We’ve been answering that question for ten years, but it was only in the last few months - with inspiration from Raquel Moreno's guest post last week - that I found myself obsessed with a similar but more elemental question: What is good? 

 

We looked up the word back in 2010, in the process of creating a mission statement for GFJ, and an editorial policy to justify that mission. When I look back at that definition with today’s eyes, I have mixed feelings: the words from the dictionary that seemed most relevant to us at the time were satisfying, genuine, – so far so good – and palatable - hmmm…

 

Even when we are talking about food by itself, palatable is the bare minimum – to be 'acceptable' is hardly a mission statement for anyone feeding themselves, or others - especially given what has historically been allowed or even considered normal. 

 

This points to the fact that ‘good’ is an arbitrary word, a point emphasized by an episode of the challenging-in-the-best-way podcast, Treacherous Waters, in which Ashtin Berry and Maggie Campbell (leaders in the hospitality industry who cover ‘themes, topics and power dynamics of White women in relation to women/femmes of color and explicitly Black women/femmes’) explored “The Violence of Niceness”.

In addition to delving into the difference between niceness and kindness, accountability and responsibility, and specific ways that White women use niceness against Black women and other women of color, Berry offered this unforgettable question: “Who defines what’s nice?”

 

As with all of the Treacherous Waters discussions, the question offered a rethinking of how we approach others, and therefore how we approach ourselves.

 

Initially, we considered ‘good’ as meaning ‘virtuous’ in relation to sustainability and the planet. And although a ‘good food job’ was a fresh concept, it related to something people have been hearing for generations: that a ‘good job’ is one that sustains an individual and his/her/their family. Yet the existing standard has been defined up to this point by a White dominant culture where the amount of respect or dignity accompanying a job description is dependent on an existing hierarchy of ‘good’, ‘better’, and ‘best’ (think of service workers vs. CEOs, nurses vs. doctors, dishwashers vs. waiters).

On top of that, explicit racism and segregation have created lasting implicit bias around simple concepts like ‘good’ and ‘bad’. In fact, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ themselves are binary terms that fail to encompass the diversity that literally makes the world go ‘round (as any scientist can tell you that the planet won’t be sustained on the narrow options of just one thing or the other).

 

What’s interesting about all of these points is that they are still relevant to the ‘good’ in Good Food Jobs. Our underlying mission is to be a part of redefining what a ‘good job’ is - in terms of compensation, dignity, equity, and impact. And we thrive on reconsidering 'norms', which means examining binary systems for the sake of supporting cultural shifts.

Today we take another step in creating a new normal - instead of honoring the vastly different 'minimum wage' from state to state, we at Good Food Jobs will no longer post any jobs that pay less than $10 / hour. This is a step toward our future policy shift in January 1, 2022, when the minimum hourly rate for all Good Food Jobs will become $15 / hour. 

In the process, we expect to battle the dehumanizing impacts of racism, and other harmful systems of oppression. In fact, it’s this slow process of uncovering - looking at things from different angles, paying attention to the necessary work of thought leaders like Berry and Campbell, and the many Black American women before them - that proves our responsibility as business owners to define who we are and what we do with care, attention, and an evolving openness to what our own perspectives might miss. 

 

In that same episode of Treacherous Waters, Berry went on to say, “When we are asking people to adhere to social contracts, why are we asking them?”

 

This is the reminder we needed: that Good Food Jobs is in service to the individual and collective good, and that goodness is up to each of us to define. We want the ‘good’ in Good Food Jobs to be defined by you, through your own process of job seeking and career building and hiring - a concept embodied wonderfully by CHAAD’s invitation to report a good job.

Yours in food, justice, and food justice,

Dor + Tay

photo of Susie Yeo, farm apprentice in Santa Cruz, CA, by Christine Han