Food Apartheid: An Epitome of Inequalities between the Rich and Poor

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Big disaster: Pandemic COVID-19 and Food Crisis

The issue about food security is complex when it lays on the wave of pandemic COVID-19. Admittedly, many Global North countries are gradually able to deal with the situation, yet we cannot lie that Global South countries are still struggling with this multidimensional disaster. In line with the Global Report on Food Crises (2021), at the very least, 155 million people in 55 countries are in a food crisis. Moreover, 28 million people across 38/44 countries are in a food emergency—based on Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and Cadre Harmonisé. Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen are the countries experiencing severe food security issues (Global Network Against Food Crises, 2021).

Pandemic COVID-19 has been successful in causing a sustained food crisis issue. The world’s future goal to alleviate the issue of food crisis in 2030 seems impossible because COVID-19 disrupted the supply chain, and at once, the demand for food increased. Therefore, food prices have risen across the world (U.S Global Leadership Coalition, 2021). This issue is not a big deal for the Global North countries. However, for the Global South countries, it will be a massive disaster. The lack of resources and the hit of pandemic COVID-19 in all aspects of life result in inaccessible food needs for those who live in poor countries. It clearly shows the inequality between the rich and poor.

Food apartheid and how does it lasting?

Based on World Food Program USA (2021), $1 trillion worth of food is wasted each year, which is equal to feeding 2 billion people. Astoundingly, it’s more than twice the number of undernourished people around the world. Furthermore, 30-40% of food in the United States is wasted. It explicitly shows there is a gap between the rich and poor in terms of food availability. In a specific context, we called it food apartheid—abundance in the rich but scarcity in the poor.

Exploitation and acute dependency of Global South on Global North are the sources of perpetual food apartheid. In this capitalist world system, the Global North always exploits the resources of the Global South, both materials and non-materials. The exploitation of low-wage workers in the Global South is one of the manifestations of how the capitalist system works; extracting human resources with low wages to get as much profit as possible. In some cases, the workers cannot buy the goods they produce. It is simply because the wage it’s not enough to buy it.

Moreover, the lack of mastery of technology has made the Global South countries rely on the national income on the export of raw materials at low prices. However, when the raw material is processed into a product, the price will increase. It explicitly makes the low-income Global South countries difficult to access.

The condition of Indonesia as one of the Global South countries is a great example to portray how capitalism creates a massive gap between the rich and poor. At least 14.3% of people in Indonesia live below the poverty line. The high price of food, especially rice, is not equal to the capability of the poor people who are concentrated in rural areas to access it. Consequently, 19.4 million people are unable to fulfill their dietary requirements (World Food Programme, n.d.). It has happened because the poorer citizens receive low wages and face insecurity at work. Moreover, the vast majority of the land is owned by big companies and rich people (Oxfam International, n.d.). At this moment, the poor are struggling to get money to accommodate their basic needs, yet the rich enjoy the capital. Therefore, this system only encourages food apartheid to last.

Furthermore, the climate emergency issue is also one of the factors that trigger the food crisis. IPCC stated that extreme climate change affects agricultural commodities. Fruit and vegetables are vulnerable because the high temperature will disrupt the growth of these commodities. As a result, climate change affects the food system because it will damage the quality and availability of agricultural commodities. For example, the intrusion of saltwater from the high-level sea has declined the quality of agriculture commodities (CSIS, 2019). It is clear that the analysis of the food crisis is not only about the food crisis per se but also about other aspects that are linked as one.

From awareness to concrete action: An effort to minimize the inequalities

Food Apartheid between the rich and poor shows the massive gap in this world system. The rich become richer, and at the same time, the poor are dying. Therefore, there are several strategies to alleviate the food apartheid between the rich and poor.

Firstly, we should raise awareness about this dire capitalistic system for the poor. Oftentimes, there is a false consciousness from the low wages worker. The low wages workers do not feel that they are the object of exploitation. It happens because they do not have the power to articulate their interests. The only way to get money for them is through this exploitation project. Therefore, awareness is a crucial step to the struggle for equality. When awareness exists, there is a chance for resistance from the people. Through resistance, the object of exploitation can articulate its voice to the world through demonstration. Instead of being the object of this capitalist system, the poor should be protected because of their vulnerability.

Secondly, revitalize the internal instability. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one example of how political instability leads to food crises. It is clear that the exploitation of the Global North country on Congo’s natural resources results in high poverty in this region. Nevertheless, the insecurity and armed conflict also affect the people’s livelihood (IPC, n.d.). Therefore, it creates acute food insecurity for many people there. The instability in Congo teaches us how important it is to preserve the stability of internal affairs. When the internal situation is a wreck, how can the country has the capacity against the capitalist system and struggle for equality?

The last one is to raise the sense of responsibility to tackle the climate emergency. The issue of climate emergency is a transboundary problem. Because of that, the sense of responsibility has become an important step to reduce the massive impact of climate emergency. Climate emergency threatens food availability. Therefore, we need to take action against this issue. Implementing the principles of economic circular instead of economic linear is one of the best solutions to tackle climate emergency. Economic circular promotes sustainability by using 10 R principles, which are refuse, rethink, reduce, re-use, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle, and recover (Ekins et al, 2019). Through these principles, there is a hope to tackle the climate change issue and at the same time increase food availability.

Conclusion

Food apartheid is the epitome of inequality between the rich and poor still existing in this world. Therefore, to achieve equality in this context food availability requires a sense of belonging to be able to raise the voice of marginalized people. Indeed, it seems impossible to abolish the gap between the rich and poor, but at minimum, there is a struggle to minimize the gap. Taking action is much better than just silently accepting fate as an object of exploitation.

References

CSIS. (19 October, 2019). Climate Change and Food Security: A Test of U.S. Leadership in a Fragile World. https://www.csis.org/analysis/climate-change-and-food-security-test-us-leadership-fragile-world.

Ekins et al. (2019). The Circular Economy: What, Why, How, and Where. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/cfe/regionaldevelopment/Ekins-2019-Circular-Economy-What-Why-How-Where.pdf

Global Network Against Food Crises. (2021). Global Report on Food Crises. https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/FINAL%20GRFC%202021%20In%20brief%20English%20040521.pdf.

IPCC. (n.d.). Special Report on Climate Change and Land. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/.

U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. (2021). Covid-19 Brief: Impact on Food Security. https://www.usglc.org/coronavirus/global-hunger/.

Oxfam International. (n.d.). Inequality in Indonesia: millions kept in poverty. https://www.oxfam.org/en/inequality-indonesia-millions-kept-poverty.

World Food Programme. (n.d.). Country Brief: Indonesia. https://www.wfp.org/countries/indonesia.

World Food Programme USA. (2021). 8 Facts to Know About Food Waste and Hunger. https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/8-facts-to-know-about-food-waste-and-hunger/.