we are focusing only on those groups that are traditionally seen as "at risk" and thus 'measured' or reported on.
As for being cautious... I do think we need to exercise some caution when making broad statements about who is affected in crises. Take for instance Paul Collier's piece in the recent Foreign Affairs. Collier states in his article that "The unambiguous losers when it comes to high food prices are the urban poor." This same line is repeated throughout the media but is demonstrable false in many communities throughout the world (and certainly not "unambiguous" in many others). Statements like this do seem to imply that rural folks are doing better than urban folks.
Finally, just for the record, when things shift "down" they do not always do so along traditional lines. Crises can actually lead to shifts in underlying cultural norms.
C
Craig! Aha then, I am understanding more. Thank you, but - for my part - I would add some more thoughts. I agree that many would assume that a group such as "men" might not fall in the category of vulnerable, but I often see that assumption coupled (both deliberately and not) with arguments that use gender issues to mask either classist or racist assumptions or both. Because of this,
I have trained myself to default to "human/living" instead of men or women (or any other dichotomy) when understanding arguments.
This helps me keep living things in view first before parsing them out into (more) discrete groups for arguments/points sake; it also helps me not confuse dichotomies or run afoul of issues of scale. In short, I don't see men as ever not being the risk category at the scale of this situation. I think we can rest assured that just about everyone is getting tarred with this crisis and not just particular segments.
That said, I guess that to attempt to bring equal attention to men and women in this scenario negates the topic that women were not adequately addressed in the scenario to begin with. This is what I mean by "caution be damned!" You did NOT assert that the new found "insecurity equality" is in any way "good," but you did assert an equality of sorts and that men (as a group) should possibly be given more attention instead of blandly being swept aside in broad statements (my paraphrase).
That is true, but is it right? At this juncture, to prevent further imperiling the majority of food imperiled people (women and children), broad statements (and more) that raise the visibility of the main agricultural suppliers/workers of the global infrastructure is required. We are not
in disagreement. I just find the cautiousness of stepping back until all are included/more is known is a refrain I have heard before, and it is a distraction from the reality that the global motto might as well be "women and children last".
My darker sense of humor is prodded by how "crises" are "normally" only defined outright when negatively impacting more men....regardless of the women and children that have already been crushed by the undefinable crises that were somehow ignorable.
best,
h
Raj - Interesting post. No doubt women have been more likely to be food insecure or hungry. But, it seems entirely plausible that as economic situations dry up and food prices rise, that men's traditional pathways used to achieving higher levels of food security will also disappear. This means that men may be more likely to shift from food secure to food insecure during the crisis. Of course, this may only serve to equalize men and women, as they may both experience food insecurity. But the point is men may be more vulnerable in many communities.
Unfortunately, there are very few population-representative data on how the food crisis is impacting on people's food security and even less on how it is differentially impact on men's and women's food security. I think we might need to be a little more cautious about saying who is at risk, because it implies that other groups are not. We do not have the evidence right now to make such claims.
Many thanks - The blog and book are great.
Craig
I do think we need to exercise some caution when making broad statements about who is affected in crises. buy research paper Take for instance Paul Collier's piece in the recent Foreign Affairs. Collier states in his article that "The unambiguous losers when it comes to high food prices are the urban poor." This same line is repeated throughout the media but is demonstrable false in many communities throughout the world (and certainly not "unambiguous" in many others). Statements like this do seem to imply that rural folks are doing better than urban folks.
buy thesis | Essay Writing Service
This is really some awesome advice. Keep it up, my colleagues would love this. Ways to Make Money Online
Olabildi?ince e?lenceli araba oyunlar?
tamamen ücretsiz k?z oyunlar? daha bir çok katogoride de?i?ik e?lenceli heyecanl? oyun
oynamak isterseniz ve arkada?lar?n?zla oyunlar
üstünde yorum ve ele?tiri yap?p kendinizi geli?tirmek isterseniz Adresiniz kraloyun
olsun.
Renkli oyunlar Size özel online flash çocuk oyunlar? sitesi
supply vast kinds of styles handmade jewelry,mainly engage in handmade jewelry
its realy good thank you....
Ich denke, wir müssen eine gewisse Vorsicht bei der breiten Aussagen darüber, wer betroffen ist, in Krisen. Nehmen Sie Papier kaufen, die Forschung zum Beispiel Paul Collier Stück in den letzten auswärtige Angelegenheiten. Collier in seinem Artikel, dass "Der eindeutige Verlierer, wenn es um hohe Lebensmittelpreise sind die Armen in den Städten." Dieselbe Linie wird wiederholt, während die Medien, sondern ist nachweislich falsch, prefabrik in vielen Gemeinden in der ganzen Welt (und schon gar nicht "eindeutig" in vielen anderen). Aussagen wie diese nicht offensichtlich, dass die ländliche Leute sind besser als städtische Leute.e-okul
These kaufen | Essay Writing Service
Thanks for the got great articel
Limited-Berater | limitedgruenden |
incorporate4you | hd-camcorders | kaffeevollautomaten
i agree fully with you
Weber Grill Accessories
Weber Grill Parts
Weber Grill Covers
Weber Portable Gas Grill
Jumps Bond
White Moutain Ice Cream Makers
Great post. you can buy any posts or
buy essays here
bayrakor any community
bayrak diregior any community of people indispensable.
turk bayragi or any community of people indispensable.
bayrak or any community of people indispensable.
film izle or any community of people indispensable.
porno izle or any community of people indispensable.
very appreciating informative
ich denke, wir müssen eine gewisse Vorsicht bei der breiten Aussagen darüber, wer betroffen ist, in Krisen. Nehmen Sie Papier kaufen, die Forschung zum Beispiel Paul Collier Stück in den letzten auswärtige Angelegenheiten. Collier in seinem Artikel, dass "Der eindeutige Verlierer, wenn es um hohe Lebensmittelpreise sind die Armen in den Städten.
Free PS3 Slim | Free PSP Go
Very good and informative article,thank you!
The topic on the food is so prior to the editor's view and the thing is to digest the fact.
Regards, Denise Sasser,
href="http://isbronchitiscontagious.net/">bronchitis
Great post!
great post thanks. http://www.cheapmicrowave.org
I am so confused by these responses...
This site 
Raj Patel.
Join the Facebook group.
Replica Watches|Replica Soccer Jersey|
Replica Watches,Fake Watches,Wholesale Watches|Fake Watches