Asking Essential Questions: Recentering the Past, Unraveling Assumptions, and Envisioning a More Holistic & Realistic Food System

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Seigworth, Jenna
Area of Honors:
Sustainability Leadership
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Sherri A Mason, Thesis Supervisor
Sherri A Mason, Thesis Honors Advisor
Molly Bernice Monahan Lang, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
food apartheid
food desert
retail inequality
food system
sustainable food system
alternative food movement
racial equity
social justice
food justice
food equity
Abstract:
Addressing food insecurity is one of the most prominent tasks our present-day society faces. Previous attempts at remedying food deserts have failed to provide meaningful results in alleviating food insecurity. One of the essential questions this thesis aims to answer is why? Why have none of the past solutions worked, and why do we keep trying these same solutions even though they clearly are not working? To do so, I will outline the context that current solutions were created in, focusing specifically on the U.S.’s history of redlining, discourse around the “obesity epidemic,” and racial disparities in society’s prevailing idea of health. Then, I will explore the failure of current interventions and discuss why they were pushed despite little evidence of success. By using my own research project, “Understanding the Underserved: Why Farmers’ Market Access is not Equitable,” I will explicitly address commonly overlooked issues with utilizing farmers’ markets to address food insecurity. Finally, I will then provide recommendations that can cultivate more well-rounded solutions, including recognizing and contending with lesser minds bias, ascribing complex personhood to those who food insecurity solutions wish to serve, and creating small-scale, realistic interventions on a community level that focus on the experience and voice of the communities meant to be served. Underlying this entire thesis is the notion that space for our humanness, for fluidity of thought and action, and for the continued striving for better is central to a pursuit of equity and social justice.