BERKELEY, Calif., Oct. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The new report released by UC Berkeley's Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, The US Farm Bill: Corporate Power and Structural Racialization in the US Food System, investigates the $956 billion US Farm Bill and offers an analysis of corporate control and structural racialization within the US food system as a whole.
Written by Elsadig Elsheikh, Haas Institute's Global Justice Program Director, and Hossein Ayazi, UC Berkeley Ph.D. candidate and graduate research assistant at the Haas Institute, this report fills a void in food and agriculture policy research and analysis by providing a comprehensive, multidimensional critique of the US Farm Bill.
Aimed at advocates, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers from across social justice movements, the report was written with the ultimate aim to support Farm Bill negotiation policy campaigns and offer interventions that support a broad-based movement for food sovereignty.
The new report provides a research-based analysis that inequity within the food system—such as limited access to nutritious and affordable food for consumers, adequate and safe conditions for food system workers, or support program benefits or high quality land for existing and prospective farmers—cannot be addressed without addressing inequities within society as a whole, especially around issues of race and access to power. The report also lifts up a series of short-term policy interventions and long-term strategies to address major structural barriers in the United States food system.
"It's not surprising that peoples' eyes glaze over on hearing the words "Farm Bill," said Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. "Part of the Bill's power lies in its capacity to render obscure the politics and choices made in the food system that affect the lives of everyone in the United States, and the world beyond. [This report] shows how that power operates around race and class in the US, and is a vital bridge between the worlds of food and racial justice."
A copy of the report can be found online: http://diversity.berkeley.edu/farmbillreport.
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SOURCE Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society
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