The Applied Research Center has launched The Color of Food, a report examining the disparities across race and gender within the food system. It’s helpful in starting to understand how the food business is so profitable, and at whose expense. Full pdf here.
Thanks for sharing this Raj! Really interesting
Looks really intriguing. But… Hard to interpret the graph. Not clear. Explain?
Raj,
Thank you soooo much for coming up to Caspar tonight. Really enjoyed your talk. It was good for us old hippies (young ones too) to hear your broad perspective of the struggles of the small farmer across the globe. There are a lot of community gardens here, and I have seen disturbing power trips even at this small level. So, Raj, seems like humans have a lot of work to do in order to shuck that old paradigm default. I’m ready for the new, myself. Thanks again, Raj, for all you do.
luv&gratitude,
p
There are many underlying factors that contribute to this. Some of its voluntary, for instance in many societies across the globe women still spend more time in child rearing than getting higher education degrees, naturally leading to lower wages. This also doesn’t speak to the TREND of the data, which has the other groups quickly closing the gap in the last 10 years (the percentage of women CEOs has doubled, for instance). As emerging economies in Latin America and Asia grow, their wages will inflate as we are already seeing today. We ARE making progress, the white man isn’t in some vast conspiracy to hold others down (unless they didn’t tell this particular white male)
This certainly tugs at the heart-strings in many respects as there are undoubtedly some very serious and often intentional disparities between racial groups, men and women in the global food system. It would have been good if the producers of the report offered some conclusions of their own in the paper as a lot of the data can be interpreted in so many ways and as much as I personally fight for equality in the food system, some of the data is not as bad as it may seem. There are so many socio-econmic factors which both affect and are affected by this data. That aside, the report certainly brings home an important message about equality in our food system.
Thank you Travis D for explaining to us all that women are paid less than men because they choose to be paid less than men. Certainly, there are no systemic problems which create this reality.
This is definitely an interesting graph. It’s sad, of course, that money is determined by things like race and gender still in the 21st century. I know there are other factors that go into it, but when are people going to wake up and learn that the factors of race and gender have nothing to do with it?
Lots of info! Just not too sure if this is clear and a effective problem to find a solution for. First point, did the lesser paid people accept these jobs without bartering a higher wage? Maybe money doesn’t make life happier! People who live in a need world are happier and might not desire higher wages. Want and desire make you unhappy to the point of chasing your own tail…bloody monkeys lol…
I think the real point should be how do we get food off oil*
We farmed for how long before without oil??? This is very simple to solve, its like there is a elephant in the room! Wake UP*
If Monsanto gets its way we will not be able to even grow food without oil (WTF), thats some serious doo doo. Ya’ll ready for the Round Up ready GMO’s that don’t activate there growth cycle without chemicals sprayed on them.
Good Luck, better start Co-op farming and Gardening this spring
Ian