Our group project focused on the demystification of the food commodity chain – that is, the relationships that take food from seed/conception to consumer. We kept our population limited to UW/U District, interviewing people we had connections with, including farmer’s market vendors, student food workers, and grocery store workers. Although we did not have time to approach all rungs of the food production ladder, our results were fruitful and enlightening.
What I learned: while interviewing is something I’ve already done with other projects, the additional experience proved to further hone my skills in deciding what I want to follow in terms of leads. The group project was also a great reminder of how difficult and rewarding working with others can be. Despite scheduling difficulties and conflicts, our group was still able to produce 7+ interviews and accompanying analyses.
What I gave: My contribution involved initiating meetings when things seemed slow, as well as providing an interview (Karly) that revealed how much UW students who are not explicitly involved with food movements actually can and do think critically about food systems. I was surprised and pleased to find that Karly touched on many things we discussed in our class without having taken it. This trend was common through most of our interviews and reflects, I believe, an underlying motivation for change among food workers, and a necessity to make conversations like the ones we have in class accessible to those people.
How it relates: I think our project related to the course material primarily in its mission to demystify the personal and power relationships behind “food” in all its definitions (Lecture 3/27/18). Within just the one interview I conducted, the issues of race, class, and gender emerged in relation to one another – how the bodies that bear the most physical and economic burdens are the ones that are brown, how service workers must appear happy and carefree while cleaning up after and serving those who make 5 times their income, how women are expected to perform emotional and domestic (food related) labor in addition to what they are paid for at their jobs. All these topics were weaved through our interview responses and correlate to the academic discussions driven by Shiva, Pollan, Patel, Burnham, Parenti, and our class as a whole. It was incredible to see these connections in the real world.