An Anatomy of Food Justice

By Mina Alves and Zoë Harvey

THIS PIECE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN PRINT IN DECEMBER 2020, IN ISSUE TWO

A visual representation of how plant systems and food justice go hand in hand. Illustration: Mina Alves and Zoë Harvey

Sun: Solidarity

A call to action, the brightness seeping through, exposing all differences. Complicated to capture but worth the effort.

Potatoes: Accessing Food

Thank you for being everywhere, sitting hearty and round in the earth. We are filled with the ease of knowing you.

Onions: Learning  

The layers of learning may seem cyclical, impenetrable and layered in their dissymmetry. A bulb is a blessing. You cannot see their heads until they are ready to show themselves, roots running deep into the soil.  

Garlic: Resistance 

Onion's first cousin. Announcing their presence, permeating heat as it releases a promise of something more.  

Pechay: Accessing Culturally Appropriate Foods

My mothers nourish me, sharing bowls of soft leafy greens. An intimate practice that remedies the isolation of this place, offering memories of elsewhere.

Tomatoes: Community Care 

Budding from the same vine, we are clustered and ripening in unison. Each one of us particularly special in our offerings.  

Roots: Indigenous Sovereignty       

Intertwining self-governance and determination, steadying the ground, organizing for change.   

Land back now, no justice on stolen land. 

Worms: Reciprocity

You eat to give us life, circulating dirt to gold and in turn, life gives back to you. 

Water Systems: Anti-colonial, queer, disabled practice 

Fluidly feeding us all, the current flows beneath everything we achieve, a remarkably generous departure from what is expected.  

Soil: Generational Knowledge 

A lineage of expertise, deep and deliciously fertile—regenerating by its very nature.