Publication #2: Local Independent Farmers are the Solution to San Diegan Food Swamps
How You Can Help San Diego Overcome Food Apartheid
Written By: Leanne Liaw and Shannon Lee
Edited By: Caren Aguirre, Leanne Liaw, Shannon Lee, and Alissa Lun
Acknowledgements: Thank You to Angelina Lopez for allowing us to interview and learn from their experiences with UC San Diego's Bioregional Center for Sustainability Science, Planning, and Design
Section #1: Introduction
Food has always been a bargaining chip. During the Second Punic War, siege starvation was used by multiple Ancient Roman generals to prevent Carthaginian soldiers and civilians from accessing or foraging for food (Erdkamp, 1992). Despite being considered a war crime in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the same starvation tactics have even been used in recent conflicts to block civilian access to food and exacerbate mass starvation in places like Gaza, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Syria, and Ethiopia (Pejic, 2001)(Dannenbaum, 2022).
Even in countries currently not experiencing military-driven sociopolitical disorder, food growth and distribution continue to be unfairly divided. This disparity is growing increasingly prominent in the southeastern region of San Diego, where at least one in four San Diegans is experiencing food insecurity (San Diego Hunger Coalition, 2023). The SSC’s Public Health Campaign has learned from Angelina Lopez – a research associate at UC San Diego’s Bioregional Center for Sustainability Science, Planning and Design – to understand how food disparities disproportionately impact San Diego County and what students can do to support these regions.
Cheung (2012)
Skullerud (2019)
Caption: A comparison of The USDA Emergency Food Assistance Program and San Antonio Food Bank's food relief packages to food-insecure communities in South Texas (TOP) to World Food Program and World Central Kitchen's mobile kitchens to communities in Beira, Mozambique (BOTTOM).
Section #2: Where did the terms “Food Desert” and “Food Swamp” come from?
To identify regions with nutritional disparities, one must first define food insecurity. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), food insecurity is the inaccessibility of nutritious food that disproportionately lowers the lifespans and overall quality of life of those affected (Hawkins & Panzera, 2020).
Over time, those studying the relationship between geographic location and healthy food access have created various terms to define food-insecure regions. Food desert was identified in the 1990s by the Scottish Public Health Nutrition Task Force. This term defines locations with a life-threatening lack of access to healthy, affordable food of sufficient quantity (Beaulac et al., 2009). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention later expanded this term to define regions where nutritious and affordable food of a sufficient quantity is scarce within a one-mile radius of a neighborhood (Bevel et al., 2023).
Public health researchers in 2011 created a subcategory for food deserts after noticing how consistently fewer supermarkets were in low-income, racial minority neighborhoods in post-Hurricane Katrina Louisiana (Rose et al., 2011). When discussing the differences between food options in a food desert compared to the new term "food swamp", researcher Angelina Lopez noted, “While food swamps contain areas to procure food, the primary options were of low nutritional value and “unable to support a nutritional diet” needed for a good quality of life (Lopez, 2024, 8:35). Lopez also highlighted the presence of food swamps in San Diego, referencing a 2014 report by San Diego State University which stated southeastern San Diego had been classified as a food swamp by the USDA since 2013.
Caption: Food deserts and food swamps are examples of food disparities. Food deserts are the absence of fresh food and full supermarkets within a region, while food swamps are the oversaturation of unhealthy foods in a certain area.
Liaw (2024)
Section #3: What is Food Apartheid?
The Bioregional Center seeks to study food inequities through an intersectional lens. One way of doing so is by describing food-inequitable locations as regions experiencing “food apartheid”. Food apartheid is defined as a “system of segregation that divides those with access to an abundance of nutritious food and those who have been denied access due to systemic injustices” (Lopez, 2024, 10:23). Originally coined by food activist and urban farmer Karen Washington in 2018, food apartheid describes the current state of food growth and distribution by centering the predominant drivers of this structural inequality: “race, class, and geography” (Brones, 2018).
Defining regions like southeast San Diego as places under food apartheid is integral to understanding why these areas of disproportionate access formed in the first place. “When food deserts and swamps are used to describe a food insecure region”, Lopez explains, “these regions are characterized almost as if their existence were the fault of the geographic location and the residents for choosing to live there” (Lopez, 2024, 10:01). In actuality, communities and regions experience food inequity due to systemic issues.
“ [Food Apartheids] are characterized as if their existence were the fault of the geographic location and the residents for choosing to live there”
-- Angelina Lopez (2024)
Lopez elaborates that regions experiencing food apartheid usually consist of low-income communities and do not have supermarkets frequently stocked with fresh food. Instead, the region will contain a high concentration of small convenience stores and fast food chains. Lopez explains that residents with low incomes within these regions not only have a decreased chance of finding local fresh produce, but also have fewer options for affordable transportation to travel to areas selling fresh food (Lopez, 2024, 11:04). Even when transportation is a viable option, those in low-income communities are less likely to have less time to cook and purchase materials for nourishing meals (Lopez, 2024, 11:23). This disproportionate lack of time is one of many factors that drive food-insecure individuals to rely on the less-nutritional food products found in their local convenience stores. “If you are [only] surrounded by affordable fast food or frozen food options”, Lopez states, “those options are what you are going to engage in to make sure your family is fed” (Lopez, 2024, 13:48).
Section #4: Who is the most harmed by Food Apartheids?
The dire lack of nutritious foods within food apartheid communities has already caused severe and disproportionate consequences across vulnerable groups. Of the approximately 830,000 San Diegans currently facing food insecurity, Black and African American populations make up the largest racial group at 36% (San Diego Hunger Coalition, 2023). The subsequent largest groups are Hispanic/Latinx populations at 36% and the Native and Indigenous populations at 31% (San Diego Hunger Coalition, 2023). Moreover, San Diego County’s 2021 Food Insecurity database noted that immigrants and individuals with disabilities were consistently more frequently enrolled in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) than their non-immigrant or able-bodied counterparts (San Diego County, 2024).
Residents living in food apartheid have a 77% higher chance of developing obesity-related cancers compared to their food-secure counterparts
(Bevel et al., 2023).
The likelihood of developing chronic health conditions also drastically increases. Residents living in food apartheid have a 77% higher chance of developing obesity-related cancers compared to their food-secure counterparts (Bevel et al., 2023). Female breast cancer and colorectal cancer patients also have higher mortality rates of about 5% (Fong et al., 2020). Given that low-income communities are often forced to reside in food apartheid regions, the existing mortality rates are compounded by these nutritional deficiencies and lack of health insurance.
While regions outside of southeast San Diego have lower rates of food insecurity and could have better prospects for nutritious food and healthcare, Lopez states that residents who have talked with the Bioregional center do not want to move away. While this outlook is primarily influenced by the residents’ deep love for their community, their inability to move from this region also stems from the extensive history of redlining in southeastern San Diego (Lopez, 2024, 16:48).
Redlining, or the discriminatory practice of refusing to provide financial services based on one’s race, income, and other factors of one’s background, was implemented during San Diego’s 1933 housing shortage (Lopez-Villafaña & Schroeder, 2020). While these policies were banned in 1963 with the passing of the Fair Housing Act, being forced to live in regions with significantly limited resources prevented groups designated as “undesirable” by these redlining policies from moving elsewhere (Lopez-Villafaña & Schroeder, 2020). This is the reason why the majority of black, immigrant, and minority families still live in “D grade” areas – the lowest quality by the redlining policies – to this day (Lopez-Villafaña & Schroeder, 2020).
Open Street Map and CartoDB (2020)
Caption: A map showcasing which housing regions in San Diego were classified as "Desirable" to "Undesirable", with A grade regions being most desirable and D grade regions being least desirable.
When talking to residents of City Heights (i.e., a former “D-grade” neighborhood in the southeast) about their nutritious food accessibility, Lopez learned that because of the decades of systemic oppression on housing, those in City Heights feel as if it is their home (Lopez, 2024, 16:43). Given the history of immigrant and minority presence, those who continue to live in City Heights state that this region is one worth protecting, even as food inaccessibility in the area continues to increase (Lopez, 2024, 16:48).
Section #5: What is a solution to resolving food apartheid?
How can we begin to provide equitable food access in Southeast San Diego? Lopez asserts that part of the answer lies in supporting local independent farmers.
Lopez’s understanding of how food apartheid affects local independent growers began with their discussions with those in the Food Shed Cooperative, an organization that purchases produce from local farmers and resells to food-insecure regions in Southeast San Diego. One issue the Food Shed Co-Op highlighted was the unequal support the Farm Bill gives to different types of farms. Based on a report by the Food and Water Watch, the 2023 iteration of the Farm Bill, farmers – especially independent growers – have been severely overlooked in favor of agricultural corporations, or agribusinesses (Food and Water Watch, 2023). Also, most crops grown in the United States are unprotected by federal farm safety net programs that offset produce lost due to economic downturns and various disasters (Food and Water Watch, 2023). Those that are protected -- corn, wheat, and soybeans -- are exploited by agribusinesses who ensure that these food products remain as cheaply priced and as abundant as possible at the cost of the grower (Food and Water Watch, 2023).
Section #6: What can you do to combat food apartheid?
While local organizations are doing what they can to bridge this gap to equitable nutritional access, Lopez emphasizes students at UC San Diego can aid food apartheid communities in tangible ways as well. One way is by constantly thinking about where groceries are coming from (Lopez, 2024, 25:08). The impact of our consumer choices cannot be overstated. Cultivating awareness about the environmental and social implications tied to our food purchases is a key step in combating the challenges posed by food apartheid. By making informed choices and supporting initiatives that prioritize sustainability and local produce, we become agents of positive change, fostering a more resilient and just food landscape.
As agribusinesses continue to monopolize the U.S. agricultural sector to increase revenue from the food system, fewer and fewer independent family farms are given the chance to provide for their local communities. Given how cheap it is to buy goods at artificially lowered prices from large-scale corporate farms, regions that contain small, local farmers will often purchase and import food from cheaper locations that are farther away (Lopez, 2024, 19:26).
FoodShed (2024)
Caption: An image showcasing the front of the FoodShed Co-Op's physical location in San Diego.
As local farmers do not have the federal and local protections in place to support the production and sale of their food, they too have to export their produce for better prices. Thus, less food is available for local communities to procure fresh produce in San Diego (Lopez, 2024, 19:50). The current Farm Bill not only neglects local independent farmers who are struggling to keep their businesses afloat, it also exploits the efforts of farmers who are controlled by agribusiness monopolies. It especially punishes food-insecure groups who already have limited access to a variety of nutritious foods, even though those foods are grown within their region.
The Food Shed Co-Op has been trying to combat these disparities by connecting independent farmers in San Diego with local food-insecure communities. Currently, they host farmers' markets and a food subscription program that delivers fresh local produce to food-insecure families. These families – a majority of whom live in City Heights – are now able to do so with fresh raw materials grown within their county (Lopez, 2024, 13:23). By forging bonds between these groups, the Food Shed Co-Op has not only been able to provide financial stability to small farmers and nutritional support to food-apartheid regions but also emphasize the importance of locally-grown food to individuals who are most impacted by its unequal distribution (Lopez, 2024, 18:33).
Another prominent way to combat food apartheid can be involving oneself in the food sovereignty movement. Food sovereignty is defined as "the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems" (Mali, 2007). Through Lopez’s perspective, though we are individuals within a much larger society, what you choose to buy and where you choose to buy it has an “immediate impact on the economy” (Lopez, 2024, 25:19).
"What you choose to buy and where you choose to buy it has an immediate impact on the economy" -- Angelina Lopez (2024)
This mindset is especially important to San Diego, whose local agriculture industry is not only a key economic driver, but also a community with dedicated organizations and alliances supporting local farmers. With a growing emphasis on sustainable practices and community support, initiatives such as the HEAL Food Alliance, San Diego Food Systems Alliance, and the establishment of numerous community gardens are reshaping the landscape for local farmers.
Importantly, community gardens have become an increasingly prominent presence within the San Diego community, partly due to the support of various organizations. For instance, the San Diego Community Garden Network (SDCGN), a non-profit organization, has established approximately 90 community gardens with more in the planning stage. Another organization, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), has created the New Roots Community Farm in City Heights, which serves two primary goals: locally produce culturally appropriate foods and increase food security for refugees and immigrant families and help farmers reconnect with the land and economic opportunities.
"We have become so disconnected from understanding and appreciating how our food gets from our soil to our table because of how much U.S. agriculture has been industrialized" --
Angelina Lopez (2024)
Lopez underlines the benefits of directly partaking in food cultivation: “We have become so disconnected from understanding and appreciating how our food gets from our soil to our table because of how much U.S. agriculture has been industrialized (Lopez, 2024, 27:48)”. Thus, volunteering at community gardens both helps in stopping that community from becoming more of a food swamp and help individuals by bettering their mental health as they acquaint themselves with how food is grown (Lopez, 2024, 28:05).
When asked what was most important when combating food apartheid, Lopez says that we as individuals must understand that “the issue with food inequity is so big that a solution for it would address race, culture, housing, transportation, and economy” (Lopez, 2024, 29:43).
By seizing opportunities to advocate for policy changes, promoting awareness, and actively participating in community-driven efforts to support local produce, we play an integral role in combating food apartheid and paving the way for a more equitable and environmentally conscious future.
References
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