10.6 Addressing Equity in Food Production
Elizabeth B. Pearce and Carla Medel
Food Production and Systems of Oppression
Prior to the formation of the United States, families found food in a variety of ways, including foraging, hunting, fishing, and growing food. As the country progressed toward a formal organizational structure managed by the Euro-American settlers, Native Americans were restricted to designated reservations, often on land that was not as fertile for farming. Food production via farms became a major economic factor. Industrialization created more efficiencies and more wealth for landowners.
It is important to note that these new ways of sourcing food would not have been possible without three institutional structures:
- Oppression of the way of life that Native Americans had established here for thousands of years
- Enslavement of African immigrants brought to this country for the explicit purpose of free labor without attention to their rights and needs
- Laws that controlled immigrants from other countries by limiting who could immigrate by gender, familial, and employment status and laws that discriminate based on nationality and immigration status related to wage, housing options, and type of employment
These structures affected the functionality of all families in the United States, favoring White families, especially those who owned land. Which of these structures affect families today? If you answered all three, you are correct. Native Americans are still fighting for rights related to their family needs that have been disrupted and restricted; the aftereffects of slavery, including the restrictions of wealth attainment on Black people, affect both the families who were able to accumulate wealth and the ones who were not; and current immigration laws still place the needs of the employers first.
Black Farmers During Reconstruction
Black farmers in America have had a long and arduous struggle to own land and to operate independently. For more than a century after the Civil War, deficient civil rights and various economic and social barriers maintained a system of inequality. Many Black farmers worked as farm operators with a limited and often total lack of opportunity to achieve ownership and independence. Although some formerly enslaved people were deeded land in the “Forty Acres and a Mule” division of lands in 1868, the same land was later deeded back to the original Confederate owners. Instead, the Black families became sharecroppers rather than owners, meaning that they worked the land for the White owner and were paid with a portion of the crop (McCammon, 2015). Other Black farm owners saw their properties diminished throughout the 20th century, as described in the 15-minute video in figure 10.17.
Black farmers often ended up working for landowners once again. Even as employees, they received less protection than factory and office workers. When social security and unemployment laws meant to protect workers were passe