FARE MARKET

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The Existential Threat of Inequality

by Benjamin Harrison

“The domination of nature by man stems from the very real domination of human by human.” —Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom

note: FareMarket is a real farm-to-table e-grocery startup in little rock, AR. Black PI’s writer, Benjamin, launched the company in 2020 as the covid pandemic brought society to a screeching halt. Visit FareMarket's online store.

Just who is local food for, exactly? Healthy and sustainable products are, by and large, relegated to a niche grocery store aisle or farmers markets in upscale neighborhoods. And they are largely inaccessible in low-income communities. Wealth inequality is the most important barrier to creating a popular local food movement that prioritizes sustainable agriculture and a livable planet. 

Redlining is the refusal of sales or services to people who reside within a certain geographical area. In underserved communities, this practice involves multiple sectors of the economy. in nature, it is discriminatory practice. It includes anything from lending to healthcare to fresh food. 

The term, “supermarket redlining” is a real phenomenon present in Little Rock and many other cities. A map of grocery stores in the Little Rock area shows entire swaths of our communities, primarily of color, lack access to fresh food or supermarkets.

But it’s not just city folks. This kind of economic exclusion impacts suburban and rural communities too. While local food advocates have been vocal and politically active for more than a century in the U.S., less than 1 percent of today’s food market is locally-sourced. Similarly, organic food is only 5 percent of the total food market. 

The implications are astounding. 95 percent of all food in the U.S. actively contributes to the deteriorating climate. And 99 percent of all spending on groceries leaves our communities and flows to increasingly wealthy elites, led by Arkansas’ very own grocery tycoon, Alice Walton.

In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests in 2020, local protesters barricaded the entrances to three Walmart stores in North Little Rock. Protesters claimed the store’s “always low prices” were in fact subsidized—with taxpayer dollars through low- and no-wage prison wage. 

This feat is accomplished daily with the sale of products made by prisoners and detainees, through wage slavery. Many of Walmart’s employees also rely on entitlement programs, and Walmart itself is the recipient of numerous corporate tax breaks. THE COMPANY received $285 million in subsidies last year. Much of this came from low-wage workers forced to rely on help from the state to cover groceries at Walmart stores. 

The agricultural sector’s vast misuse of natural resources, specifically water, compromises all of our futures. Affordability in the modern era may, at face value, appear to be a great equalizer. But it more often is government subsidies for unethical business practices and a terrifying race to the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality.

A hundred years ago, nitrogen fertilizer was a game changer for farmers. And it was the primary driver of the modern agricultural revolution. Today, however, farms along the Mississippi River contribute to nitrogen runoff that has created a growing 6,000-square-mile “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, in which marine life cannot survive. 

From deforestation to the risk of deadly viruses to water pollution and consumer waste, industrialized food production has been environmentally disastrous. Topsoil erosion, antibiotic resistance, and air pollution are just a few of the other side effects of a modern farming system that prioritizes revenue and campaign donors over nature and human life.

To its credit, the capitalist model did create the means to overproduce food and other necessities. this could have led to greater ease and liesure for the general public. Paradoxically, the existing economy must reinforce the scarcity it has overcome, through waste, as a strategy to sustain revenues, increase share values, and maintain structures of domination. 

Consider that $38 million a year worth of Burberry’s unsold clothing sits in landfills. Amazon’s “Destruction Zone” receives 130,000 eliminated, unsold products every week. And 16 million homes in the U.S. are vacant, as cities scratch their heads to come up with solutions for the country’s nearly 800 thousand unhoused PEOPLE.

Food waste in the U.S. is contrived and rampant. 30 percent of it never leaves the farm, and another 40 percent, unsold, ends up in landfills. At the same time, 11 million children face food insecurity. Arkansas happens to have the highest rate of childhood hunger, with 1 in 5 children food insecure.

Even with the opulence of modernity—the grocery aisles stacked head to toe with brightly-packaged foods—hunger, homelessness, and illness still reign. It does not matter if destroying food can make sense from a legal standpoint. It is immoral.

The Food Desert Fantasy

Food deserts are areas with varying levels of access to fresh food. But putting the focus on food can distract from the full scope of the issue. Food deserts are more aptly described as Sacrifice Zones.

Sacrifice Zones are areas that have been intentionally deprived of resources. This label can conveniently provide cover for shifty politicians and business elites. In Louisiana, Cancer Alley is a community impaired by environmental pollution and economic disinvestment. 

Sacrifice Zones are portions of the economy in which capital leaves and never returns. Housing and health deteriorates, and wages remain too stagnant to sustain grocery stores. These communities are mined for their low-cost labor as chemical companies pull record profits.

Little Rock’s air quality isn’t as dire, but many of our neighborhoods meet the definition: economically abandoned, with wealth extracted faster than it can be replaced. A simple search on Google Maps clearly shows areas of Central and Southwest Little Rock, even Capitol View and Stifft Station, lack access to grocery stores, within 1.5 miles. This is particularly problematic for the elderly and those without transportation.

It isn’t that the community lacks buying power, just that they have not organized so effectively yet. Food co-ops are a serious alternative and the most successful strategy in many working-class, Black communities, with 95 percent still in operation.

Unlike corporate grocery chains, community-owned stores are more likely to hire from within the community, pay livable wages, and find sustainable solutions to food access.

Dollar Stores have spread quickly in low-income areas. These small retailers offer slightly smaller versions of name-brand items at prices higher than big-box stores like Walmart. It may seem reasonable, but it provides the illusion of affordability while gouging the most vulnerable.

The answer to food deserts—and the broader issue of food insecurity—isn’t to build more supermarkets but to invest in community-owned solutions. Food cooperatives and land trusts can create food systems rooted in the community. That place-baSed aspect ensures profits are reinvested locally and provide a buffer against displacement and gentrification.

VISIT FAREMARKET.