Month: September 2024

Food insecurity is an umbrella term, defined as the inability to access nutritious food for an active, healthy life. Despite the many grocery stores near Carlisle, including major chains like Walmart and Weis, there is still a staggering amount of food insecurity within the town. Although there is a certain amount of variety available in Carlisle, accessibility to food varieties is not necessarily available to all. Much of Carlisle’s food insecurity stems from the inability to readily access nutritious and sustaining foods. The effort to obtain food is also daunting without a vehicle; walking from the northern point of town to Weis is around 28 minutes, or 1.8 miles. Similarly, it would take around five minutes to drive to the store, not including the time necessary to actually shop for the items needed. Beyond the city itself, it takes a significantly longer amount of time to travel to major grocery hubs. While there are potentially other options to receive fresh produce, such as grocery delivery through Instacart, they are significantly more costly than making the trek to the store in person. Even the many fast-food restaurants in town, which can be considered as a cheaper, yet less nutritional, option for food,  can pose an issue of inaccessibility, as many of them require a car to safely arrive and receive the order.

Food security and lack of access to nutritious and affordable food exists beyond the small town of Carlisle. There are national programs that aim to lessen the effects of food insecurity in the country, but they are not without limitations. This is partially due to the national stigma about receiving aid in order to feed a family; cultural norms often perceive food assistance as  taking from others and the recipients perceive themselves as not worthy of receiving aid. There is also the issue of lack of awareness of availability of food support. In Carlisle, particularly among newer immigrant populations,  there is a lack of understanding of availability through these federal programs.

Cars lines up at the Project SHARE Farmstand in Carlisle, PA (Project SHARE)

There are some efforts to relieve the strain of families dealing with food insecurity, specifically since there is a concern about being able to affordably feed a family  food with adequate nutritional value. Some may choose to skip meals in order to feed the rest of their family, an example of “low food security (at least some household members were uncertain of having enough food because they had insufficient money and other resources for food),” (Gundersen, 2014, p. 375). A local way to combat this food insecurity has been made by Project SHARE Farmstand, which allows anyone to receive food regardless of the ability to pay. Although this is great in practice, it still remains inaccessible to those without cars, as it functions as a drive through. There is also a physical food pantry in town, which is also a great alternative for families and individuals to receive nutritious food. However, this has limitations as it requires a family to have “an income falling below 185% of the federal poverty level,” (Project SHARE). Food insecurity is real and persistent, not only in Carlisle, but throughout the country,

Sources:

1. Gundersen, C., et al. (2014).“‘Map the Meal Gap’: Exploring Food Insecurity at the Local Level.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 36(3), 2014, 373–386.
2. History. (n.d.). Project SHARE, Retrieved September 19, 2024, from projectsharepa.org/history-info/.

We, as consumers, should be looking more into the food systems from which we buy our food from. This is because, we may not realize that what we thought was not a name brand item, is actually a name brand item (Halpin, 2024, slide 4). For instance, I personally tend to forget which sodas belong to Pepsi or Coca-Cola until I am on an airplane and they only serve either of the big brands. Another example brought up by Howard (2016) is, “Walmart, which controls 33 percent of US grocery retailing…” (p. 10). Howard continues, describing that this is a market issue because these top firms are creating shared monopolies, and the average consumer does not even realize this. They think they have a variety of brands to choose from, but little do they realize that it is all owned by one company. (Howard, 2016)

These companies then hire farmers to produce the meat and produce that we find in our grocery stores. Products that are not certified organic, use conventional farming which is “‘Capital-intensive, large-scale, highly mechanized agriculture with monocultures of crops and extensive use of artificial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, with intensive animal husbandry’” versus, alternative agriculture: “…organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture, regenerative agriculture, eco-agriculture, permaculture, bio-dynamics, agroecology, natural farming, low-input agriculture…” (Beus and Dunlap, 1990, p. 594).

I understand why conventional farming exists, and I can see why the big institutions use it, but it has negative effects on the environment and welfare of the crops and animals. In a video composed by PBS about Iowa farmers, it describes how using conventional farming affects other food systems, like fisheries. This happens through runoff and the pesticides from growing the crops and it ends up in the Iowa River, which connects to the Mississippi River. Even though these Iowa farmers are 1,000 miles away from the fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, the use of conventional farming still affects other food we consume. In the map to the left, it shows how the Iowa River connects to the Mississippi River.

Dickinson Farm is an example of alternative agriculture, because they are certified organic with their produce, use a polyculture, and crop rotation. In the image below, the cows in the field are incorporated in the crop rotation through temporary pastures, to help give nutrients to the soil. This in turn, helps the  crops flourish, because the soil is not depleted of the nutrients to help them grow, and there were no pesticides involved. Looking at the package in the store, or the brand of produce you buy, can help you become a more informed and sustainable shopper.

A map of the Upper  Mississippi River Basin from the UMBRA

Dickinson Farm cattle and produce plot

Sources:

Beus, C. and Dunlap, R. (1990) Conventional versus Alternative Agriculture: The Paradigmatic Roots of the Debate.

Clark, L. F. (2016). Concentration and power in the food system: Who controls what we eat? Philip H. Howard, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016, 216 p. Cuizine, 7(2), 10. https://doi.org/10.7202/1038484ar

GBH. (2021, September 7). Agricultural runoff and the Gulf of Mexico dead zone: Big river: A king corn companion. PBS Learning Media. https://witf.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/envh10.sci.life.eco.deadzone/agricultural-runoff-and-the-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone/

Halpin, J. (2024, 9/5) What is a Food System? The aggregate of food-related activities and the environment within which these activities occur. [PowerPoint Slides]

Howard, P. (2016). Concentration and Power in the Food System. Who Controls What We Eat. EBSCO Publishing.

UMRBA. (2021) Upper Mississippi River Basin. [Image] umrba.org https://umrba.org/about

This semester, students enrolled in the Introduction to Food Studies Course will be working collaboratively to share what they are learning in class. We invite you to tag along and learn with us! This course provides an introductory overview of the interdisciplinary and dynamic field of food studies. Over the course of the fall semester, we will learn about the production and procurement of food, as well as its place in history, health, and the sciences. We will also examine ethical, cultural, and spiritual meanings of food and their impact on our daily lives and food choices. The course includes a
variety of teaching methodologies, including lectures, class discussions, and field trips in addition to individual and group assignments.

By the end of the course, students will know more about food systems and food culture, be able to examine food systems and food culture from multiple disciplines and diverse perspectives,  apply different disciplines and methodologies to address questions of food systems, and ultimately understand the complexity of food systems questions and why this field of scholarship is so important. We have set lofty goals for this semester and we hope that you will join us on the journey. Keep an eye out for regularly scheduled posts authored by students explaining what they are learning, its impact, and how new information and experiences are shaping their understanding of the food system and their role as eaters.