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Toward an Ecofeminist Politics of the Global Food System

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Toward an Ecofeminist Politics of the Global Food System CULTIVATING FOOD DEMOCRACY: TOWARD AN ECOFEMINIST POLITICS OF THE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM By MEREDITH LINDSEY KITE A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 Meredith Lindsey Kite 2 To my grandparents and my mother 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This master’s thesis would not have been possible without the many people who have supported me through the past two years. I thank my mentor, friend, and committee chair Dr. Anita Anantharam for the guidance and encouragement she has provided for me over the years. Dr. Anantharam, along with my mentor and committee co-chair Dr. Sandra Russo, first introduced me to feminism and has in so many ways contributed to my Women’s Studies education. Thanks go out to both for many valuable lessons. I am also grateful to Dr. Brian Mayer for serving on my thesis committee and providing thoughtful and constructive suggestions that have enhanced my project. To the many others in the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research who have guided and helped me through this graduate program, especially Dr. Florence Babb, Dr. Trysh Travis, Donna Tuckey, and our cohort of graduate students, I owe much appreciation. I am again indebted to Dr. Anantharam and Dr. Travis Smith for giving me the opportunity to travel to Navdanya and to many other spectacular places through the UF in India study abroad program. The time we have spent together in the classroom, on the farm, on mountaintops, and on never ending bus trips is an invaluable gift. Navdanya and Citizens Co-op have truly enhanced my education and both provided a space in which I could participate in the kind of activism I had previously only read about in books. I am grateful to Dr. Vandana Shiva and the Navdanya staff for the warmth and generosity they showed our UF group two years in a row. When I returned home from India enthusiastic and ready to engage in similar work at home, an internship with Citizens Co-op provided the perfect opportunity. Serving as a member of the steering committee allowed me to become part of the movement to create a community-based 4 food system in Alachua County, and I look forward to seeing the movement expand and flourish. Finally, I am indebted to the family and friends who have supported me and kept me sane throughout my graduate education. My gratitude for the people whose love and understanding have helped me along cannot be adequately expressed here. Even so, many thanks go out to my grandparents and parents for investing in my education (even when I chose a major no one had ever heard of) and for showing me unconditional love, support, and encouragement the past 25 years; to Travis for studying alongside me and providing much needed moral support; and to the many other family members and friends who have taken care of me through these years. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 9 2 LITERATURE REVIEW: ALTERNATIVE FOOD PROJECTS AND FOOD DEMOCRACY ........................................................................................................ 23 3 LITERATURE REVIEW: ECOFEMINIST RESPONSES TO THE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM ...................................................................................................... 36 4 CASE STUDIES: NAVDANYA AND CITIZENS CO-OP ......................................... 52 Navdanya ................................................................................................................ 53 Citizens Co-op ........................................................................................................ 60 5 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 66 APPENDIX: IRB PROTOCOL INFORMATION ............................................................ 79 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 83 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 88 6 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts CULTIVATING FOOD DEMOCRACY: TOWARD AN ECOFEMINIST POLITICS OF THE GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM By Meredith Lindsey Kite May 2010 Chair: Anita Anantharam Cochair: Sandra Russo Major: Women’s Studies This thesis proposes that there exists an opportunity for ecofeminism and the burgeoning international food movement to join together for their mutual benefit. The global food system is an important site of analysis for feminist scholars and one that can elucidate women’s lived experiences in an increasingly globalized world. Even so, not many ecofeminists have examined food systems in their scholarship. Moreover, the limited ecofeminist work that has been done on food and agriculture happened mostly in the 1990s, before the food movement became as popular as it is today. Given the timeliness of the subject, ecofeminists would do well to revisit the food system. Because today’s food movement has produced a large, interdisciplinary body of knowledge about the food system and has created a number of small but successful alternative systems, the movement can offer ecofeminists who are interested in exploring food a wealth of knowledge and experience. Rather than starting from scratch, ecofeminists can build off of work that has already been done. Conversely, there are gaps within this scholarship and activism that ecofeminism can work to close. In particular, ecofeminism offers an alternative worldview that can be used to transform 7 people’s attitudes and raise consciousness about the food system and its social and environmental implications. Moreover, ecofeminism offers a particular kind of critical analysis that considers economic, environmental, and social justice that translates well in a discussion of the global food system. The aim of this thesis is to illustrate how ecofeminism offers an alternative worldview. Alternative, that is, to the primacy of patriarchy, capitalism, and Western notions of progress and development above matters of social and environmental justice. It is a worldview that can be employed in order to effect social and environmental justice in the world. Additionally, this thesis examines how ecofeminism can inform the way we think about the global food system and points to the potential benefits of a future dialogue between ecofeminism and the food movement. Finally, in order to demonstrate what a collaboration between ecofeminism and the food movement might look like, this thesis presents case studies of two organizations: Navdanya, an India- based environmental nongovernmental organization, and Citizens Co-op, a cooperatively owned food market in Gainesville, Florida. Given the multifaceted nature of today’s global food system and the variegated problems within it, such interdisciplinary communication and collaboration are critical for efforts that aim to create meaningful change. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the last decade, thousands of farmers across India have committed suicide. Vandana Shiva, an Indian ecofeminist activist-scholar, estimates that as of 2005, 30,000 Indian farmers have killed themselves (Earth Democracy 120). While there is some disagreement over these statistics, it is clear that these suicides have become a growing problem. Although the Indian government has denied such links, Shiva argues that there are direct connections between the failure of these small farmers’ livelihoods and processes of globalization, free trade, and the industrialization of agriculture (Earth Democracy 120-30). She argues that, “Farmer suicide emerged in India in 1997. The policies of corporate-driven globalized and industrialized agriculture deliberately destroy small farms, dispossess small farmers, and render them disposable” (Earth Democracy 120). Whether or not globalization and free trade are to blame for the suicides in India, there is no question about the connections between these forces and the suicide of Lee Kyung Hae, a South Korean farmer and organizer who killed himself at the 2003 World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting in Cancún, Mexico. In Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power, and the Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System, Raj Patel recounts: He flipped open his red penknife, shouted “the WTO kills farmers” and stabbed himself high in his chest. He died within hours. Within days, from Bangladesh, to Chile, to South Africa, to Mexico, tens of thousands of peasants mourned and marched in solidarity, peppering their own calls for national support for agriculture with the chant: “Todos Somos Lee” (“We Are Lee”). (Patel 35) Lee Kyung Hae was a cattle farmer who accumulated debt and lost his farm when the South Korean government lifted restrictions on importing beef from Australia. Lee took out loans to purchase more cattle in order to compete with international beef 9 corporations. When the price of beef dropped and stayed low, Lee and his family suffered (Patel 36). A man who “‘died to show the plight of Korean farmers’” (Patel 36), Lee has also come to
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