Article and video respone from Sarah Bachman @SSU

What do I believe?
I was really impressed that the city of Belo Horizonte took the initiative to fight hunger in a way that most other large cities have shied away from in that it’s not a system of hand-outs but a system that makes it possible for people of all income levels to participate in the market. I also liked how the farmers benefited from the initiative. Farmers in the U.S. have been moved to the bottom of the food chain right behind the consumer while big industry have taken the largest slice of the monetary pie. By removing the distributors and keeping the exchange between farmers and consumers, both parties benefit.

Can this happen in the US?
While I thought that this approach was really exciting and effective, I have doubts that it could take off in the U.S. There are a lot of big box grocery stores that would feel threatened by price controls such as they have in the Belo Horizonte system. There are also a lot of Americans who favor our Capitalist system just as it is and would not want to see such a large scale move to something that seems Socialist on the surface. There was a quote from the article however, that I think made an excellent point about the Belo Horizonte system…

“We’re showing that the state doesn’t have to provide everything, it can
facilitate. It can create channels for people to find solutions themselves.”

I believe that in a smaller city, an approach like this might work, but in an area as big as Belo Horizonte, there would be crushing opposition.

How is our program similar to the one in the video?
Our program is similar in some ways and very dissimilar in others. We are similar in that we do work in an area with a lot of poverty; around 21%. And we are similar in that we bring fresh healthy produce to people in need, but we are dissimilar in that we do not sell our produce. We give it to people in need. We also are in a rural community, so it isn’t like NYC where people do not have access to green space of their own to grow fresh foods.