What’s Really Behind Your Fresh Produce?
Prior to my enrolment in Green Criminology, I did not give attention to where my produce came from — I shopped at local grocery stores that market “fresh produce”, but I was never able to truly grasp how green the produce was where I was buying my nutrition from.
Ekaterina Gladkova explains the concept of industrial farming: “Studies of food crime and harm challenge the legal-procedural approach in criminology by examining harmful but legal activities and challenging the limitations of the victimhood construction” (Gladkova, 2023).
Industrial farming is defined as a large-scale method to deliver produce to consumers at an accelerated rate.
What’s wrong with this though?
Industrial farming is heavily focused on profit, meaning the produce is maximized by the use of technology, machinery, and questionable chemicals — chemicals you did not know were blanched on the fruits and vegetables you used for your Cobb salad for dinner yesterday. An example of this process is when hundreds of chickens are enclosed into restricted areas — an excess amount of chickens in a confined space that does not allow them to be free-range, and is an example of environmental harm against animals.
Industrial farming has one benefit — food supplies increase, allowing for more produce to be sold. But at what cost?
The cons of industrial farming outweigh any pros, as industrial farming causes environmental harm to both communities and ecosystems by polluting land and water with toxins, forcing animals into inhumane captivity, and releasing greenhouse gas emissions that correlate to the rise of climate change.
Though these practices are technically legal and law-abiding, green criminology looks at environmental crimes through a broader lens, suggesting that businesses and corporations should be held responsible for their share in environmental harm against communities, ecosystems, and livestock.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. – David Brower
Hidden Dangers in Everyday Food
Wesley Tourangeau and Amy J. Fitzgerald (2020) dive deeper into food crimes and injustices, explaining how an alarming amount of food and produce from around the world are contaminated, mislabelled, or both. The authors explain how “also in that same year, undeclared species, including horse, were found in Canadian sausage products” (Tourangeau and Fitzgerald, 2020).
Food crimes fall into the category of green criminology and environmental crimes, as the process includes altering or mislabeling food for maximized profit. If it was not obvious, companies are willing to put their consumers at risk if it increases profit.
Conclusion: Though we are only four weeks into the course, I have already begun to develop an understanding of what green crimes truly are, and the significant impact these injustices have on both humans and animals. Specifically, I am able to understand that crime is not just what is considered illegal — crime can also include injustices committed against people, animals, or the environment that are enabled through government systems and existing laws, making them difficult to challenge and often invisible. References: Ekaterina Gladkova. (2023). The Harms and Crimes of Farming/Food. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.776 Factory Farms Expanding as Cruel, Unsustainable Industrial Agriculture Dominates the U.S. Food System. (2024, February 21). Farm Sanctuary. https://www.farmsanctuary.org/news-stories/2022-ag-census-factory-farms-expanding/ Tourangeau, W., & Fitzgerald, A. J. (2020). Food crime and green criminology. Routledge EBooks, 205–221. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315207094-11 *This blog was edited using GenerativeAI*
Hey Gavin, I really enjoyed reading your blog. I think you did a great job in explaining how green criminology encourages us to look beyond the legal framework or what is simply legal and consider the broader harms caused by industrial farming. Your point when you talked about many consumers are unaware where their food is coming from really stood out to me because its something many of our classmates can relate too. Moreover, your blogpost showed that environmental harm is often connected to consumer’s trust and public health, rather than pollution and animal welfare only. One question I had while reading your blog is that, do you think stricter government regulations alone would be enough to reduce these harms, and is it possible if consumers also focus on buying locally or support sustainable farms things might change rapidly on ground. Overall, your post made me think more critically about the hidden impacts of our food system and how green criminology broadens our understanding of crime and harm.