Hungry for Change: Borderlands Food & Water in - Southwest ...

less than two million a year in revenues. At Food City,
which feels more like a Mexican marketplace than an
American supermarket, the fresh produce section covers
a fourth of the entire floor space. With fresh fruits and
vegetables piled high while statues of the Virgin of
Guadalupe hover over them, Nabhan found that Food
City offers 67 percent more varieties than the Walmart
down the road. These varieties include foods that are familiar
to Mexican and Native American shoppers; some,
like nopalitos, or pads of prickly pear cactus, actually reduce
blood sugar levels and improve insulin metabolism.
More diverse than a big box: Red Mountain Foods offers variety from both sides of the
border | Photo Lars Marshall
Another 20 minutes away, in Patagonia, Arizona, another
locally-owned grocery truly put Walmart’s highly-hyped
efforts to shame. In just 300 square feet, Red Mountain
Foods offered 98 kinds of fruits and vegetables. According
to Nabhan’s estimate, Red Mountain harbors more than
36 percent of Food City’s biodiversity and double Walmarts’
in that same week. Furthermore, the owners of Red
Mountain, Barry Muehe and Ann Sager, have been collaborating
with the Patagonia schools on a healthy snacks
program that serves all the schoolchildren, not merely the
80 percent who come from low-income households.
Imagine what a difference it would make if, instead of
allocating nearly a half billion dollars in incentives for
Walmart to open additional food supercenters in urban
and rural communities, Mrs. Obama had campaigned to
put those resources into local grants for the creation of
more community gardens, farmers’ markets, community
kitchens where ethnic and small food entrepreneurs
could dream up new home-spun food businesses,
community-supported agriculture associations,
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culturally-specific and locally-owned grocery store
firms like the ones Nabhan encountered in his own community
and culturally and regionally specific food literacy
programs. There is growing consensus among many
of the most progressive food activists today that market
strategies for food security need not be rejected at face
value, but rather must take into account a multiplicity
of food niches.
In response to criticism of their simplistic response and
their Walmart-loving initiative, the Obamas may argue
that other kinds of incentives for changing the current
food system exist through other programs in the departments
of health, labor, education and other federal agencies.
Indeed, such programs do exist. And they do some
good, somewhere; I’m sure of it. Lots of incredibly resourceful
and determined people—at local Food Banks,
home gardens, small plots and roadside stands—transform
the food system everyday in their own little corners
of the nation. Each one of those small stories could
have used the help of one of the nation’s largest and
most credible, intelligent and elegant cheerleaders:
Michelle Obama. Sadly, they didn’t get the spotlight this
time; only Walmart did.
“please pass tHe amarantH!”
i’d like to tell you about Rubi Orozco, a Public Health
Specialist at La Mujer Obrera, a nonprofit in El Paso,
Texas. Rubi’s work is very inspiring to me, and I believe
it is important for all of us who live in the borderlands
to understand how and why Rubi is promoting women’s
empowerment, health and community economic development
through healthy food. She is working to combat
the staggering rates of diabetes and obesity in her community
in a very personal, effective way that inspires
pride in cultural traditions and celebrates an ancestral
connection to food.
Rubi has shared research with me that present a worrisome
pattern: as immigrants—specifically Latino immigrants—begin
to acculturate, certain healthful practices
are lost. With many people working two or more jobs, it
is often difficult to make time to cook fresh foods, and it
is easy to begin relying on fast, heavily processed foods
instead. Rubi says, “We don’t question these changes because
they save us time right now, but in the future we
are really taking time off of our lives.”
Her solution? Look to the healthy practices of
our ancestors.
gettIng Back to our Food roots
The oldest salad green in North America: Red dye amaranths make a come-back | Photo Gary Paul Nabhan
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By Rebecca Wiggins-Reinhard
“When people think about eating healthy, they often
think about having to eat things that are very foreign to
the way they eat now, like wheat grass or soy. In reality,
we just have to look back a couple of generations, to go
back to what our grandparents were doing,” Rubi explains.
“The food is still familiar enough, and is in our
genes, so we don’t have to try something entirely new.”
Through classes and workshops I’ve seen offered at
Mercado Mayapán, a Mexican artisan and foods market
at La Mujer Obrera, it is clear that Rubi is working to
bring this knowledge back. Drawing from the cultural
history of the Mesoamerican diet, she explores the
healthful qualities of the foods once consumed to highlight,
celebrate and return to what is inherently good in
this diet.
Dairy, for instance, was not a part of the Mesoamerican
diet, and many people from this region are lactose intolerant.
Rubi explains, “We haven’t developed the ability
to digest it—much like how people from Europe often
have trouble digesting beans, while we can eat them
three times a day.” There were other forms of protein
and calcium that were commonly consumed, including