Students Again

The first article I read was titled Hog Hell and it was written by Eric Schlosser. At this time of the writing of the article, the 100th year anniversary of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was approaching. The Jungle depicted the horrors of the meatpacking industry. Schlosser starts his argument claiming that not much has changed since Sinclair’s writing on the subject. Schlosser’s cites a specific case to support his argument. The case, which reached the United States court of appeals, involved the largest meatpacking company in the world, the Smithfield Packing Company’s North Carolina plant. Smithfield was accused of creating “an atmosphere of intimidation and coercion” to prevent workers from  unionizing. In doing so, Smithfield exercised many tactics. Some of these tactics included threatening to close the plant if the workers joined the union, forcing union supporters to  distribute anti-union literature, firing workers for backing the union, asked workers to lie during their testimony at the National Labor Relations Board, and even incidences of violence  aimed at union supporters. Since the election of President George W. Bush, the meatpacking industry has regained a large portion of the powers that they enjoyed during the early  twentieth century; Powers that urged Sinclair to right his book. The Bush administration has worked with the meatpacking industry to weaken food safety, worker safety, and deter unionizing. Schlosser argues that one example of a regulatory agency being controlled by the industry it is supposed to regulate is the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The current Chief of Staff for the USDA had obtained this position after being the chief lobbyist for the National Cattleman’s Beef Association. It has been claimed that all of these factors are contributing to “a modern day version of The Jungle.”

The second article I read was titled Doing Lunch and it was written by Anna Lappé. This article recounts an interview with the Director of  Nutrition Services for the Berkley, California unified school district. Her name is Ann Cooper and she had previously been the head chef at a gourmet restaurant in Vermont. Her current  position places her as the leading advocate for healthy school food; this article addresses this change. Cooper claims that after finishing her first book she became interested in  sustainable agriculture and angry about the foods being fed to children. In the first year at her new position, Cooper has made drastic changes. These changes include making  ninety-five percent of the food from scratch (rather than using processed foods) and purchasing foods locally. In making these drastic changes, Copper was able to do so at only a fifty- cents-a-day increase per child for lunch. Cooper argues that she was able to introduce change by gaining the support of the community. She further argues that she has set a  precedent and some, albeit few, other communities are following suit. Cooper is then asked, why has there only been change in a few other communities considering that everyone  believes in feeding children healthy food? Her reply was grounded in the fact that the agribusiness, the medical industrial complex, and the government do not benefit from pushing this agenda. Cooper’s changes have seen school lunches go from chicken fingers and tatertots to roast chicken and baked potato wedges. Cooper’s final statement addresses how to make this change for the entire school lunch industry. She claims that all that is need is an individual like herself to stand up and care. It basically boils down to a community-based action  committee through the entire nation since industry and government will not make this issue a priority.

The final article I read was titled Black Farms, Black Markets and it was written by Habiba Alcindor. This article is aimed at  attacking the lack of nutritious food available in inner-city neighborhoods. The plan-of-action was started by food activist David Haughton and Ras Oba. They would bring their freshly  farmed produce to the park in inner-city Brooklyn and sell the goods. Community activist, Gail Harris, took notice and became interested in using this as a tool to eliminate racial and  ethnic discrepancies in health after attending a conference on the subject. Since that time, Harris, has been contacted by other New York City organizations to implement new “farmer’s  markets.” This article also addresses the struggling of the black farmer. It states that the white farmers have allied with markets to sell their goods closing that opportunity for black farmers. The reality is that white farmers have struggled and declined significantly, but black farmers have struggled and disappeared. In that light, these inner-city farmers markets have come to be seen as serving two purposes; revitalizing industry for black farmers and providing nutritious food to the inner-city masses.