More and more, there is a growing consciousness in our society about eating healthy. Everyone, we are told, should just do it. But while those in wealthy communities are able to choose between organic and non-organic food at their local food co-operative, working people have to choose between spending money on healthy, fresh and nutritious food or making rent. It’s cheap to eat unhealthy. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC and Hamburger Helper all provide cheap meals that are filled with salt, fat, empty calories and preservatives. While all people would rather be healthy, they also tend to want a home in which to live. With the prices of healthy food sky-high, many working people tend to make the compromise of eating less healthy food and paying their rent at the same time.
Lower-income people are forced into unhealthy diets because they can’t afford healthier foods. One study of Boston residents found that people on welfare could not afford to buy heart-healthy foods with their food stamps. In many working-class neighborhoods there is a lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy foods. While rich towns and communities have an overabundance of food suppliers that offer their residents all sorts of expensive ways to stay healthy, working-class communities have to depend on corner stores that charge higher prices and carry unhealthy foods. This has lead to epidemics, especially in non-white communities, of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other diseases caused by a bad diet.
Instead of actually looking at the problem and finding working solutions, the environmental movement has turned up its nose at working people. When asked in a recent Nation article about the food problem in the United States, the prominent and highly influential environmentalist Peter Singer replied that people should not buy factory farmed food. This is a very nice solution for those who have the money, but it’s hard to imagine that people would consider doing this instead of paying their electric bill. (Freezing to death in the winter can be quite unhealthy as well.)
Singer and other like-minded environmentalists, out of touch with regular people, focus on the production side of food (factory farms and organic agriculture) rather than dealing with the real issue of distribution, price and access of food. When organic food and non-factory farmed food (which is mostly organic) is extremely expensive, is this really a viable option for the majority of people who are struggling just to put some kind of food on the table? Most would agree that producing food in a way that does not kill our planet, pollute our bodies and wreck ecosystems is the way we should go, but exactly who can afford to buy such products?
The organic foods “movement,” which is supposed to be providing a healthy and sustainable alternative to unhealthy foods, has degenerated into a fad for the rich. Instead of actually tackling the issues of environmentally friendly agriculture and healthy eating, shopping at Whole Foods has become a status symbol and supposed environmental awareness. Are we supposed to believe that this national chain cares about our health, or the environment? Of course, they do care. They know that only people with big paychecks are going to shop there. Hence, no stores in poor communities.
A look at the practices of Whole Foods and the organic industry quickly reveals how these companies are actually part of the problem. While the Whole Foods website provides information on issues pertaining to animal welfare and green agriculture, nowhere is there mention of workers rights. In fact, Whole Foods is extremely anti-union and anti-worker. Whole Foods crushed the one and only unionization effort at a store in Madison, Wisconsin in 2005. John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, stated in 1992 that unions are “like living with herpes. It doesn’t kill you, but it’s unpleasant and inconvenient and stops a lot of people from becoming your lover.”
Apparently, Whole Foods is worried about whether or not the broccoli on their farms is cut in a way that does not hurt its feelings (this vegetable has a highly developed nervous system, you know), but considers its workers akin to herpes.
This mentality is rampant in the organic food industry. Agricultural workers who produce organic food face the same exploitive and backbreaking work that other agricultural workers face. While organic farm workers are not exposed to deadly pesticides, they are forced to work in strenuous conditions because of the intensive labor it takes to grow organic food. A 1999 study found that only 1.5 percent of insurance claims made by agricultural workers have to do with pesticides, while the vast majority is related to physical injuries. Further surveys found that half the organic farm workers in California made the minimum wage, with only 10 percent making more than $7.50 per hour. And a 2004 study of about 200 small organic farms showed that two-thirds of workers there had no benefits. Because of their low pay, the workers who pick organic food are unable to actually buy it.
By simply focusing on how to produce organic food and marketing it to wealthy people, this so-called movement is failing to actually tackle any problem facing regular Americans. We don’t need more Whole Foods. We don’t need more organic-only food restaurants, and products with “natural” ingredients that will supposedly cure you of just about anything We don’t need any more of any of these things, unless they are at prices people can afford. The key to healthier living is not in some middle-class notions of buying the right food. Instead, the key is the same as it always has been: a higher standard of living for the vast majority of the population.
It’s likely that, given the option, most people would choose to eat better and live longer.
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Dynamic Magazine
