July’s Food Justice Hero: Karen Washington
Karen Washington is an urban farmer and food justice activist who has spent decades promoting urban farming and spreading the message of “food justice” — the concept that healthful, nutritious food is a human right, just like access to water. She has been named one of Ebony magazine’s “Power 100,” & won a James Beard award. She has also fought for justice and fostered resilience in her community through the power of organized community.
She describes how notions of food security that revolve solely around changes to how people grow food, eat, and exercise fall short of creating lasting change in the food system. She also challenges the term “food desert” and prefers to use “food apartheid” to highlight the systemic racism and inequality that affect access to healthy food in America.
Food apartheid is a term that refers to the system of segregation that divides those with access to an abundance of nutritious food and those who have been denied that access due to systemic injustice. It is a result of structural racism in the US food system that has created racial disparities in food production and access. It also points to the discrimination of communities of color when it comes to economic opportunities.
Food apartheid is different from food desert, which is a term that describes areas where there are few or no grocery stores or other healthy food options. Food desert implies that these areas are naturally occurring, while food apartheid emphasizes that they are created by racially discriminatory policies.
Karen Washington is July’s Food Justice Hero because she continues to fight for communities of color through breaking down walls of racially discriminatory policies affecting ease of access to nutritious foods.
Learn more about Karen Washington here:
