WHY DO FOODIES NEED TO UNDERSTAND CAPITALISM?
One of Sông2Sea’s key projects is political education to examine the systems we live in—and want to live in—so that we can be effective in our community work toward system change.
Since November 2023, we have been reading A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism by Eric Holt-Giménez to learn about food and capitalist systems. We are joined by over 70 participants of different backgrounds — from academics to grassroots organizers such as UFCW organizers, Black Star Farmers, and the Eggrolls — and geographic locations from Seattle to Chile to Vietnam.
Why we chose this book
Food is an intimate and integral part of our lives. As the book states, it’s a special commodity because everyone has to eat. In addition to providing sustenance for survival, food holds traditional, cultural, and spiritual significance. In the diaspora, food is a way for us to stay connected to our communities and cultures.
It should concern us all, then, that the current food systems are failing us, in aspects ranging from food insecurity to poor farm working conditions to environmental disasters. In the U.S. alone, we waste 80 million tons of food every year, yet 44 million people go hungry every day. Furthermore, communities of color are “twice as likely to suffer from food insecurity and diet-related disease.”
How do we go about addressing these problems? The author states that:
Everyone trying to change the food system – people fighting to end hunger, food insecurity, and diet-related diseases, as well as those working for equitable and sustainable agriculture and people who simply want access to good, healthy food – needs to know about capitalism. Why? Because we have a capitalist food system.
[...] To fully appreciate the magnitude of the challenges we face in transforming our food system and what will be needed to bring about a new one in harmony with peoples' needs and environment, we need to explore the economic and political context of our [capitalist] food system.
We chose this book because 1) it touches on something deeply personal and quotidian: food, and 2) by growing our understanding of the capitalist system, we develop our ability to contend with it.
Why our knowledge of capitalism is scant
Capitalism is the dominant global economic system we live in today. Capitalism affects nearly everything surrounding us, from the food we eat to our health and living conditions.
Yet, how capitalism functions eludes most of us, even among activists who are aware of its harmful impacts.
The author— who specializes in environmental studies, agroecology, and the political economy of hunger— notes food activists have scant knowledge of the food system’s capitalist foundations, likely because:
1) Addressing individual symptoms of capitalism are addressed rather than the system itself. Many people in the food movement deal with immediate problems rather than the system as a whole. We can fight for healthy food access but if we don’t change the system that causes food deserts, it’s a losing battle.
2) Philanthropies often fund short-term projects rather than long-term organizing efforts. Nonprofits and NGOs favor projects that demonstrate immediate results — which is understandable given the severity of the problems in the food system, such as hunger. But, this overshadows work to build longer-term political movements to address the root causes. Moreover, organizations often find themselves in competition for funding, making it difficult to forge alliances dedicated to systemic change.
3) State repression and lack of class consciousness in our organizing. Since the 1960s, capitalist state repression and the growth of fragmented identity-based groups have drastically altered our political landscape; we’ve gone from an era of radical political movements such as the Black Panther Party to a much more watered-down generation of “somewhat class-blind activists with little interest in how the economic system actually works, and little understanding of the role of capitalism in […] social oppressions…”
Image credit: Bobby Seale
4) Social and structural barriers to understanding capitalism as a root cause of profound economic and political disparities. In a capitalist society, capitalism is “assumed to be immutable and rarely questioned.” At most, we are told the problem is “corporatism,” “consumerism,” or simply greed. Every institution in our society reinforces the myth that ours is a classless and democratic society. Even after the economic crash in 2008 and mass uprisings in 2020, we often hear about “equity” but rarely about capitalism causing inequity.
Why do we need to understand capitalism? And how?
“One wouldn't start farming without some notion of growing plants, or build a website without knowledge of web software, or roof a house without understanding construction,” the author points out. Similarly, if we are to combat capitalism, we should understand what it is.
We can start by asking: “Who owns what? Who does what? Who gets what? What do they do with it?” Ultimately, to change the systems we live in, we must build long-lasting political movements.
Political solutions require political education. We must study and be organized. We must foster the discipline to learn terms and concepts we are unfamiliar with and apply them appropriately.
Fred Moten said: “Everyone has jargon, man! My kids have jargon – they’re talking about Pokémon, I don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. I mean, the only question is do I want to know what they’re talking about, am I willing to put effort into it?”
Our efforts to study together political-economic structures are worth it. Holt-Giménez encourages us: “If we can share an analysis, we can formulate a shared strategy. If we can work strategically, we can change the world.”
We host our study groups for that reason; so that we can struggle, understand, strategize, and act together.
Please stay tuned as we dive deeper with our following shareouts! We will cover various topics from the book, including a brief history of our food system and private property, basic concepts of capitalism, and more!