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| ISSUE NO. 604 |
| This newsletter was written by Alma Valdez-Garcia, a farmer who is from New Mexico. MY MIND AND HEART . . . have been with the hundreds of thousands of acres that have burned in the last few weeks, in my home of Northern New Mexico. My mind veers toward the question: who gets fed in a crisis? When it comes to small rural communities, people are not thinking about food access or dependence on big corporations in the same way. In cities, food apartheid exists and affects access to fresh food, with a heavy tie to the money that goes to name brand and chain fast food franchises. In many small towns, Dollar General and Walmart are the only places to get access to food and basic supplies for living at a cost that people can afford. Most of the food has traveled thousands of miles to get there - a system that we see replicated across the country and the globe. These communities depend on huge supply stores, because these stores profit on keeping people tied to them. What happens when these places are hit hard by climate disasters, such as fires[1], floods, droughts, hurricanes and more? What happens when these stores close, and they are the only access to food for 30+ miles? When these large conglomerates come in and hold a monopoly over food access and food distribution, it inevitably inflicts harm on the communities. In the case of Las Vegas, NM and the surrounding towns[2], these stores hold the power. When faced with fire evacuations, or other disasters, they close, leaving thousands of people to fend for themselves. Where do they get fresh water when their house wells have burned? Where do they get fresh food when their land has been lost to fire, or they can’t go home for fear of what may come? When the Hermit's Peak and Calf Canyon Fires started inching closer to the town of Las Vegas, NM, the chain stores were the first to close. As people started evacuating they also saw that it was harder to get supplies, especially once the gas stations started closing too. People have been stranded, seeking places to stay, places to keep their livestock, homes and landscapes they have been tied to generationally and in many cases their only financial security [3]. As a new farmer, my mind is constantly swirling around the cost of food production - especially the physical toll on the body and the labor rights of so many who are told that they have no say. We saw this happen in California, a few years back during the fires that ravaged Southern CA: the farm workers, many of whom are migrant workers, were not cared for or protected. They were forced to work in unsafe conditions, risking their lives for the money. They were seen as bodies, as tools for capitalism, to continue to thrive when the land could no longer do so. We saw this happen in the meat packing plants, where COVID-19 ran unchecked because safety measures, PPE and more were not supplied in the ways they needed to be. These horrors cause harm across the country and people are left by the big farmers to fend for themselves. What happens to lives in the wake of climate disaster? Farm workers are not expendable and they deserve money, time and aid. In creating community food systems, it is not about overworking or relying on the bodies of others to feed yourself. It’s about growing a home garden, it’s about pooling food with neighbors and helping one another. It’s about creating community meals for whoever is in need. We see a need for this now more than ever. Both cities and rural areas need access to food, water, public transport, mental health support and basic mutual aid, which we are not being provided by higher sources. In times of hardship and in our daily lives, we can only fend for ourselves and provide for the people around us. The push for community-led food systems should not only occur when things get hard. Things are always hard. People need their community to help when their needs are greater than what their energy allows, and when it shifts, they can share that back out. For the small villages of New Mexico, government aid is usually not given in the way it is needed - people worry about money, healthcare, accessible transportation, police violence, and more. In an article about the active impact of climate control and fires impacting the pueblo nations in NM, Beata Tosie Pena writes[4], “Not everyone in the Indigenous community has the time or resources to think about climate change…There are many families who are barely getting by and young people who are giving in to addiction or worse from all the environmental racism and violence, centuries of exploitation and a public-school system that has failed them in many ways.” We are here because of the way this society has strangled life, aid, and education. People are constantly having to live in survival mode, unable to pretend that the government provides aid. They give aid only when it is beneficial to them. What if communities had support in feeding themselves, without needing to rely on consumer capitalism? Without relying on the government? What if community gardens were given fluid access to money, land, seeds? What if mutual aid groups were consistently supported in monetary ways from wealthy white people? What if more restaurants had the ability to provide free food for those in need? What if the food inflation costs did not continue to rise while wages remain the same? These are all questions that we need to ask, because it isn't until crisis hits that people wonder - who has our back? We need to have each other’s backs. As we continue to see fires escalate and cause havoc across the U.S., where do we see food sovereignty? My whole life people have always gotten Las Vegas, NV mixed up with Las Vegas, NM. People would always be surprised if I told them, asking what it is like growing up in such a big city, asking how I managed, thinking I grew up in the former rather than the latter. I’d always have to say, "No, no, it’s not that Las Vegas - I’m from the small one." We may not have slot machines, lights and money, but we do have the country's biggest fire (311,166 acres and growing). What will people ask about it now? Alma Valdez-Garcia |
tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . |
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