News &ViewsI N S T I T U T E F O R F O O D A N D D E V E L O P M E N T P O L I C Y

VOLUME 33 • NUMBER 120SPRING 2011

Food First’s 2010 Annual Progress Report

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World Social Forum, 2011 photo by Tanya Kerssen

2 • FOOD FIRST NEWS & VIEWS

INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY

The Institute for Food and Development Policy - known as Food First - is a member-supported, nonprofit “peoples’ think tank” and education-for-action center. Our work highlights the root causes and value-based solutions to hunger and poverty around the world, with a commitment to fighting racism and establishing food as a fundamental human right.

FOOD FIRST398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618

Phone: (510) 654-4400 Fax:(510) 654-4551

E-mail: foodf irst@foodf irst.org Web site: www.foodf irst.org

CO-FOUNDERSFrances Moore Lappé

Joseph Collins

BOARD OF TRUSTEESJoyce King, President

LaDonna Redmond, Vice PresidentMalia Everette, SecretaryHank Herrera, Treasurer

Shyaam Shabaka, President Emeritus

STAFF & CONSULTANTSEric Holt-Giménez, Executive DirectorTanya Kerssen, Food Sovereignty Tours

Program DirectorAlethea Harper, Oakland Food Policy

Council CoordinatorMarilyn Borchardt, Development DirectorRowena Garcia, Administrative Assistant

Martha Katigbak-Fernandez, Operations Off icer

FELLOWS & CONTRIBUTORSRaj Patel, Jun Borras,

Brahm Ahmadi, Rick Jonasse, Leonor Hurtado, Annie Shattuck,

Zoe Brent

INTERNS AND VOLUNTEERSStephanie Ainza, Krista Beckley, Anna Blumstein, Kali Cheung,

Christine Deakers, Alexandria Fisher, Shanna Gong, Kate Grace, Tobiah Gaster,

LeDit Bokary Guindo, Dwight Hobbs, Lexi Hudson, Jennifer Kampe, Madeleine Key, Vickie Knox, Scott Lensing, Vanessa

Lord, Colleen Lynch, Lia Mezzio, Jamie Nash, Christopher Peñalosa, Lisa Plattner, Genna Rochlin, Lee St Pierre, Bernalyn Ruiz, Beth

Sanders, Katharine Schiller, Cait Van Damm, Asiya Wadud, Yi Wang, Lindsay Yellen, Alex Weinstein, William Wroblewski, Jody Zaitlin,

Jennifer Zeller, Mick Zelski

I N S T I T U T E F O R F O O D A N D D E V E L O P M E N T P O L I C Y

VOLUME 16 • NUMBER 1

SPRING 2010

By Dr Kristen Lyons*

Nanotechnology: Transforming Food and the Environment

Nanotechnology is the latest technological innovation being used to transform food, farming and the

environment. Nanotechnology breaks down and manipulates foods, seeds, chemical pesticides and

food packaging at the micro-scale, and in so doing, is driving a nano-food and farming revolution

(ETC Group, 2004; Friends of the Earth, 2008). While proponents of nanotechnology promise

it will help address climate change and global hunger, opposition is mounting from civil society,

union groups and some of the world’s leading scientists, who point to ecological, health and socio-

economic risks associated with nanotechnology (RS-RAE, 2004; Scrinis and Lyons, 2010). Given this

controversy, it is st

riking that many nano products are already on the market, and most governments,

including the U.S, have no nano specific regulations, testing or labelling requirements.

What is nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is defined as any engineered materials, structures and systems that operate at a scale

of 100 nanometres (nm) or less (one nanometre is one billionth of a meter) (M

oraru et al., 2003). To

put this scale into some perspective, a strand of DNA is 2.5 nm wide, a red blood cell is 7000 nm,

while a human hair is about 80,000 nm wide (Friends of the Earth, 2008).

Nanotechnology is not a separate techno-scientific field, but rather a new platform for a range of

existing disciplines—including chemistry, physics, biology, biotechnology, neurology, information

technology and engineering— allowing a shift down to the nano scale (ETC Group, 2003).

Nanotechnologies are being applied across a range of industries beyond food, including the military

and energy, pharmaceuticals and medicine, and cosmetics. Nano techniques include the manufacture

of nanoparticles, nanofabrication, and nano-biotechnology techniques. Nanoparticles are produced

by breaking down larger-scale chemical compounds and materials into nano-scale bits, as well as

the manufacture of distinctly new materials, such as carbon nanotubes, buckyballs and quantum

dots (Maynard, 2006). Nano-scale particles exhibit novel character traits (in

cluding different chemical

reactivity, bioactivity and absorption capacity), compared to the same material in its b

ulk form (Hunt

and Mehta, 2006). Silver, for example, demonstrates anti-bacterial and odor-eating qualities in its

nano form (Senjen and Illuminato, 2009). Manufacturers have sought to harness these nano-scale

characteristics; adding nano silver to refrigerators, chopping boards, and chopsticks; marketing these

products as ‘safe, clean and hygienic.’ Despite the marketing hype around nano silver, its

manufacture,

*School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences, Griffith University, Queensland Australia

Photo: The National Cancer Institute

I N S T I T U T E F O R F O O D A N D D E V E L O P M E N T P O L I C YVOLUME 16 • NUMBER 3

FALL 2010

By Anim Steel*

Youth and Food Justice: Lessons from the

Civil Rights Movement

Photo by Real Food ChallengeThe food justice movement is entering a new period of opportunity. Good, fresh, healthy food is

on the agenda in underserved neighborhoods and even First Lady, Michelle Obama has planted an

organic garden and taken on childhood obesity with her Let’s Move! campaign. But fair and affordable

fresh food at 4,000 farmers markets and hundreds of CSAs, with double digit annual growth in

organic food over the last 20 years, represents under two percent of the trillion dollar food market.

Poor diet is condemning one in three African-American children to Type II diabetes by the age of 18

and one in four Latino kids to hypertension and heart disease. Indeed, all of our young people are at

risk. The Centers for Disease Control now projects that the youngest generation of Americans will

be the first to have a shorter lifespan than their parents—thanks to our toxic food system.

Improving the health of our youth will require a transformation of our food system. This will require

strong social movements capable of creating the political will to truly transform how we grow, buy,

prepare and eat food. Lessons from the civil rights era suggest how today’s food justice movement

can organize. In particular, a new, youth-led, multiracial coalition could unleash the voice and energy

of those with the most to gain from transforming the food system—young people.

What does Fast Food have in common with Jim Crow?

The political disenfranchisement addressed by the Civil Rights movement, and the cheap, unhealthy

food plaguing our underserved communities both reflect structural inequities that marginalize people

of color. Poverty—the cause of hunger and poor diet—is built-in through “redlining” by banks and

*Anim Steel is the Director of National Programs with The Food Project. He co-founded the Real Food Challenge in 2007.

He holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and is a 2010 Prime Mover Fellow.

This backgrounder is based on a chapter in a Food First book in progress, Food Movements Unite!

For more information: www.foodmovementsunite.org

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VOLUME 16 • NUMBER 2

SUMMER 2010

By Eric Holt-Giménez, Zoe Brent & Annie Shattuck

Food Workers - Food Justice:

Linking food, labor and immigrant rights

Photo by David Bacon

The food movement in the US is growing stronger, but too often the people who work in our food

system are overlooked. Some 17% of all U.S. jobs are in the food sector. i Many of these jobs are

carried out by undocumented immigrant workers. Consequently, food workers are the lowest paid

and most under-protected workers in the nation. Low wages and substandard working conditions

subsidize the enormous profits of the food industry and puts the triple burden of poverty, labor

abuse and food insecurity on those most vulnerable. The movement for food justice cannot thrive in

a system where food workers are criminalized, exploited, and going hungry.

Labor in the Corporate Food System

In 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics listed food preparation and serving-related occupations as

the lowest paid of all occupational categories ($8.59 median wage), followed by farming, fishing and

forestry ($9.34 median wage). Twenty-five percent of grocery workers experience minimum wage

violations. ii On-the job injuries are common. According to Oxfam, in 2004 farm-workers suffered the

highest rates of toxic chemical injuries, with an estimated 300,000 pesticide poisonings yearly. iii

A decline in union representation—from 35% to 12% since World War II—parallels the spread of

poor labor conditions, dependence on undocumented labor and corporate concentration. iv Aggressive

anti-union campaigns and recruitment of temporary or foreign workers hinder organizing efforts

and keep labor costs painfully low. Real wages for meatpacking workers fell from $20/hr in 1977 to

$10.50/hr in 2001, while consolidation of the beef packing industry increased drastically. v By 1999

the top four firms controlled 80% of the market—more than doubling in two decades. vi Meanwhile,