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Food is the foundation of joy, sustenance, and freedom—and the root of oppression. In a wide-ranging exploration of American history, Andrea Freeman surveys U.S. food policy from the colonial era to today.
Before founding the U.S., early government officials used food to subordinate people. To control the Native Americans, in 1779, George Washington ordered his troops to "ruin their crops on the ground now and prevent them from planting more."
In the 18th and 19th centuries, European settlers in North America massacred thousands of bison to oppress Indigenous Peoples. Starving them forced them to relocate, leaving their land for the immigrants to settle. Destroying the harvest is one of many ways the United States has used food as a political tool.
Enslavers used food to control their chattel by providing just enough nourishment for them to stay alive yet produce an abundant and lucrative harvest. The Freedman's Bureau was established to give tens of thousands of formerly enslaved people rations after the Civil War. "Without food, freedom simply meant death." Plantation owners soon realized this policy diminished the available workforce. So, the government stopped supplying food to the formerly enslaved, so they would be forced to work on the plantations as sharecroppers under conditions similar to those before emancipation.
Freeman devotes a chapter to the unhealthy side of milk. Milk causes many problems for humans, including lactose intolerance. Milk intake has declined steadily for more than 30 years. Yet, the United States Department of Agriculture continually runs campaigns to boost milk sales. (Got milk?) The author also comments on the dangers of fried food, government-subsidized cheese, and cornbread. She admits people are responsible for their health, but the problem is that healthy food is not always available for people to eat. Many of the commodities provided to schools and other institutions lead to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Some cities have food deserts where convenience stores and gas stations lack healthy food.
Freeman contends that the leading cause of unhealthy eating is that corporate interests control the food system. She traces the long-standing alliance between the government and food industries for causing health disparities among races. Her term for this deleterious alliance is "food oppression."
She gives multiple anecdotes about how the food industry operates today to market unhealthy provisions targeted at marginalized people. The author argues that USDA programs, such as WIC, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (serving about 40% of all infants in the U.S.), benefit corporations more than hungry people. Despite good intentions, she concludes that politics have altered and undermined free school lunches and other government subsidies. Freeman's account concludes with a sharp analysis of how the 13th and 14th Amendments could be used to challenge racial disparities caused by government food programs.
"Ruin Their Crops on the Ground" is a significant addition to the history and politics of food in the United States. It upsets the perception that all U.S. citizens freely and equally choose what they put on their plates. In an ABC interview, she declared, "It's time to get corporations out of our food law and policy."
About the author: Freeman is a forerunner in the field of food politics. She is a professor at Southwestern Law School, a Fulbright scholar, and the author of "Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice."
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