No one knows where our food comes from (not even the vendors)
“Nobody knows where that came from.”
For some things, I never expect to know its origins. Big and complex issues like The Universe and Poverty or smaller things like that Subway egg white sandwich I ate weeks ago all fit into that category.
But there are some things I took for granted that even though I didn’t know, someone must know the origins, and I could always turn to that person if I suddenly felt compelled to know. One of those things was where my purchases came from.
After coming across a CIR investigation called “Rape in the Fields” I suddenly felt compelled to know the answer.
Getting drunk with pigs is not new to me. Because of how our world works today, most of the people who invest, save, buy tech products or sneakers are contributing to someone’s socio-economic or even physical oppression. It is a deal we have made with the devil to continue living convenient and “prosperous” lives.
But for whatever reason, knowing that the eggs or apples I buy might come from facilities where undocumented women were repeatedly raped made me feel more uncomfortable than usual. I knew that most of the facilities suspected of these problems were in the West and Midwest, and I put pressure on my grocer.
“Where do your apples come from?”
“What?”
Where do apples come from? It gave me what I would come to discover is probably the most common answer after “the truck”: the Hunts Point Distribution Center.
Honestly, as far as he knew, apples could have been grown in Hunts Point.
The research did not lead to surprising findings, but it did provide tangible context for how one of our most important resources, food, is introduced and distributed in New York City.
Some of the findings were alarming, such as there was no single source of data or tracking of the New York City food system. Most of the research that exists is very focused, highlighting certain points in the chain, but without giving a complete picture. A study conducted by Columbia University in 2010 was the only investigation to explore the system as a whole. The report verified some assumptions he had already made:
Hardly anyone in New York knows where our food comes from and
There is probably a tiered food retail system.
The tiered food system will be explained later. But yes, hardly anyone in this city knows where the food comes from, if they eat it strictly or also sell it. Most food retail managers, from warehouses to large grocery chains, can generally only trace the supply chain of their food to the Hunts Point Distribution Center – the hub where most of the food comes from. distributed in New York. The exceptions were organic, specialty, or local retailers; your business sector takes special care in tracking food sources.
Still, most of the city’s food retailers use middle buyers.
Intermediaries are the link between the retailer and the distributor in most cases and often make all of the retailer’s purchasing “decisions” based on a specific price and quality agreement. Due to the nature of organic and specialty products, this price and quality arrangement is at the higher end of the spectrum for those retailers, out of necessity. But non-organic retailers have a wider range of possibilities and combinations of distributors to choose from, leading to the second finding: There is evidence that a tiered food retail system could exist.
What makes a tiered food system important are its implications. Other studies have found a correlation between aspects of access to food, income, and race. Additional research already suggests that the retailers with the worst access to fresh and healthy food are concentrated in low-income minority communities. Now, this study shows that those retailers operate in a supply chain of price and quality options.
It doesn’t take much to guess that retailers concentrated in low-income minority neighborhoods are likely stuck in a low-quality, low-price supply chain to maximize profits with small economies of scale.
Meanwhile, retailers that offer fresh and healthy food not only see quality as essential, but are concentrating on markets with little competition in fast food.
This wouldn’t be so much of a concern if most of the food that makes it to low-income supermarkets went unprocessed, making it nearly impossible to find the source of any ingredient. Or if it didn’t come out of the fog of war that most fast food supply chains are. Certainly if food companies weren’t taking steps to protect themselves from future litigation, I would be less concerned.
Apparently I am eating (and you are) unknown, channeled portions, presented to you based on the amount of money I make, and probably come from fields where undocumented women are regularly raped. We should all be at least a little worried.