OKT’s executive director Lisa Oliver-King was part of a panel discussing environmental racism and food apartheid at an Access of West Michigan meeting for Walk recipient organizations in February. Considering the historical context of Black and Brown people’s deep connection with land and agriculture, OKT has noted several barriers to reconnection. 

Black farmers have historically been driven off from their farms here in Michigan and elsewhere. The redlined neighborhoods where many Black and Brown people live now have lead contaminated soil, lack space for growing, and lack urban ag opportunities due to how the city controls use off vacant lots. And of course, these are the same neighborhoods impacted by food apartheid.

Indigenous Michiganders have likewise been driven off their lands and their native diets replaced with SAD, the standard American diet, resulting in obesity and disease.
African Americans may feel torn about growing their own food as it can be a reminder of forced labor on plantations during enslavement. And of course, institutional racism serves to restrict opportunities for Black and Brown people, especially as huge agribusinesses buy out more and more farms.

We often hear the term “food desert,” which is used to refer to neighborhoods without a full service grocery store. Since 2010, OKT has not used the term food desert. A desert is a living ecosystem where plants and animals can thrive. Instead, OKT has defined food apartheid as “The intentional, systemic marketing and distribution of profitable, nutrient-poor, disease-causing foods to income-challenged neighborhoods, mainly, communities of color (i.e. communities receiving the most food assistance dollars).”

How can we utilize this reclamation of food sovereignty as a form of resistance against food apartheid? By looking to the ways our ancestors – maybe even our grandparents – grew food, preserved food, and prepared food and reclaiming the nutritionally rich foods of that not so distant past we too can grow food, learn to choose those healthy foods, and learn how to prepare them for our families. True soul food, traditional Latinx foods, and decolonized Indigenous foods are basically healthy foods.

We can “vote” with our food dollars. The extra time spent traveling to a farmers market can save time lost to disease and illness, but not all have transportation.

• We can advocate for healthier foods in our neighborhoods, starting with the foods fed to children in public schools.
• We can share the message with each other that the boxed, processed, fast and junk foods sold in our neighborhoods and promoted by slick media campaigns are killing us.
• And we can advocate for media literacy that helps us and our children learn how to deconstruct advertising messages and decrease the impact they have on our food consumption.
• We can also advocate for representation and acknowledgement of the Black, Latinx, and Indigenous American contribution to American cuisine. If we’ll buy it, they’ll sell it. The Foodies have swayed the industry to offer all kinds of healthy foods to white people who have extra money to spend on food. Maybe if Black and Brown people create a movement to eat healthy foods from our own cultures – and refuse to eat the crap that the industrial food system is currently selling us – they will begin to offer healthier, culturally relevant options.

Knowledge is power. Where are our kids getting their information about food? From Ronald McDonald? From their phones, computers, the billboards in their neighborhoods? Kids aren’t stupid. Let’s sit down at each of our kitchen tables and have a conversation. And set an example.