Green Criminology
Last semester, I took Agriculture as a part of my science requirement at KPU. This class took place in Richmond where they have a big farm that grows all types of produce. At first, I took that class to complete the credit, but I learnt so much more. When picking classes for summer, I saw Green Criminology and it intrigued me because I had never heard of anything like it. In my first few classes I got to see a different side of criminology, one that is related to food production. Learning about how criminology is not just limited to robbery or murder, but a lot more which we do not realize that is part of our everyday lives.
Food Justice
When purchasing food in supermarkets, we do not look at the logistics of where and how that item is produced. We just buy it because we need it. After reading the article on “Food Crime and Green Criminology”, I realized that there is so much happening behind the scenes that we do not consider. Produce gets mislabelled, food adulteration, and many violations. Along with this article we watched a mini clip of a documentary in which Vandana Shiva stands up against big corporations that take away the rights of local communities and farmers to benefit themselves. For the first time I heard about seed alterations, where they take a seed and prevent it from producing its own so farmers would always have to buy new ones. It is surprising to see how even in the food business; corporations are finding ways to put themselves first rather than acknowledging those who actually put in the work.
What I learned
Before taking this class, I had not realized how careful you must be in agriculture, I had thought it was just planting seeds, watering, and giving them to the supermarket to sell. I have grown a lot of respect and recognition to farmers after planting our mini garden and also having experience at the farm last semester. There is a lot of work that gets put into making a single produce, you are required to have the right soil, watering technique, and temperature. This class has given me a new perspective on what green criminology is and how we can better protect our environment, and this applies to our wildlife as well.
References
Tourangeau, W., & Fitzgerald, A. J. (2019). Food crime and green criminology. In The Routledge international handbook of green criminology (pp. 205–221). Routledge.
You raise several important points that I found interesting. Most people, including us, are unaware that the food we buy often has negative issues associated with it, such as violations or mislabeled produce, as you mentioned in your blog. These occurrences also pose a major risk of contamination to items such as meat and milk (Gray & Hinch, 2018). Moreover, corporate control of the food market has been an ongoing issue not only in Canada but also worldwide because farmers are significantly affected by it. As mentioned in the reading, despite government-enforced rules and regulations, they still fail to provide safe food for people to consume and allow corporations to promote their interests (Gray & Hinch, 2018). Governments also tend to support these companies rather than farmers who grow our food because the state profits from them, just as corporations do. In my opinion, processed foods today have negatively affected our population, especially youth, because of the chemicals, pesticides, and other ingredients they contain.
Gray, A., & Hinch, R. (2018). A handbook of food crime: Immoral and illegal practices in the food industry and what to do about them. Policy Press.
*Acknowledgment of Grammarly AI for spelling and grammar
Hello Chanpreet,
I really enjoyed reading your blog and seeing how you connected it to your own personal experience with gardening. Before reading the article by Tourangeau and Fitzgerald (2019), I also was unaware of how food can possibly be connected to crime. After you mentioned produce often gets mislabelled, there is food adulteration, and other violations, I realized how important it is focus on the production of our food and where it comes from.
In the article, the authors also discuss how these food crimes not only effect people negatively, but harm the environment as well. It is important to acknowledge how these big corporations use their power to profit off of food productions when it can cause a greater harm to communities around us. While producing food is important, there needs to be a greater importance on how food production needs to be ethical and environmentally sustainable. Overall, your blog post helped analyze how green criminology can help consumers understand food production regarding food crimes and why it is important to protect it.
Tourangeau, W., & Fitzgerald, A. J. (2019). Food crime and green criminology. In The Routledge international handbook of green criminology (pp. 205–221). Routledge.