Food Sovereignty, or the Right to Eat One’s Culture

Published on 17 February 2022

by Carolle-Anne Tremblay-Levasseur

Translation (traduction libre) provided by Food Secure Canada  I  Please find the original article here.

Cheyenne Sundance founded Sundance Harvest Farm north of Toronto. | Photo : Courtesy of Roya Del Sol

Cheyenne Sundance put on her gardening boots at only 20 years old. Her goal: to break out of a "discriminatory" food system. On her farm Sundance Harvest north of Toronto, she grows vegetables and flowers on 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) of land to ensure that the Black community finally has a place in agriculture.

Black families in Canada are three times more likely to be food insecure than white families. However, Toronto-based organizations are offering them a way to break down systemic barriers: food sovereignty.

The concept recognizes the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced by sustainable methods, as well as their right to define their own agricultural and food systems.

The Toronto City Council adopted a plan to ensure food sovereignty for its Black communities last October, the first initiative of its kind in North America. The City will fund organizations working in the food security sector to cultivate independence, control and access to healthy food for Black people in Toronto.

"What I want to do is make sure that the next generation of producers, especially Black people, have access to education, community and mentorship." — CHEYENNE SUNDANCE

In Cheyenne Sundance's family, colonial history has left its mark. Her ancestors were victims of slavery in Jamaica in agricultural production. The idea of an unpaid internship on a farm awakened this generational trauma in her: "To me, that's exploitation. I needed to work with people who would understand that these ancestral wounds can resurface when I work in the fields.”

According to Statistics Canada data, the average age of a person in the Canadian agricultural sector is 55. To bridge this generational gap, the 24-year-old vegetable farmer advocates that racialized communities must be included in the future of agriculture in Canada. That's why she developed a free training program, Growing in the Margins, for young racialized people.

Cheyenne Sundance believes that Canada's food self-sufficiency depends on it: In order to ensure that all the next generation is supported, we must first recognize that they do not have equal privileges, such as access to land and inheritance.

The Sundance Harvest team offers a free training program, Growing in the Margins.  | Photo : Courtesy of Sundance Harvest

She notes that because of racial inequity, the sector is losing many racialized people who could have replaced and learned from retirees.

The right to eat one’s culture

Nearly one-third (28.9%) of Black Canadian families are food insecure, according to the latest report from the University of Toronto's interdisciplinary research group on food insecurity, PROOF.

Afri-Can FoodBasket aims to ensure food sovereignty and security for the African, Caribbean and Black communities in the Queen City. “The culinary culture of these populations pushes them towards high-priced foods, while they have the lowest incomes”, explains the organisation’s co-founder, Anan Lololi.

"We asked ourselves how to mitigate the cost of these foods while making them more accessible. The answer remains in sovereignty, which is: defining our food system ourselves, growing our food." — ANAN LOLOLI

Afri-Can FoodBasket has established numerous community and school gardens in low-income communities. “The goal remains to involve Black people in agriculture to promote food security among these vulnerable populations”, Lololi adds.

CaterToronto is no different. The organization supports and encourages anyone working in the cooked food market, especially the most invisible and vulnerable (such as racialized women). The initiative offers culturally appropriate food bank services and cooking training.

caterToronto offers kitchen training |  Photo: courtesy of caterToronto

"In Ontario, we don't have an affordable child care program. When someone is working in a precarious sector like food service, they are in an even more difficult situation. The goal is to provide a community for them to make sure they are protected from the discrimination of the food system, while laying the foundation for a more ethical and accessible future." — VANESSA LING YU, CATERTORONTO DIRECTOR

Malek Batal, a professor in the Department of Nutrition in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montreal, notes that the products offered in food banks do not always correspond to the cultural and religious needs of people of immigrant background.

"Food banks depend on food systems based on ultra-processed foods with low nutritional qualities. When you come from a place where eating fresh vegetables and fruits is central to your diet, it's a world away." — MALEK BATAL

These people are forced to opt for lower quality products and, thus, to move away from their culinary culture. Anan Lololi believes that it is crucial to preserve these traditions by embracing the knowledge of these populations. According to him, the fruits and vegetables grown in the country are mostly part of the European cuisine, while technologies exist to produce them from different origins.

At the intersection of racism and food

Leslie Kapo, an assistant professor at the Élisabeth Bruyère School of Social Innovation at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, believes that access to local, healthy food plays a critical role in the living conditions of racialized communities in Canada.

In fact, he also authored a report on the subject, published by Food Secure Canada in 2021. In his view, the intersection between food and anti-racist and decolonial issues is not sufficiently addressed.

"Do Black communities have guaranteed access to sustainable, quality food systems? And, most importantly, do these structures address issues of systemic discrimination and oppression that these populations face at the consumption and production stage?" — LESLIE KAPO

The professor also observes a gap between the initiatives of Anglophone organizations fighting for food security in the country and those on the Francophone side. In his opinion, the Black Anglophone communities have been addressing anti-racial and decolonial issues much earlier and much further. The integration of these concerns will benefit Francophone organizations, he says: "The concern is already there; the action will come.”