Food Justice Essay

Walking into the lecture I had no clue what food justice meant. If anything, I figured the lecture had to do with justice for fair trade for farmers or the justice in regulation of genetically modified foods. Instead it turned out to be justice that seeks to ensure that the risk associated with growing, producing, transporting, distributing, eating, access to food is shared by everyone fairly. After Professor Kieth Pezzoli gave a little explanation about food justice and its purpose I began to see the â€Å"background stuff† that goes on to get my food on my plate. I was beginning to see that the food that gets into my stomach has probably traveled to more places around the US than I will ever be. What was really interesting was learning that food that gets cultivated here will be shipped up north or elsewhere to be processed and then shipped back to California. In addition, all the traveling that my food not only waste time but also is detrimental to the environment due to the pollution caused by the vehicles that ship my food all around to be processed. Even though my food travels thousands of miles before it reaches me Professor Brad Werner made an interesting point in that we may never notice this process because of modern advancement in transportation and communication. The ability to easily receive my food is due to all the technology we have and having this ease of purchasing food is known as a low friction transaction. On the other hand, when it is difficult to purchase food due to varying factors this is known as a high friction transaction. Lastly Professor Jericho Burg demonstrated how the problems we face with food justice here in the states stretches far beyond our borders due to the excess food we give out to other countries in famine through food aid. Like many things good intentions sometimes have negative effects and there needs to be a re-evaluation and reform on the system we currently use to help others including ourselves.